Step Dancer scores open company win in Awad

By Tom Law

About eight hours after Tiz the Law pleased his connections with a strong final work for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, stablemate and fellow New York-bred Step Dancer gave trainer Barclay Tagg and his team more satisfaction with a victory in Saturday’s $80,000 Awad Stakes at Belmont Park.

Step Dancer became New York-based stallion War Dancer’s first winner this summer at Saratoga, his first graded stakes-placed runner at Belmont and now his first stakes winner with a three-quarter-length victory over Like a Saltshaker in the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes.

Third last time out in the Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes on firm ground, Step Dancer rallied up the inside from seventh to win over yielding ground in 1:48.69.

“Last time we ran we stayed a little too close to the pace and we thought we had to on the inner turf but it took away from his kick,” said Robin Smullen, Tagg’s longtime partner and assistant. “Today, I told Dylan [Davis] I wanted him 5 lengths off the pace and to find a spot and don’t ask him until he turns for home. He came home with a great kick. He doesn’t need to get to the outside. He showed that he’s game and he can do whatever you want.”

Davis kept Step Dancer toward the back of the field and seventh through the opening half mile in :51.56 over the soggy ground. They made up ground around the far turn while running on the outside before going back to the inside in the lane.

Like a Saltshaker took the lead into the lane under Jose Ortiz and opened up by a length at the eighth pole before Step Dancer slipped through on the inside. Like a Saltshaker held second by 3 1/4 lengths from 7-2 favorite Space Launch with Wooten Assett fourth in the field of 11.

“He was a little keen for us last time out,” Davis said. “It was a bit of a slower pace and it might have pulled out his kick, but he still ran well. Today, I stayed with the pony and tried to relax him a little more. He broke well for me, but he just relaxed and that was what we wanted whether it was a few lengths back or more. I tried to get into a good position for the second turn and I was able to scoot up a little bit into the third flight.

“I saw Jose looking for some room and I was just making sure I had some options in front of me. Jose was able to get through, so I followed him and I thought something else might open up, and it did. He just loved the ground. He kept finding more and more. I was very impressed with him today. It was just like how he wowed me first time out. He really stepped up again.”

Bred by Sugar Plum Farm and Richard Pressman and foaled at Robin and Anthony Malatino’s Sugar Plum Farm in Saratoga Springs, Step Dancer races for his breeders’ Diamond M Stable, Hayward R. Pressman and Donna R. Pressman. Diamond M Stable also campaigned War Dancer, a multiple graded stakes winner who stands at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions in Stillwater.

Step Dancer broke his maiden the last Saturday of the Saratoga meet – again with Tagg out of town tending to Tiz the Law at the Kentucky Derby – with a 3 1/2-length win over fellow War Dancer first-time starter Pivotal Run. He finished 4 lengths back in the Pilgrim, behind the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf pre-entries Fire At Will and Public Sector, before coming back in four weeks to win the Awad.

Step Dancer is the first foal out of the winning English Channel mare Just Be Steppin, whose dam is a half-sister to Group 1-placed stakes producing mare Khassah and two other stakes runners with Just Be Steppin a great-granddaughter of Grade 1 winner Castilla.

The winner of the Grade 2 Virginia Derby at 3 and the Grade 3 Louisville Handicap at 4 with another stakes win at 6 and a second to Twilight Eclipse in the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes, War Dancer is the only son of War Front standing in New York. He’s been popular with more than 250 mares in his first three books and another 34 in 2020 according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/31/step-dancer-scores-open-company-win-in-awad/

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Tiz the Law, Simply Ravishing fly NY flag at Breeders’ Cup

By Tom Law

New York-bred Grade 1 winners Tiz the Law and Simply Ravishing are among the 201 horses pre-entered for the 2020 Breeders’ Cup and both figure prominently in their respective races on the Nov. 6-7 World Championships card at Keeneland Race Course.

Sackatoga Stable’s Tiz the Law, winner of the Belmont Stakes and two other Grade 1s in 2020, is among 11 pre-entered for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. The 3-year-old son of Constitution finished second in the Kentucky Derby in his most recent start, which came four weeks after his victory in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

Bred by Twin Creeks Racing and foaled at Sequel Stallions in Hudson, Tiz the Law brings a record of 6-for-8 to the Classic for trainer Barclay Tagg. He’ll attempt to become the fourth Breeders’ Cup winner bred in New York, joining 2017 Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold, 2014 Filly and Mare Turf winner Dayatthespa and 2013 Marathon winner London Bridge.

Eight New York-breds have run in the Classic – Thunder Rumble, L’Carriere, Gander, Funny Cide, Effinex Haynesfield, Zivo and Mind Your Biscuits. Two finished second– Effinex to American Pharoah in 2015 at Keeneland and L’Carriere to Cigar in 1995 at Belmont Park.

The 1 ¼-mile Classic attracted the other two winners of Triple Crown races in 2020 in Kentucky Derby winner Authentic and Preakness-winning filly Swiss Skydiver, who is cross-entered in the $2 million Distaff. Others pre-entered for the Classic are By My Standards, Global Campaign, Higher Power, Improbable, Maximum Security, Tacitus, Title Ready and Tom’s d’Etat.

Simply Ravishing, dominating winner of the Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades Stakes on Opening Day of the Keeneland fall meeting, is pre-entered in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Owned by the partnership of Harold Lerner, Sherri McPeek’s Magdalena Racing and Nehoc Stables and trained by Kenny McPeek, Simply Ravishing was entered with a first preference for the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile Fillies on the main track. A 2-year-old daughter of former New York-based freshman stallion Laoban, Simply Ravishing brings a record of 3-for-3 to the Breeders’ Cup along with a turf maiden win and an off-the-turf victory in the P. G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga.

Bred by Meg Levy and foaled at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward, Simply Ravishing figures to either be favorite or second choice in the Juvenile Fillies along with fellow unbeaten Princess Noor.

Seven other New York-breds have contested the Juvenile Fillies – Artemis Agrotera, Cadillac Women, Doremifasollatido, Miss Iron Smoke, Shesastonecoldfox, Weemissfrankie and Wonder Gal. Three finished third – Cadillac Women in 1991 at Churchill Downs, Weemissfrankie in 2011 at Churchill and Wonder Gal in 2014 at Santa Anita Park.

If her connections opt for the 1-mile Juvenile Fillies Turf, Simply Ravishing will join other New York-breds Dayatthespa, Freedom Rings, Pure Gossip and Royal Bonnie to start in the race. Pure Gossip owns the best finish in the Juvenile Fillies with a seventh in 2011 at Churchill.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/28/tiz-the-law-simply-ravishing-fly-ny-flag-at-breeders-cup/

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Blue Gator rolls in New York Breeders’ Futurity

By Tom Law

Blue Gator added his name to the mix of top New York-bred 2-year-olds of 2020 with a professional victory Monday in the 58th edition of the $218,075 New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes.

Shipping upstate out of trainer Mike Maker’s string at Belmont Park, the son of Liam’s Map ran his record to 2-for-2 with a 4 1/2-length victory over Our Man Mike with 7-5 favorite and multiple stakes winner Thin White Duke a troubled third in the field of six.

Owned by the Wycoff family’s Three Diamonds Farm, Blue Gator collected $130,845 for winning the 6-furlong Futurity over the sloppy and sealed track in 1:12.62 under Reylu Gutierrez.

Blue Gator, the 9-5 second choice off a 1 1/2-length maiden victory going the same distance at Belmont Park Sept. 25, raced off the pace set by the filly Blame It On Mary in the early stages. The filly led Blue Gator by 2 1/2 lengths through the opening quarter-mile in :22.73, while Thin White Duke lagged well behind the field after walking out of the gate and spotting the field at least 5 lengths.

Blue Gator inched closer leaving the backstretch and around the far turn, cutting into Blame It On Mary’s lead and the two were on even terms after a half in :46.39, about 4 lengths in front of Aspirant runner-up Our Man Mike in third. Thin White Duke, winner of the Aspirant and Funny Cide in his last two starts for trainer, breeder and co-owner Phil Gleaves, passed two back markers at that point but still had a lot to do approaching the stretch.

Gutierrez and Blue Gator swept past the pacesetter straightening for home and darted to the inside fence. Gutierrez kept the eventual winner busy with a few left-handed cracks of the whip while the opened up. Our Man Mike slipped past Blame It On Mary inside the final eighth while Thin White Duke did the same inside the final sixteenth for the placings.

Bred by Morera Breeding and Racing LLC, Blue Gator is the third foal produced by the winning Langfuhr mare Candy Cat Can. Her first is the 6-year-old Lemon Drop Kid gelding Escape Velocity, the winner of 10 of 30 starts and $137,606; and the second is the winning 4-year-old Verrazano gelding Heungbok Dream, purchased by Korean interests for $40,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Candy Cat Can, a half-sister to 2018 Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Bee Jersey, produced Blue Gator in late January 2018 at Hidden Lake Farm in Stillwater. He sold to Bluewater Sales, Meg and Michael Levy’s operation with a longtime association with Three Diamonds, later that year for $80,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale. Bluewater offered the colt at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale but he went unsold on a final bid of $85,000 and he also didn’t sell at this year’s OBS Spring 2-year-olds in training sale out of the Wavertree Stables consignment on a bid of $110,000.

Candy Cat Can, an RNA for $40,000 with Blue Gator in utero 2017 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, is the dam of a yearling colt by Central Banker, a weanling filly by Palace and was bred to Enticed in 2020.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/26/blue-gator-rolls-in-new-york-breeders-futurity/

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Big flex: Broman homebred Mr. Buff defends title in Empire Classic

By Paul Halloran

It’s amazing how much value you can get for $1.

Chester and Mary Broman campaigned Friend or Foe, a son of Friends Lake who won the Empire Classic 10 years ago, but weren’t interested in keeping him as a stallion. They sold him for $1 to a woman in Virginia, with the only stipulation that she register him as a Thoroughbred stallion.

Broman sent three mares to breed to him and one of the three horses in his first crop was Mr. Buff, who one-upped his father by winning the Empire Classic for the second year in a row Saturday to close the rich Empire Showcase program at Belmont Park.

“When he switched to his outside lead at the top of the stretch, I knew it was over,” winning trainer John Kimmel said. “There was no way they were going to beat him.”

Mr. Buff, a 6-year-old gelding who already boasted a seven-figure bankroll, led every step of the 9-furlong stakes, keeping Sea Foam at bay in the early stages and leaving plenty in the tank to hold off Bankit. Mr. Buff increased his earnings to $1,210,786 from 15 wins in 40 starts, and Kimmel has no intention of calling it quits with the gelding.

“For sure,” he said when asked if Mr. Buff would run as a 7-year-old.

“He’s a gelding and he’s a happy horse,” said Kimmel, who has won the Empire Classic three times. “He loves the winter here. He’ll have them over a barrel (at Aqueduct).”

Kimmel had put Mr. Buff in the deep end by running in the Grade 2 Suburban and Grade 1 Whitney this past summer, but the return to state-bred company was just what the doctor ordered.

“He hadn’t come back to the form he showed last spring,” Kimmel said. “He was breezing very well, but whether he can do it in the afternoon can be trying on your nerves.”

The way it turned out Saturday, there was nothing to fret about. Mr. Buff set reasonable fractions of :23.50, :47.56 and 1:11.50 under Junior Alvarado, who had plenty of horse in the stretch.

“Junior let him out a notch and he looked like he was real comfortable,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel, who has a long and productive history with the Bromans, was pleased to win this race for them again.

“They have taken breeding in New York to another level,” he said.

Mr. Buff, who was foaled at the Broman’s Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, stands 17.2 hands.

He’s out of the graded stakes-placed Speightstown mare Speightful Affair, who was purchased by the Bromans purchased Speightful Affair for $80,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale.

She was not in foal at the time and Mr. Buff was her second foal, after the winning Sir Whimsey gelding Organic Gemini for former owners Turtle Bird Stable.

Speightful Affair produced two full siblings to Mr. Buff in 2015 and 2018, the winning 5-year-old horse Cain Is Abel and unraced 2-year-old filly Miss Buff. She’s also the dam of the two-time winning 4-year-old Scat Daddy gelding Daddy Knows and a weanling colt by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Accelerate born in late April.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/24/big-flex-broman-homebred-mr-buff-defends-title-in-empire-classic/

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New York-sired duo win Showcase Day sprint stakes

They may have beaten the logical Central Banker progeny in the $125,000 Iroquois Stakes Saturday on Empire Showcase Day, but they couldn’t prevent the productive New York stallion from being represented in the winner’s circle in the sprint stakes for fillies and mares.

Collegeville Girl, a daughter of Central Banker out of the Vindication mare Lifelong, came from last and mowed them down in the stretch to win the Iroquois by a half-length at 23-1 odds.

“She deserved another shot here,” said winning trainer Richard Vega, who bought the filly for $18,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale for Robert Brittingham, Salvatore De Bunda and Wire to Wire Stable. “She only got beat 1 length in the stakes race (Union Avenue) at Saratoga.”

Coming off an even third in an optional claimer at Parx Racing, Collegeville Girl got the setup that she and jockey Joel Rosario wanted, closing into a fast pace of :45.54 for the half-mile. Bertranda and Spin a Yarn contested the fractions, with Timely Tradition sitting third. Dylan Davis took Timely Tradition to the lead in the stretch, but could not hold off the closers. Prairie Fire ran second to complete a $414 exacta. Timely Tradition finished a neck back in third with 5-2 favorite Newly Minted ninth of 10.

“I know she has a closing kick,” said Vega. “Rosario told me he lost his whip; he did it all with his arms. She carried him all the way to the wire.”

“I could see there was a lot of speed in front of me and I thought some of that speed would come back to me and we could hit the board, but she put in a really good run in the last part and really impressed me with her performance,” Rosario said.

Collegeville Girl, bred by Andy Beadnell and foaled at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, became Central Banker’s second-leading earner in 2020 with $155,258. Her career earnings improved to $270,526.

Central Banker, who stands at McMahon of Saratoga, ranks second among New York stallions in progeny earnings in 2020, just behind Big Brown.

“He’s a good stallion and good stallions can stand anywhere, but we choose to keep him here because New York needs a good stallion like that,” Joe McMahon said earlier this year. “If he can continue to get 100 mares a year, that’s good business for our farm.”

Central Banker, a 10-year-old Grade 2-winning son of Speightstown, was bred to 114 mares in 2020 according to the Report of Mares Bred released Friday by The Jockey Club. – Paul Halloran

 

Bustin Stones gelding Tribecca scores in Hudson

Ronald Brown’s Tribecca bided his time in the allowance ranks since his last stakes appearance in October 2019 but when he returned in the Hudson Handicap he was up to the task to add a second stakes win to his resume.

The Chris Englehart-trained gelding out-broke the field and was quickly away with the lead in the 6 1/2-furlong stakes. Pressured throughout by Arthur’s Hope, Tribecca found another gear in the stretch and quickly put away that rival. He built his lead from there and scored by 3 lengths in 1:16.01.

“I love Tribecca. I rode him first time out four years ago and he won and he seems to find his way back to me,” winning jockey Kendrick Carmouche said. “He tries so hard. He proved today that if he can break out of there and get him to a slow pace, I know he’ll want to go from there. I’d like to thank Chris and Ronald Brown and now we’re in the winner’s circle.”

Bred by Laurel Least and Joseph Lech, who privately acquired Tribeca’s dam Heck after her racing career, Tribecca was foaled at Foggy Bottom Farm in Geneseo and a $10,000 purchase at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern fall yearling sale.

Bought by Gary Sciacca from the Foggy Bottom Farm consignment, Tribecca was claimed a few times throughout his career before Englehart dropped a slip for $25,000 at Saratoga in 2019 on behalf of Brown.

The gelding won that race and hasn’t looked back, earning his first stakes victory two months later in the Leon Reed at Finger Lakes. A winner of three of his five starts in 2020, the Hudson Handicap took Tribecca over the $600,000 career earnings mark.

Tribecca is one of three winners from three to race out of the three-time winning Heck. That New York-bred mare is also a half-sister to the stakes winning New York-bred Socialsaul and two other stakes placed runners. Heck also has a Revolutionary yearling filly that sold for $10,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga fall mixed sale to Tribecca’s owner and visited Bustin Stones for a full sibling to Tribecca this year.

Bustin Stones, a 16-year-old son of City Zip who bred 40 mares in 2020, stands for $5,000 at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham. – Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/24/new-york-sired-duo-win-showcase-day-sprint-stakes/

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Lucky Move strikes in Empire Distaff Handicap

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

It isn’t every day that you have both a horse you bred and a horse you claimed in the same stakes race, but that’s exactly how it played out for Ten Strike Racing in Saturday’s $175,000 Empire Distaff Handicap at Belmont Park.

In the end, age and experience won out with 6-year-old Lucky Move – claimed by Ten Strike Racing’s Marshall Gramm last year in Kentucky – coming out the winner and 3-year-old homebred Critical Value struggling through a tough race.

The decision to even put Lucky Move in the race was an audible after trainer Carlos Guerrero was approached by jockey’s agents that included Irad Ortiz Jr.’s agent, Steve Rushing.

“We were looking for a two-other than allowance and jockeys’ agents kept calling my trainer,” Gramm said of the decision to enter the Lookin At Lucky mare. “Once Irad’s agent called we’re like ‘it must not be much of a field’ and looked at it more closely and realized we had to go for the money. We were really hoping for a class relief spot and this turned out to be that spot.”

Lucky Move raced toward the back of the field for much of the 1 1/16-mile race before making her move in the stretch. Gramm said the mare loves to grind out her races and that was exactly what she did to score a 1 3/4-length victory over Mrs. Orb for her second stakes win. Makingcents finished third with defending Empire Distaff winner Ratajkowski fourth and Critical Value last of seven.

Gramm claimed Lucky Move for $30,000 late last April at Churchill Downs. He immediately wanted to take advantage of the mare’s New York-bred status and that move paid off when she won an allowance-optional at Saratoga Race Course two starts later.

“I had been following her for a long time, I’m a huge fan of Lookin at Lucky,” Gramm said. “I’ve owned about a dozen of them, either claimed them or bought them in sales. I claimed her in the spring [with Bentley Combs] and circled the state-bred allowance optional claimer going two turns at Saratoga. The mile and an eighth plays very long [at Saratoga] and I really thought that would be the race. We shipped up and we won that race last summer and I was there. It was great to be in the winner’s circle at Saratoga and then she continued to develop and she’s talented, she can run all day.”

Bred by Maltese Cross Stables and Stonegate Stables, Lucky Move had been sold for $37,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale and spent most of her early career shipping between Louisiana and Kentucky.

Her Saratoga return last season marked just the second time she’d raced in New York to that point. Since then she’s raced primarily in New York, along with starts at Churchill, Parx Racing, Delaware Park and Monmouth Park, and boosted her bankroll to $374,759.

Finishing second in a pair of New York-bred stakes over the winter and third in one last summer at Saratoga, Lucky Move broke through at the stakes level in the Obeah Stakes at Delaware in June. She became the first stakes winner for her six-time winning dam Quiet Mover, who has exclusively produced New York-bred foals since her retirement in 2012 after being claimed by Maltese Cross Stables during her racing career.

Quiet Mover’s youngest is a Tapiture 2-year-old colt named Double David.

While Gramm is leaning toward racing Lucky Move another year, he’s also toying with retiring her depending on how she runs this winter. Her plans currently include trying to go one better in both the Bay Ridge Stakes and Ladies Handicap at Aqueduct – two races she finished second in last winter.

If she does retire and stays in Ten Strike Racing’s breeding program there is a chance she’ll play a part in the next generation of New York-breds with the operation having mares at Keene Stud in Amenia.

“I’ve dropped plenty of foals in New York, it’s an excellent program,” he said. “I have two homebreds running right now that are New York-breds. I only own four or five mares so it’s just an honor to have two homebreds that are participating in the Empire Showcase Day and Lucky Move, who I didn’t breed but I claimed. I’m always looking to claim a New York-bred to run in New York. I love the program, I bred to Central Banker this year and I have another mare up there that’s in foal to Twirling Candy.”

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/10/24/lucky-move-strikes-in-empire-distaff-handicap/

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