Funny Guy keeps Big Brown hot in John Morrissey

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog/The Saratoga Special

Consistent New York-bred stakes winner Funny Guy continued Big Brown’s successful week at Saratoga Race Course Thursday when providing him a John Morrissey Handicap victory.

Coming four days after Somelikeithotbrown won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap for the Irish Hills Century-Duchess Views Stallions-based sire, Funny Guy went off as the second choice in the 7-furlong Morrissey. An early leader out of the gate, Funny Guy yielded by a length to odds-on favorite Amundson shortly after they left the chute and settled in second. Racing a few paths off the rail, Funny Guy was attended by T Loves A Fight as Amundson continued his pace-setting duties by nearly a length until midway through the far turn.

With the half run in :46.29, Funny Guy moved up to challenge the frontrunner for the lead. Amundson put up a good fight but yielded just outside the final furlong as Funny Guy made it clear his victory would be no joke.

The 4-year-old colt was left alone by Joel Rosario as he pulled away from the field and won by a wrapped up 2 lengths over T Loves a Fight with My Boy Tate in third.

Trained by John Terranova II for Gatsas Stables, R.A. Hill Stable and Swick Stable, Funny Guy is the second stakes winner in two days for Rosario. It was also the second straight stakes victory for Funny Guy, who beat Grade 1 Whitney runner Mr. Buff last time out in the Commentator.

“It surprised me a little bit that he jumped out to the lead, but he’s a good colt,” said Terranova. “He’s versatile. He’s won at different distances and won on both surfaces and seems to handle any kind of track. Shortening up to seven-eighths was fine. He’s fresh still. He’s been really sharp since the Commentator.

“That was a big race off a long layoff, and he ran like he’s been training. He’s really stepped up as a 4-year-old, gotten a lot stronger, and he’s just got gears. He can turn it on, turn it off, whenever you need him and he’ll wait. He’ll do anything. He’s real kind for a jock to ride and he’s got a lot of heart.”

Funny Guy’s connections wavered between going to the John Morrissey and Saturday’s Whitney, and Terranova said open company is on the radar.

“I know this colt can win open company,” he said. “He’s got a race with his name on it somewhere. I just didn’t want to jump into it too soon. He’s a fresh horse this year, we’ve got the fall and hopefully we continue racing and everything goes well and there will be some spots with him. Distance-wise, he’ll turn it on or turn it off. He’ll do whatever. There’s a big one down the road for him, hopefully.”

Out of five-time stakes winner Heavenly Humor, Funny Guy is one of two stakes winners and eight winners from eight to race out of his dam. Also the dam of last season’s Bertram F. Bongard Stakes second Three Jokers, Heavenly Humor had a New York-bred Overanalyze filly last year and was bred to Hard Spun this season.

Heavenly Humor is herself out of stakes-placed Call From Heaven, who is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Heavenly Ade and granddam of Grade 3 winner Devil’s Honor with Heavenly Humor’s fourth dam top broodmare and Group 1 Epsom Oaks runner-up Monsoon.

Bred by Hibiscus Stable, Funny Guy was in utero when his breeder bought Heavenly Humor for $25,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga fall mixed sale. Funny Guy was sold for $10,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale then pinhooked for $45,000 at the OBS April 2-year-olds in training sale when purchased by Gatsas Thoroughbreds.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/31/funny-guy-keeps-big-brown-hot-in-john-morrissey/

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Mr. Buff aims high in Grade 1 Whitney

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog/The Saratoga Special

Mr. Buff will attempt to make history as only the fourth New York-bred to win Grade 1 Whitney when he takes on four opponents Saturday at Saratoga Race Course as the longest shot in the field if the morning line holds true.

An impressive winner in three straight New York-bred races over the winter, 12-1 shot Mr. Buff will be trying to prove his doubters wrong nearly a month after he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park.

Trainer John Kimmel admits that Mr. Buff might give people pause, but he’s confident that the 6-year-old gelding will take to Saratoga the way he handled Aqueduct’s surface over the winter. That could be a scary thought to rivals, with Mr. Buff winning three starts by a combined 32 1/2 lengths, including a 20-length romp in February’s Haynesfield Stakes.

“We’ve got a racetrack here now with the crushed stone base that’s very similar to the Aqueduct track, where he’s been phenomenal,” Kimmel said. “The other thing is, there are no more New York-bred races this year so basically this horse was going to be sitting on the fence for the whole summer unless we ran in this race. He’s out of conditions, obviously. The horse is a very good horse and someday, maybe just like Bar of Gold, they show up on the right day at the right time and knock the hell out of the odds.”

Kimmel and Mr. Buff’s owners and breeders Chester and Mary Broman aren’t strangers to upsetting big race with the trio winning the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Bar of Gold at odds of nearly 67-1.

Kimmel said it makes sense to give the Whitney a try since the gelding had an excuse for his Suburban defeat and looks to stack up well against the competition.

“This horse in his last race actually had a little bone bruise in his foot,” Kimmel said. “We went into it thinking he was OK, but I definitely think it bothered him. The blacksmith after that race cut out a little area and he had a little area of blood and some damage and since we have re-shod him, he has been a very happy horse here. People might look at his last race and just kind of think that he’s a little bit off form. But this horse has run commensurate numbers with all the horses in this race when he’s been running against New York-bred company.”

If Mr. Buff can spring the upset Saturday, he’ll be the second New York-bred in three years to visit the Whitney winner’s circle after Diversify in 2018. The other New York-bred Whitney winners were Commentator in 2005 and 2008 and legendary Finger Lakes shipper Fio Rito in 1981.

A third generation homebred on the male line for Chester and Mary Broman, Mr. Buff is by the Broman’s multiple stakes winning homebred Friend or Foe, who is by the Broman’s homebred and Florida winner winner Friends Lake.

Mr. Buff’s dam Speightful Affair is a graded stakes-placed Ontario-bred by Speightstown, who was purchased by the Bromans for $80,000 at the Fasig-Tipton 2013 winter mixed sale.

In 2018 Speightful Affair produced a full sister to Mr. Buff named Miss Buff. With no surviving foal in 2019, she produced a colt by Accelerate April 25 at the Broman’s Chestertown Farm in Chestertown.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/29/mr-buff-aims-high-in-grade-1-whitney/

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Somelikeithotbrown adds another resume highlight

Melissa Bauer-Herzog/The Saratoga Special

Since breaking his maiden at Saratoga Race Course as a 2-year-old, Somelikeithotbrown has proven to be one of the most consistent horses in training.

A Kentucky Derby prep winner and New York-bred champion 3-year-old last year has already put together a resume most could only dream of and Sunday he added to it with a victory in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga.

Third last time out behind Instilled Regard in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy at Belmont Park, Somelikeithotbrown showed that he deserved another chance at this level and his connections obliged.

In his first run at Saratoga since finishing second over this same turf course and distance in the Grade 3 With Anticipation as a 2-year-old, Somelikeithotbrown went straight to the lead and never looked back. Racing in distinctive orange blinkers, he opened a length lead going around the clubhouse turn with Halladay the closest threat.

Somelikeithotbrown pulled away down the backstretch to add another half-length to his margin on Halladay but that lead shrunk as they went into the far turn with a challenge. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione started scrubbing on the 4-year-old as they raced down the stretch and Somelikeithotbrown responded, opening back up on the field. A few rivals looked to threaten but Somelikeithotbrown put that to rest in the final sixteenth and won in 1:41.32.

“I was a little surprised down the backside when I was all by myself,” Gaffalione said. “I thought there would be a little more pressure, but I was happy with where I was and how he was running. All the credit to Mike [Maker, trainer] and his team, they had him ready. Every time I reached back and threw a cross and when I got into him a little bit, he kept on responding and giving me more, so I was pretty confident coming to the wire.”

From the first New York-sired crop of dual classic winner Big Brown, Somelikeithotbrown broke the $500,000 mark with the victory taking his earnings to $546,838. Now a three-time stakes winner with five wins and five other top three finishes overall in 13 starts, he races for Skychai Racing and David Koenig.

Bred by Hot Pink Stables and Sand Dollar Stables, Somelikeithotbrown is also a half-brother to Mission Impazible’s stakes-placed Jolting Joe. Foaled at Sequel Stallions New York, Somelikeithotbrown is out of the Tapit mare Marilyn Monroan, who raced for Hot Pink Stable, Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable in her eight-start career. Purchased for $255,000 as a weanling in 2010, Marilyn Monroan is from the family of champions Stevie Wonderboy and Big Blue Kitten.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/27/somelikeithotbrown-adds-another-resume-highlight/

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Fresco keeps Clement barn clicking in NYSS

By Tom Law

How well are things going for Christophe Clement these days at Saratoga Race Course?

So well he’s winning stakes with maidens.

Well, truth be told, Fresco was no ordinary maiden heading into Thursday’s Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Series but just the same, winning a $100,000 restricted stakes with a winless and lightly raced filly is nothing to dismiss.

Fresco, a 3-year-old daughter of Freud and full sister to multiple stakes winner Therapist, played a part in keeping Clement’s barn clicking early into the 2020 Saratoga meet with a 1 ¾-length victory over Dixie Cannon in the Statue of Liberty. A homebred for Dick Leahy’s Oak Bluff Stables, Fresco won the 1 1/16-mile event in 1:45.43 over the course listed firm but with some cut thanks to rain Wednesday and Thursday morning in upstate New York.

Fresco provided Clement with the middle victory of a three-win day. He also won the third, a 2-year-old maiden on the grass, with first-time starter Plum Ali and sixth, a 1-mile turf allowance, with Simplicity. Clement leads the trainer standings after six days with nine wins, one more than Chad Brown.

“It’s fun,” Clement said after Fresco’s maiden-breaking score. “She broke her maiden in the stakes for her owner-breeder. She has black-type so it works for the whole program.

“Usually the owner will sell his colts and keep his fillies and he has been very successful with a small broodmare band. He bred Audible, he bred Therapist and he bred this filly and I’m just lucky to be a part of the program.”

Clement sold himself a bit short actually as he co-bred Therapist, who remains in training and has eight wins in 17 starts and $534,345 in earnings. Winner of the First Defence Stakes against open company last time out at Belmont, Therapist also won the Cab Calloway division of the New York Stallion Series in 2018 and five other stakes.

Clement wasn’t alone in enjoying a strong run on a humid and typical late July afternoon at Saratoga. Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode Fresco to victory, won five races on the card to get right back into the leading rider mix heading into Friday’s card.

Foaled at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, Fresco is the third winner out of the Smart Strike mare Lady Renaissance. Leahy bought Lady Renaissance for $15,000 at the 2009 Keeneland November breeding stock sale and later resold her at the 2018 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale for $52,000. In addition to Fresco and Therapist, Lady Renaissance is the dam of the winning-Gio Ponti mare Gio’s Lady.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/23/fresco-keeps-clement-barn-clicking-in-nyss/

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Cross Border dominates inaugural Lubash

By Tom Law

Facing just three opponents aboard a mount perfect at Saratoga and just beaten in Grade 1 company, Jose Ortiz knew exactly what to do in Wednesday’s inaugural running of the $85,000 Lubash Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

“I just wanted to ride him like he was much the best,” Ortiz said minutes after Cross Border proved just that, dismantling the field and winning his first stakes in the process.

Cross Border, fifth in the Grade 1 Manhattan last time out and close in three other graded stakes the last two seasons, won by 6 ¼ lengths for Ortiz, trainer Mike Maker and owner Three Diamonds Farm.

The 6-year-old English Channel ridgling won for the first time four starts this season in the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for New York-breds and improved to 4-for-4 at Saratoga. Named for the two-time New York-bred champion turf male who won two editions of the West Point Stakes at Saratoga, the Lubash opened the state-bred or sired stakes program at Saratoga that continues Thursday with the Statue of Liberty division of the New York Stallion Series and runs through Saratoga Showcase Day Friday, Sept. 4.

Cross Border, co-bred by Berkshire Stud and B. D. Gibbs, could wind up on the latter program in the West Point on the same course or make a return to graded company.

“It could be against New York-breds or it could be the Sword Dancer (Saturday, Aug. 29) but it will be something up here,” Maker said. “He’s run very well up here last year and started off well here this year.”

Maker said he’d prefer something like the Sword Dancer at 12 furlongs because of Cross Border’s affinity for marathon trips. He didn’t need any extra ground in the Lubash.

Cross Border came out a bit from his inside post at the start, bumped with The J Y before Ortiz let him settle into third past the empty Saratoga stand and into the clubhouse turn. Blewitt set the pace in his first start on grass, taking the field through splits of :25.48, :48.95 and 1:12.49 over the firm ground that took a little moisture overnight and in the morning Thursday.

Ortiz tipped out around the far turn, gained ground and rolled past Blewitt in the lane. They extended the lead in deep stretch while Rapt made steady progress well out into the middle of course to nip Blewitt on the wire for the place spot. The J Y finished fourth. Cross Border won in 1:41.75.

The runner-up improved on his third in a $40,000 claiming race last time in his second start of the year.

“That’s why we were here, to run for second,” trainer Robert Ribaudo said, acknowledging the expected tall order against Cross Border.

Foaled at Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, Cross Border is out of the unraced Empire Maker mare Empress Josephine. Co-bred by Berkshire Stud, Empress Josephine produced two other foals – the 7-year-old winning Flatter mare Votre Coeur and the unraced 5-year-old Blame mare Blame Me Forever.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/22/cross-border-dominates-inaugural-lubash/

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Inaugural Lubash Stakes honors NY-bred champion

By Tom Law

Michael Blowen thought he had Christophe Clement over the proverbial barrel when he bumped into him one day at Saratoga Race Course a few years back.

“Hey, how come every time we get a horse that you trained they’re always so grouchy?” the founder and head of Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., said to Clement.

Not so fast Blowen.

“The reason is because they leave the great trainer and they have to go live with you,” Clement shot back, triggering Blowen’s signature deep laugh and wide smile.

The horse Blowen specifically referred to was Lubash, honored today with the first running of an $85,000 stakes for New York-breds on the grass.

“That was funny, no doubt,” Blowen said Tuesday in between chores at Old Friends. “I’m so excited for the race tomorrow. It’s great they have a race named for him.

The Lubash, goes as the third race on Wednesday’s 10-race card with a post time of 1:54 p.m. EDT, drew a field of six led by heavy favorite Cross Border and includes a main track only runner in Yankee Division.

The 1 1/16-mile turf event honors the two-time winner of Saratoga’s West Point Handicap who competed for significant chunks of his career against fellow New York-breds King Kreesa and Kharafa. Lubash won the 2015 West Point at the immediate expense of King Kreesa, after losing to that foe the year before by a head. Lubash topped Kharafa in the 2015 Kingston Stakes at Belmont after Kharafa got the better of his rival a few months before in the 2014 Mohawk Stakes at Belmont.

We could go on and on. And now the three are together again, albeit about 800 miles from Saratoga.

“We have all three of them here, King Kreesa, Kharafa and Lubash,” Blowen said. “King Kreesa and Kharafa are best buds. Nobody gets along with Lubash. Nobody.”

Lubash, who Clement says is one of the favorite horses he’s trained, is notoriously picky. Whether it’s people, field mates, treats, anything, there’s no denying the now 13-year-old son of Freud’s tendencies.

“We try everything,” Blowen said. “We treat him like a stallion, he has to be by himself. He’s cute, but he’s very bossy. He doesn’t want to be fooled with. I put it to the tour groups, ‘Look, he doesn’t want to have roommates he just wants to have neighbors.’

“But he’s gorgeous and acts like a 3-year-old. He’s full of energy all the time. He likes to run around, keep active. Most of the other ones after they retire they settle in pretty good and just chill out. Not Lubash.”

Bred and owned by Leonard Pivnick’s Aliyu Ben J Stables, Lubash earned champion New York-bred turf male honors in 2014 and 2015. Pivnick named Lubash in honor of his childhood friend and the late respected New York Times journalist Arnold Lubasch (even though there’s a spelling error).

Lubasch the journalist covered crime at the Times for more than 30 years, writing about everything from the murder and racketeering trial of Gambino family boss John Gotti to a biography of actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. Lubasch died at age 83 in 2016, Pivnick followed at 81 in 2018 (after cheering Lubash the horse home for eight seasons).

In addition to his New York-bred championships Lubash the horse won 18 races with nine seconds and seven thirds in 54 starts to earn $1,515,139 for trainers Clement and Jim Ryerson. He won 12 stakes at ages 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, including the Grade 3 Tropical Turf Handicap as a 7- and 9-year-old and the Grade 3 Fort Marcy as a 6-year-old.

Three Diamond Farm’s Cross Border returns to the state-bred ranks for the first time since last year’s Saratoga meet for the Lubash.

The 6-year-old English Channel ridgling finished fifth, beaten just a length by Instilled Regard, in the Grade 1 Manhattan at Belmont July 4. He won each of his three starts last summer at Saratoga – July 19 at 1 1/16 miles and Aug. 11 and 29 at 1 1/8 miles.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/07/21/inaugural-lubash-stakes-honors-ny-bred-champion/

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