Sportswriter scores second NYSS victory in Thunder Rumble

by Sarah Mace

The versatile Sportswriter (Maybry’s Boy), winner of the Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Stakes series for 3-year-olds at Saratoga on turf, captured the $100,000 Thunder Rumble division for eligible runners three-and-up at seven furlongs on the dirt at Aqueduct on Wednesday.

Bet down to 1-5 favoritism for the Thunder Rumble by post time, Sportswriter travelled in fourth early on, three lengths off the lead as Frisky Warrior set the pace (23.36, 47.16) pressed by Keltic Fighter and Dave’s Shadow.

Advancing into contention around the turn, Sportswriter took over the lead in upper stretch and kicked clear by two lengths. The grey then dug in gamely to hold off a late challenge by Anaphylaxis and secure the victory by three-quarters of a length. Anaphylaxis (Tomorrows Cat), who advanced four wide in the turn, was a willing second in his stakes debut, just a neck ahead of Maggie’s Hadder (Hook and Ladder).

Completing the order of finish were Game Token, Frisky Warrior, Keltic Fighter and Dave’s Shadow. The final time for the seven furlongs on the fast Aqueduct main track was 1:24.22.

Winning jockey Javier Castellano said, “I wanted to time it just right and not move too soon. When I asked him, he responded so well. Today, it worked out perfect for him.”

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez added, “He’s been very good since we got him, and he’s always trained very, very good. We got very lucky to buy him. He’s as solid as they come and tries every time. If they go easy on the lead, he can be on the lead, or he can stay behind. This was a good race for him, and he got the job done.”

A debut winner for Flying Zee Stable and trainer Carlos Martin at Saratoga in 2011, and first winner for current Second Crop New York sire Maybry’s Boy (Highcliff at Mill Creek Farm[2]), Sportswriter’s second visit to the winner’s circle came in January when he took an entry-level allowance for state-breds at Aqueduct by open lengths for new owners Michael Dubb and Michael Imperio, who purchased him in December 2011 for $60,000 in the mixed portion of the Flying Zee Dispersal.

In addition to winning an open allowance at Aqueduct in March, Sportswriter also added four stakes placings in competitive company to his resume before his Cab Calloway victory: third in the Sweet Envoy to Pretension, second in the Patsy’s Prospect to Zetterholm, second in the Times Square Division of the NYSS and second in the open Western Larla. In his most recent start, the Hudson on Showcase Day, Sportswriter finished a competitive fourth for a career high Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

Sportswriter’s second stakes victory on Wednesday improves his career tally to 5-3-1 from 16 lifetime starts and carries his earnings over the quarter-million dollar threshold to $283,684.

Bred by Flying Zee Stable and foaled at Highcliff Farm[3], Sportswriter is the second foal out of the winning Point Given mare Point Spread, who was purchased by Flying Zee at the 2005 Fasig-Tipton Calder Select 2-year-old sale for $185,000. Point Spread currently has a 2-year-old filly by Western Expression named Aunt Tipsy and an unnamed yearling filly by the same sire. Her first foal, Chalk Player (Johannesburg), is a multiple winner of $88,460.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2012/11/14/sportswriter-thunder-rumble/

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Sunny Desert makes it five straight with victory in NYSS Staten Island

by Sarah Mace

Saul and Max Kupferberg’s Sunny Desert (Wild Desert) won her fifth straight race on Wednesday, stalking and pouncing under regular rider Ramon Dominguez in Aqueduct’s $100,000 NYSS Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Stakes series for fillies and mares.

An overwhelming .35-1 favorite to win the female division of Wednesday’s co-featured 7-furlong Stallion Series races for horses three and up, Sunny Desert sat in fourth just off a lively scramble for the lead, where Haldane (at the rail), longshot Mah Jong Madness (in the two path) and Jitney (three wide) vied for the top spot. Meanwhile, closer Lady On the Run, winner of the Staten Island last year, trailed the five-horse field.

Given her cue exiting the turn, Sunny Desert looped the leaders in upper stretch – Jitney the most tenacious of the bunch – to take the lead. In the final furlong Lady on the Run loomed a possible threat with a late run, but did not manage to make up the requisite ground as Sunny Desert widened her lead to 2 3/4 lengths by the finish line under a hand ride.

Jitney finished third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Lady On the Run, while Haldane and Mah Jong Madness completed the order of finish. The winning time for seven furlongs over the fast Aqueduct main track was 1:24 flat.

Ramon Dominguez noted some trouble at the start that left them further off the pace than he expected. “I got squeezed between the two horses next to me [at the start] and she was a little bit further back than I thought she’d be, but she was much the best. It’s hard to say what her best distance is; I tried to get her going a little earlier, coming off a mile race. But once she gets in gear, she’s all business.”

Winning trainer John Parisella said, “She’s shown that she’s versatile. You don’t like [troubled starts], but nothing stops her right now. She’s special. You don’t have many fillies like that. They have that one style, and everything has to come up right. That’s what makes her special; things don’t have to come up right.”

Claimed for $35,000 by Parisella on behalf of the Kupferbergs out of a fourth-place effort in her third career start at Aqueduct on December 7, 2011, 3-year-old Sunny Desert has never finished worse than second in seven races since, and has won her last five starts, including three stakes and at least one race at each of the NYRA racetracks.

Following a pair of runner-up finishes in January, Sunny Desert began her parade of victories with a 15 1/4-length maiden breaking effort at Aqueduct in March. After winning the NYSS Park Avenue by a nose in May at Belmont, she added victories in a second-level optional claimer for state-breds at Saratoga in July, and the open Judy Soda overnight stakes at Belmont on September 14 by 6 1/4 lengths for a career high Beyer Speed Figure of 86. Her starts have been spaced out by design by Parisella.

With a career record that now stands at 5-3-0 from 10 starts, Sunny Desert has earned $266,750.

Bred by Breed of Characters LLC and foaled at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds[2], Sunny Desert is the second foal and second stakes horse out of the winning Louis Quatorze mare Hoping for Sun. Sunny Desert’s elder half-brother, Bound by Humor by Sharp Humor ($87,720), ran third in last year’s Corma Ray S. Hoping for Sun currently has a weanling colt by Two Step Salsa, to whom she was bred back this spring.

Sunny Desert changed hands once via public auction, going as a weanling at the OBS Fall Mixed sale for $2,000 to her first owners Drs. K. K. and Vilasini D. Jayaraman, from whom she was claimed last December.

Wild Desert, who entered stud in 2008, stood at McMahon’s from 2008-2010 and at Unbridled Racing Stable near Greenville in 2011. He was not registered in New York in 2012.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2012/11/14/sunny-desert-staten-island/

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