Undefeated Grade 1 winner Shanghai Bobby, trainer Todd Pletcher’s morning-line favorite for
Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, got his first glimpse of picturesque Santa Anita Thursday morning
after arriving on the Tex Sutton flight Wednesday.
“It’s good to be here,” Pletcher said after ‘Bobby’ galloped over the main
track and later was schooled in the paddock. “The horse has been perfect so far.
He seems to be handling everything we throw at him. He steps up in class and
steps up in distance, so we’ll try one more time.”
The son of Harlan’s Holiday already has bankrolled $607,000 for Starlight
Racing by winning his first four starts, three of them in stakes company. On
Saturday, Starlight will have to share whatever earnings the colt makes with
Coolmore Stud, which this week purchased a 50-percent partnership for an
undisclosed sum in the colt.
“It went pretty quickly,” Starlight Racing’s principal owner Jack Wolf
said.
“I had two parties approach us at the same time. We talked back and forth and
came up with a deal that I think is good for them and good for us. I think you
have to put a value on this horse as a stallion prospect and as a racing
prospect. I’m tickled to death that we’ve got the stallion side pretty much
taken care of.”
Saturday’s race should go a long way in adding to the racing side. Shanghai
Bobby’s last two races have been won by increasing margins, but this will be his
first two-turn assignment. He also will race without Lasix for the first time
under the new Breeders’ Cup ban for all two-year-old performers this weekend.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Pletcher said. “It’s unchartered
water, but he’s never shown any signs of bleeding. If they haven’t bled prior to
the race, I think the chances of them bleeding in the race are diminished. We’ll
have to wait and see and have them scoped after the race.”
Shanghai Bobby’s last two wins came in the Grade 1 Champagne and Grade 2
Hopeful, races that saw Godolphin Racing’s Fortify finishing third and second,
respectively. The Distorted Humor colt galloped 1 1/2 miles Thursday morning at
Santa Anita for a rematch with his nemesis in
Saturday’s Juvenile.
“He’s a big, powerful horse. He looks like a four-year-old. He’s just a little
bit slower than Shanghai Bobby,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “We just have
to hope things for some reason go in our favor, whether it’s the mile and a
sixteenth or no Lasix for them. We’ve never been on Lasix.”
Win or lose in the Juvenile, McLaughlin thinks Fortify has a bright future.
“We think he’s a beautiful mover with a great stride. Hopefully, he’ll get
better with age,” McLaughlin said.
While many winners of the Juvenile have gone on to bigger and better things,
only one, Street Sense, managed to go on and win the Kentucky Derby. The O’Neill
brothers could add the name He’s Had Enough to that short list after already
sending out I’ll Have Another to take this spring’s Run for the Roses.
Dennis O’Neill, brother and assistant to trainer Doug O’Neill, picked out
both He’s Had Enough and I’ll Have Another for owner Paul Reddam.
“Physically, he’s got as much ability as I’ll Have Another,” said Dennis
O’Neill of He’s Had Enough, victorious in one of three races. “Mentally, he has
not. He’s always gawking around in the morning. He’s Baby Huey out there. I just
hope he figures it out.”
The Tapit colt galloped 1 1/2 miles on the Santa Anita main
track Thursday under exercise rider Jonny Garcia.
Dynamic Sky may be only a two-years old and have just three starts, but the Juvenile hopeful is catching on pretty
quickly to his new surroundings.
“He schooled good enough yesterday that we’re not going to school him today,”
said trainer Mark Casse after he supervised the son of Sky Mesa’s morning
gallop.
Owned by John Oxley along with stablemate and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies contender
Spring in the Air, Dynamic Sky finished second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity
at Keeneland going the Juvenile distance of 1 1/16 miles. However, his three starts
thus far have been on
the Polytrack at Woodbine and Keeneland.
“I’m not concerned about him handling the main track,” said Casse, who is
hoping to notch his first Breeders’ Cup win after 10 tries and will saddle a
contingent of five. “We plotted this all out ahead of time. All five of my
horses were at Churchill Downs training on dirt for a month before they came
here. But you
never know with young horses until they do it for the first time.”
Spring in the Air is in the same boat as Dynamic Sky, having run in a 8
1/2-furlong race on Keeneland’s Polytrack, but did one better than her
stablemate when recording a one-length victory in the Grade 1 Alcibiades. The Spring
at Last filly also will be trying a conventional dirt surface for the first time
in the Juvenile Fillies.
One race before the Juvenile Fillies, Casse will saddle yet another daughter
of Spring at Last in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Grade 2 vixen Spring Venture,
a perfect three-for-three on the grass, comes into the race with a
solid chance of giving her trainer his first win in the Breeders’ Cup.
“We’ve got a lot of really good young horses,” Casse said while
discussing why 2012 is the most successful year for the four-time Sovereign
Award winner, who is currently ranked fifth in North America in earnings and the
number of graded stakes wins.
“It’s no different than a good college basketball or football team. When
you’re successful, it builds more success. It’s easier to recruit, and the
recruiting is everything.
“Of all the things I do, the number one thing is going out and finding the
horses. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert, you’re
only as good as your players. We’re fortunate that we have some wonderful owners
now who have faith in us and are letting us go out and spend the money.”
While Spring Venture sports a perfect mark, Spring in the Air will bring a
2-2-0 mark from four starts into the Juvenile Fillies against the likes of
unbeaten Executiveprivilege, Kauai Katie and Dreaming of Julia.
Executiveprivilege galloped 1 3/8 miles
Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. under Dana Barnes as trainer Bob Baffert looked on. The
Hall of Fame conditioner downplayed some recent reports that the daughter of
First Samurai was not
training as well as she should have been coming up to this championship race.
“Her works have been good,” Baffert said. “I know some clocker said she
didn’t work so well one time, but she’s doing fine. She’s fit. She’s plenty fit.
I wouldn’t put her out there if she wasn’t and I didn’t think she could handle
the load. Different horses train different ways. Not all of them run to the way
they train. Not all of them train to the way they run. But she’s been training
fine.”
Dreaming of Julia and Kauai Katie spent their
first night at Santa Anita Wednesday and galloped over the main track Thursday
morning with Pletcher supervising.
“Both galloped over the track extremely well this morning, showing no ill
effects from the trip,” Pletcher said. “Basically they missed one day of
training in New York . They jogged in the barn one day. The owners are blessed
with a couple of very talented fillies. Just looking at the way the race set up,
and the way both fillies were doing, we felt like it was the right thing to do
to give them both the opportunity in this spot.”
The Stonestreet Stable stars have been separated to this point, with each compiling a
three-for-three record. The homebred Dreaming of Julia won the one-mile, Grade 1 Frizette in her last
start while Kauai Katie took the six-furlong, Grade 2 Matron.
“Dreaming of Julia is very straightforward, what I would consider the perfect
blend of her sire and dam,” Pletcher said. “She’s by A.P. Indy out of a dam
(Dream Rush) that was very good at sprints and middle distances, so she’s got a
combination of speed and stamina. I would anticipate two turns would be even
better for her.”
Kauai Katie is by Malibu Moon and a granddaughter of one of Pletcher’s
favorite runners, More Than Ready. Stonestreet put up $490,000 to purchase Kauai
Katie in March.
“We kind of liked the way she rated last time,” Pletcher said. “That’s always
a good sign with these young horses. This is going to be a tough race. We knew
that coming in.”
Juvenile Filly entrant Beholder stood in the training gate under
exercise rider Janeen Painter Thursday morning before galloping 1 1/2 miles.
“She’s doing good,” trainer Richard Mandella said. “I know there is a lot of
speed in the race, especially that Malibu Moon filly (Kauai Katie) of Todd
Pletcher’s. But I think they’ll have to respect my filly’s speed and I’m hoping
nobody will think it is worth their while to try to take her on. I’ve got
(Garrett) Gomez riding and he’s a pro. You always like to turn it over to a pro.
He’ll know what to do.”
Trainer Chad Brown will saddle two runners in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
on Saturday, and sent his colts out for a 1 1/2 mile gallop Thursday in
preparation for the contest.
Noble Tune has won both of his starts, including the Grade 3 Pilgrim at
Belmont Park, while Balance the Books showed quality
during the summer at Saratoga with a win in the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes. His
victory in the Grade 3 Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland earned him a shot in the Breeders’ Cup.
“He’s got two wins in three starts and both of his wins are in graded
stakes,” Brown said of the Lemon Drop Kid colt. “So, for a two-year-old grass horse you can’t do any better
than that. He’s a very talented horse, as is Noble Tune, who is two-for-two. They
are very similar. Both horses are coming into the race in good shape.”
The charts show that Noble Tune, a son of Unbridled’s Song, has been a more convincing winner, but Brown
said that the black-type on paper doesn’t tell the whole story.
“In fairness to Balance the Books, I think he’s been in situations with
bigger fields with some challenging posts, particularly in the With
Anticipation,” Brown said. “The Bourbon was a roughly run race. Balance the
Books has been in trickier situations than the other horse. However, the other
horse has been super impressive.
“You could dissect their short careers up to this point and their running
styles, but at the end of the day, when you shake everything out, they end up
right about on the line together for me. They have equal opportunity to win the
race.
“There are positives and negatives to each horse’s races. But so far, these
horses are both stakes-winning two-year-olds already and I think they’ve done it
the right way.”
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