Ballerina d’Oro breezes at Belmont Park for G1 Kentucky Oaks
- Ballerina d’Oro breezes at Belmont Park for G1 Kentucky Oaks
- G1 Kentucky Oaks contender Early On making New York breeder proud
- Carson’s Run and Deterministic point to G2 Fort Marcy; Far Bridge works for G2 Man o’ War
- Captain Cook completes first breeze since G2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino
- Sand Devil breezes for Mike Lee
Rodeo Creek Racing’s Grade 3 Gazelle-winner Ballerina d’Oro worked a half-mile on Saturday over the Belmont Park training track in preparation for the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks slated for May 2 at Churchill Downs.
Trained by five-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro breezed under jockey Dylan Davis and was caught by NYRA clockers covering the distance in 48 seconds flat outside of Grade 1-placed Hill Road, who Brown said is pointing to the Grade 3, $200,000 Peter Pan on May 10 at Belmont at the Big A.
“She worked super and is cooling out good, so she’ll ship over to Churchill and leave tomorrow,” said Brown, who added he was also pleased with the way Hill Road galloped out. “She’s been pretty uncomplicated in her races, so I’m not sure she what happened coming off the turn in the last race.”
Ballerina d’Oro was a hard-fought nose winner of the nine-furlong Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle on April 5, pouncing from fourth to stick her head in front of Early On at the stretch call. She battled on gamely with her rival to her inside, but drifted in considerably to close a large gap between them in the lane and was able to narrowly prevail in a final time of 1:50.67.
Brown said the talented grey reminds him of Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic victor and Champion 3-Year-Old Colt Sierra Leone, who has been working at Payson Park throughout April and is expected to arrive at Belmont Park soon to train towards the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 28 at Churchill.
“I’m not going to react to that. It was such an isolated thing for me,” Brown said of the Gazelle stretch run. “She has enough steering equipment on her between her bit and a small blinker. I’m not going to overreact here. She cruised around there with Hill Road and Dylan gave us good feedback and said, ‘Chad, I don’t know where that came from, because she was straight for me today.’ She might hold her head in a little bit, but she’s a lot like Sierra the way she trains. He [Sierra Leone] might cock his head a little bit, but in the mornings, we have never seen him on one line or had a rider complain about him – same as her.”
Davis concurred that Ballerina d’Oro was professional in the work.
“She’s in great form,” Davis said. “I’ve breezed her a bunch of times and she was straight as an arrow today. She couldn’t be working any better.”
Ballerina d’Oro ran on turf in her first three outings, including a second-out graduation traveling one mile in September at Kentucky Downs. She switched to dirt and added blinkers in December for the Grade 2 Demoiselle at the Big A, where she ran a deep-closing second to Muhimma after breaking from the outermost post 10 and trailing in last early. She went on to finish third in the Grade 2 Davona Dale in March at Gulfstream Park ahead of her Gazelle coup.
Brown said a fuller field in the Kentucky Oaks should aid Ballerina d’Oro.
“I think with more going on in a full field of the Oaks, she’s not going to come off the turn six-wide with no one in either five lanes of her,” Brown said. “That’s kind of the way she was [in the Gazelle], and she’s going to have horses near wherever she is in this race. Looking at her race in the Demoiselle, she might have leaned in half a path, but she was going through traffic, and she came right next to that other horse turning for home and she was fine.”
A $320,000 purchase at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, Ballerina d’Oro is out of the Tapit mare In the Moonlight, a half-sister to graded stakes-winner Wilburn, stakes-winner La Appassionata, and graded stakes-producing broodmares A.P. Sonata and Venetian Sonata.
Brown added he is looking forward to the chance for his first Kentucky Oaks victory with the well-bred filly.
“I’m very pleased with her,” Brown said. “I’ve been close in the Oaks and Derby, and this year, we are catching one of the deeper Oaks fields – even with the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly [Immersive] not in there, it’s a really deep field. I think when they open the gate in the Oaks, half the field can win if they all get in there the way they’re supposed to.”
Brown also noted that Klaravich Stables’ Headline Numbers, who won the Listed Top Flight Invitational on April 12 here, emerged well from her breakthrough stakes victory and will be nominated to a number of races under consideration for her next outing.
The daughter of Gun Runner is out of the Curlin mare Curlin’s Mischief, whose 2022 colt by Gun Runner named Strategic Focus who won on debut for Brown in Race 4 on Saturday at the Big A.
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G1 Kentucky Oaks contender Early On making New York breeder proud
C2 Racing Stable, Ken Reimer, Paul Braverman, Timothy Pinch and Bradley Kent’s Early On, trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr., made her connections proud as she punched a ticket to the Kentucky Oaks when a nose second to Ballerina d’Oro in the Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle on April 5, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
One particularly thrilled connection was John Lauriello, who bred the Union Rags bay in New York and owns just a small band of broodmares as a hobby.
“This is unbelievable. She’s going to be in the Kentucky Oaks,” said Lauriello. “I’m 77. I’ve been in and out of the horse business in a small way for 50 years. This is just a miracle. That filly has really done well. Sometimes you get lucky, not often.”
Lauriello, residing in Alabama where he co-founded the Birmingham-based real estate agency Southpace Properties, said he focuses his thoroughbred endeavors on the New York breeding program.
“I love the New York program. The New York breeding program is second to none in my opinion,” Lauriello said. “I’ve been involved in horse racing with some folks from Birmingham and Upstate New York, but the breeding was as much or more fun. The people from Birmingham got old and stopped their horse racing business, still fans, but didn’t want to breed or race, so I started about 15 years ago buying broodmares.”
Lauriello’s interest in New York breeding did not come randomly – he grew up relatively close to Saratoga Race Course in Amsterdam, N.Y.
“I grew up in Amsterdam. The Sanford family had a farm there. When the season started at Saratoga, we used to hitchhike, and when kids couldn’t get in, we’d stand on the hoods of cars and look over the bushes to see the track,” Lauriello recalled. “From the time I was a kid in Amsterdam going to the Sanford farm, I got bit early– long story short, I got the bug.”
Lauriello credits Indian Creek, the farm who consigned Early On, and Jamie LaMonica, president of The Stallion Company bloodstock agency, as the advisors behind much of his breeding success.
“Jamie LaMonica, Indian Creek, they’ve been helping me for years with buying broodmares and breeding,” said Lauriello. “I used Michele Graves’ Hickory Hill Farm in Upstate New York [for the breeding operation]– I’ve been blessed. I had folks in Kentucky and Upstate New York. I found out a long time ago that as a smaller player you need some help, and those folks, this is what they do for a living, so I’ve been blessed.”
Early On, out of the winning Distorted Humor mare Sally O’Brien, a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Lipstick City, sold for $20,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Preferred Yearling Sale. Lauriello-breds have sold for over $300,000 at that sale in the past.
While not nearly his most expensive yearling sale, Lauriello’s interest was piqued when Early On moved to Joseph, Jr. and new ownership after a third on debut for her purchaser Alan Brodsky and conditioner Mark Hennig.
“I started looking into her and saw this filly was with [Saffie] Joseph and he liked her. He liked her then [at the sale],” Lauriello explained. “Then I found out she was running in some stakes races, and her last two races, she really almost won both.”
Early On was a half-length second to Fondly in the Virginia Oaks on March 15 at Colonial Downs ahead of her narrow defeat in the Gazelle. As she looks to do one better in the Kentucky Oaks, the New York-bred will have strong support down south from Lauriello and the rest of the “Alabama Boys,” as they call themselves.
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Carson’s Run and Deterministic point to G2 Fort Marcy; Far Bridge works for G2 Man o’ War
Trainer Christophe Clement, a Hall of Fame finalist, will once again have a huge presence in NYRA stakes racing, particularly with turf season returning next week.
Miguel Clement, son and assistant to Christophe, noted that Revolutionnaire and Love Cervere will feature next weekend here in the Woodhaven and Listed Memories of Silver, respectively, to kick off turf stakes season in New York.
“Our stable emphasis is very much on New York and now that it is turf season in New York, we're very excited for it,” Miguel Clement said. “We have a tremendous amount of stakes runners and we're focusing on making New York a priority.”
West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey’s dual Grade 1-winner Carson’s Run is slated to make his seasonal debut in the Grade 2, $200,000 Fort Marcy, a nine-furlong turf route for older horses on May 3, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The now 4-year-old Cupid colt captured the one-mile Grade 1 Summer in September 2023 of his 2-year-old season at Woodbine and followed last year with a top-flight score in the 1 3/16-mile Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational in August at Saratoga Race Course.
The versatile chestnut picked up three wins last year, including stakes scores in the 1 1/16-mile Tale of the Cat at Monmouth Park in June as well as the 11-furlong Grade 3 Jockey Club Derby Invitational in October at Belmont at the Big A when three-quarter lengths the better of stablemate Deterministic.
Carson’s Run worked five-eighths in 1:03.20 Friday over the Payson Park Training Center dirt in company with Hall Monitor.
“It was a good work,” Clement said. “He's been working so well on dirt all winter long that we decided to keep it as is. He's been on a weekly Friday schedule and he's never missed a beat. He's a bigger, stronger version of himself and we're very excited.
“He's had a perfect winter of preparation in Florida, and he leaves tomorrow for New York,” Clement continued. “Dylan Davis will be in the saddle for the Fort Marcy. Those two have been a dynamic duo and we hope that 2025 will continue that success for Dylan and the stable.”
Carson’s Run is out of the winning Henny Hughes mare Hot N Hectic, a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winning millionaire Rated R Superstar. His second dam, Wicked Wish, is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-winner Wishful Tomcat and multiple stakes-winner Uncle T Seven. He has banked in excess of $1.5 million through a 10-5-2-0 record.
St. Elias Stable, Ken Langone, Steven Duncker and Vicarage Stable’s multiple graded stakes-winner Deterministic worked a half-mile in 49.95 Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track in preparation for the Fort Marcy.
The now 4-year-old Liam’s Map colt was breezing for the first time since a pacesetting second in an off-the-turf allowance on April 6 at Keeneland.
Deterministic won the Grade 3 Gotham on dirt here last March but found his best form over the summer in turf events, taking the nine-furlong Grade 3 Virginia Derby in September and the nine-furlong Grade 3 Hill Prince here in November.
“He worked well this morning,” Clement said. “He ran at Keeneland and even though it was off the turf, I thought he produced a strong, noble effort. The race will set him up for a better effort in his next start. He won the Hill Prince over nine furlongs at Aqueduct, so it's good to have had success at distance and track.”
LSU Stables’ multiple Grade 1-winner Far Bridge breezed five-eighths in 1:03.40 this morning over the Payson Park turf in his first work back since scoring in the Grade 3 Pan American on March 29 at Gulfstream in his seasonal debut.
The 5-year-old English Channel horse is pointing to the 11-furlong Grade 2, $400,000 Man o’ War on May 10 here.
“He had his first work back this morning. It was easy by design - maintenance like and looked amazing,” Clement said. “He's moving remarkably well. He's fit as a flea, and he looks great. He'll have two more works between now and the Man o' War.”
Far Bridge captured the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in the care of Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher in July 2023. He was reunited with the Clement stable for his 2024 campaign, taking the Grade 1 Sword Dancer in August at Saratoga Race Course and the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in September at Belmont at the Big A.
Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, Far Bridge has banked in excess of $1.9 million via a 15-7-3-2 record.
LSU Stables’ La Mehana breezed a half-mile solo in 51.60 Friday over the Payson Park dirt in her first work back since a neck third in the 12-furlong Grade 3 Orchid on March 29 at Gulfstream Park.
The 6-year-old Al Wukair mare will be among a number of Clement trainees that will point to the 11-furlong Grade 3, $175,000 Sheepshead Bay on May 2 here, a race she finished a head third in last year.
“Last year, she was very unlucky in the Sheepshead Bay, so we're hoping to do a touch better. I believe she'll be reunited with Kendrick Carmouche, together they won the Waya,” Clement said.
Bred by S.A. Haras du Mezeray, La Mehana made her first 12 starts in her native France, including a third in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de Royallieu in September 2023 at Longchamp. She was purchased by Christophe Clement for $430,503 at the 2023 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale and made six starts last year, taking the 11-furlong Grade 3 Waya in October here and the Listed Via Borghese traveling the same distance in December at Gulfstream Park.
La Mehana remained in training through the winter, posting third-place finishes in both the Grade 3 La Prevoyante and Grade 3 The Very One ahead of her Orchid effort.
“She's been a very hard-knocking filly all winter long,” Clement said. “She never runs a bad race for us. She doesn't always win, but she's also been a victim of trip and pace her last few starts. She's very consistent - game and tough, everything I like."
West Point Thoroughbreds, Scarlet Oak Racing and Titletown Racing Stables’ graded stakes-winning Pennsylvania-bred Dontlookbackatall worked five-eighths in 1:03 flat Friday over the Payson Park dirt in company with Loon Cry.
The 5-year-old Peace and Justice mare could point to a title defense in the Listed $150,000 License Fee, a six-furlong turf sprint for older fillies and mares on May 4.
“She worked very well. She's come back in a big way. We have the License Fee as a primary target,” Clement said. “She has tactical speed which makes her very dangerous in these turf sprints, but you're also able to rate her. She's very versatile.”
Dontlookbackatall enjoyed a tremendous 4-year-old campaign, posting a 7-3-2-0 record that included a three-race win streak sparked in the License Fee and followed by scores in the state-bred Power By Far in June at Parx and the Grade 3 Caress presented by Albany Med Health System in July at Saratoga.
“She's a filly when in great form her works are spectacular, and you can see she's very enthusiastic,” Clement said. “We, perhaps, went one race too many last year when she tailed off at the end of the season. Nevertheless, she had a long winter break and she's on her way back. She looks great.”
Waterville Lake Stables’ New York homebred Loon Cry could also be pointed to the License Fee along with stablemates Danse Macabre and Love Appeals.
Loon Cry, a 5-year-old More Than Ready mare, has banked $421,399 via a 16-7-3-2 ledger topped by stakes wins last year in the Listed Sweet Briar Too in August at Woodbine and the Sensible Lady Turf Dash in September at Laurel Park.
NBS Stable and Elements Racing’s Danse Macabre landed a closing third in the Grade 3 Giant’s Causeway on April 13 at Keeneland in her debut for the Clement barn.
The 5-year-old Army Mule turf mare made her previous 12 starts for Kelsey Danner, topped by a victory in the 2023 Grade 3 Herecomesthebride traveling one-mile at Gulfstream and sprint stakes scores in the 2022 Untapable at Kentucky Downs, the 2023 Listed Mamzelle at Churchill Downs, and the 2023 Glen Cove at the Big A.
“Danse Macabre came to us in great condition from Kelsey Danner. The connections were looking for a New York campaign and for her to be stabled in New York,” Clement explained. “The mare ran a very good race at Keeneland - perhaps compromised by the lack of pace in the Giant's Causeway. She showed a very good turn of foot and ran a good race.”
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Captain Cook completes first breeze since G2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino
St. Elias Stable’s Captain Cook breezed a half-mile in 48.80 seconds on Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track, his first move since a fourth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino on April 5, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
“He went good, he went by himself. We are happy with him,” said trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr. “We are just playing it by ear, seeing how he went today. He’s good, he seems like the same horse, so I guess maybe we can start looking for a spot.”
Dutrow, Jr. also worked Wood Memorial fifth-place finisher McAfee a half-mile in 48.54 seconds on Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track.
“We are happy with him, too,” Dutrow, Jr. said. “He went by himself and went good. I was happy with his last race. I was happy with him, and I still am.”
Dutrow, Jr. said plans were undecided for the Cloud Computing dark bay, who is a half-brother to 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna out of the Uncle Mo mare Sataves. McAfee is campaigned by Black Type Thoroughbreds, Swinbank Stables, Scott Rice, and breeder Judy Hicks.
“I don’t know that we have found anything that we really want to do,” Dutrow, Jr. said. “We are just seeing how they both went, and they went good, so hopefully we can pick a spot soon and be happy with it, and start aiming at that.”
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Sand Devil breezes for Mike Lee
Chester Broman, Sr.’s New York homebred Sand Devil breezed a half-mile in 49.89 seconds Friday over the Belmont Park dirt training track in his first breeze back since an off-the-board finish in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino on April 5 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained by Linda Rice, the Violence sophomore was victorious against fellow state-breds in each of his first three starts here, culminating in a neck victory over National Identity in the seven-furlong Damon Runyon.
Sand Devil stepped into open company in the local Grade 3 Gotham on March 1 and after stumbling at the start, he recovered to press the pace under regular pilot Jose Lezcano but was no match for Flood Zone and had to settle for a 3 1/4 length second.
Last out, Sand Devil broke outward from post 5 and bumped with eventual runner-up Grande. He traveled wide into the first turn and made a mild move in the final turn en route to a sixth-place finish, 13 lengths back of the victorious Rodriguez.
Rice said Sand Devil exited the Wood Memorial in good order and will now point to the $200,000 Mike Lee, a seven-furlong state-bred sprint on June 4, Opening Day of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course.
“It was maybe just a little too far for him last time, so we'll shorten him up,” Rice said. “The work went very well. He went head-and-head in company with another horse, in hand. We'll probably point to the Mike Lee up at Saratoga.”
Bred by Chester and the late Mary Broman, Sand Devil is out of multiple stakes-winning Mineshaft mare Mineralogist. His second dam is the graded stakes-winning New York-bred Seeking the Ante.
Rice noted that KEM Stables’ Listed stakes-placed Fortuna Mia could make her turf debut in the Listed $150,000 Memories of Silver, a one-mile test for sophomore fillies on April 27 here.
The Vekoma bay made her first two starts for trainer Rey Hernandez, landing third in the Listed Debutante last June at Churchill Downs. She was subsequently purchased for $160,000 at the Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale and tried her luck in four straight stakes here once transferred to Rice, topped by Listed fourth-place finishes in the Tempted in November and Busher Invitational in March.
Last out, she enjoyed class relief when a neck runner-up in a local seven-furlong optional claimer on March 28.
Fortuna Mia is out of the Cairo Prince mare Windy Lane, a half-sister to turf stakes-winner Louisville First. Her second dam, Move Clickly, is a half-sister to Grade 2 turf winner Mananan McLir and Listed turf stakes-winner Charming N Lovable.
“I want to try her on the grass. She's got enough turf pedigree there to try it,” Rice said. “She ran very well last time on the dirt, so I'm not certain I'll go that way, but I am going to try it at some point. I see a lot of things about her that she might like the grass.”
Fortuna Mia sports a 7-1-1-1 ledger and purse earnings of $86,200.