While our New York division doesn’t change locations for training, for the next six months we’ll be racing over at Aqueduct, which has seen many, many changes since we were over there last winter. NYRA, and especially Glen Kozak, deserve the applause for all of the work that has been done. When we left Aqueduct last year, at the end of March, it had two dirt tracks and one turf track. It now has the most beautiful second turf track in place of that inner dirt track. A new turf track always presents a bit of a question mark for trainers as we wonder if it will hold up well, but Glen and his team have done a tremendous job as the track appears to be very fair, very flat and a really, really sound racing surface.
With the new turf track comes turf sprinting – 6 furlongs to be exact – which was never an option at Aqueduct until now. Though races at this distance will be limited in number going into the winter (due to the fact that it’s a new track and turf sprints are a lot harder), it has stood up to the test quite well so far. It doesn’t appear to have any bias and the horses we have run on it have come out in extremely good shape. All in all, extremely promising set of circumstances; I imagine it to be well established by next spring.
The main dirt track at Aqueduct has undergone major renovations as well in the sense that it will now become a winterized surface, which means it will be very similar or virtually identical to the training track at Belmont. I always thought there was a bit of an advantage for horses that got to train over the inner track at Aqueduct before they ran on it. Now, those of us stabled at Belmont will get to train over an identical track, which will level out the playing field, in my opinion.
Our New York division will probably consist of about 15-20 horses this winter. There is no turf racing here, and at the moment, for some reason, our barn seems to be predominantly turf runners, numerically. We will also be returning to the Fair Grounds for the winter meet and currently have 11 horses down there with Mark and Stephen. I was down there a couple of weeks ago and was delighted to see the horses had shipped in very well and appear to be in good form.
Our first runner at Fair Grounds will likely be Edge of Reality, followed by Miss Devine and then a new edition by the name of Ninety One Assault, who is a Louisiana-bred and broke his maiden in a Maiden Special Weight at Belmont for Bill Mott and has since been purchased privately to join our Louisiana string.
We are looking at having 20-25 head down in New Orleans this winter. Maggie and I will be joining them January, February and most of March, but will be traveling up and down in the meantime. You can find us at the Fair Grounds in barn 23.
The Breeders’ Cup:
Now that the dust has settled and everyone has had a chance to analyze some of the races and the form, I’m sure it was a very enjoyable Breeders’ Cup, but I’m not entirely sure that Del Mar is the track to host this championship event going forward. I say this objectively: If you’re going to have the Breeders’ Cup in California, I feel that Santa Anita is a fairer surface, both the dirt and the turf. Del Mar’s turf track threw up too many bad luck stories for me with horses getting no run. A very short finishing straight meant that if you didn’t have the very best of the draw positioning than a lot of the horses were effectively eliminated by the way the race was set up. The dirt track at Del Mar seemed to be fine, though it may have had a little bias at first, but it did change throughout the day.
Arrogate was probably over the top after Dubai and was never going to be the same again, but I think it’s safe to say he absolutely despised the surface at Del Mar. If you have horses that cannot show anywhere near their form, there’s probably something overly unique about that surface. So as wonderful of a spectacle that it may have been, I believe Santa Anita is the better venue going forward. Santa Anita has become probably the favorite venue in all of North America for the Championship event, but I do think needs to move around and should not remain at one venue. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs next year.
I was particularly taken by a few performances during the two-day World Championships. Obviously Gun Runner was absolutely exceptional, as he has been all year. He came into his own right as an older horse having been a very good three-year-old, and this year he’s just been totally dominant. I am assuming that end of year honors will be his at the Eclipse Awards.
Aidan O’Brien’s Mendelssohn put on a grand performance in the Juvenile Turf; his pedigree being half to Into Mischief and Beholder seems to indicate that dirt might possibly be in the Scat Daddy colt’s future. He was very unlucky in Europe in a couple of circumstances and did not deserve to be the morning-line he was. For those of us who pay attention to those kinds of things, he’s owned by the shrewdest operation on the face of the earth and they also noticed what they had on their hands. He was particularly eye-catching in his victory.
I am delighted for good mate Dallas Stewart and his filly Forever Unbridled on their impressive win in the Distaff. To see Forever Unbridled come back and stamp her form from Saratoga made for a very joyous moment. Dallas and Mr. Fipke make one hell of a team and Dallas has been very fortunate to train the whole of that family. He’s a great guy, a great horseman, and seeing people like that win a Grade One at Saratoga and then win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff was enormously gratifying. Congratulations Dallas and Mr. Fipke!
