Black Tide aces Ashley Cole at 28-1 doing what he does best

By Sarah Mace

There aren’t many horses in training who are more fun to watch than Ivery Sisters Racing’s Black Tide (Hold Me Back). Win, lose or draw, his take-no-prisoners approach to racing is always a thrill. Just ask his trainer Dave Cannizzo. “I think he’s one of the coolest horses I’ve ever trained and one of the best horses I’ve ever trained,” Cannizzo said Sunday afternoon. “The stuff he does is insane. The feelings you get watching him are scary.”

The cause for celebration for Team Cannizzo Sunday was Black Tide’s second career stakes score: a wire-to-wire victory the 43rd running of the Ashley T. Cole for New York-breds going 1 1/8 miles on the inner turf course.

Black Tide had not visited the winner’s circle since last October 21, when he opened up daylight in the Mohawk Stakes on Empire Showcase Day and never looked back, holding on to win by 1 1/4 lengths and post a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96.

Black Tide’s tactics are no mystery. His best weapon is speed, and his trainer is not shy about telling regular jockey Jose Lezcano to use it. This approach, obviously, can be hit or miss. Once overtaken, the free-wheeling runner can end up out of the money. Cannizzo has spotted the 6-year-old confidently in all four starts this year: a pair of high-priced open allowance/optional claiming races, the Grade 3 Poker and Saratoga’s West Point Stakes. Each time he has challenged the field to catch him if they can, and so far this season they have succeeded, with his best finish being a fourth in his seasonal debut on May 11.

Cannizzo commented on some of the factors at play thus far in Black Tide’s 2018 campaign and the reasons the trainer feels, “He’s finally back to his old self.”

“He got some soft turfs,” Cannizzo said. “At Saratoga, he just wasn’t himself all meet. He was just wild in his stall. He’s finally back to [being] himself. You have to get him so fit to do what he wants to do. I probably gave him too long off; I sent him to Ocala and gave him three months off. To bring him back in these races, he was nowhere near ready. He runs all out the whole race, so he’s finally tight.”

Black Tide broke alertly under regular rider Jose Lezcano, as is his custom, but had to deal with some early company in front in the form of 70-1 Winston’s Chance, who pressed the pace through an opening quarter in 23.92.

After shrugging off that rival for good, Black Tide put four lengths between himself and nearest foe Hit It Once More, who was positioning himself to get first run on the pacesetter as the half and three-quarters ticked by in 47.81 and 1:12.07.

Maneuvering out into the five-path at the head of the lane, Black Tide showed no signs of tiring as the cavalry charge closed ranks behind him. In the end, victory was never in doubt, as the dark bay hit the finish line full of run with 1 1/4 lengths to spare.

Offering Plan (5-2) closed from well out of it to finish second. A half-length back the next six horses finished just 1 1/4 lengths apart: Gucci Factor (4-1), Call Provision (2-1), Red Knight and the venerable Kharafa, 9-year-old winner of the West Point in his previous start.

Completing the order of finish were Tapitation, Rapt, Winston’s Chance, Hit It Once More and Leaveematthegate. The final time for the 1 1/8 miles over the “good” inner turf course. was 1:48.09. [VIDEO REPLAY[3]]

Lezcano said, “I liked today that the speed on the grass was kind of holding and I wanted to be there. He broke good and put me there. I got very good fractions and when I asked him, he clearly responded and went on. From the three-eighths to the wire, I felt really confident. I knew I had plenty of horse under me. I just had to ask a little bit and he was gone.”

As to sticking to the same game plan with Black Tide in every start, Cannizzo explained, “I don’t think distance is that big of a problem. It’s just letting him do his own thing. We got to the point where Jose started trying to get him to rate a little bit and try and finish. He’s not going to beat horses doing that because the real closers will outkick him late. He needs to beat them by emptying out. He did that today and it worked.”

The conditioner hopes Black Tide can wrap up the year with a repeat in the $200,000 Mohawk Stakes on October 20, Empire Showcase Day.

Bred by Snow Lantern Thoroughbreds and foaled at the former Highcliff Farm in Delanson, Black Tide is one of four winners from four foals to start out of Turn the Tide, an unraced Theatrical (IRE) mare. Turn the Tide’s second foal Avanzare won a pair of Grade 2 turf stakes on the west coast and earned $536,705. The mare has a juvenile filly by Stormy Atlantic named Tide Storm, who has not yet started and a weanling filly by Triple Crown champion American Pharoah.

Black Tide, whose record stands at eight wins, six seconds and five thirds in 40 starts with $535,220 in earnings, first sold for $30,000 to Thoroughbred Management at the 2013 OBS Yearling sale. He was purchased the following year at the OBS spring 2-year-old sale by McMahon & Hill Bloodstock for $50,000.

 

 

 

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/09/23/black-tide-aces-ashley-cole/

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Fifty Five posts confident victory in John Hettinger Stakes

By Sarah Mace

After just missing wins in the first two races of this year’s NYRA stakes series for New York-bred turf fillies and mares, Fifty Five gave the field of the $125,000, 1 1/8-mile John Hettinger Stakes a tutorial at Belmont Park on Sunday scoring a decisive victory from off the pace piloted by a supremely confident Javier Castellano.

A graded stakes-winning 4-year-old daughter of Get Stormy, Fifty Five has been remarkably consistent throughout her career, finishing in the money in 13 of 14 prior starts. Winner of the Grade 2 Florida Oaks and Ticonderoga Stakes for state-breds at three, Fifty Five came into the Hettinger with four starts under her belt in 2018. She put in a characteristically strong effort each time, but only managed to get her picture taken once.

Second by one length in Aqueduct’s open Plenty of Grace Stakes in April to Uni, winner of Saturday’s Grade 3 Noble Damsel at Belmont, Fifty Five fell a neck short in the Mount Vernon to Feeling Bossy, who was also in the Hettinger field. Fifty Five then won an open allowance at Belmont on July 15, but at Saratoga on August 24 had to settle for neck-loss, when she finished third in a blanket finish in the Yaddo stakes, beaten by the talented La Moneda and Lady Joan. The speedy Lady Joan was drawn at the rail for the Hettinger.

Unhurried after breaking from post seven, Fifty Five tracked in sixth, five lengths off the pace through the first turn and up the backstretch. Up front Lady Joan battled for the lead from her rail post with Conquest Hardcandy who crossed over from the outside post and was, no doubt, unwelcome company. The early splits were slow over the “good” inner turf: 24.59 and 49.96.

Gearing up to make a sweeping move in the far turn, Fifty Five passed rivals, spun six-wide into the stretch and did what she does best – unleashed her patented (and devastating) late kick. Blowing past rivals with apparent ease and gaining the front with a furlong to go, Fifty Five was able to call it “mission accomplished” with a 2-length victory at the wire.

After six furlongs in 1:14.09 and a mile in 1:37.24, the final time for the 9-furlong Hettinger, after Fifty Five’s final panel in 11.74, was 1:48.98. [VIDEO REPLAY[3]]

Javier Castellano was ebullient (“What a horse! She’s special!”) and spelled out why he seemed so confident in the irons.

“I believed that [Fifty Five] was the best horse in the race,” Castellano said. “I didn’t have the best post and I didn’t have the best trip, to be honest, but I rode her like she was the best horse in there. I took my time with her, tried to be patient, and, turning for home, I got the jump on everybody. I wanted to move outside and kick clear and that’s exactly what she did.”

Addressing the challenge of the show early splits, Castellano said, “There was a lot of speed in the race, but they were walking too. There were four horses [with speed], so I knew I was going to be mid-pack, that’s her style, but I didn’t expect them to be walking like they did. I even lost some ground at one point. She was very impressive, finishing the way she did today.”

Trainer Chad Brown also commented on the race dynamics. “It was a bit of a tough trip. She was really much the best today. I was really impressed with her race. She just had a wide trip off a slow pace. I was quite concerned. I figured she was going to have to be much the best today watching the race unfold, and she certainly was.”

Continued Brown, “I’m extremely impressed with her effort. Probably the worst trip you can have in a turf race, wide with no pace through no fault of Javier, and for her to still prevail, it was a monumental effort.”

Brown plans to start Fifty Five once more this year in state-bred company, and, perhaps return to open company next year.

Bred by John and Sandy Crowe’s Empire Equines and foaled at Berkshire Stud[4] in Pine Plains, Fifty Five is one of two winners out of Empire’s homebred mare Soave. Soave was by Brahms out of New York-bred Cozzene mare Cozzekiki.

Fifty Five RNA’d for $24,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sales only to emerge as Get Stormy’s first stakes winner when she won the Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs. Brant purchased the filly privately from Empire Equines’ John Crowe after the Florida Oaks coup. She now sports a record of six wins, three seconds and five thirds from 15 starts with $545,788 in earnings.

 

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2018/09/23/fifty-five-hettinger/

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