Audible roars to victory in G1 Florida Derby

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Coglianese Photos/Kenny Martin

By Sarah Mace

Audible’s powerhouse win in Gulfstream Park’s Holy Bull Stakes on February 3 generated lots of Derby buzz, but if anyone still questioned whether the Into Mischief colt should be taken seriously as a Kentucky Derby contender, Audible probably laid most doubts to rest on Saturday afternoon when he scored a decisive victory from well off the pace in his toughest test yet – Gulfstream Park’s Grade 1, $1,000,000 Florida Derby.

While under the microscope in the leadup to the Florida Derby, Audible’s apparently lackluster approach to morning duties, well-documented by XBTV videos, worried some observers.

When questioned, however, Todd Pletcher – who trains the colt for China Horse Club International Ltd. (Ah Khing Teo), Head of Plains Partners LLC (Sol Kumin), Starlight Racing (Jack Wolf) and WinStar Farm LLC (Kenny Troutt) –  replied patiently that Audible has always been that way and there was nothing to be concerned about. Pletcher was right.

Marooned by the draw in post eight (of nine) but bet down to 3-2 favoritism on the strength of the Holy Bull performance, Audible was forced to exert some energy early to get into position before the clubhouse turn under jockey John Velazquez.

Two-wide and moving smoothly through the clubhouse turn in fifth, early on in the backstretch run Audible dropped back, actually racing for a time in last place, ten or more lengths from the leaders. Midway along the backstretch, though, Audible regathered his momentum and started picking off horses, advancing into fifth by the approach to the far turn.

As John Velazquez explained, “I had to use my horse to get position on the first turn. I was in the spot I wanted to be in going into the backstretch and after that I was pretty happy. The only thing that concerned me was when he got to the backstretch he started backing up a little bit. I thought I was overdoing it so I had to give him a little chance on the backstretch to regroup again and once he got his stride back together and when he started moving again on the backstretch I was very happy with the way he was doing it.”

Meanwhile up front, the two speediest horses in the race, Promises Fulfilled and Strike Power, set the table with a lightning-fast pace, each intent on getting the lead. The pair ran the opening half mile in splits more suited to a sprint  (21.95, 46.38), opening up six lengths or so on Mississippi in third.

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Coglianese Photos/Leslie Martin

Midway around the far turn bend the pacesetters wilted, leaving Mississippi to inherit the lead, but he no sooner struck the front than Audible loomed at his flank, engaged and took over while straightening away for home.

Despite drifting out a bit in the final furlong, Audible drew off to a no-doubt-about-it three-length score in a final time of 1:49.48. Hofburg, a Bill Mott trainee facing winners for the first time, rallied impressively to finish second while Mississippi had to settle for the third.

Completing the order of finish were second choice Catholic Boy, Millionaire Runner, Tip Sheet and Storm Runner, followed by pacesetting duo who brought up the caboose. [VIDEO REPLAY[3]]

“It played out the way I thought it was going to be,” said Velazquez. “I talked to Todd and we thought there were the two horses with speed and Julien [Leparoux]’s horse [Mississippi] who was wearing blinkers for the first time, so we figured he’d probably come out running.”

Pletcher concurred. “The race unfolded with the pace that we were hoping for and we wanted to get some position into the first turn, which he was able to do beautifully. Just watching the race I was a little concerned at the five-eighths pole because he started to drop back a little bit, but I could tell Johnny wasn’t panicked. He kind of grabbed him up and sometime midway down the backstretch he started to pick up horses and I started to feel better and better. You could tell the pace up front had developed pretty swiftly so you felt like those horses were going to start to come back at some stage.”

Velazquez was also impressed with Audible’s finish.  “Once he got to the horses on the lead I just tried to keep him busy down the lane and he kicked pretty good. I didn’t ride him last time but he way he ran today he was definitely impressive. [The distance] didn’t seem to bother him at all. I think the farther he goes the better he gets.” Velazquez was aboard for the colt’s first two starts, but Javier Castellano piloted Audible to victory in an open allowance at Aqueduct and the Holy Bull.

The Florida Derby has produced the winners of 59 Triple Crown events, including 24 Kentucky Derby champions. Three of the last five Kentucky Derby winners – Always Dreaming, Nyquist (2016) and Orb (2013) — also won the Florida Derby. Audible, with 110 points, shares the top spot on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with Noble Indy.

Bred by Richard Leahy’s Oak Bluff Stables, LLC and foaled at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, Audible is a graduate of the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale, where he was purchased from Winter Quarter Farm by 4H for $175,000. When presented to the world as a juvenile at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale, China Horse Club and WinStar Farm had pay a premium price of $500,000 to take him home.

Audible’s dam Blue Devil Bel, who was bred and campaigned in New York by Leahy, is a multiple winner and six-figure earner by Gilded Time and a half-sister to multiple stakes winner and stakes producer Akilina, who is the dam of Rieno Tesoro, a group winner in Japan, and Governor Malibu, a stakes winner and multiple graded stakes-placed New York-bred runner. Blue Devil Bel has yearling filly by Lookin At Lucky and was bred in 2017 to Constitution.

From four consecutive victories following a third-place finish on debut last September, Audible has earned $882,920.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/03/31/audible-florida-derby/

Therapist turns tables on Speed Franco in Cutler Bay Stakes

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Coglianese Photo/Kenny Martin

By Sarah Mace

Therapist, a homebred for Lynn and Richard Leahy’s Oak Bluff Stables, first tasted defeat in his fourth career start – also his seasonal and graded stakes debut – when he finished 2 1/4 lengths behind Speed Franco in Gulfstream Park’s Palm Beach Stakes on March 3.

On Saturday at the same venue, the chestnut son of Freud turned the tables on the spoiler, collaring Speed Franco late to record his third career stakes win in Gulfstream Park’s $150,000 Cutler Bay Stakes for 3-year-olds at one mile on turf.

Breaking from post one (of six) as the 2-1 second betting choice under Irad Ortiz, Jr., Therapist let others wrangle for the lead and spent the first three-quarters of the race biding his time with a ground-saving trip in fifth and sixth, about six lengths off the pace. Up front, Salmanazar was pressed along by Speed Franco through testing fractions, clocking an opening quarter-mile in 23.57, half in 46.75 and six furlongs in 1:09.95.

Therapist began to angle out for position in the far turn while coming under a ride and spun out widest of all into the lane to launch his rally.

As Therapist passed horses rocketing down the center of the track, Speed Franco overhauled Salmanazar inside the furlong grounds, and was minded to draw off. In the nick of time, however, Therapist reeled in his rival to get the win by a neck. Salmanazar and Nauti Boy finished noses apart third and fourth another 2 3/4 lengths back. Neepawa and The Dow completed the order of finish. The final time for the mile was a sharp 1:33.42.

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Coglianese Photo/Leslie Martin

“[Therapist] broke a little slow but he moves a lot in the gate, so he always breaks like that,” Ortiz Jr. said.

“I got a good position and I followed the speed horses and tried to save some ground, and when I tipped him out he was there for me. I just waited, and he’s much better on the outside. I told the trainer the ground is pretty hard and holding speed, so we have to be close. He wasn’t, but we got there anyway.”

Therapist’s 2018 season is off to a great start with a graded third-place finish and the Cutler Bay win, but he got everything off on the right foot last year for trainer Christophe Clement with a stellar juvenile campaign, when he went undefeated in three starts.

After breaking his maiden in a turf sprint maiden for state-breds at Belmont Park last July 2, Therapist went straight on to the 6-furlong Laurel Futurity on September 16, which he won with a dramatic surge despite breaking through the gate before the race. He closed out 2017 by winning Belmont’s Awad Stakes on October 28.

Foaled at Berkshire Stud[3] in Pine Plains, Therapist is one of two winners out of Lady Renaissance, a winning Kentucky-bred daughter of Sharp Strike who was purchased by Oak Bluff Stables for $15,000 at the 2009 Keeneland November sale. Lady Renaissance has produced a yearling full sister to Therapist and foaled a Temple City colt on February 13, 2018.

Owner/Breeder Richard Leahy said, “We bought the mare and bred her. We actually tried to sell him, but he didn’t attract any real bidders, so I took him back,” Richard Leahy said. “Christophe and John Donaldson, a bloodstock agent, thought he’d be a lot of fun and he has been.”

From four wins and a third Therapist has earned $243,725.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/03/31/therapist-cutler-bay/

Mind Your Biscuits thrills in Group 1 Golden Shaheen repeat, becomes richest NY-bred

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Dubai Racing Club

By Sarah Mace

With 400 meters to go and virtually everything still left to do, Meydan-loving Mind Your Biscuits pulled off an all-but-impossible feat Saturday. Out of picture for most of the stretch, he closed like a rocket down the middle of the course and, in the very last jumps, passed his final two rivals to score a repeat victory in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in course record time.

The winner’s share of the $2,000,0000 Golden Shaheen purse also propelled Mind Your Biscuits to the very top of the New York-bred earnings rankings with a bankroll of $3,719,286, which overtakes the mark of $3,529,412 set by Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide.

Exactly one year ago Mind Your Biscuits and his novice trainer Chad Summers burst onto the international scene when they annexed the Golden Shaheen from another seemingly impossible position: the outside post of 12. Partnered with Joel Rosario, who had the repeat call this year, Mind Your Biscuits came from the clouds and kicked clear to win by three lengths in a final time of 1:10 4/5. The victory was Summers’ first win as a trainer, though he had been involved with Mind Your Biscuits from the bloodstock angle from the very first and is a co-owner.

This year, the Golden Shaheen draw landed Mind Your Biscuits at the opposite extreme – in post one, directly to the inside of speedy X Y Jet, which posed a different set of challenges. The 5-year-old was also looking to snap a four-race winless streak, having had his picture last taken when he won the Grade 2 Belmont Sprint Stakes last July 8.

Sent off at odds of 4-1, Mind Your Biscuits was tardy out of the gate and settled in last while Jorden Sport showed the way in the early stages. Still in last and shaken up by Rosario rounding the far turn, Mind Your Biscuits wasn’t even on the screen for majority of the stretch run.

Advancing into fifth position and well out into the middle of the course, with 200 meters to go Mind your Biscuits had at least six lengths to make up on new leader X Y Jet.

Up into third well inside the 100-meter grounds, Mind your Biscuits set his sights on X Y Jet and sprint champion Roy H, who stood between him and victory. Gobbling up the ground at the end, he passed those formidable rivals and hit the wire first with a head to spare. The clock stopped in a course record time for 1200 meters of 1:10.21.

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Dubai Racing Club

“I have a lot of faith in this horse every time I ride him,” Rosario said. “I just let him be ‘Biscuits’ and do what he wanted. He always gives 100%. I’m so happy, Chad did a very good job.”

Chad Summers said, “We had lost four in a row but we had reasons for all four. He’s a horse that knows where the wire is and he just never gives up. For my staff in New York and Florida and internationally it’s such an unbelievable thing for them – the team that gets everything done. It’s never about the trainer and never should be about the trainer. For the horse, it’s important he showed who the real Mind Your Biscuits was.”

Added Summers, “We respect the international community so much. We’ve seen what Wesley Ward has done as an ambassador for the sport and not be afraid to ship out.  To ship and do it and overcome everything, and Lasix free, it’s important. To have a horse peak on the right day and the right time, this is the race we pointed for and it took to the wire but he came through for us.”

Mind Your Biscuits’ star began to rise with his original trainer Robert Falcone Jr. for whom he broke his maiden on April 5, 2016, won the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at the Spa that season, finished a strong third (placed second) in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, and scored his first Grade 1 victory in the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita on December 26. For Summers he has twice won the Golden Shaheen and the Belmont Park Sprint Stakes, and placed in the Cigar Mile and 2017 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. His race record stands at seven wins, eight seconds and three thirds from 21 starts.

Mind Your Biscuits was bred by Jumping Jack Racing LLC and foaled at Sue and Gary Lundy’s Cedar Ridge Farm in Pine Plains and is one of three winners from three foals to start out of Jazzmane, an unraced Kentucky-bred daughter of Toccet and a half-sister to Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Kimchi (Langfuhr).

Mind Your Biscuits was purchased as a short yearling by Machmer Hall at the 2014 Keeneland January sale for $47,000. After he RNA’d for $47,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale, Summers and Susan Montanye purchased the colt privately as a pinhooking prospect. A buyback once again at the OBS Spring 2-year-old sale for $47,000, Summers bought out the colt and, over time, lined up J Stables LLC, Head of Plains Partners and Michael E. Kisber to complete Mind Your Biscuits’ ownership group, which also includes Dan Summers and Scott Summers.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/03/31/mind-biscuits-golden-shaheen-18/

Summersault coasts home a winner in Gulfstream Park’s Soaring Softly

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Coglianese Photo/Lauren King

By Sarah Mace

Seeking to break an eight-race win-drought, William Parsons, Jr. and David S. Howe’s homebred turf mare Summersault (Rock Hard Ten) got a chance Friday to remind us of what she is capable of when she sailed home a decisive winner in Gulfstream Park’s $75,000 Soaring Softly at 1 3/8 miles on turf.

Over the last 12 months, Summersault has been involved in some close decisions, but the classy mare’s last trip to the winner’s circle came on April 1 of last year in Gulfstream’s Grade 3, $200,000 Orchid Stakes. In her first two starts of 2018 — the Grade 3 La Prevoyante in late January and Grade 3 The Very One Stakes on March 3 – she finished unplaced.

Still, the Soaring Softly appeared to be right in Summersault’s wheelhouse. She had won three of eight starts at this venue and successfully navigated the 1 3/8-mile distance once before. Also in her corner, was a jockey switch to John Velazquez, who had not ridden the mare since a trio of starts in early 2015.

Biding her time through three-quarters of a mile, Summersault loped along in fifth position hugging the rail. Up front, early leader No Sweat yielded the top spot on the backstretch to an eager Empressof the Nile.

Asked for more in the far turn, Summersault came off the fence and spun into the lane three-wide while advancing into third.

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Coglianese Photo/Lauren King

Rallying in the clear, Summersault gained second with a furlong to go, bore down on Empressof the Nile and swept past her rival in the final sixteenth. She crossed the finish line a 1 1/2-length winner on cruise control.

Empressof the Nile checked in second, while longshot Shezaprado collected the show. The final time for the race over the firm turf course was 2:13.05.

Before the race trainer Mark Hennig was optimistic about Summersault’s chances, telling the DRF that she was “training better now than she has in months.”

Following the win, Hennig sounded ecstatic. “I love this filly. I was glad to see her back on the board, especially here because she likes it here. It seems like she’s taken a little more time to come around this year.”

Summersault, whose record now stands at seven wins, six seconds and three thirds from 31 starts, with $488,943 in earnings, took a while to get her career rolling. She broke her maiden at ninth asking at Saratoga in 2015 but followed up with an allowance victory in her next start. Over time, she marched steadily through her state-bred and open allowance conditions and in only her second stakes try, she won the Grade 3 Orchid.

Foaled at Cedar Ridge Farm in Pine Plains, Summersault is one of four winners from five foals to start out of Saratoga Summer, a placed Kentucky-bred turf runner by Smart Strike. Saratoga Summer last changed hands via public auction in 2009 when purchased by McMahon Bloodstock for $67,000 at the Keeneland November sale. Saratoga Summer has an unnamed juvenile filly by Mineshaft and was bred to Air Force Blue in 2017.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/03/30/summersault-soaring-softly/

Split Time takes the prize in Maddie May

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NYRA/Joe Labozzetta

By Sarah Mace

Tic Stables’ Split Time (Take Charge Indy) made her stakes debut a winning one at Aqueduct on Saturday when she overcame a tricky trip to win the one-mile, $100,000 Maddie May Stakes for New York-bred sophomore fillies by a half-length.

A solid runner-up in a sprint debut at Aqueduct on December 6, the Linda Rice-trainee stretched out to a mile in her next two starts, winning the pair by a combined 11 1/2 lengths from just off the pace. On January 18 she beat state-bred maidens and on February 16 got the better of first-level state-bred allowance runners. Bet down to even money Saturday, Split Time had the services of jockey Junior Alvarado, who piloted her to both victories.

Following a good start, Split Time settled in fourth in the pocket along the backstretch, while Under Suspicion pressed by Breezy Gal carved out early fractions of 23.45 and 46.97. Our Super Nova raced on even terms with Split Time.

Once the field rounded the far turn and the first six furlongs ticked by in 1:12.83, Split Time and Alvarado were still penned in at the fence and would soon be in need of running room.

With the rail route proving too narrow after brief window of opportunity opened in upper stretch, and Our Super Nova on her way to overhauling pacesetter two-wide, Alvarado had to guide Split Time multiple paths off the fence to get to the outside of both main rivals.

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NYRA/Chelsea Durand

In the clear in late stretch, Split Time set her sights on new leader Our Super Nova and ran her rival down in the final jumps to score a nifty half-length victory in a final time of 1:38.50. [VIDEO REPLAY[3]]

Our Super Nova in second finished 3 1/2 lengths in advance of Cause We are Loyal, who closed from last into third, leaving Under Suspicion to settle for forth. Breezy Gal, also from the Rice barn, completed the order of finish.

“It was an interesting trip,” commented Rice. “Split Time is very tactical and I thought she has more natural speed than [my other filly Breezy Gal]. I just told them whoever breaks well needs to take it and the other needs to sit off of it and settle. Split Time unfortunately was kind of in an uncomfortable spot the entire race and I was happy she finally wheeled to the outside and got up.”

Alvarado also commented on having to resort to “Plan B.” “Coming into the race, my plan was to follow Dylan [Davis] aboard [Breezy Gal] but when he didn’t initially send her, the plan had to change. By the five-sixteenths pole I was still a half-length inside and I didn’t see him move, so I had to wait a little bit longer than I wanted. It got more complicated than I would have liked, but I was still able to make another move and she was just so much the best.”

Split Time was purchased by Rice from the Sequel consignment for $62,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale. From three wins and a second, she has already earned $138,200, and her conditioner is high on the filly’s prospects.

“[Split Time]’s a nice filly. We bought her as a yearling in Saratoga and she’s won three in a row now, so we’re really excited. She had some great, easy trips in her two previous wins. Today, I was pretty impressed with her grittiness. She had a difficult trip the entire race and was never in a comfortable spot, but she managed to swing out and kick home.”

Alvarado, who has come to know Split Time pretty well by now, echoed the sentiments. “She has the class. She didn’t get the best of trips but she still showed how good she is to overcome it. In the late stretch, [Super Nova] started drifting but she was just running her race. It wasn’t anything drastic. It just made things interesting for a little while until my filly really geared down. The only difference is I had the best horse. She’s an amazing filly. Ever since Linda stretched her out to a mile, it seems like the distance suits her perfectly.”

Bred by Sequel Stallions New York LLC and foaled at Sequel’s farm in Hudson, Split Time comes from a productive New York-bred family. Her winning dam Speed Dating, out of Near and Dear, is a half-sister to multiple stakes winner and $693,500-earner Saratoga Snacks. Speed Dating has an unnamed 2-year-old Alpha colt, a yearling Freud filly named Afreud of a Strorm and was bred back to the same stallion in 2017.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/03/24/split-time-maddie-may/