Posse colt translates sharp work into six-figure sale at F-T Midlantic opener

The Media Relations Department at Monmouth Park solved the mystery of the missing horse in the otherwise full line-up for Saturday’s Red Bank Stakes, namely 9-year-old millionaire Get Serious, who won the one-mile Red Bank in 2009, 2010 and 2012. “He wrenched an ankle last month,” said Pat McBurney, who trains Get Serious in partnership with John Forbes. “We haven’t been able to train him. He’s 20 to 30 days away from being ready to run again.” Get Serious ($1,124,651) has won 13 of 27 starts at Monmouth, including runnings of the Elkwood, Battlefield, Oceanport and Monmouth Stakes in addition to three Red Bank renewals.

At Kyoto racetrack over the weekend (5/11) Tokyo Horseracing Co., Ltd.’s Red Groover (Any Given Saturday – Wake Up Kiss), won a 1900m (9.5f) allowance special weight dirt race for 4-and-up as the 3-2 favorite. Red Groover (11-2-1-1, US$191,178), was bred by Edition farm and is a 4-year-old half-brother to Edition-bred A Shin Forward (Forest Wildcat), a Grade 1 stakes-winner in Japan and the second-highest all-time New York-bred earner ($3,416,216). Jockey Christian Demuro said of his winning ride, “We set the pace easily and traveled comfortably. He had little left in his tank in the final strides, but performed well.”

David Donk, still reveling in Hessonite’s dramatic victory in the G3 Beaugay said, “[Trainer] Walter Kelly would say, ‘A loaded gun will go off in anybody’s hands.’ When you watch a horse like that, wow, it’s hard to believe she’s in your barn.” Donk added, “I was confident running her [in the Beaugay], but you got to get the trip. It was really impressive.” Likely next start: Belmont’s Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay at 1 3/8 miles on May 25. “Now that she has won a graded race, I don’t want to say the rest of it is icing in the cake, but I don’t have to be afraid of where to run her,” said Donk. Christophe Clement reported of Lubash, winner of the G3 Fort Marcy, “Lubash came back in very good order from his race. He looks good this morning, lameness exam was perfect, no problems. Most probably we’ll go to the Kingston next month [June 1]. I’m very happy for [owner Leonard Pivnick], he’s an owner-breeder, and it’s very nice when you succeed for an owner-breeder.”

Multiple NY champion Dayatthespa (City Zip) was made the 2-5 ML favorite for her 2013 (and BEL) debut on Sun. in the featured $90,000 You Go West Girl overnight stakes for NY-bred fillies and mares at a mile on the turf. Winner of 5 straight stakes races last year for trainer Chad Brown, capped by KEE’s G1 QE II Challenge Cup, Dayatthespa returns after she swerved and propped at the rail, 3/4s of a mile from home when favored in the G1 Matriarch at BHP and suffered a cut tendon that required six stitches. “Everyone wants her to have a good experience after what happened to her in California,” said Brown’s assistant, Cherie DeVaux. “We’ll go from race to race after this. It’s a good starting point. “She looks fantastic,” added DeVaux. “She breezed last week on the turf [1:00.02] and did it in hand. She came back from the breeze perfect. She’s really been training well, but it’s good to get her back to the races.”

Giant Finish went out to the Churchill Downs racetrack for the first time Friday at 5:45 AM. Ray Handal, assistant to trainer Tony Dutrow, was aboard for the morning exercise. Handal took the colt to the track when it opened for training and let him stand and look around for 10 minutes before making a couple of laps of the oval. “He was a pro like we thought he would be,” Handal said. “We jogged him a mile and galloped him a mile and a quarter, just nice and easy and let him take everything in. He was good about it. No complaints.”

Multiple NY-bred champion Hessonite (5-1 ML) makes her 2013 debut for trainer David Donk on Belmont’s Derby Day card in the G3, $150,000 Beaugay for fillies and mares run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf. Junior Alvarado replaces the injured Ramon Dominguez in the irons. Entries. In Belmont’s co-featured G3, $150,000 Fort Marcy, also at 1 1/16 miles on turf, New Yorkers comprise half of the 6-horse field: Lubash, post 3, Junior Alvarado (7-2 ML), King Kreesa, post 4, Irad Ortiz, Jr. (5-1 ML) and Abilio, post 6 (15-1 ML). Entries.

The DRF reported last week that undefeated 5-for-5 Grade 2 Distaff winner Cluster of Stars (Greeley's Galaxy) will get some time off before resuming her campaign later this summer, according to assistant trainer Toby Sheets. Sheets said, “I don't think horses can run all year along and make the bigger races at the end of the year." Cluster of Stars will stay at Belmont, but be out of training for a brief period.

Taiki Farm’s Unavenged (Empire Maker), 4-year-old half-sister to NY millionaire Naughty New Yorker out of champion broodmare Naughty Natisha (Known Fact), came from off the pace to win her 2013 debut in Tokyo on 4/21, an 8f dirt allowance race, by two lengths. Bred by Dr. William B. Wilmot and Dr. Joan M. Taylor, Unavenged was a $110,000 purchase by SF Bloodstock in 2011 at KEEAPR. “It was her first race since last September, but she was in a good form and relaxed,” jockey Makoto Sugihara said. “It was a very satisfactory win in fast time.” Lifetime Record: 7-3-0-0, $240,000.  Click here for link to JRA Chart (2/21, Tokyo, 12R ALW D1600).

Unbelievable Dream reported back in fine shape today following her last-to-first victory in Keeneland’s G3 Appalachian Stakes Presented by the Japan Racing Association yesterday. "She’s a lovely filly and she seems to have come out of the race good," trainer Barclay Tagg said of the daughter of Kitalpha. “She is a New York-bred and she might have transcended those yesterday.” Tagg added, “I have been training for [Chicago-based Michael McGuire’s Sure Thing Stables] for 10 years and they are the nicest people in the world. Yesterday was their first stakes win and they get it in a graded stakes.”

West Hills Giant (Frost Giant), drawn in post 12 for the G1 Toyota Blue Grass (20-1 ML), had his first gallop over the Keeneland track on Thurs. Trainer John Terranova said, “It looks like he is getting over it good. This is the first time he has been on the synthetic since we got him, but we started him on grass. The Giant’s Causeways (grandsire of West Hills Giant) love this stuff.” Terranova is happy with the post: “That’s fine. It looks like we are outside of the speed. But he is very tactical. He has been in front and he has been behind horses and he can stalk. It’s a good spot.” Click here for Tom Leach’s interview with Terranova. Entries.