West Coast rules in Pennsylvania Derby
Twice, Bob Baffert put the tack on West Coast before the Pennsylvania Derby, and both times the trainer thought the same thing. Where in the world is Jimmy Barnes?
Joe Clancy
All The Way Jose makes it back to top
Almost four years ago, jump jockey Darren Nagle realized the biggest win of his career when Divine Fortune ran away with the Grand National on the way to an Eclipse Award as champion steeplechaser of 2013. One race later, Nagle rode 3-year-old first-timer All The Way Jose. “I got on him and gave him absolutely no ride whatsoever,” Nagle recalled Thursday. “The next season he was novice champion and I never rode him again.”
Mutasaawy, Moscato mix it up in Entenmann
Dear Thoroughbred breeders, owners, trainers, buyers and breakers who worry about the mindset of the progeny of a certain leading sire . . . we give you Mutasaawy and trainer Neil Morris. “You hear it from people about Tapits being a little bit difficult, but that’s not him,” trainer Neil Morris said of the 7-year-old gelding he trains for Pathfinder Racing. “He’s like a Labrador to travel with, to do anything with.”
Lavelle, Casino Markets eye Belmont try
Emma Lavelle has already been to Belmont Park, but she makes her debut as a trainer when Casino Markets runs in Thursday’s Grade 1 Lonesome Glory hurdle stakes – the second of two jump races which help launch the National Steeplechase Association’s fall season.
Clocking In
Early Friday morning, Scott Blasi sat on the lead pony, sipped from a travel cup and waited to escort Gun Runner to the Oklahoma Training Track. Trainer Steve Asmussen’s assistant nodded toward the chestnut colt, the 2-5 morning-line favorite for today’s Grade 1 Woodward Stakes.
2017 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Barclay Tagg
Trainer Barclay Tagg came to Saratoga in 2015 and wasn’t sure he’d win a race at the country’s top race meeting. Of course, the horses went 7-for-19 to put Tagg in the top 12 alongside far bigger stables. Last year, the win total was one. This year, the barn is 3-for-11 with a stakes win. (Originally published in Aug. 27 edition of The Saratoga Special.)
Better Talk Now’s people
They weren’t missing this one, not this year. And maybe not ever.
Brent and Carol Johnson turned up in Saratoga Monday to present the trophy for the Better Talk Now Stakes two months after the race’s namesake – and the best horse they ever owned – died of colic at age 18. Retired in 2009 after 51 starts and 14 wins including the 2004 Sword Dancer Invitational at Saratoga Race Course, Better Talk Now was part of the Johnson family. And they miss him.
Honk, Honk
Ten. Ask trainer David Donk if you think he can hit double digits in Saratoga wins this summer, and he’ll lean a little bit farther back on that post by the three-eighths pole, laugh and set you straight.
An Irish Trip
It’s 9:38 Wednesday morning at Saratoga. The tractors finish their final sweeps of the Oklahoma Training Track, some grooms put the finishing touches on horses on wash pads while others get the last sets ready. Owners kibitz on the rail. Agents (jockey and bloodstock) roll past in golf carts. Trainers hunker down to desks.
And owner/trainer/exercise rider/stall mucker David Dunne takes Colla Pier out to train.
2017 Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour with Graham Motion
Friday morning on the backside, trainer Graham Motion was organizing workers (horses for the turf at Oklahoma and workers (a somewhat reluctant 14-year-old hotwalker) and faced a question about a Stable Tour from The Special’s Joe Clancy.
