DARLEY ALCIBIADES WINNER NEGLIGEE RETURNS TO BELMONT PARK ON MONDAY
Sovereign Stable’s Negligee had an easy morning on Saturday after her half-length victory over She Be Wild in Friday’s Darley Alcibiades (G1).
“She is heading back to Belmont Park on Monday morning,” trainer John Terranova said before catching a flight to New York. “I’ll be in New York this afternoon for Franny Freud, who is running in the Frizette (G1), and then tomorrow I’ll be at Woodbine to run a horse in the Grey (Breeders’ Cup Stakes, G3).”
This marked the second consecutive year that Terranova has shipped a 2-year-old filly that had prepped at Woodbine into Keeneland, won a stakes in her first start for the trainer and earned a berth in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. In 2008, Laragh won the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine in her first start for Terranova.
The similarities don’t end there.
Negligee was scheduled to run in last Sunday’s Miss Grillo (G3) at Belmont Park, but the race was rained off the turf. Laragh scratched out of last year’s Miss Grillo and came to Keeneland.
“The Miss Grillo stayed on the turf last year, but they had had a lot of rain and it was real heavy turf which she had had trouble with at Woodbine,” Terranova said. “The Jessamine was also an option for Negligee along with the Marazine (G3) which is today at Woodbine.
I just wanted her to run well. It was her first start for us and she had been giving us a good vibe.”
Franny Freud was partly responsible for Negligee joining the Terranova barn.
“Franny Freud is a nice horse, and in the Ontario Debutante Negligee got within a half-length of her,” Terranova said. “Nick Sallusto, who also helped us get Laragh, helped us purchase Negligee, too.”
The road to the Breeders’ Cup is where the run of similarities end for the fillies for now.
“Last year, there was only two weeks between the race here and the Breeders’ Cup,” Terranova said. “Laragh stayed here and trained and shipped to Santa Anita three days before. Negligee will train in New York as long as she can and take the last flight out to California.”
Terranova hopes Negligee’s trip to California for the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) produces a better result than Laragh’s third-place finish as the favorite in the Juvenile Fillies Turf.
“This was my first trip back to Keeneland to race since Laragh,” Terranova said. “I won my first race here in 1993 and it is always special to win one here.”
Trainer Wayne Catalano said She Be Wild was fine the morning after the race.
“She ran hard,” he said. “She didn’t get the trip we wanted. She didn’t settle.”
Catalano said the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies remained a possibility.
“The owners want to go,” he said. “We’ll see what she (She Be Wild) says.”
Also headed to the Breeders’ Cup from the Alcibiades is Peter Callahan’s Beautician, who finished fifth as the second choice after a tough trip.
“We are still going to go,” said trainer Ken McPeek, who saddled two winners on the opening-day card. “She just had an unlucky trip. That’s racing. She deserves to go. We still had a good day.”
PHOENIX WINNER FATAL BULLET ON TO CALIFORNIA ON MONDAY
Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Fatal Bullet remained on target for a return engagement in the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) when he won the $250,000 Phoenix (G3) on opening day of Keeneland’s fall meeting. With Eurico Rosa Da Silva aboard, Fatal Bullet, the 6-5 favorite, held off 3-1 second choice and highweight Capt. Candyman Can to win the six-furlong race by a half-length and score his second win in three starts this year.
“I’m very happy with the race,” said Reade Baker, who trains Fatal Bullet for Danny Dion’s Bear Stables Ltd. “We didn’t want the monster effort. We need that a month from now.”
Second to Midnight Lute in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Fatal Bullet is scheduled to fly to Southern California on Monday for another shot at the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on November 7. Baker said he would depart for Santa Anita a week later.
Baker said the Phoenix effort rivals Fatal Bullet’s performance in the Red Bullet gelding’s first start against older horses when he won the Bold Venture Stakes in July 2008 at Woodbine “and drowned them (winning by three lengths),” Baker said. “That’s when we realized we had a very good horse. This would be second.”
The Bold Venture marked the first time Fatal Bullet was ridden by Da Silva, who won the Phoenix in his Keeneland riding debut. Da Silva stood in the irons and waved his crop as he crossed the finish.
“He’s a happy kid,” said Baker about Da Silva, who won the historic Queen’s Plate this year on Eye of the Leopard. “He was happier being second in the Breeders’ Cup last year than the kid who rode the winner. He was wild. He’s a good rider, full of life.”
Da Silva and Fatal Bullet now have won five races together.
“He’s not an easy horse to ride,” Baker said about the gelding. “He doesn’t like to be hit. He doesn’t like lots of things. As he gets older, he gets more quirks about him. If you don’t know those quirks, you’re going to get nothing out of him. He plays his own game.”
TIZFIZ GETTING READY FOR LAST HURRAH
Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile Juddmonte Spinster (G1) offers the winner an automatic berth in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic on November 6, but trainer John Good is not looking that far down the road with Tizfiz.
“This is our Breeders’ Cup right here,” Good said of the 5-year-old daughter of Tiznow owned by Brian Kahn and the Richard J. O’Neill Trust. “She is going to be in the (Keeneland) November (Breeding Stock) Sale.”
Five months ago, Good could not have imagined he would be in this spot.
“Her form had kind of fizzled in California and in May she was bred to Unbridled’s Song but did not get pregnant,” Good said. “Brian sent her to me at Arlington Park and told me if she did all right to have some fun with her.”
Fun they have had as Tizfiz is 2-for-2 under Good’s care, having won the West Virginia Presidents at Mountaineer and the DeBartolo Memorial against males at Remington Park. Corey Lanerie, who was aboard for the Mountaineer victory, has the call Sunday and will break from post position six.
“She has never had a bad day with us,” Good said. “The Remington Park race, I was just looking for the most favorable spot for her to get here and actually she won pretty easily.”
Tizfiz was claimed last October at Santa Anita for $50,000.
“That was Brian’s doing,” Good said. “He had always liked her since she broke her maiden sprinting on the synthetic and he just loves Tiznow. Plus she has residual value as a broodmare being by Tiznow.”
Trained by Rafael DeLeon after the claim, Tizfiz won the Queen Of Green at Turf Paradise and the Grade 2 San Gorgonio at Santa Anita before her form tailed off.
Tizfiz has made 12 of her 17 starts on turf and she also was nominated to Saturday’s First Lady (G1) at a mile on the grass. The decision to run on the main Polytrack surface Sunday was made after a Monday work here.
“She always worked well on the Polytrack at Arlington, but I wanted to come in here and breeze her one time over this track,” Good said. “I put her behind a workmate and she just devoured him and that gave me confidence to go in the Spinster rather than the First Lady.”
Tizfiz’s Monday work was :59 for five furlongs, the best of 18 at the distance.
“I feel like a mile may be a tad too short for her,” Good said. “Plus, Forever Together is in the First Lady.”
FALL MEET OPENING DAY NOTES
Keeneland’s fall meet opening day, which featured a special post time of 2:15 p.m., saw a significant increase in handle. All sources mutuel handle on Friday was $8,880,847, an increase of 13.26 percent from $7,841,056 on opening day last year.
Jockeys Robby Albarado and Rajiv Maragh each won three races on Friday, opening day of Keeneland’s fall season. Maragh’s victories included the $500,000 Darley Alcibiades (G1) on Negligee. Albarado was the leading jockey during the 2008 fall meeting with 22 wins.
Jockey Weldon Cloninger Jr. and trainer Jevon Crumley teamed up to score their first Keeneland victory when they won the second race on opening day with Jacqie Vo’s El Indy. A 7-1 shot, the 5-year-old A.P. Indy gelding scored a neck victory in a $17,000 claiming race at
1 1/8 miles. Crumley claimed El Indy for $10,000 at Presque Isle Downs in late August.
Darley Stable’s Liston, a half-brother to 2007 Darley Alcibiades (G2) winner Country Star, scored his second victory in three starts when he captured the fifth race on opening day. With Maragh aboard for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, Liston won the seven-furlong race by a neck from Call Shot in 1:23.38. Liston, a 2-year-old son of Storm Cat, and Country Star, a daughter of Empire Maker, have another Keeneland connection. Their dam, Rings a Chime, by Metfield, won the 2000 Ashland (G1) at Keeneland.
DIXIANA DEBUTS AS BREEDERS’ FUTURITY SPONSOR
Today, Bill and Donna Shively’s Dixiana Farm debuts as sponsor of the $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity (G1), marking a partnership of one of Central Kentucky’s most historically rich Thoroughbred farms with one of the most tradition-laden races of Keeneland’s fall meeting.
The Breeders’ Futurity was inaugurated at the old Kentucky Association track near downtown Lexington in 1910 and was renewed every year thereafter through 1930. In 1931-33, the race was shifted to Latonia in Northern Kentucky. The Futurity was revived at Keeneland in the fall of 1938, and from 1943-45 was renewed as part of the Churchill Downs fall meetings.
WHITNEY TO PRESENT FIRST LADY TROPHY
Marylou Whitney, whom many members of the Thoroughbred industry consider to be the “First Lady of the Turf,” will present the trophy for today’s $400,000 First Lady (G1). The one-mile turf race is for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up.
Whitney is a prominent socialite, philanthropist and Thoroughbred breeder and owner. Among the horses she bred and raced is 2004 Belmont (G1) winner Birdstone, sire of this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner, Mine That Bird, and this year’s Belmont, Travers (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) winner, Summer Bird. Whitney, who owns a farm near Lexington, races horses at Keeneland with trainer D. Wayne Lukas.
Whitney’s silks of Eton blue with brown belt and brown cap continue the successful racing legacy of her late husband, C.V. Whitney, who raced 118 winners at Keeneland to rank as the track’s eighth-leading owner of all time. C.V. Whitney’s winners included 11 stakes winners at Keeneland from 1950-76.
DOGWOOD STABLE ONE STAKES WIN AWAY FROM MILESTONE
If Aikenite wins today’s $500,000 Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity (G1), Cot Campbell’s Dogwood Stable will score its eighth graded stakes victory at Keeneland. For the milestone, Dogwood will receive a gold tray as part of Keeneland’s unique gold trophy program. Only 15 other owners in Keeneland history have earned a gold tray.
Dogwood’s previous graded stakes wins at Keeneland came in the 1971 Alcibiades (now Grade 1) with Mrs. Cornwallis; 1989 Forerunner (G3) with Luge II; 1990 Blue Grass (G2) and 1991 Fayette (G2) with Summer Squall; 1992 Phoenix Breeders’ Cup (now Grade 3) with British Banker; 1996 Beaumont (G2) with Golden Gale; and 2005 Perryville (G3) with Vicarage.