Spinning Colors improves Spa record in Mount Vernon; Clear Conscience wins tight photo in Kingston

Spinning Colors may not like doing what she’s told, but when she’s tasked with running on the turf at Saratoga Race Course, she typically delivers.

Wednesday, Spinning Colors improved her record over the Saratoga turf courses to 3-for-4 when she won the $200,000 Mount Vernon Stakes at 1 1/16 miles over the inner course. The 5-year-old mare entered the Mount Vernon off a seventh in the Sand Springs against open company at Gulfstream Park, a race in which she led the field through testing fractions that included a half-mile in :45.26. In the Mount Vernon, Spinning Colors led the field through a dawdling half in :50.33. Trainer Mark Hennig said that made a big difference.

“The pace helped her save a lot of that energy,” he said. “She tried hard last time in open company at Gulfstream. In spite of that pace, she still fought on. She gets a little bit of a break running against New York-breds and then, obviously, she loves Saratoga. This was her third win here.”

Spinning Colors took the field of 10 older fillies and mares gate to wire in the Mount Vernon under John Velazquez, setting a slow pace early and kicking on late to fend off the stretch runs by Silver Skillet and Awesome Czech, who finished second and third, respectively. Spinning Colors won the Mount Vernon by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:43.27.

“I nursed her along the best I could without taking too much hold of her,” Velazquez said. “After putting my hands down at the three-eighths pole, she was full of run. I hadn’t asked her to do anything, and she was very comfortable. After moving my hands a little bit, it was an instant response. Very nice.”

Hennig, who also co-owns the daughter of Hard Spun with Bourbon Lane Stable and HGS Thoroughbreds, remarked on what a difficult mare she can sometimes be to train.

“She’s not easy to do anything with, honestly,” Hennig said. “She’s a difficult filly, but she keeps herself fit because she’s athletic. Those kind are always easier. She dictates what we’re doing daily, basically. There are days we go out with the intent to gallop and she doesn’t gallop. Before she won the race at Gulfstream in February, the day she was going to work she got loose and went around the track twice. We didn’t end up getting to work her, but she worked herself that day.”

Despite the antics, Spinning Colors has won five of 14 starts and earned $362,210. Hennig said he’d likely bring Spinning Colors back to Saratoga at some point this summer.

“They’ve got another race here during the meet, but we’ll see,” he said. “They’ve got a decent program for the New York-bred fillies as the year goes on the turf, so we could keep her with her own kind, but I wouldn’t be opposed to trying her in open company in the right spot.”

Spinning Colors was bred by William Parsons Jr. and David Howe. She is out of the winning Elusive Quality mare Kaleidoscope, who has also produced multiple time winners Bartleby and Cartwheel. – Alec DiConza

• In the span of four weeks, owner Wachtel Stable’s Adam Wachtel experienced both ends of a tight photo with the same horse. On May 11, Clear Conscience lost an allowance-optional at Aqueduct by a nose after holding the lead mid-stretch. In Wednesday’s $200,000 Kingston Stakes, the 5-year-old gelding got involved in another nose finish, but this time, the son of Blame crossed the wire first.

“We did have a tough beat just the other day,” Wachtel said in the winner’s circle. “Better to win this one than that one, right?”

Wachtel privately purchased Clear Conscience during last year’s summer meet at Saratoga because he saw some potential in his past performances. He wasted no time, transferring the gelding to Mark Casse and winning an allowance race on Travers Day just weeks after the purchase. The Kingston victory is the second by Clear Conscience since the change in connections.

“I’m a Ragozin sheets person, and he had a great looking sheet,” Wachtel said about the decision to buy Clear Conscience. “He was very fast, and I thought he was maybe better than his results were. So, we’re very pleased and Mark has done a great job with him.”

In the Kingston, a 1 1/16-mile turf event for older New York-breds, Clear Conscience sat a stalking trip on the inside behind pacesetters Union Trail and Itsallcomintogetha. He switched outside turning for home under Jose Ortiz and mowed these leaders down before facing a menacing bid from favorite Hush of a Storm. Clear Conscience just held on to get the bob and win by a nose in 1:41.30.

“He’s a very good gate horse and we love that about him. He broke good and put me into a great position,” Ortiz said. “I was following the one horse, who was of course very live.”

The effort from Clear Conscience impressed Casse, who felt fortunate that the photo went his way this time.

“He showed some grit, because the other horse went by him and he battled back,” he said. “Jose said he thought he was beat. We did get lucky on the bob, but many times I don’t get lucky on the bob, so I’ll take it when I can get it.”

Wachtel, who co-owns Clear Conscience with Gary Barber and Pantofel Stable, said there’s a good chance his gelding will return to Saratoga for another stakes race this summer.

“As long as he’s healthy, he’ll definitely run back here,” he said. “There’s a New York-bred stakes in the middle of August. I’m sure we’ll point to that. He’s just a nice horse. We’ve got a lot of options with him.”

Clear Conscience was bred by Alan Quartucci and Sebastian Varney. He is the second foal out of the Gio Ponti mare Blank Slate, who has also produced the four-time winner Topic Changer and the recent maiden winner Cognoscenti. Clear Conscience is now a winner of three out of 15 starts with earnings of $294,988. – Alec DiConza

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/06/04/spinning-colors-improves-spa-record-in-mount-vernon-clear-conscience-wins-tight-photo-in-kingston/

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Bank Frenzy bounces back in Commentator; Bernietakescharge does family proud in Critical Eye

Rudy Rodriguez gave Manny Franco a leg up on Bank Frenzy before Wednesday’s $200,000 Commentator Stakes and offered one final bit of instruction before the field of eight left the Saratoga Race Course paddock for the second stakes on the New York Showcase Day card.

“Don’t let him steal the race, put some pressure on him,” Rodriguez said, encouraging Bank Frenzy’s regular partner to stay close to last year’s Empire Classic winner and expected frontrunner Mama’s Gold in the 9-furlong stakes for older New York-breds.

Franco followed suit, never letting the Central Banker gelding lost contact with Mama’s Gold before pouncing on the leader approaching the top of the stretch en route to a 1 1/4-length victory. Owned by Randy Sarf’s LSU Stables and the 7-5 favorite in the field of eight, Bank Frenzy improved to 9-for-18 with his latest stakes victory. He’s won his last three New York-bred stakes appearances, along with the Stymie against open company in March, after finishing 4 1/4 lengths behind Mama’s Gold in the Empire Classic Handicap last fall.

“Manny won that race,” Sarf said as he hugged Rodriguez walking out of the winner’s circle. “He put Romero (Maragh, aboard Mama’s Gold) to sleep. He put him to sleep.”

Sarf purchased Bank Frenzy privately from Phil’s Racing Stable last spring after a 5 1/4-length victory in a 1-mile state-bred allowance-optional at Aqueduct. He won the Evan Shipman in mid-August at Saratoga in his first start for LSU and Rodriguez, before back-to-back seconds that led to a four-race win streak.

Bank Frenzy came into Showcase Day off a fourth in the Grade 3 Westchester on a muddy track May 4 at Aqueduct. He rebounded in a big way in the Commentator, defeating not only Mama’s Gold but last year’s winner Drake’s Passage (third), Locke And Key (fourth) and General Banker (sixth).

“I knew he was going to be good,” Sarf said of the private purchase. “Once you see a horse win by that distance, if they stay sound, they can win these state-bred stakes. We love the state-bred game. We tried to see how good he was (in graded company last time), but state-breds hang out with state-breds. I guess that’s why you breed in New York, to hang out in New York.”

The Commentator didn’t go completely smooth for Bank Frenzy.

Typically outfitted with extension blinkers for his morning training, Bank Frenzy made the walk from the holding barn to the paddock without blinkers.

“He’s a little quirky but he does his job,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a little difficult in the morning so we put the extension blinkers on. Today he didn’t have them and was kicking all over the place. He’s more happy when we put the blinkers on and that’s all we can do.”

Bank Frenzy raced with his usual blinkers and Franco set up shop in second around the clubhouse turn behind Mama’s Gold through the opening splits of :23.79 and :47.84.

Mama’s Gold continued to lead past 6 furlongs in 1:11.53, with Bank Frenzy just a half-length back while in the three path on the bend. Bank Frenzy took over outside the quarter pole and eventually shrugged off a stubborn Mama’s Gold in the lane to win in 1:50 over the fast track. Mama’s Gold held second, 3 1/2 lengths clear of 2-1 second choice Drake’s Passage.

“My horse broke so sharp and Rudy told me he was going to break like that because he broke sharp in the mornings,” Franco said. “I just took advantage of my break and just put him right behind (Mama’s Gold). That was the horse that I thought I had to beat. My horse made the front a little earlier than I wanted, but he was running so nice and he kind of got lost a little on the front end, that’s why (Mama’s Gold) came back. I had a lot of horse under me. I was comfortable all the way around.”

Bred by Chester and the late Mary Broman and foaled at their Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, Bank Frenzy is out of the Tiznow mare Storm Now. He originally sold for $110,000 at the 2022 OBS April sale of 2-year-olds in training. Bank Frenzy picked up $110,000 for the Commentator victory and boosted his bankroll to $695,920. – Tom Law

• Two races after her half-sister Bernieandtherose finished third in the Bouwerie Stakes, Bernietakescharge made the family even more proud by winning the $200,000 Critical Eye Stakes in front-running fashion.

Breaking from the outside post in the field of seven, Bernietakescharge took the lead going into the clubhouse turn and set moderate splits of :24.01 for the quarter-mile and :47.86 for the half. The filly owned and bred by Robert Rosenthal and Bradford Bernstein faced a major challenge from millionaire Sterling Silver nearing the quarter pole, but after a long duel with that foe through the stretch, Bernietakescharge prevailed to win by a neck for trainer Dominick Schettino and jockey Romero Maragh. The daughter of Take Charge Indy completed the 9-furlongs in 1:50.26.

“We had a very nice trip,” Maragh said. “I know she likes to be on the front. She gets very game when she’s on the front. So, that was the whole game plan to be on the lead and be pretty aggressive with her, and get her into her rhythm. That was the game plan. Everything honestly worked out super perfect, super great.”

Millionaire, multiple stakes winner and 3-10 favorite Sterling Silver made a run alongside Bernietakescharge and Schettino felt that maybe a runner-up finish was in the cards for his 4-year-old filly.

“When they got to the quarter pole and I saw her (Sterling Silver) coming, I said, ‘Well, second ain’t bad,’ ” he said. “Then I saw her in the stretch fighting again and I said, ‘Wow, she’s got a shot here.’ We wound up better today than her.”

Schettino wasn’t surprised by the grit Bernietakescharge showed Wednesday.

“That filly, when she gets to the quarter pole and the stretch, if she is in front, a lot of times, she will continue to grind it out,” he said. “That’s what she does. When that filly got to her, I figured ‘well, that filly is a graded winner.’ Like I said, if she finished second she ran a bang-up race. She was training forwardly and she ran to it today.”

Bernietakescharge is the second foal out of the stakes winning mare Berning Rose, who Schettino trained in 2017 to win the Maid of the Mist Stakes at Belmont Park. Berning Rose, a daughter of Freud, has also produced multiple stakes winner Bernieandtherose, winning mare Berning Honor and an unraced 2-year-old named Roseberns Dream. Bernietakescharge is now a winner of six of 17 starts and has earned $469,580. – Alec DiConza

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/06/04/bank-frenzy-bounces-back-in-commentator-bernietakescharge-does-family-proud-in-critical-eye/

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Train the Trainer dominates Mike Lee; Kay Cup improves to 2-for-3 in Bouwerie

Rob Atras picked up the phone to call fellow trainer Mark Glatt shortly after the 3-year-old gelding Train the Trainer showed up at his Belmont Park barn from California this spring with a short assessment.

“Geez, look at this horse. I love this horse,” Atras said, immediately impressed with the New York-bred son of Dialed In. “He was big, strong, (had) good bone on him. Big, tall and the way he carries himself. He has a lot of presence.”

Atras loved Train the Trainer a bit more when he romped to a 5-length victory in his first start in the Empire State and even more after a 2 3/4-length tally to open the New York Showcase Day portion of the card Wednesday at Saratoga Race Course.

Jon Taisey of Hibiscus Stable isn’t surprised by the love. He liked the then colt plenty when he and the Hibiscus team sent him down to Lexington for the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. Hip 590, the ninth foal out of the Forestry mare Heavenly View, attracted plenty of attention on the sales grounds but not a ton of action in the ring.

“I loved him ever since he was a baby,” Taisey said. “I never thought that he was a horse we could really afford to bring back and syndicate, so we brought him to the sale there and honestly was super disappointed when we only got $52,000 for him.”

Glatt purchased the colt, on behalf of Alipony Racing and Saints or Sinners. He eventually went to California, where he didn’t race at 2 before surfacing in a 6-furlong maiden race April 6 at Santa Anita Park. He finished second that day, splitting a pair of Bob Baffert-trained first-time starters Goal Oriented and Sierra Silver.

“He put in a heck of a race and I knew at that point he was the real deal,” Taisey said. “I called the owners and tried to get them to at least send him back or sell him to clients of mine. Well, they decided to send him but not sell him. Mark handed over the reins to Rob and obviously Rob has done a great job with the horse to this point.”

The job now includes back-to-back victories, the latter in 1:23.92 for the 7 furlongs over the fast track in the opening flat stakes of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. Under Irad Ortiz Jr., Train the Trainer went to post as the 9-5 second choice behind Prince Valiant and five others in the Mike Lee.

Train The Trainer went to the lead from the start and clicked off an opening quarter-mile in :23.09 ahead of Prince Valiant, First Pitch and Soontobeking. He maintained that margin around the far turn and to the half in :46.30.

Ortiz stayed busy on Train the Trainer approaching the stretch and they widened from there, opening up a 2-length lead in midstretch on the way to victory. Soontobeking, second behind Prince Valiant last time out in the Times Square division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes April 13 at Aqueduct, finished a head in front of that same rival for the place spot with Calling Card, First Pitch and Smilensaycheese completing the field. Train The Trainer picked up $110,000 for the win, boosting his bankroll to $167,000.

“Everything you see now started out in California,” Atras said. “They started with him and did all the base work. He had the one race then when we had him we just led him over, stayed out of his way and let him progress. There’s nothing we really did any differently, just let him grow up and get bigger and stronger.”

Foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, Train the Trainer is a half-brother to six winners out of Heavenly Vision. She’s a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner and sire Cairo Prince and the Grade 1-placed Empire Maker mare Nonna Mia, the dam of Grade 1 winner Outwork. – Tom Law

• Dan Zanatta walked off the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sales grounds after a long few days of inspections of the New York-bred yearlings in the 2023 catalog. He put a filly from the first crop of Instagrand on the short list of potential purchases for NY Final Furlong Racing Stable, just not quite into the top five prospects.

NY Final Furlong, a partnership operation headed up by Zanatta and Vince Roth perhaps best known for campaigning New York-bred champion Venti Valentine and multiple stakes winner Espresso Shot, exclusively buys fillies to syndicate. Zanatta and Roth, along with members of the Rice family that helps with inspections, liked the filly out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Gypso Go.

“She was probably a top six filly on our list and honestly, probably at the bottom of the list going into the final day of the selection process,” Zanatta said. “Then the last day she just kept showing better and showing better. She was a filly that every time we looked at her we upgraded her. We ended up upgrading her to the top of the list.”

Bidding through Ricehorse, NY Final Furlong landed the filly for $100,000. Now almost two years later and with Electric City Racing and Sportsmen Stable on board as partners, the filly named Kay Cup continued her ascent up the New York-bred 3-year-old filly ranks thanks to a victory in the $200,000 Bouwerie Stakes on New York Showcase Day.

Kay Cup improved to 2-for-3 with her 3-length win over Charlotte’s Heart in the Bouwerie. Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode two winners on the Showcase Day card, guided Kay Cup to victory for trainer Jorge Abreu in 1:23.79 for the 7 furlongs on the fast main track.

Abreu trained Venti Valentine, recently named 2024 New York-bred champion older dirt female after winning the 2-year-old filly title in 2021, and didn’t hesitate to compare the two after Wednesday’s Bouwerie.

“Since Day 1 we have liked the filly,” Abreu said. “Her presentation in the morning and the way she trains, she’s very professional. Everything about her. She’s never had a bad day and that’s important for fillies. They can go the wrong or right way and she’s always been the right way. She could be the next Venti Valentine.”

Zanatta and Roth actually hoped Kay Cup could follow in the early hoofprints of Venti Valentine and Espresso Shot.

“When we first bought her and after her first race, in my mind this was our Busher horse,” Roth said of the open-company 3-year-old filly stakes typically run in early March at Aqueduct. “We won the Busher with Espresso Shot, we won the Busher with Venti Valentine. She had a slight setback and needed some time off, so we couldn’t get her ready for that race. We brought he back and she won at Aqueduct (in an April 27 maiden) and now we have a new plan in mind.

“I don’t know if Jorge is going to like this but I told him there’s a couple pretty big races in August at Saratoga that I’d like to see her in.”

Bred by Caperlane Farm and sold at the 2023 Saratoga New York-bred sale by Hunter Valley Farm, agent, Kay Cup is the second foal out of the winning Gypsy Jo.

Kay Cup is also part-owned by ESPN Radio personality Anita Marks through America’s Best Racing’s “A Stake in Stardom” program made popular this spring thanks to social media influencer Griffin Johnson’s part ownership of Grade 1 winner and classics competitor Sandman. Kay Cup picked up $110,000 for the Bouwerie victory to boost her bankroll to $161,500. – Tom Law

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/06/04/train-the-trainer-dominates-mike-lee-kay-cup-improves-to-2-for-3-in-bouwerie/

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