My Boy Tate, winner of the 2022 Hudson Stakes and five other stakes during his productive career, is among the 29 New York-breds set to compete in this week’s Thoroughbred Makeover in Lexington, Kentucky. NYRA Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Recently retired racehorses flock to the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America in Lexington, Kentucky, every October to show off the skills they’ve learned in their second career.

New York-breds often make up a large chunk of the field and 2024 proves no exception with 29 horses bred in the Empire State competing including fan favorite and multiple stakes winner My Boy Tate.

Ten disciplines are on offer at the Makeover with horses allowed to compete in up to two different disciplines. Each horse competing at the show is a former racehorse with all entries having to have registered a work or race no earlier than July 1, 2022, in order to be eligible. Those who travel to the show will compete in preliminary competition Wednesday and Thursday with the top five in each discipline headed to Saturday’s Finale.

Winston’s Chance, a 14-time winner and multiple stakes winner, competes at this week’s Thoroughbred Makeover. SV Photography

Horses in the Finale will not only compete for the discipline championship but also the title of Thoroughbred Makeover Champion with the Makeover featuring more than $100,000 in prize money. Saturday’s Finale will be aired on the RRP’s website.

Here are a few facts to know about this year’s New York-bred competitors:

• New York had 41 of the original entrants at this year’s Makeover. That was the second most among all states with only Kentucky having more when entries closed in September. Twenty-nine New York-breds are still entered to compete in the competition as of Sunday evening.
• There is at least one New York-bred entered in each of the 10 disciplines with 12 entrants in dressage to lead all disciplines. Show jumpers are second with nine entrants and competitive trail and show hunters follow with six each. The only discipline that has only one New York-bred is field hunters with Resilient Courage, who is also entered in show jumpers.
• Of the 29 New York-breds set to compete, My Boy Tate and Winston’s Chance both won multiple stakes while Best Idea was placed in multiple stakes and Bobby Bo also has a stakes placing. Winston’s Chance has the most wins of any New York-bred with 14 while My Boy Tate leads all runners by earnings at $837,288.
• Only two of the New York-breds never made a start with the other 27 averaging nearly 20 starts apiece. Algorix leads at 95 starts with 12 wins for $210,015 in earnings, followed by Winston’s Chance (50 starts), Ganodagan (41), My Boy Tate (38) and March Madnez Party (26). The group also earned an average of $117,960 on the track.
• Each of the 29 entries were bred by a different group of breeders. McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds is the only individual breeder who is named as breeder on more than one horse, partnering with Chauncey David Cole III to breed Ganondagan and William Hebert to breed Elite Banker. Horacio De Paz and Michelle Nevin lead all trainers with two entrants who were trained by them when the horses retired.

McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds’ Central Banker is the only stallion with more than one entrant as the sire of Phinney’s Harbor and Elite Banker. Central Banker, Bustin Stones, Freud and War Dancer are all current New York stallions with entrants in the competition.

The New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. is joined by the New York Racing Association and New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in sponsoring the $2,500 Empire State Success Story prize for the competition’s leading New York-bred.

Find out more about the Thoroughbred Makeover and the horses entered at www.tbmakeover.org.

Lawrence Goichman’s. homebred Tiz the Law filly Scythian lands first graded stakes in Sunday’s Miss Grillo at Aqueduct. NYRA Photo.

Lawrence Goichman’s homebred Scythian avoided trouble at the top of the stretch and came away with a victory in Sunday’s Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes at Aqueduct.

The 2-year-old daughter of two-time New York-bred Horse of the Year, classic winner and leading North American freshman sire Tiz the Law improved to 2-for-3 in the tumultuous Miss Grillo, which carries an automatic berth to the winner into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She won by 2 1/2 lengths over Virgin Colado with Correto third in the field of 12.

Scythian came into the Miss Grillo off a narrow victory as the favorite over males in a 1 1/16-mile state-bred turf maiden late in the Saratoga Race Course meeting for trainer Bill Mott. She went to post as the 11-1 fifth choice and settled into a tracking spot in fourth behind fellow Goichman New York-bred homebred Marvelous Madison, who is trained by Chad Brown, Lavender Disaster and New York-bred Grace and Grit.

Marvelous Madison and Manny Franco set the pace, clicking off early splits of :23.26, :48.71 and 1:13.47, just ahead of Grace and Grit, Lavender Disaster and Scythian.

“I was where I wanted to be,” Alvarado said of his trip. “I got to save ground right away coming into the first turn and the second turn I was still saving enough ground. If I had to go inside or outside, I knew I already had saved plenty for me to have enough horse at the end.”

Franco did his best to keep Marvelous Madison from getting out around the far turn, while Alvarado kept close tabs on the proceedings.

“I’ve got horse, where do I go?” he asked himself. “Is he going to pull her back inside or is she going to bolt?”

Marvelous Madison eventually gave the answers, bolting as the field approached the top of the stretch. She took Grace and Grit and Lavender Disaster with her, and Scythian wound up on the lead.

“When that happened, that’s when I zoomed in the inside and she took off after that,” Alvarado said.

Virgin Colada made a late rally under Flavien Prat to finish second, closing from 8 1/4 lengths back through the opening half to finish 2 1/2 lengths short. Correto finished a head back in fourth with She’s Got Will fourth. Scythian won in 1:42.68 over the firm turf.

“We’ve had 10 seconds at the meet, five in stakes. It’s always good to win one of these,” said Leana Willaford, Mott’s Belmont Park-based assistant. “She ran really well, Junior gave her a perfect trip. He had horse anyways [even with the incident in the turn]. He was in a perfect spot.”

Scythian, who Willaford said is likely for next month’s Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar, picked up $110,000 for her first stakes victory.

A second generation homebred for Goichman, Scythian was foaled at Stone Bridge Farm in Gansevoort and is the seventh foal and first stakes winner out of the stakes-winning Empire Maker mare Dean Henry.

The winner of three of 12 starts, including the 2009 Saratoga Dew Stakes at Saratoga, Dean Henry earned $121,287. She’s produced stakes-placed winner Bonita Cat and winner Dancing Dean, and New York-bred winners Emperor’s Cause, Ascender and Somethingtotellyou.

Mi Bago, a 2-year-old son of Vekoma bred by Highclere, rolls late to win bet365 Algonquin Stakes at Woodbine. Michael Burns Photo.

The change in scenery and change in surface was just what the doctor ordered for Mi Bago Saturday, as the 2-year-old son of Vekoma stormed home to win the $175,000 bet365 Algonquin Stakes at Woodbine.

Mi Bago, bred by Highclere Inc. and foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, led a 1-2-3 finish for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who saddled five horses in the race. Casse finished second with Dare to Breeze and third Sharedashenanigans.

Out of the Indian Charlie mare Wabanaki, Mi Bago was fifth early, in a group of three chasing frontrunners Mensa and Dare to Breeze through a quarter-mile in :21.89. Those two still led as they turned for home, with Mi Bago and Sharedashenanigans in hot pursuit. Dare to Breeze took the lead inside the eighth pole and looked like a winner, until Mi Bago unleashed a furious drive to get up and win by a neck.

The final time was :57.89 for the 5-furlong stakes. Bullet nailed Sharedashenanigans for third.

“I look at the program and see what horses have a lot of speed,” said winning jockey Sahin Civaci. “I just tried to get my horse out as fast as possible. … He had a little trouble getting around the turn, so I had to ask him a little bit there. And I just got up.”

Mi Bago is the fifth winner produced by the unraced New York-bred Wabanaki, joining seven-time winner Lady Macho (by Mucho Macho Man), What Mightavebeen (Freud), Dawnland (Jimmy Creed) and Weyron (Goldencents). A $62,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February mixed sale in 2023, he was a $90,000 RNA later in the year at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.

After he broke his maiden impressively as a 3-5 favorite at Colonial Downs August 1, Mi Bago was sold by CM Thoroughbreds to Gary Barber, who moved him to his main trainer Casse. Mi Bago was a non-threatening sixth in the Funny Cide Stakes on Saratoga Showcase Day at Saratoga Race Course August 25, prompting Casse to bring him north for the turf stakes at Woodbine. – Paul Halloran

Senbei storms to victory in Saturday’s Belmont Turf Sprint Stakes. NYRA Photo.

New York-bred stalwart Senbei scored his first graded stakes victory Saturday with a victory in the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint Stakes at the Belmont at the Big A meeting.

The Dr. Jerry Bilinski-bred 5-year-old gelding broke well in the 6-furlong turf stakes before settling in the two path as one of the mid-pack markers. Senbei relaxed under Manny Franco as Nothing Better and Determined Kingdom battled for the lead through fractions of :22.10 and :44.37.

Franco took Senbei wider at the top of the stretch for clear running room and the gelding quickly found his top gear. As the front runners continued to battle for the lead, Senbei was able to sneak up the outside. Senbei flew past the leaders inside the final sixteenth to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:07.74 with Nothing Better second and Alogon in third.

“I had a great trip,” said Franco. “My horse broke OK, and those three horses went to the lead and I just stayed behind them. He was traveling nice and on the bridle. When I hit the clear at the quarter pole, I have to give credit to the horses in front because they were tough to go by, but my horse did it. They didn’t come back at all, but my horse ran them down.”

The Belmont Turf Sprint gave Senbei, the 2021 New York-bred champion 2-year-old male, his second win in four starts this year. He also won an allowance-optional claimer at the Aqueduct in July. He finished third in the Select Stakes last out and now has an overall record of seven wins, two seconds, and a third in 17 starts with $640,000 in earnings for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Darlene Bilinski.

“He’s a good horse,” said trainer Christophe Clement. “As a young horse, he was very good on dirt – he lost his form a bit on dirt and the grass brought him back. He’s been running very well on grass – maybe more on firmer turf than softer turf. He’s not always lucky. In turf racing, you need a bit of racing luck but today he was very impressive.”

Foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, Senbei was named by Clement’s daughter-in-law and NYRA racing analyst Acacia Clement after the Japanese cracker by the same name. Senbei was purchased from Stuart Morris’s consignment by his trainer for $280,000 as a short yearling during the 2020 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

Senbei is one of five winners and four stakes performers out of Western Cat daughter Sweet Aloha, who also produced dual stakes winners Filibustin and Indy’s Lady and the stakes-placed Man O Manassas. Filibustin has gone on to be a stakes producer herself as the dam of stakes winner Mr Fillip.

Sweet Aloha’s youngest foal is a 2-year-old New York-bred Twirling Candy colt named Tropical Candy who sold for $150,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale. – Melissa Bauer-Herzog