We’ve had a couple of encouraging 3-year-old maidens run well this first quarter. Flat Out half-brother to Rattlesnake Bridge, Westderdale broke his maiden by 14 ¾ lengths at Aqueduct in a maiden special weight on the 25th of February. He’s currently taking some time off to recover from a tiny suspensory injury – nothing dramatic at all, will make a full recovery, but does require a few days on the sidelines. It’s always annoying when this happens, but he’s a young horse and should heal very well. I’m looking forward to a serious fall with him as well as a solid 4-and-5-year-old campaign. Being by Flat Out, anything that they do at two is a bonus, but they’re really looking at a productive 3-year-old campaign and even better older horse campaign. The margin of Westerdale’s victory and his progress along the way certainly tells me he has a bright future ahead of him.
Danny California, who is owned in partnership between Chris Larson and West Point Thoroughbreds, broke his maiden at a mile and came back at the same trip in an allowance. The race, however, seemed devoid of speed and that is why he was ridden differently. It didn’t work out and he finished third on the 11th of March. Danny is a very big son of Afleet Alex and has been in training for a long time. He’s always shown promise in the mornings, but it’s taken him a little while to put it all together in the afternoons. I’ve learned two things about this horse in his last couple of races. 1) Danny needs to come from off the pace. Twice I’ve tried riding him close to the pace and he hasn’t finished as effectively. The Allowance run was not his best effort, but the circumstances of the race had a lot to do with the result. If you look at the way he broke his maiden, he closed from a long way back in relentless fashion. 2) He’s a horse that must be allowed to get into his own stride at the beginning of the race so as to build momentum and maximize effort towards the end. He absolutely cannot break this momentum.
It was nice to see Ninety One Assault win an allowance at the Fair Grounds on the 2nd of March, and even better to see him repeat that effort with another win on the 25th. A Louisiana-bred owned by the Bravermans and Morleys, he’s a very nicely bred son of Artie Schiller. I’ve only had him for a short while and it’s taken me a little bit of time to work out how he likes to be ridden in a race. He’s a horse who needs to be covered up and come with a late run. Shaun Bridgmohan did an excellent job of this in his last start. He actually took a pull on the horse at the quarter pole because he was traveling so easily, kept him covered up and just popped him through the last sixteenth to win by three lengths very comfortably. He will be taking the summer off and will hopefully add some weight to his lighter frame. An extremely sound horse, I’m really looking forward to running him as a 6-7-8-year-old, targeting Louisiana every winter. He will likely have one prep race in late September or early October and that will set him up perfectly for a run in a $150,000 stake on opening day going a mile-and-a-sixteenth at the Fair Grounds. In the meantime, he will be heading to Kentucky for a well-deserved summer holiday.
Climb The Ladder finally broke her Maiden (on the 11th of March) with the help of some added blinkers and dropping in class. Luis Reyes gave an absolutely superb ride being very aggressive from the inside post. The blinkers definitely made a difference as the filly ran a much better number than previously and won by 5 ¼ lengths in cozy fashion.
We’ve had a busy March with horses running well. Phantomofthefrost finished a very good second in a maiden special weight at Aqueduct mid month. Go Get the Munny ran back in an Allowance race and, though on paper it looks like he ran very poorly, there’s an extremely valid excuse for his fifth place finish. This horse displaced his palate at the three-eighths pole and will undergo a very minor wind operation before returning in the middle of the summer. He is a very stout son of Munnings, so draw a line through that last effort. He is a significantly better horse than that.
Roman Approval and Nutcracker Suite ran fourth and sixth, respectively, at the Fair Grounds. After an improved performance, Nutcracker Suite is just beginning to learn the ropes of true American turf sprinting. I was very pleased to see him get on in this last start. Roman Approval found himself in a hot allowance on Louisiana Derby day and broke from post 10 in a field of 10. Breaking from that post meant he had a lot of work to do to close in on the field and get to the rail. Though he did not win, I am content with what he showed. Warrior Inside ran a respectable second on the 11th and will be our final horse to run at the Fair Grounds on March 30th.
Maggie, Grace, George and I are all back in New York now, George and I made the drive from Louisiana to New York together while Maggie and Grace flew back the weekend of the 17th. The drive back is always rather laborious and George is a tremendously impatient traveling companion, but there’s only one way to get all of our belongings and the dog home and that’s by driving. We had a lovely winter down in New Orleans and it was incredibly special to be able to have my wife and daughter there with me. Maggie is now back at work with the New York Racing Association.
On a separate note, we just had the OBS two-year-old sale in March. A huge thank you to clients Robert Masiello, Homewrecker Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Oak Ridge Farm for stepping up and purchasing horses for us there. Special mention to Rob, who bought an extremely beautiful son of Candy Ride that reminds me a lot of Gun Runner; Rob paid $390,000 for him and the sale was made possible thanks to the De Meric Sales Company. He also bought a beautiful, long-legged, rangy Pioneerof the Nile filly bred by the Zayats and consigned by the McKathan Brothers. These are the kind of horses you dream will take you to the Kentucky Derby and Oaks, so a huge thanks to Rob. Additionally, we picked up a speedy looking son of Tapizar for $110,000 from Southern Chase Farm. The colt will join Homewrecker Stables and the Morley family stable going forward.
We’ve since gotten the latest bunch of two-year-olds in, which is quite exciting after having been in Ocala to see them train on the track there. There is a Declaration of War and Lookin At Lucky colt headed to Belmont Park; they will be targeting early two-year-old races and, heaven forbid one of them wins, there may be a Royal Ascot trip in the making as well. So, we keep our fingers crossed, the dreams live on and we will see how we get on in the month of April.
