Simply Ravishing rolls in Grade 1 Alcibiades

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Simply Ravishing and her connections celebrate Grade 1 victory Friday in Darley Alcibiades. Keeneland Photo.

By Tom Law

When Kenny McPeek likes one he’ll let you, or anyone, know about it.

He liked Simply Ravishing, a New York-bred daughter of New York-based freshman sire Laoban, well before she made her debut at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 2. She won that day going 1 1/16 miles on the turf, on McPeek’s 58th birthday in a race the trainer picked out not because he felt Simply Ravishing was better on grass but because he could run her longer than the one-turn sprint maiden races on offer at Saratoga. He liked her that day, when she won at 14-1, and again a month later when she became her sire’s first stakes winner winning the off-the-turf P. G. Johnson Stakes at 5-2.

Heading into the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades on Opening Day at Keeneland Friday afternoon, yes, you guessed it, McPeek liked her again even pitted against stablemates Crazy Beautiful and Oliviaofthedesert.

“This is a really high-level talented filly,” McPeek said before the 1 1/16-mile stakes that offers an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies as a ‘Win And You’re In’ race. “She’s been really impressive. She has worked exceptionally fast at Churchill and I’m excited about her chances.”

Simply Ravishing lived up to the billing, earned the Juvenile Fillies berth and perhaps even the favorite’s role and kept Sequel Stallions’ Laoban on a roll in his first season.

The 2-year-old filly bred by Meg Levy out of a mare she bought for $500 became Laoban’s first graded stakes winner in the $350,000 Alcibiades. Laoban, a Grade 2 winner by Uncle Mo who stands for $5,000, started the day ranked 15th on the North American freshman sire list and the $210,000 earned by Simply Ravishing helped vault him clearly into the top 10.

Simply Ravishing, who led from the start in the Alcibiades, gave McPeek his fifth win in Keeneland’s signature 2-year-old filly stakes. He now trails only Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas by just one victory on the all-time list.

Simply Ravishing dominated the field, winning by 6 ¼ lengths under Luis Saez over 2-1 favorite Crazy Beautiful with Travel Column another 1 ¼ lengths back in third.  Now 3-for-3 with a bankroll of $304,600 for owners Harold Lerner, Sherri McPeek’s Magdalena Racing and Nehoc Stables, Simply Ravishing won in 1:43.58.

“They are both really special fillies. I kind of hated to run them against each other, but it is a race we are obviously fond of and we felt like we had a heck of a chance with both of them in there,” McPeek said. “We will probably go to the Breeders’ Cup with both of them. I told (D. Wayne) Lukas a long time ago that I would win more Alcibiades than him.”

Saez rode Simply Ravishing in her debut and the P. G. Johnson and didn’t hesitate to make the trip to Lexington from New York to ride the $50,000 buy at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. He came away impressed, at the filly’s ability to break well, cruise and kick on in the lane.

“I knew two very fast horses were inside,” Saez said of Grade 2 Adirondack winner Thoughtfully and Churchill maiden winner Travel Column. “(I thought) let’s break from there and see what they’re doing. She breaks so sharp; she was right there. It was easy. … She was traveling pretty good. I felt like I had a lot of horse all the way. When we came to the straight, she just took off. She did it pretty easy, like normal. Like nothing. It was amazing. She’s a very good filly.”

Levy, who runs Bluewater Sales with her husband Michael, bought Four Wishes for $500 in 2017 after the mare was abandoned at a boarding facility.

“It was on my birthday in February and we were driving over to the Fasig-Tipton February sale,” Meg Levy said after Simply Ravishing’s maiden victory. “Someone called me and said ‘there’s a mare by More Than Ready that is in a bad place, she’s been abandoned and the boarding farm is just trying to sell her for whatever they can get.’ I asked what her name was and they said ‘Four Wishes’ and I thought ‘Oh my gosh, how can I resist stopping by to see a mare named Four Wishes on my birthday?’ I arrived and she was pretty thin and something just told me that she deserved a better place so I gave the guy $500 and we picked her up.”

Levy felt the opportunity to participate in the New York-bred program would help the mare, in foal at the time to Revolutionary, so she shipped her to the Empire State to be foal and later be bred to Laoban.

“I have felt that the weanlings and the yearlings in the last few years being New York-bred has made them 20 percent more valuable so that was the decision,” she said. “She came out with a great looking baby that we got lucky with. (Simply Ravishing) was supposed to go to the New York-bred sale in Saratoga and when the staff went to load her on the van, she kicked the wall so hard she cracked her foot so she couldn’t ship and had to go to the October sale.

“It was great that Kenny was around to buy her because where they go is obviously very important. We were pleasantly surprised. Kenny had been sending us some videos over the last couple of the days before the race and I thought to myself ‘he isn’t sending videos because he doesn’t like her.’ ”

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/02/simply-ravishing-rolls-in-grade-1-alcibiades/

Hold the Salsa digs in to win Bongard

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Hold the Salsa, back on favorable ground at Belmont, wins Bertram F. Bongard for owner-breeder-trainer Richard Lugovich. NYRA Photo.

By Tom Law

Richard Lugovich couldn’t wait to get Hold the Salsa back to Belmont Park.

The 2-year-old son of Hold Me Back broke his maiden on “Big Sandy,” at 26-1 in his debut back in July, to earn a couple trips north for stakes at Saratoga Race Course. Hold the Salsa didn’t fare as well upstate, finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and a decent fifth in the Funny Cide Stakes on the Saratoga Showcase Day card.

Lugovich, who trains out of the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, regrouped after those races and set his sights back to Belmont and Friday’s $100,000 Bertram F. Bongard Stakes. Hold the Salsa backed up his owner-trainer-breeder’s confidence in the 7-furlong Bongard, taking advantage of a well-timed ride from Junior Alvarado to beat a field that included two who finished ahead of him in the Funny Cide.

“To tell you the truth I thought he was going to win,” Lugovich said Friday from his home in Hershey, Pa. “I don’t think he particularly liked Saratoga. The track was too fast for him. He won at Belmont before and it’s just a different surface.

“Look at how things went. Rudy’s horse (4-5 favorite and eventual fifth-place finisher Eagle Orb) that was the favorite, he ran fast at Saratoga but couldn’t run that fast there. It’s just a different surface and my horse likes it.”

Junior Alvarado rode Hold the Salsa when he finished 4 ½ lengths behind Thin White Duke in the Funny Cide. He kept the colt third behind a tepid duel between Saratoga debut off-the-turf maiden winner Half Right and Lookin For Trouble before edging past that duo in the lane.

Lookin for Trouble, third and just a length behind Eagle Orb in the Funny Cide , finished second while Delaware Park maiden winner Brooklyn Strong finished third Hold the Salsa won in 1:24.54.

“I thought he was going to run good here,” Alvarado said. “He put in a good run here at Belmont first out. He’s a big horse for a 2-year-old and I thought the track would favor him today. He broke good and we tried to stalk 3 or 4 lengths behind, but all of a sudden, they started coming back to me and slowed it down a little too much.”

Lugovich bred Hold the Salsa out of his unraced homebred now 11-year-old King Cugat mare Northern Mambo. He’s a third generation homebred for Lugovich, who bought the four-time-winning Kick mare Northern Nymph, in foal to Four Seasons, for $2,700 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale in 1997.

Northern Nymph produced Northern Sprite on that cover in 1998. She only made one start, finishing 10th in a maiden race at Belmont in 2002 as a 4-year-old, before joining Lugovich’s broodmare band at Northway Farm in Stillwater, N.Y. Northern Mambo, the dam of Hold the Salsa, was born at Northway in 2009.

“We’re just over the Saratoga line, close to Joe McMahon’s. He’s a good friend of mine,” Lugovich said. “We’ve had some good horses come off the farm. Copper Chalice (a maiden winner for Lugovich at 74-1 June 5 at Belmont), that’s my son’s horse. Mambonick, he finished fourth going a mile on the grass the other day (Sept. 26 at Belmont). They were all born there.”

Lugovich also bred, foaled and raised Gregorian Gold at his farm just outside Saratoga. The now 7-year-old Touch Gold mare finished second in her debut late in the 2015 Saratoga meeting before winning the Lady Finger Stakes at Finger Lakes during her 2-year-old season.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/02/hold-the-salsa-digs-in-to-win-bongard/

New York-breds prominent in weekend stakes

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Step Dancer, who led a 1-2 finish for his New York-based sire War Dancer at Saratoga, steps into graded company for Saturday’s Pilgrim Stakes. NYRA Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Breeders, owners, horsemen and fans planning a weekend watching the weekend’s docket of top-class racing – led by Saturday’s Preakness Day action at Pimlico Race Course – will also notice a significant number of New York-breds entered in stakes at several venues.

Here’s a handy guide of New York-breds entered for Saturday and Sunday stakes:

Saturday

Belmont Park kicks off a two-week stretch of quality racing leading up to the Breeders’ Cup Saturday with a five-stakes card and Bertranda leads the New York-bred show in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap.

Owned by Mad Dog Racing Stable and Noda Brothers, the Gus Schoenborn-bred 6-year-old mare by Boys at Tosconova makes her graded stakes debut in the 6 1/2-furlong event. Bertranda, out of the Cape Canaveral mare Princess Maura, comes into the Gallant Bloom with seven wins and 20 other top-three finishes in her 52-start career.

The Gallant Bloom goes as the fifth race with a post time of 2:55 p.m. ET.

Two New York-breds step up to the plate the following race in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes for 2-year-olds on the grass

Mr. Amore Stable’s homebred It’s a Gamble topped eventual Funny Cide Stakes winner Thin White Duke in his debut and takes the next step against open company in the 1 1/16-mile Pilgrim. The 2-year-old son of English Channel out of the Yes It’s True mare Yes It’s Pink is also cross-entered in Sunday’s Nownownow Stakes at Monmouth Park.

It’s A Gamble is joined in the Pilgrim by debut winner Step Dancer, a son of New York-based freshman sire War Dancer. That Sugar Plum Farm and Richard Pressman-bred colt made easy work of his Saratoga maiden on closing weekend when he led home a War Dancer 1-2 for his sire’s first winner. Trained by Barclay Tagg, Step Dancer runs for Pressman and Diamond M Stable.

Three Diamonds Farm’s Cross Border looks to win his first Grade 1 and register his third win in his last four starts in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic against six rivals.

The 6-year-old by English Channel, bred by Berkshire Stud and B. D. Gibbs, has handled his large jump in class this year exceedingly well, winning two Saratoga stakes and finishing second in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer with only one finish worse than second in his six runs this year.

Mo Ready looks ready to represent New York in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational in the final stakes of the day on the card. The Repole Stable homebred son of Uncle Mo takes a step up after winning a state-bred allowance at Saratoga Aug. 15. Mo Ready’s dam, the More Than Ready mare Ready and Good, has already made an impact on the New York stakes program with her first runner the five-time stakes winner Sudden Surprise.

Discretionary Marq, who shipped to Monmouth Park in August and moved into trainer Luis Carvajal Jr.’s barn, runs in the $75,000 Virgil “Buddy” Raines Stakes late in the day on the Jersey shore.

Patricia Generazio’s homebred is making his first start at the stakes level in the 5 ½-furlong turf stakes and looks to turn around his form with his two starts this year yielding off-the-board results. The 6-year-old Discreet Cat gelding is 5-for-20 with four seconds in his career.

The final Triple Crown race of the season takes place Saturday at Pimlico and three New York-breds made their way to Old Hilltop for the packed card.

Hot Pink Stable’s and Sand Dollar Stable’s homebred Somelikeithotbrown has proven to be incredibly consistent this year with just one blip in the road and looks to put that behind him in the Grade 2 Dinner Party Stakes. The Big Brown son has won five of his 14 starts with five other top three finishes in his career with over $550,000 in earnings and is joined on the card by his Mission Impazible half-brother Jolting Joe in the James W. Murphy Stakes.

Barry Schwartz’s homebred Sharp Starr was third, beaten less than a length, in the Fleet Indian Stakes on Saratoga Showcase Day late in the meet and lines up at the graded stakes level for the first time in the Grade 2 George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico. Finishing in the top three in five of six starts, Sharp Starr is the second stakes horse for her dam, the late New York sire Noble Causeway’s half-sister Mindy Gold, after Papa Shot.

Rounding out the Preakness Day card is Ny Traffic in the Grade 1 headliner. A consistent runner on this year’s Triple Crown trail, the Brian Culnan-bred Ny Traffic finished second in three straight Kentucky Derby prep races before a bad luck run saw him finish eighth in the Kentucky Derby. He is 15-1 on the morning line against a field of 10 others.

Sunday

Belmont’s Sunday card features a pair of stakes and Mashnee Girl represents the New York-breds in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes.

A winner last out at Saratoga, the Mashnee Stables homebred scratched out of Thursday’s Joseph A. Gimma for her turf debut going 1 1/16 miles. Trained by Mark Hennig, the 2-year-old daughter of Air Force Blue won her second start in a 7-furlong off-the-turf maiden at Saratoga Sept. 3. She is the third winner from three to race out of the Street Cry mare Passionate Diva.

The final stakes of the weekend at Belmont sees two New York-bred geldings line up in a field of nine for the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational.

Big Brown sees his 4-year-old son Big Wonder make his stakes debut in the race after 12 top three finishes in 30 starts. The 4-year-old gelding bred by Big Brown Management LLC is one of five winners from his dam and is raced by Knight R.B. Stables and trainer Naipaul Chatterpaul, the same ownership that raced his dam.

Multiple stakes winner Battle Station comes in off a victory in the Lucky Coin Stakes Sept. 6 and will makes his first graded stakes appearance. Bred by Lansdowne Thoroughbreds, the 5-year-old Warrior’s Reward gelding has been consistent on the New York circuit with a stakes win at Belmont in his second career start back in 2017 with three stakes wins and six wins overall to his name in 28 career starts. He’s earned $425,815.

Monmouth Park’s Nownownow Stakes not only sees cross entered It’s a Gamble potentially lining up, but also includes the filly Mischievous Dream. Trained by Christophe Clement, Mischievous Dream won the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park in early September and looks to take her record to 3-for-4 in the Nownownow against the boys. A Patricia Generazio homebred, Mischievous Dream is the second stakes horse for her dam Just Livin a Dream, who is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Presious Passion.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/02/new-york-breds-prominent-in-weekend-stakes/