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Texas Red getting a vacation; Judy the Beauty, Goldencents
bound for Kentucky
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Plans are for Texas Red to get the rest of the year off before beginning his sophomore season
(Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos) |
Texas Red, the runaway winner of Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, was reported to be in great
shape Sunday morning.
"All indications are good, but you really don't know for a
couple of days," trainer Keith Desormeaux said. "We are going to put him away
for the year and concentrate on the spring."
Texas Red delivered the most emphatic victory in the 13
races of this year's Championships, winning by 6 1/2 lengths.
"It was impossible to expect something like that against
the best horses around," Desormeaux said.
Texas Red was ridden by Keith's brother Kent.
"He lives for the Derby dream and it looks like he is going
to get to do it again," Desormeaux said. "He has had a rough couple of years and
it looks like that is behind him now and he can concentrate on what he does best
and that is riding races."
For Kent Desormeaux, it was his fifth Breeders' Cup victory
and first since the 2010 Distaff with Unrivaled Belle.
"I am still in shock," Kent Desormeaux said. "It seems so surreal; like 'Did
we just do that?' It was like a slide show going through my mind of competing
against my brother with Quarter Horse yearlings. Now we are on the same team."
Desormeaux, who has three Kentucky Derby victories on his
resume -- Real Quiet (1998), Fusaichi Pegasus (2000) and Big Brown (2008) -- said he
had a lot of horse left after his runaway victory.
"He was just getting into gear," the jockey asserted. "When he got to the wire,
he was like 'Is that it?' The road to Kentucky leads through here."
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While the Desormeaux brothers celebrated in the winner's circle following
Texas Red's win, trainer Wesley Ward was on the other side of the country while
Judy the Beauty was capturing the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.
Ward did not make the trip to Santa Anita, opting instead to
remain in Florida for his son's run in the state's cross-country championships,
and has no regrets for not attending the Breeders' Cup.
"My being there wouldn't have made them run faster and the
smile on my boy's face being here couldn't make me happier," he said.
"Everybody's happy."
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Judy the Beauty headed to Kentucky very early Sunday morning
(Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos) |
Blake Heap, who oversees Ward's horses at Santa Anita, said that Judy the
Beauty was on a 4:45 a.m. (PST) Tex Sutton charter bound for Louisville,
Kentucky, on Sunday.
"They all came in here looking good and they are looking
good coming out," said Heap, noting that No Nay Never and Undrafted, the
respective second and
third in the Turf Sprint, remained at Santa Anita.
For the weekend, the Ward raiders posted two victories,
three seconds and a third. On Friday, Hootenanny and Luck of the Kitten ran 1-2
in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf and Sunset Glow was second in the Breeders'
Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
"Do you realize how lucky we could have been?" Heap said. "Undrafted had to
weave his way through horses and (jockey) Joel (Rosario) gets clear (on Bobby's
Kitten) and zings on by on the outside. No Nay Never never saw him and (jockey)
Frankie (Dettori) said when he did, he fought back."
"I don't know if I could feel any better," Ward said when reached
by phone from Florida. "It was awesome.
"All of them except for maybe No Nay Never will stay in
training," he added. "With him being owned by Coolmore, we will see what they
want to do. With the Breeders' Cup being at Keeneland (in 2015) and how well he
does there, I would love to give him one more go. All my horses do so well at
Keeneland and I think (No Nay Never) definitely has some good racing left in
him."
Party time was planned for friends and fans
at 12:30 Sunday afternoon in Barn 88 in honor of Goldencents, the two-time Dirt
Mile winner who was scheduled to be vanned to Ontario Airport at 1:30 for an
afternoon flight to Kentucky, where the four-year-old will begin a stud career at
Spendthrift Farm.
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Sharla Sanders, operations manager for trainer Leandro Mora, walked to
the entrance to Stall 1, where Goldencents stood in the back.
"He's number one
in our hearts too," Sanders said of the colt who overcame the 1 post
position to become the first repeat winner of the Dirt Mile Friday. "It will be
hard to find someone to fill his stall, that's for sure.
"We're going to miss him, but it's so nice to retire him
sound," he added. "He's getting brushed and spit-shined and ready for
departure. I'm so happy he is going to Spendthrift. The people there are so
wonderful, and we will be able to keep in touch with him. It's a happy day but a
sad day for us too."
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