Hastings' Weekly Winter Round-Up
A quiet start to the season for local trainers who have headed south may change this weekend, with some familiar names due to run at Turf Paradise
Local Names in Action
It’s been a slow start to the winter for Hastings’ trainers who have ventured south, although that may change in the coming days, with several familiar names slated to run at Turf Paradise.
Trainer Nancy Betts saddles QUINTECENTS, who runs in Saturday’s sixth race at Turf Paradise, for the first time since claiming the five-year-old earlier in the month, while, 30 minutes later, fellow handler Cindy Krasner will tighten the girth on Hastings’ veteran, JOCK TALK.
The Betts barn is also represented by AMERICAN TSUNAMI on Monday, while former Hastings’ inmate Jaymie Pearman Cruz (daughter of Hastings’ trainer Patty Leaney) saddles LIL MIRACLE MAN in Turf Paradise’s fifth race on Saturday and has Hastings’ favourite FORT LANGLEY entered on Monday.
Hastings-based rider Kerron Khelawan takes the rides on JOCK TALK and AMERICAN TSUNAMI and is slowly gathering momentum down in Arizona; picking up regular mounts for trainers new to him as his obvious talent becomes more widely recognized. “KK” has hit the board on five of his nine Turf Paradise mounts and that elusive maiden win at the Phoenix track is surely only a matter of time.
Talking of riders familiar to Hastings’ fans, we’re delighted to see that former leading apprentice Fraser Aebly continues to thrive at Woodbine, rattling off a headline-grabbing second, third and fourth-race treble in Toronto on Friday and going down by just a head in the eighth. Congratulations to Fraser and the best of luck to all our Hastings friends with racing interests in the coming days.
121st Coronation Futurity: Championship Up for Grabs
A big field will try the 121st Coronation Futurity on Saturday at Woodbine and it is wide open for any colt to break through.
Courtesy: Canadian Thoroughbred
The winner of Saturday’s $250,000 Coronation Futurity could well be in the running for Canada’s Champion Two-year-old male, but predicting who that may be is a difficult task. There are 11 young fellows in the 1 1/8 mile Coronation, race 9 at Woodbine on November 30.
The three major races for two-year-olds up to this weekend, the Summer (G1), Grey (G3), and Cup & Saucer, were all won by different horses and none are in the Coronation. European colt New Century won the Summer, Kentucky-bred He’s Not Joking won the Grey and Scorching, placed first in the Cup & Saucer, is on the farm getting ready for 2025.
There is just one stakes winner in the field, DEWOLF (Silent Name (Jpn)), a handsome dark bay owned by the X-Men Racing IV Stable and Canuck Racing Club. He won the Bull Page Stakes at 7 furlongs on the turf in September, was placed second in the Cup & Saucer and finished second in the Grey.
The 1 1/8 mile distance of the Coronation may be a question for Dewolf, who is trained by Kevin Attard and will be ridden by Rafael Hernandez.
Speaking of the Cup & Saucer, the unofficial winner that day, ASHLEY’S ARCHER, a colt by Karakontie (Jpn), won that turf race by a nose, but he was judged guilty of causing interference late in the race and was disqualified and place fifth. Since then, Gary Barber and Archer Racing’s colt went to Kentucky, but did not draw into a race. This will be his second race on Tapeta. Sahin Civaci is named on Ashley’s Archer.
Recent route winners KEKOA (Reload) and YLIVOIMAINEN (More Than Ready) are worth a look and Al and Bill Ulwelling’s FABER might go better after an awkward run in the Grey. Faber is by first-year sire Improbable and from two-time winner Disobedient, who was a promising filly by Into Mischief.
Incidentally, it has been 50 years since the Coronation winner has come back and won the King’s Plate.
79th Princess Elizabeth Stakes:
Who Will Wear The Crown?
A super field of 12 will compete in the biggest race for Canadian-bred juvenile fillies on Saturday at Woodbine.
Courtesy: Canadian Thoroughbred
The top race for Canadian bred two-year-old fillies will be run for the 79th time this Saturday, November 30, at Woodbine and a hefty purse of $250,000 and perhaps Sovereign Award consideration awaits the winner.
A big field of 12 has been entered and the 1 1/16 mile race on Tapeta is the eighth event on a big card that also includes the $250,000 Coronation Futurity, the top race for two-year-old males.
Two trainers who have done well in the race in recent years, KEVIN ATTARD and STUART SIMON, are well-represented. Attard has won two of the last three Princess Elizabeth Stakes events and Simon won back-to-back editions in 2018 and 2019.
They won’t have the starting favourite in the race ‒ that will be D.J. Stables’ SHIFTY, trained by Mark Casse, more on her in a moment ‒ but they have major contenders
Attard has 11 stakes wins at the meeting and looks for more with BRENGUNGIRL, who won the South Ocean Stakes easily after a handy debut win. The Canuck Racing Club filly by Ontario sire Point of Entry adds Lasix for her first attempt at the route distance. Brengungirl was bred by Adena Springs, the breeder of one of Attard’s recent Princess Elizabeth winners, the mighty Moira. Rafael Hernandez stays as her rider.
Attard also has the exciting BEACH CRICKET for owner Derek Chin, a filly who was flying past fillies in her debut to land third in that sprint. She is an Omaha Beach filly bred by CEC Stables.
Simon sends out Anne and William Scott’s REGAL MOMENT, also by Point of Entry, and this gal won her debut and then was second to the colt Kekoa in a recent optional allowance race around two turns. Fraser Aebly rides and Bill Sorokolit Jr.’s JWS Stable bred Regal Moment.
CRYSTAL VISIONS is owned by Simon and Brent McLellan and she came off a short layoff to finish third in a six furlong sprint behind subsequent stakes winner Pop Idol in her most recent start. The Bee Jersey filly has Ryan Munger aboard and she was bred by Charles Fipke.
Right in the middle of the starting gate in post 7 is Shifty, by Medaglia D’Oro, bred by Anderson Farms and a $350,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase. Shifty, under leading rider Sahin Civaci, won the Catch a Glimpse Stakes on the grass in her second career start, was a wide sixth in the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct and then third in the Grey Stakes (G3) against colts after going too quickly on the pace.
Trainer Mike DePaulo has entered three maidens including the very good, quite unlucky READY FOR CANDY, a Zilli Racing Stable filly who was a super third in the Mazarine Stakes (G3) in her latest outing. The daughter of Twirling Candy has US rider Julien Leparoux named.
Stakes Tripleheader Set Saturday
Headed by GI Hollywood Derby
Courtesy Del Mar Press
Del Mar’s highly attractive Turf Festival goes into high gear Saturday at the seaside oval with a trio of turf tests at different levels on tap for racing fans throughout the afternoon. Topping off the day’s action will be the 84th running of the Hollywood Derby, a Grade I headliner that carries a $300,000 purse and that is limited to – as the name suggests – 3-year-olds.
Six of the Baker’s Dozen in the nine-furlong turf test have out-of-town connections. Four of them have won Derbies already this year. Five of them are last-out winners. And, just for fun, let’s throw in two fillies taking on the boys. There’s also a millionaire, a ridgling, a British-bred colt and a pair of geldings. That’s a lot in the mix for the race that made California Chrome Horse of the Year (for the first time) in 2014.
Then there’s a dozen older horses wanting to run a mile and a sixteenth on the lawn in the 48th edition of the $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap, a Grade II testing that serves as a nifty undercard offering on the nine-race program. And finally, 2-year-old fillies will get to strut their stuff in a one-mile grass affair that will bring out no fewer than 13 hopefuls with an eye toward the prize in a $100,000, Grade III contest.
You pretty much get one of every kind over the course of the afternoon, a horse player’s delight and a racing fan’s early Christmas gift all wrapped up in one.
Hollywood Derby favorite Carson’s Run is a shipper from the east who has won five of nine lifetime starts and more than $1-million. He’s a son of the Tapit sire Cupid.
Redistricting, the top choice in the Seabiscuit, is also in from the east where he just missed in his comeback start for ’24 in a Grade III at Aqueduct last month. The British-bred 4-year-old failed to finish the course here last year when he competed in the Hollywood Derby.
Supra Speed, the one to beat on the line in the Jimmy Durante, was in a world of trouble in her last start at Santa Anita in October. The Justify chestnut was a good second in the Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on September 7 in her prior start.
First post Saturday is the usual 12:30 p.m.
European News:
Sister to Chaldean Equals European Record
at $3.3 Million at Tattersalls’ December Foal Sale
The FRANKEL own-sister to 2000 Guineas winner CHALDEAN equalled the European record price for a foal when selling for 2,500,000 guineas to Amo Racing on an extraordinary day of trade at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale. The session saw the five highest priced foals to sell in Europe this year, and record turnover for a day at a European foal sale.
Amo Racing Secure Whitsbury Manor’s Frankel Filly for 2,500,000 Guineas
“The Queen of the Show” was how Tattersalls auctioneer Alastair Pim introduced Whitsbury Manor Stud’s daughter of their blue hen SUELITA to the packed sales ring, and the FRANKEL own-sister to 2000 Guineas and Dewhurst winner CHALDEAN exceeded even the loftiest of expectations at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale when selling for a European record 2,500,000 guineas. The price equalled that set at the 1997 Tattersalls December Foal Sale when the brother to Derby winner GENEROUS set the previous benchmark.
The opening bid of 1,000,000 guineas by Philipp Stauffenberg gave an indication of the firepower to come, with bidding eventually narrowing down to a prolonged exchange of bids between trainer Paddy Twomey and Amo Racing’s Kia Joorabchian, with the latter offering the record-equalling final bid following a phone call. It is the highest price ever achieved by a filly foal in Europe, eclipsing the 1,800,000 guineas for subsequent Grade 1 winner MY TYPHOON at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale in 2002.
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott commented: "What is there to say? We have spent 2.5 million on an own-sister to a Classic winner and I think we have made a good move, and it is a brave statement of intent by Kia. To have come as he did into the yearling sales was one thing, but to continue it into the foals, it is a really good sign moving forward with a long-term aim.
"I was willing Kia to make that last bid, he had to make a phone call - he said that he had to phone a friend! I said don't ask the audience! I was willing him along, I am over the moon - such horses are so very hard to buy. The mare is unbelievable, the farm is unbelievable, the sire is unbelievable... she is a lovely filly."
He concluded: "This is a long-term project and we have come a long way from early Ascot two-year-old races, it is great to see and I am delighted we made that final and last bid."
Chris Harper, who took over the running of Whitsbury Manor Stud in the 1970s and whose son Ed Harper now runs the stud, said: "I am very emotional. Suelita was the last mare I bought, she was just my sort - very pretty, not very big, a nice big body with short legs. Did I think she could become what she has? Never!”
New Stride News
Bloodhorse Daily Headlines — Saturday, November 30
