Posts Tagged ‘Take The Points’

UPDATE: Santa Anita has cancelled its Saturday racing program due to heavy rain and ongoing drainage problems with its main track Pro-Ride surface.

On Saturday, Santa Anita’s 10-race program will feature five stakes races, including the Grade 1 Las Virgenes and a pair of Grade 2s, the Strub and the Robert B. Lewis. The Las Virgenes has attracted a field of six 3-year-old fillies to go once around the all-weather track. Blind Luck will be heavily favored based on her final three starts in 2009—she won the G1 Oak Leaf before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and ended the year with a seven-length win in G1 Hollywood Starlet. Among those taking on Blind Luck will be Crisp, winner of G3 Santa Ysabel, and Switch, third in G2 Santa Ynez.

Trainer Bob Baffert has his eyes on a couple prizes Saturday. If Misremembered can prove himself in the Strub, he’ll head for the Santa Anita Handicap, more familiarly known as the Big ‘Cap, next month. Misremembered, a ridgling son of Candy Ride last ran second to M One Rifle in the G1 Malibu. The nine-furlong Strub, for 4-year-olds, has also attracted Smart Bid and Rendezvous, second and third, respectively in the G2 San Fernando.

Baffert hopes to have yet another Kentucky Derby prospect with Tiz Chrome. The son of Tiznow comes into the 1 1/16-mile Robert B. Lewis with just two starts, but his debut at Churchill Downs and his winning performance in the Stuka Stakes at Hollywood were eye-catching. Facing him will be Eoin Harty-trained American Lion, also a son of Tiznow, who won the Hollywood Prevue.

Across the country, Gulfstream Park will be hosting three graded stakes, highlighted by G1 Donn Handicap, for older horses going 1 1/8 miles on the main track. Quality Road is high weight at 123 lbs., based on his powerful performance in G3 Hal’s Hope where he drew off in the final furlong defeating You and I Forever by nearly three lengths. Quality Road spots six to nine pounds to his nine rivals which include the first four finishers of the Jan. 10 Ft. Lauderdale (G3), as well as You and I Forever.

Hoping to make his 2010 debut a winning one, Court Vision will face five other older horses in the nine-furlong G1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. Rick Dutrow trains Court Vision, who ran third in this event last year, losing to Kip DeVille by less than a length. From Todd Pletcher’s barn comes Take the Points, a two-time Grade 1 winner in 2009.

Also carded at 1 1/8 miles on the turf is the G3 Suwannee River for older fillies and mares. None of the twelve starters in the body of the race have won a graded stakes, making this a very tough spot to find a favorite. One of the strongest contenders may be Lady Shakespeare, winner of four consecutive races at Woodbine in 2009. Christophe Clement has won the Suwannee River four times and has two entered here—Cable and Astrologie.

In deference to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Santa Anita has an early post, with the G2 San Antonio Handicap to be run at approximately 2:00. Carded as the 7th of eight races, the 1 1/8-mile San Antonio is a major prep for the upcoming Big ‘Cap. High-weighted at 120 lbs. is Richard’s Kid, upset winner of the Pacific Classic at Del Mar last September. The Bob Baffert trainee then ended his 2009 campaign with a sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Also targeting the Big ‘Cap is Mast Track, winner of the G3 Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood Park in December.

The upcoming long holiday weekend provides an opportunity for three tracks–Hollywood Park, Aqueduct and Churchill Downs—to run a combined total of 16 graded stakes, many with entrants coming out of the Breeders’ Cup Championships held earlier this month at Santa Anita.

Churchill Downs has carded the 1 1/8-mile G2 Falls City as the 11th of 12 races on Thursday. Unbridled Belle hopes to go out a winner before she heads for the breeding shed. The 6-year-old mare has accumulated almost $1.9 million in earnings and will face off against another millionaire, Swift Temper, who has gotten the best of Unbridled Belle in their three previous meetings this year.

Friday’s feature race, the G2 Clark Handicap, has attracted a stellar field of competitors, including Macho Again, Bullsbay, Etched, Blame and Einstein, the highweight in the 1 1/8-mile dirt event. The 7-year-old will start from the far outside post (14) in what will be the 30th and final race of his career. With regular rider Julien Leparoux in Japan, Rajiv Maragh will take over in the irons. The G3 River City Handicap (race 9) at 1 1/8 miles on the turf, is on the undercard.

Churchill’s meet closes on Saturday with the running of twin G2 stakes, the Golden Rod for fillies, and the Kentucky Jockey Club for colts and geldings. Sassy Image, winner of the opening weekend’s Pocahontas Stakes, as well as the runner-up in that race, Decelerator, are expected to start. The upset winner of the Iroquois, Thiskyhasnolimit, is the 2-1 favorite in the field of nine in the Kentucky JC. Both races are 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

Aqueduct hosts the G3 Fall Highweight on Thursday, the G2 Top Flight Handicap on Friday, and a quartet of graded stakes on Saturday, highlighted by the G1 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile. Pyro, winner of the Forego and Kodiak Kowboy, victor of the Vosburgh, are co-highweights at 120 lbs. They will be facing DeFrancis winner Vineyard Haven, Bribon and Driven By Success. With the coupling of Pyro and Vineyard Haven, there will be only four betting interests.

Also on the Aqueduct’s Saturday card is the running of the 1 1/8-mile G1 Gazelle for 3-year-old fillies. Stardom Bound will be in the spotlight here; she had a string of five consecutive G1 wins to her credit, before finishing third in the Ashland in April. This will be her first start on the dirt. The other two graded stakes will focus on juveniles–the G2 Demoiselle for fillies, and the G2 Remsen for males, both run at 1 1/8 miles on the dirt. The winners of these races may be pointing to a race on the first Saturday in May next year.

The G1 Citation kicks off the three-day Hollywood Park Turf Festival on Friday and features a field of ten older horses going 1 1/16 miles. Cowboy Cal, winner of the Oak Tree Mile, will attempt to redeem himself in the Citation after a 10th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Proudinsky and Fluke, also entered in the Citation, will both be saddled by Bobby Frankel’s long-time assistant Humberto Ascanio, who is now the trainer of record for the late Hall of Famer’s starters.

Saturday’s Hollywood stakes are the G1 Matriarch for fillies and mares going a mile on grass, supported by the G3 Generous, for two-year-olds, also at a mile. The Matriarch pits two outstanding mares against each other—Ventura and Diamondrella. Both were last seen at the Breeders’ Cup; Ventura was second in the Filly & Mare Sprint, while Diamondrella ran a disappointing 11th in the Turf Sprint. Following the Breeders’ Cup, Diamondrella changed barns and is now with jockey-turned-trainer Gary Stevens.

Hollywood’s Turf Festival concludes on Sunday with the running of the G1 Hollywood Derby and the G3 Miesque (a mile for 2-year-old fillies). In the 1 ¼-mile Hollywood Derby, we can expect to see Take the Points square off against Battle of Hastings. Another intriguing entry is Black Bear Island. Now with Julio Canani, the son of Sadler’s Wells was previously conditioned by Aiden O’Brien.

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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It has been almost two weeks since Mine That Bird and jockey Calvin Borel shocked the sports world with their improbable long shot victory in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. And as with any Derby aftermath, the question lingers in the air; will this be the year we end the Triple Crown drought? If our voters are any indication, the answer is an emphatic no as Mine That Bird is ranked in fourth place among the 14 horses prospective Preakness starters.

Furthermore, Calvin Borel’s decision to forego the Derby hero to ride the amazing Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness, an unprecedented move in the 135 years of the Kentucky Derby, goes even more to the point that this may not be the year racing celebrates its 12th Triple Crown champion. Instead, the consensus of our 23 voters, including the fans, was overwhelmingly in favor of Rachel Alexandra to run away with this much anticipated race. Will this hold true? Will trainer Bob Baffert spoil the Oaks/Derby story line with Pioneerof the Nile? Or perhaps we will see another unlikely outcome with a different long shot coming out of nowhere to take the prize. Only Saturday will tell.

Ray Paulick’s Preakness Analysis

1-Pioneerof the Nile. Sure, he looked like he was running in slow motion in the Kentucky Derby compared to Mine That Bird when he rocketed up the rail to victory, but I think the condition of the racetrack had a lot to do with the outcome of the race. Pioneerof the Nile was well off the rail on what I think was the slower part of the track all the way and closer to the pace than expected. I liked the son of Empire Maker going into the Derby, and I think he dispelled concerns that he was a horse that could only run on synthetic tracks. His workout on Monday morning that prompted trainer Bob Baffert to give Pioneerof the Nile the green light to go to Pimlico indicates he came out of the Derby in very good shape.

2- Papa Clem. Smart Strike colt wanted to run more in the early going of the Kentucky Derby while jockey Rafael Bejarano was trying to get him to settle off the pace, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a change of tactics for the Preakness. Gary Stute-trained colt has shown versatility in the past, going to the front and setting moderate fractions to win or coming from midpack, as he did in taking the Arkansas Derby. Preakness field won’t be without pace, with Big Drama and Take the Points expected to show early speed. I’d look for Papa Clem to be just behind the early leaders.

3-Rachel Alexandra. The only knock on the filly is that she hasn’t really faced top-class competition yet. The Kentucky Oaks was her first Grade 1 race, and the field was pretty weak by Oaks standards. Nevertheless, what she did, running away from her beleaguered rivals to win by 20 π lengths, with her jockey sitting like a statue (except for the occasional glance back), was remarkable. This is a huge step up, and I’m not convinced that she’s up to the task.

4-Friesan Fire. Big disappointment in the Kentucky Derby after being sent off as the betting favorite on a sloppy racetrack that everyone thought he would like, following his eye-catching Louisiana Derby win in the slop at Fair Ground. Got bumped around pretty good at the start and came back with some minor cuts and scrapes. A.P. Indy colt has bounced back quickly for trainer Larry Jones and his Tuesday morning workout at Pimlico (five furlongs in :58.40) was very sharp.

5-Mine That Bird. Can’t take the Kentucky Derby victory away from him, no matter how strange the track might have played or how all the so-called “experts” (myself included) dismissed his chances going into the race. He was champion 2-year-old in Canada last year, and it’s clear that in his two losses in New Mexico he didn’t get the right kind of trip. Whether he was pushed to the lead early by Casey Lambert or moved on his own, he came up empty in the stretch of both the Borderland and Sunland Derbies. I think the track and especially a rail bias played in his favor for the Kentucky Derby, but Calvin Borel deserves a great deal of credit for saving Mine That Bird for one big run from far back. I don’t see a repeat performance in the Preakness.

6-Musket Man. Finished with determination in the Kentucky Derby after suffering some early problems, closing to get third while on the far outside, the deepest or stickiest part of the racetrack that day. Never worse than third in seven lifetime starts.

7-Take the Points. Skipped the Kentucky Derby to point for the Preakness, so trainer Todd Pletcher has a very fresh horse going into the race. May not have liked the synthetic surfaces or maybe he just wasn’t sharp  enough to win either of his two California starts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see big improvement.

8-Big Drama. Almost certain to set the pace in the Preakness, and though the Montbrook colt has stretched his speed out to 1 1/16 miles before, he hasn’t done it against this level of competition.

9-General Quarters. Didn’t really like his chances in the Kentucky Derby and I don’t think he’s moved up with his training since finishing 10th at Churchill Downs.

10-Terrain. On a five-race losing streak since being moved up from third to first in the Arlington-Washington Futurity last September. Would take a major form reversal to threaten here.