The Breeders’ Cup - Early Top Fives

59 days to go ... MARATHON 1. Temple City 2. A.U. Miner 3. Cloudy’s Knight 4. Alcomo 5. Hold Me Back TURF SPRINT 1. California Flag 2. Chamberlain Bridge 3. Smokey Fire 4. Fatal Bullet 5. Stradivinsky FILLY & MARE SPRINT 1. Champagne D’oro 2. Rightly So 3. Sara Louise 4. Mona de Momma 5. Rapport JUVENILE FILLIES 1. Tell a Kelly 2. Position Limit 3. Twelve Pack Shelley 4. R Heat Lightning 5. Wickedly Perfect FILLY & MARE TURF 1. Midday 2. Snow Fairy 3. Stacelita 4. Red Desire 5. Éclair de Lune MILE DIRT 1. Concord Point 2. Crown of Thorns 3. Warrior’s Reward 4. Trappe Shot 5. Bribon JUVENILE 1. Stay Thirsty 2. Boys at Tosconova 3. J P’s Gusto 4. Uncle Mo 5. Jaycito MILE 1. Goldikova 2. Sidney’s Candy 3. Makfi 4. The Usual Q.T. 5. Courageous Cat SPRINT 1. Discreetly Mine 2. Big Drama 3. Atta Boy Roy 4. Vineyard Haven 5. Here Comes Ben TURF 1. Paddy O’Prado 2. Fame and Glory 3. Cape Blanco 4. Debussy 5. Gio Ponti LADIES’ CLASSIC 1. Rachel Alexandra 2. Blind Luck 3. Devil May Care 4. Biofuel 5. Evening Jewel CLASSIC 1. Blame 2. Quality Road 3. Zenyatta 4. Lookin at Lucky 5. Twirling Candy

How Good is Twirling Candy???

Is he like Seattle Slew, the only horse ever to win the Triple Crown while still undefeated? Or maybe he is more similar to Goggles McCoy who won his first four races before going down in flames in Del Mar’s recent El Cajon Stakes. The answer likely lies somewhere in between. Only time will tell whether Twirling Candy will be closer to a great champion or simply an allowance horse who started his career off in impressive fashion, but one thing is for sure, the sophomore son of Candy Ride has the potential to be a superstar. His strong talent was certainly on display yesterday as Twirling Candy forged a less than straight path, under rider Joel Rosario, to score a very easy 3 ¼ length victory in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby. The win maintained Twirling Candy’s unblemished record, and it also has his connections ready to shoot for the stars. ***The remainder of today's column can be found on Youbet.com*** Click Here

Here Comes Ben & Lopresti

In a race full of top class sprinters and grade 1 winners, like Vineyard Haven, Big Drama, Warrior’s Reward, Bribon, and Girolamo, little attention was paid to a horse who had never before sniffed graded stakes racing and his trainer who was making his initial attempt at the highest level. Lack of experience against top competition would not matter yesterday though, as the unheralded Kentucky shipper made a strong move between horses at the three sixteenths pole, and then powered past multiple stakes winner Big Drama, to win the $250,000 Forego Handicap by three-quarters of a length. Here Comes Ben, sent off at nearly 10-1, finished the seven panels in a time of 1:22.50 over the fast Saratoga strip. The victory stamped Here Comes Ben's ticket straight to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in two months, as he earned a respectable 104 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort. Outside of Kentucky, Charles Lopresti was not a well known trainer.  Not only did yesterday represent his first starter and winner in a Grade 1 stakes, but it was also his first ever starter at the Spa. Admittedly, Lopresti was a little intimidated bringing up a horse for a big race at Saratoga, but he wanted to test his stable star, Here Comes Ben. Mission accomplished.  In nearly 17 years as a trainer, this is Lopresti's best horse yet, and he will be more at home back in Kentucky, when he saddles Here Comes Ben in the Breeders' Cup.  Rider Alex Solis has quickly become a fan of the dark bay colt, who he has ridden in each of last three impressive starts. Owned by Brandon and Marianne Chase, Here Comes Ben is now perfect in four starts in 2010. In winning his first try against grade 1 horses, the four-year-old son of Street Cry has now never finished off the board in six tries on the dirt. It is interesting to note that after a non-descript three-year-old season, Here Comes Ben has now run all of his races this year at seven furlongs. The combination of the dirt and especially the fondness for the distance, made Here Comes Ben an attractive play at the odds yesterday, and one that I am pleased to say I did not miss out on. As the Breeders’ Cup approaches, he is clearly a horse on the improve. His best three lifetime races are his last three, with the previous two being run over the same Churchill Downs track that will host the BC.   Even after cashing a nice ticket with him yesterday, Here Comes Ben will not be my top pick come November.  Although the field was weakened with today's news of the injury to Majesticperfection, who may never race again, there is one horse who I like above all others.  His name is Discreetly Mine, and he is on a major, sprinting roll.  As for Here Comes Ben, you must respect a horse who has improved as much as he has this Summer, plus you already know he likes the Churchill surface.  If the BC Sprint was at seven furlongs, I would like him a whole lot more than I will at six, but with his performance in the Forego, we learned not to underestimate him or his trainer any longer.

Time to Usher in the Stars of Tomorrow

There is nothing more exciting than discovering racing's next star. A potential Breeders’ Cup, Kentucky Oaks, or even the next Triple Crown champion could be out there. Juveniles have the world at their hooves this time of year. You never know where the next champion is going to come from, and if they happen to have flashed brilliance early on, the expectations can increase exponentially. Four horses whose potential especially fill my imagination with visions of grandeur, are running this holiday weekend in Saratoga’s prestigious, meet-ending stakes for juveniles. Monday’s Hopeful is topped by Boys at Tosconova, Wine Police, and Stay Thirsty, while tomorrow in the Spinaway, I will be watching the filly Valiant Passion closely. ***The remainder of today's column can be found on Youbet.com*** Click Here

Quality Road Over Troubled Waters

Quality Road remains an enigma. Truly a horse that demands our attention, a new chapter in his saga will unfold tomorrow afternoon in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. Even away from the daily grind, I find my thoughts not drifting too far away from the talented colt. On vacation on the shores of Lake Superior, I find peace in looking out on the majestic beast of a lake. Big and beautiful, it is also powerful and unforgiving. I lose myself as my eyes focus on the waves rising up and then crashing down. I wonder about the countless mysteries that must lie beneath the surface. As I ponder the words I use to describe the greatest of all the great lakes, I can’t help but to think about the Lake Superior of race horses. I am speaking of Quality Road, and like the lake, he is big and beautiful, and powerful and unforgiving. He is also a horse full of mystery, and much like the waves of Lake Superior, his career seems to rise and fall with each passing moment. The wave rose with his successful career debut late in his juvenile season. The single race was impressive enough for many to have him on their early Kentucky Derby watch list. …and then the wave crashing down as Quality Road was easily defeated in his sophomore debut, beaten in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park as the 7-10 favorite. The wave rose quickly again in his next two starts as he gained revenge on his vanquisher in winning the Fountain of Youth, and then broke a track record in his Florida Derby triumph. The two stakes wins propelled him to be the most talked about horse on the Derby trail. …and then the wave crashing down as Quality Road was taken out of consideration for the Run for the Roses due to troublesome quarter cracks. The soreness relented, and Quality Road would not return for his new trainer, Todd Pletcher, until August. The wave rose again with a vengeance, as Quality Road’s long awaited return to the races produced an electrifying performance and another track record in easily taking the Amsterdam Stakes against a solid field. His bandwagon became packed almost immediately as experts called him the best sophomore male in the nation. …and then that wave crashed down again as the real sophomore champion, Summer Bird, defeated him consecutively in the Travers and the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Quality Road‘s star took another hit when his penchant for resisting the starting gate came to a head in the BC Classic causing a frightening situation. The wave rose one more time as the son of Elusive Quality started his older career with three straight stakes wins, including a tour de force showing in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap that had the speed figure gurus falling over themselves to glorify. The bandwagon was revved up again, and the Horse of the Year talk was aplenty. …and then the wave came crashing down again. Blame was to blame this time as heavily favored Quality Road could not hold off the improving stretch runner in last month’s Whitney. In the process, Blame snatched the mantle as the best male horse in America from the talented but enigmatic Quality Road. Tomorrow is the Woodward … look for the fortunes of Quality Road to rise again. Dramamine anyone?

Remembering … Dehere

Sitting in the passenger seat, as my wife drives the family truckster, I find myself admiring her driving skills. Temporarily boxed in because of a slow driver who is clearly oblivious to the stay left except when passing rule, my wife is forced to decelerate until she can swing out to the right. She finds her opening and does not hesitate. Because of the forced slow down, it takes a second for the Mazda to accelerate, but then it does, and we are gone. I can feel the pure acceleration deep inside my body, as we move to speeds that leave the offending car behind in a flash. The move sends my memory hurtling back in time to when a juvenile colt named Dehere ruled the Saratoga Summer like I had never seen before. “You have to see this.” I exclaimed to my father and brother, as I pulled them over to the replay televisions at Saratoga. We hadn’t been at Saratoga long, but I had to see the two-year-old who had left the racing world buzzing days before. The year was 1993 and race replays were not nearly as readily available as they are now. So when I arrived at the Spa, I knew reviewing the race at the track would need to be one of my first tasks. I had just watched the replay and now I needed to show my track partners. The race in question was the Saratoga Special, and back then it was the first in Saratoga’s prestigious three-race series for the youngsters. What I saw on the monitor was stunning. My expectations were high going in and they were only exceeded. Performances like the one that three of us watched is what racing is all about for me. Lightning in a bottle, it was the stuff of legends… The Special had been the son of Deputy Minister out of Sister Dot’s second lifetime start after an easy maiden win at Monmouth, and I was hooked. Juveniles do not do what I had seen Dehere do, at least they hadn‘t since his broodmare sire Secretariat had come to Saratoga 22 years before. Having been raised in New Jersey, there was a natural attraction for me to Dehere. He was named after the star Seton Hall basketball player Terry Dehere and he was owned and bred by one of the top stables in the Garden State, in Robert Brennan’s Due Process Stable. My sudden infatuation with the bay colt prompted a day trip up to Saratoga for his next race, the Sanford Stakes. I would not be disappointed. Amazingly, more than halfway through the race, new jockey Chris McCarron was getting the heavily favored horse into a eerily similar predicament as he had dealt with in the Saratoga Special. This time he would extricate himself sooner, and the result was poetry to my eyes. Next it would be on to the final leg of Saratoga’s series for juveniles, the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes. If Dehere could win, he would become the first horse in 76 years to sweep the three stakes. The final leg was the biggest, as many a champion had won the Hopeful, and Dehere would add his name to the impressive list. Trainer Reynaldo Nobles had seen enough of the boxed in on the rail performances, and he, along with rider Chris McCarron, would institute new tactics for their star. They knew they had the best horse so they decided to let him roll early. This tactic led to Dehere being in between horse in a strong speed battle. The new style and the heavy pressure on the front end made no difference to this super youngster as he would roll home once again. After four lifetime races, and three stakes wins at Saratoga, Dehere was becoming a bit of a legend. His odds had plummeted to almost unheard of lows in big races after the Saratoga Special. So when his next start would come around, in the sloppy Futurity, it would be no surprise that Dehere would go once again go off at 2-5. The Futurity would not be a one horse show though. In the field would be another undefeated colt with New Jersey connections, and he was fast. I was in the stands at Belmont that day to see the horse I thought to be a potential legend, but much to my dismay, the speed horse got out there on the slop, and despite a valiant rally by Dehere, splashed home a half length winner. His name was Holy Bull and he would be named an overwhelming Horse of the Year one year later. The defeat may have broken the aura of invincibility surrounding Dehere, but in truth he had run a huge race on a track that favored the front runners. He would return to Belmont for the biggest race for East Coast juveniles, the Champagne, the following month. Holy Bull had shipped to Florida, so once again the Due Process star was an overwhelming favorite. He easily defeated his overmatched rivals by four lengths in preperation for a trip west. The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile of 1993 turned out to be a mess for Dehere. Despite the depth of the field, he was made the 7-10 favorite, but staggered home an uninterested 8th. I am not sure if it was the long trip, first try at two-turns, or the Santa Anita surface that bothered him, but Dehere had come up empty. Even after this failure in the Breeders’ Cup, Dehere would take home the Eclipse Award as the outstanding juvenile of 1993. Dehere would run only two more times. Both races were at Gulfstream Park in the Winter of 1994. Second in his sophomore debut, Dehere would rebound to win the Fountain of Youth and regain his spot as the early Kentucky Derby favorite. In the process he defeated Holy Bull and the soon to be Kentucky Derby winner, Go For Gin. But for Dehere, there would be no opportunity for Triple Crown glory. A fracture of his right hind cannon bone during training would cut his racing career short. In the end, Dehere retired with 6 wins and 2 seconds in only nine starts, and earned just under three quarters of a million dollars. Since his retirement he has been a relatively successful sire all over the world, standing in Japan, America, and Australia. Today at age 19, he is a shuttle sire for Coolmore Stud. The sire of graded stakes winners in all three nations, Dehere is best known in America as the sire of Graeme Hall and Take Charge Lady. In sweeping the Saratoga Special, Sanford and Hopeful, I honestly believe that I had never been more impressed by any juvenile through that point of the season. His acceleration in those races was simply unforgettable. While his career may never have reached greater heights after that Summer, it was in that one calandar month in 1993 that had been more than enough for this fan. In that month, I saw Dehere and I saw greatness. I remember you Dehere.