Freshman stallions SCRIMSHAW (Gulch) and GREAT NOTION (Elusive Quality) were
each represented by their first winners on Sunday.
Ravin Maniac was making just her second start in the 6TH race at Arlington
Park and sped through 4 1/2 furlongs in :52 1/5 to give Scrimshaw his first
winner as a sire. The dark bay miss, owned by Richard Ravin and trainer Larry
Rivelli, was 1 1/4 lengths clear on the wire of the maiden special weight with
Tim Thornton aboard.
Scrimshaw began his career in the fall of his juvenile season, taking his
maiden debut by two lengths before capturing an allowance by a head. Both those
starts came at Santa Anita, and that is where the D. Wayne Lukas trainee made
his three-year-old and stakes bow. Finishing third in the Santa Catalina S. (G2)
and fourth in the Hutcheson S. (G2), the dark bay finally recorded his first
black-type win in the Lexington S. (G2) at Keeneland. He couldn’t keep up in the
Kentucky Derby (G1), running 11th by 10 1/2 lengths, and finished that far back
in the Preakness S. (G1) while still third, then finished last of six
in the Belmont S. (G1) to finish out the Triple Crown series.
Scrimshaw’s best performance during his four-year-old campaign came as a
fourth in the Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup S. (G2) back at Keeneland, and he
concluded his career with an allowance win at Churchill Downs, heading to the
breeding shed with a 13-4-0-2 line and $461,842 in earnings.
The Kentucky-bred Scrimshaw is out of the winning Rogue Girl (Sham), who is a
half-sister to Grade 2 victress and 1995 Alabama S. (G1) third-placer Rogues
Walk (Ends Well). The eight-year-old stallion stands for a $3,500 live foal fee
at Millennium Farms Kentucky near Lexington, Kentucky.
Kentucky-homebred Cherubini debuted at Churchill Downs in the 1ST race
Sunday, taking the lead after breaking in the air and posting a 1 1/4-length
victory under John McKee. Owned by Silverton Hill LLC and trained by Darrin
Miller, the same connections as her sire Great Notion, the juvenile bay lass ran
five furlongs on the fast dirt in :59 2/5 to begin her career with a victory, once again just like her sire who broke his maiden at Churchill.
Great Notion followed up his maiden score with an 8 1/2-length allowance win
at Turfway Park in 2002. After running second by a nose in the Turfway Prevue S.
at that same venue in his three-year-old bow, the bay posted an easy nine-length
victory in the Southwest S. at Oaklawn Park. A runner-up effort in the Rebel S.
followed, but he suffered his first major setback when stretching out to nine
furlongs in the Blue Grass S. (G1), finishing a distant ninth. Reverting back to
sprint distances for the remainder of his career, Great Notion added seconds in
the King’s Bishop (G1) and Amsterdam S. (G2) to his line, which stood at
12-3-4-0, $194,608 upon his retirement.
Great Notion was produced by the unraced Evening Primrose (Dayjur), herself a
daughter of Grade 3 winner Water Lily (Riverman). Evening Primrose counted among
her half-siblings Grade 1 hero Talinum (Alydar); Gharam (Green Dancer), third in
the 1990 French One Thousand Guineas (Fr-G1); and Noble Lily (*Vaguely Noble),
herself the granddam of 2006 German highweight Notability (King’s Best). This is
the same family as 1971 French champion First Bloom (Primera) as well as 1995
Australian Horse of the Year and multiple champion Jeune (Kalaglow).
The eight-year-old Great Notion stands for a live foal fee of $3,500 at
Northview Stallion Station near Chesapeake City, Maryland.