Posts Tagged ‘bill mott’

Kentucky Derby preps are in full swing across the country with more than a few contenders from the 2007 foal crop hoping to emerge as stars. Gulfstream Park will present two graded stakes for 3-year-olds, the Hutcheson, at seven furlongs, and the 1 1/8-mile Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth, both Grade 2. In the Hutcheson, Rick Dutrow has two entries, Radiohead and D’Funnybone, the likely favorite. Rick’s brother, Tony Dutrow, also has an entry in the Hutcheson, A Little Warm. Nick Zito’s Jackson Bend will face nine rivals in the Fountain of Youth. The diminutive son of Hear No Evil had a five-race win streak broken in his last out when he ran second to Winslow Homer in the Holy Bull. His biggest challenger appears to be Remsen winner Buddy’s Saint.

Gulfstream has also carded a pair of complementary G3 grass races for older horses on Saturday—for the ladies it’s the Honey Fox and the guys run in the Canadian Turf. An overflow field has entered the Honey Fox, including Bluegrass Princess, Backseat Rhythm, and Quiet Harbor, who brings with her a string of five consecutive wins. Courageous Cat makes his 2010 debut in the Canadian Turf; he finished his 2009 campaign with a sensational runner-up effort to Eclipse Award winner Goldikova in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

After inclement weather at Oaklawn Park forced the cancellation of last Monday’s G3 Southwest Derby, it was rescheduled for Saturday. Conveyance, Cardiff Giant and Domonation, the first three finishers in the San Rafael Stakes, shipped in from California and all remained on the grounds and re-entered one mile test.

At the Fair Grounds, the spotlight will be on 3-year-olds in the G3 Silverbulletday, for fillies, and the G2 Risen Star, for colts and geldings. Both races are 1 1/16 miles on the dirt. In the Silverbulletday, Todd Pletcher’s Devil May Care is the slight morning-line favorite over the Dale Romans-trained Quiet Temper. A full field of 12 goes to the gate in the Risen Star; the top choices here are Bill Mott’s Drosselmeyer, and from the Tom Amoss barn, Ron the Greek.

Also, at Fair Grounds on Saturday, two other G3 stakes will be run for older horses—the Mineshaft, at 1 1/16 miles on the dirt, and the Fair Grounds Handicap, 1 1/8 miles on turf. The one-two finishers in the Jan. 23 Louisiana Handicap, Friesan Fire and General Quarters, will face off again in the Mineshaft, while the Fair Grounds Handicap has attracted the likes of Acting Zippy, Transduction Gold and the now 10-year-old Silverfoot. Giant Oak is entered as well, but will run only if the race is transferred to dirt.

The other graded Derby prep on Saturday is the G3 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California. Ranger Heartley and Connemara are the likely favorites among eight entered in the 1 1/8-mile dirt contest; they ran first and second, respectively, in the Jan. 16 California Derby.

Saturday’s Santa Anita card features the G2 San Carlos Handicap, a seven furlong dirt race for 4-year-olds and up. Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Dancing In Silks hopes to rebound from his third-place finish in the Palos Verdes and earn a trip to the Golden Shaheen in Dubai in late March. His day could be spoiled by Ventana, runner-up in the Palos Verdes, or the speed demon, Bob Black Jack, off since winning the 2008 Malibu.

On Sunday, the only graded stakes action takes place at Santa Anita with the running of the G2 San Luis Obispo Handicap for older horses on the turf at the marathon distance of  1 ½ miles. Obrigado, now a 7-year-old, won this race in 2007 and makes his seasonal debut here. The Neil Drysdale trainee will face eight rivals, including his stablemate Bourbon Bay.

With the Sunshine Millions series taking place on Saturday at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita, graded stakes racing is light this weekend, but there are still a couple of interesting contests in the works.

On Saturday, Sam Houston Race Park will host the G3 John B. Connally Turf Handicap. The only graded stakes on the Sam Houston calendar for 2010, the 1 1/8-mile event has attracted a contentious field of 14 starters. The tepid favorite at 4-1 on the morning line is Orientate Express who exits the Zia Park Distance Championship with a runner-up performance. Going Ballistic would appear to be a formidable opponent here; he also last ran in the Zia Park Championship, finishing fourth, about seven lengths behind Orientate Express. His race previous to that, however, he put in a strong rally from the back of the pack to finish third in the G2 Hawthorne Gold Cup. And what would a stakes race in Texas be without an entry from the Steve Asmussen barn? He has a coupled entry here—Ablaze with Spirit and Red Rock Creek.

America’s first Grade 1 race of 2010 takes place on Sunday at Santa Anita when older fillies and mares will be going seven furlongs in the Santa Monica Handicap. Evita Argentina will be tough in this spot. The 4-year-old daughter of Candy Ride won three stakes races in 2009 at this distance, the G2 A Gleam Handicap, the G2 San Vicente, and most recently, the G1 La Brea on Santa Anita’s opening day. Also entered is Proviso, making her 2010 debut for Bill Mott. She was previously trained by Bobby Frankel and ended her 2009 campaign with a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic. If she handles the Pro-Ride surface, Tuscan Evening could be a factor; all of her previous 22 starts have been on turf.

Also on Sunday, the G2 Forward Gal, for 3-year-old fillies, will be run at Gulfstream Park. Eclipse Champion She Be Wild will take on a dozen rivals in the seven furlong race. Trained by Wayne Catalano, She Be Wild will test the dirt track for the first time in her career. Her 5-race juvenile campaign took place on synthetic surfaces, with one defeat which was in the G1 Alcibiades. Undefeated Richiegirlgonewild will see what she’s made of. The Wildcat Heir daughter is three-for-three, including the Old Hat on Jan. 9 where she made every pole a winning one over this same strip. Other entries include Sister Resistor, from Ken McPeek’s barn, and Ailalea, entered by Todd Pletcher.

By Ray Paulick
When Eye of Taurus and Bluegrass Princess swept the Pin Oak Valley View Stakes last week at Keeneland for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, it vaulted the New York-based native of Kentucky to the lead among trainers of American Graded Stakes winners for 2009.

The wins represented the 12th and 13th individual American Graded Stakes winners of the year for McLaughlin, who ranks fifth among North American trainers by money won (click here for those standings) behind Steve Asmussen, last year’s Eclipse Award winner as outstanding trainer and the leading candidate to win again this year. Asmussen, with 11 individual AGS winners, is well ahead in the standings by money won, with $18.7 million. Todd Pletcher, second to Asmussen by money won with $12.8 million, also has 11 individual AGS winners of 2009. 

While McLaughlin-trained horses have won only $6.5 million, he’s had just over one-fifth the number of starts that Asmussen’s had (2,403 for Asmussen, 511 starts for McLaughlin). As he said to Karen Johnson in an interview at ntra.com, McLaughlin has purposely cut back on the number of horses in his stable, ending a relationship with West Point Thoroughbreds and focusing more on the Darley and Shadwell Stables owned by Sheikhs Mohammed and Hamdan al Maktoum of Dubai. "Kiaran is a first-class guy," said Terry Finley who runs West Point and described the parting as completely amicable.

McLaughlin’s greatest success came with Shadwell’s 2006 Horse of the Year Invasor. “Shadwell has always enjoyed a very special relationship with Kiaran," said Rick Nichols, vice president and general manager of the operation. "We have gone through many good times as well as many bad times together. He is an excellent trainer and has a terrific organization of assistants and staff. His integrity is beyond reproach and always has in mind what to do best for the horse.

"On a personal note, I consider him a great friend and respect him both as a horseman, a friend and a wonderful family man."

Despite the lead in saddling the number of AGS winners, I’d still consider McLaughlin a longshot this year to win his first Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer. While the Breeders’ Cup could tilt the scales, the current favorite would be Asmussen, followed by the 2009 leader in saddling the most Grade 1 winners, Bob Baffert.

Baffert has six individual G1 winners this year, twice the number Pletcher, Asmussen and Bill Mott, who have three apiece. McLaughlin has saddled two G1 winners in 2009.

A lot of that could change by the end of next weekend.

Todd Pletcher is almost a cinch to be elected into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame as soon as he becomes eligible for nomination on the ballot. The one-time D. Wayne Lukas assistant has won four Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer in North America (2003-2007), set records for earnings by a North American trainer and won meeting titles at more than a half dozen tracks in Florida, Kentucky and New York. He once trained 100 stakes winners in a single season.

To that end, turf writer Nick Kling of the Troy Record, wrote about Pletcher’s recent Triple Crown tailspin in a piece that appeared only in the upstate New  York’s May 19 print edition. With the paper’s permission, we are republishing Kling’s commentary online. – Ray Paulick
 
By Nick Kling

When Take The Points finished last in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, his performance was the latest page in an incredible story being written by Todd Pletcher.

Pletcher is considered to be one of the most accomplished Thoroughbred trainers in the nation.  He is held in such high esteem that he was voted Eclipse Awards as America’s outstanding trainer four years in succession (2004-2007).

Todd has been at his best at Saratoga Race Course, winning six training titles at the prestigious meet.  In 2007 Pletcher trained three Eclipse-winning horses: Rags to Riches (3-year-old filly), Lawyer Ron (older male), and English Channel (turf male).

However, there is one area where Pletcher has not been so successful.  His horses have been awful in Triple Crown races: the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes.  The record of futility from Pletcher-trained starters in these classic events may be unparalleled.

Over the eleven most recent Triple Crown races, beginning with the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Pletcher-trained horses have finished last four times.  That is a negative batting average of 36 percent. 

In reality, it is worse than that.  He had starters in only nine of those races.  That raises Pletcher’s absolutely last quotient to 44 percent.

Harness announcer Jack E. Lee used to say the trailing horse in a race could, "see them all."  The Pletcher Triple Crown starters since 2006 who could see them all at the finish line were Keyed Entry (2006 Derby), Cowtown Cat (2007 Derby), Monba (2008) Derby, and Take The Points (2009 Preakness).

In addition, Pletcher’s 2005 Kentucky Derby starter Bandini finished 19th of 20 in that field.  2004 Belmont Stakes starter Purge finished dead last of nine starters.  2001 Belmont entrant Balto Star finished eighth of nine.

According to KentuckyDerby.com, Pletcher has started 24 horses in America’s greatest race.  21 have finished out of the money.  Todd’s best Derby results have been a pair of seconds and one third.

Only D. Wayne Lukas has had more Derby starters (43) than Pletcher.  Lukas, one of Pletcher’s mentors, has won the race four times.  Trainer H.J. Thompson had 24 Derby entrants and four winners.  Trainers Sylvester Veitch and Ron McAnally, who had 10 Derby starters, are the only other horsemen with double-digit entrants without a Kentucky Derby victory.

Using Daily Racing Form’s Formulator past performance program, I was able to find two Preakness entrants from the Pletcher barn.  One was Take The Points.  The other was Circular Quay, who finished fifth in 2007.

Pletcher’s only victory in a Triple Crown race came when Rags to Riches won the 2007 Belmont Stakes, beating subsequent Horse of the Year Curlin.  Preparing a filly to accomplish that task was an outstanding feat of training, making Pletcher’s overall lack of success more incomprehensible.

Overall, he has had eight Belmont Stakes starters, four unplaced finishers, and three besides Rags to Riches in the money.

The Breeders’ Cup is the only other event which compares to Triple Crown races in stature.  Pletcher’s relative accomplishments in Cup races is better, although not great.

According to the Breeders’ Cup website, Todd has had 55 Cup starters.  They have produced three wins, six seconds, and seven thirds.  Pletcher Cup starters have earned approximately $8 million in purse money, placing him in the top six among all trainers.

Horsemen such as Bobby Frankel and Bill Mott, Hall of Famers both, have Breeders’ Cup records in line with Pletcher’s Cup performance.

Trying to deduce what causes Todd’s Triple Crown flame-out is an exercise in speculation.  My best guess would point to two causes.

Many of the colts in the Pletcher barn are horses bred for speed.  Speed wins a lot of races, but not necessarily those at classic distances.  Several have sires cut in the mold of Distorted Humor and Elusive Quality, middle distances types who have produced Derby winners nevertheless. 

However, Pletcher’s high profile owners generally spend a lot of money on their stock and expect a return.  Pletcher is among the top trainers in the country in terms of number of juvenile starters.  Horses which break their maiden sprinting at five or six furlongs and win two-year-old stakes races at the Churchill Downs and Saratoga summer meets are unlikely to be the same animals winning Triple Crown events.

In addition, some horses from the Pletcher stable appear to have been ambitiously-spotted in Triple Crown races.  A review of their past performances reveals some horses which have done most of their racing on synthetic surfaces.  Others have mediocre dirt form, or have not done particularly well at longer route distances.

Make no mistake.  Derby fever is an affliction which strikes many owners and trainers in spring.  If that plays any part in the decisions made about Pletcher-trained horses, they are in good company.

There are some signs horsemen are beginning to rethink the idea of shoving any remotely talented three-year-old into Triple Crown races.  Take The Points, for example, had earnings which qualified him for the Derby.  His connections chose to wait for the Preakness.

Horsemen used to say Thoroughbreds were like strawberries — they could spoil overnight.  It’s only gotten worse.  Many young horses in the 21st Century have the shelf life of raw oysters.  If they are put where they don’t belong, someone might get sick.

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By Ray Paulick
I’m wondering if Mark Fenner, general counsel for the Texas Racing Commission, owns a hungry dog. Fenner used just about every excuse in the book except “the dog ate my homework” when he asked racing commission steward Dennis Sidener on Friday to postpone next Tuesday’s hearing regarding a nine-month-old medication charge against Eclipse Award-winning trainer Steve Asmussen

Sidener, naturally, granted the request, which stunned Asmussen’s attorneys, Maggi Moss of Iowa and Karen Murphy of New York. They received news of the postponement as they were preparing to travel to Texas and after making arrangements for a number of people to testify before the stewards, including Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and Louisiana State University chemist Dr. Steven Barker.

“I am blown away by their cavalier, callous indifference to any of us,” said Moss, who is also a leading Thoroughbred owner. “We are so ready to go. Steve wants the truth, we want the truth. I’ve never dealt with any commission like Texas, which has had seven lawyers involved in this complaint. I’ve handled cases in 10 jurisdictions, and Karen’s counted 15 states where she’s handled cases, and we’ve never, ever run into anything like this.”

Asmussen, who was recently honored with his first Eclipse Award as outstanding trainer of 2008 after setting an all-time single-season mark with 623 wins, was charged in late June with a positive test for lidocaine in Timber Trick, a 2-year-old filly who won a maiden race May 10 at Lone Star Park. Lidocaine, classified as a Class 2 drug, can be used as a pain blocker but also is found in many non-pharmaceutical products, such as creams or lotions. If the stewards ruled against him, Asmussen faces up to a six-month suspension and a fine of $1,500-$2,500. Owner Gainesway Stable would lose the purse money.

Fenner, whom Moss said was the first of six or seven racing commission attorneys she has dealt with on the Asmussen complaint, wrote the following note to stewards on Friday: “I have just been assigned to lead the presentation of this case, and I have pre-existing commitments that prevent me from adequately preparing by that date. These commitments include a Commission Working Group on Funding Meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 11, a Commission Committee on Racetrack Licensing on Feb. 13, and a full Commission meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 25. Each of these meetings requires substantial advance preparation and coordination with individual commissioners, and I must dedicate these next few days to those efforts.”

The delay is just the latest exasperating development in the case for Asmussen’s attorneys. Moss said Texas authorities months ago denied their request to have the plasma tested (which experts told her would be more conclusive than a standard urine test), would not quantitate the amount of the drug detected, and wouldn’t allow a split-sample to be tested at LSU.

“If the plasma says there is a metabolite we’ll accept it,” she said. “Why won’t they quantitate it? Dr. Barker says from what he can tell it’s not lidocaine, it’s some minuscule metabolite of something that contains lidocaine.

“We cannot think of any time that anything like this has happened. There have been 22 lidocaine cases in Texas and they were not handled this way,” Moss said. “In many cases there were mitigating circumstances. In others, the stewards have a hearing and they get their penalty. But the stewards aren’t the bad guys here.

“We’re fighting this,” she continued. “This isn’t just about Steve. Karen and I took this case because we want uniformity in drug laws. This is about Joe Blow at Mountaineer. It’s about tracks and attorney generals taking off and calling everybody cheaters. Texas does not have the same rules the rest of the industry has. We think if you are going to have millions of dollars worth of horses we should have the same kind of testing as the Olympics.

“Steve asked me today, ‘Why do they hate me so much?’ These lawyers have done things that are very questionable. Like today, saying they are going to represent the stewards and also prosecute the case. This is supposed to be a stewards hearing.”

By Ray Paulick

Garrett Gomez capped a huge weekend Sunday at Del Mar, winning the $1-million Pacific Classic aboard Peter Vegso’s Go Between, who wore down Well Armed in the final sixteenth of a mile to win by a neck. Mast Track finished third and Zappa was fourth in the 18th running of the mile and a quarter contest, whose winner gained an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic by taking one of the "Win and You’re In" challenge races.

(VIDEO)

(DEL MAR’S SUNDAY EQUIBASE CHARTS)

Gomez won Saturday’s $1-million Travers Stakes at Saratoga by a nose aboard Colonel John for WinStar Farm, then beat WinStar, the owner of Well Armed, in the Pacific Classic.

 Barcola took the early lead in the Pacific Classic under Corey Nakatani, setting fractions of :23.40 for the quarter-mile, :47.36 for the half, and 1:12.20 for six furlongs. Well Armed sat to Barcola’s outside flank for most of the running, with Surf Cat to his inside. Go Between was taken well off the early pace, racing third from last in the field of 10 older horses (after the scratch of McCann’s Mojave due to a minor injury).

When the field straightened for home, the mile clocked in 1:37.06, jockey Aaron Gryder moved Well Armed to the front, but Go Between was in full stride out in the middle of the track, circling the field and steadily cutting into the lead. The 5-year-old Florida-bred son of Point Given caught Well Armed inside the sixteenth pole and began to edge away for the win, his eighth in 26 starts. Time for the 10 furlongs on Polytrack was 2:01.18.

The winner is a well-traveled horse who has excelled on turf and synthetic tracks for Vegso and Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott. He won the Grade 3 Fayette on Keeneland’s Polytrack last October and the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita on Cushion Track in January. He was narrowly beaten by Heatseeker in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and second to Mast Track in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup June 28 (also on Cushion Track) in his most recent start. Between those two races, Go Between finished  second in Keeneland’s Grade 2 Ben Ali.

Go Between trained up to the Pacific Classic at Churchill Downs.

It was the fourth Pacific Classic victory for jockey Gomez and the first for Mott, who is best remembered at Del Mar for bringing Allen Paulson’s Cigar to the 1996 Pacific Classic in search of his record 17th consecutive victory. But Cigar’s streak ended that day when he was upset by the Richard Mandella-trained Dare and Go. This was Mott’s first Pacific Classic runner since 1996.

Go Between earned $600,000 for owner-breeder Vegso, the publisher of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" inspirational book series. It boosted his lifetime earnings to $2,783,880. Go Between paid $7.60 for the win as the 5-2 favorite.

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