oct_62_international.qxp
18/9/09
13:45
Page 5
DATA BOOK
LISTINGS OF EVERY SINGLE WORLDWIDE STAKES WINNER
Global Stakes Results United States (cont) Date Grade Race 09 Aug G2 Alfred G Vanderbilt Handicap G2 Amsterdam Stakes 03 Aug 07 Sep G3 Pucker Up Stakes 07 Sep G3 Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap 07 Sep G3 Glens Falls Handicap 06 Sep G3 Saranac Stakes 06 Sep G3 Red Bank Stakes 05 Sep G3 Sapling Stakes Arlington Washington Lassie Stakes 05 Sep G3 05 Sep G3 Arlington Washington Futurity 05 Sep G3 Kent Stakes Washington Park Handicap 05 Sep G3 04 Sep G3 With Anticipation Stakes 04 Sep G3 Rancho Bernardo Handicap 29 Aug G3 Victory Ride Stakes 22 Aug G3 Philip H Iselin Stakes 16 Aug G3 Longacres Mile Handicap 15 Aug G3 Monmouth Oaks 15 Aug G3 Gardenia Handicap G3 Sorrento Stakes 07 Aug
Rachel Alexandra deserves top billing for the second month in a row after becoming the first filly to beat the boys in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. This was much the most hard-earned victory of her current nine-race winning streak, as jockey Calvin Borel got her involved in an early speed duel and then had to be very forceful to turn back the late challenge of Macho Again, who had come from last. Rachel Alexandra has had seven further starts since scoring on her seasonal debut in midFebruary, so it is hardly surprising that owner Jess Jackson has decided to put her away until next year. Summer Bird, the Belmont Stakes winner she trounced in the Haskell Invitational, underlined the strength of that form with a comfortable success in the Travers Stakes. Quality Road was five lengths back in third in the Travers but was fractious and unseated his rider beforehand. They could meet again in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on October 3. The other outstanding member of the 2009 Classic crop is Zensational, albeit at shorter trips. He made it three Grade 1s in a row by lifting a pair of Del Mar features, the Bing Crosby Stakes and Pat O’Brien Stakes. Trainer Bob Baffert will now freshen him up for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (November 7), a race he has won for the past two
Dist 6.0f 6.5f 9.0f 12.0f 11.0f 9.5f 8.0f 6.0f 8.0f 8.0f 9.0f 9.5f 8.5f 6.5f 6.0f 9.0f 8.0f 8.5f 8.0f 6.5f
Horse Fabulous Strike (USA) Quality Road (USA) Hot Cha Cha (USA) Free Fighter (USA) Mushka (USA) Al Khali (USA) Get Serious (USA) Western Smoke (USA) She Be Wild (USA) Dixie Band (USA) No Inflation (USA) Gran Estreno (ARG) Interactif (USA) Carlsbad (USA) Sara Louise (USA) Chirac (USA) Assessment (USA) Just Jenda (USA) Whirlie Bertie (USA) Mi Sueno (USA)
years with Midnight Lute. Further Zen philosophy brings us to Zenyatta, the only feasible alternative to Rachel Alexandra as Horse of the Year. Her reputation lost a little of its lustre, even though she took her career record to an unblemished 12 wins from 12 starts, in the Clement L Hirsch Stakes. The eight-and-a-half-furlong trip and Del Mar’s short home straight counted against her come-from-behind style, and jockey Mike Smith admitted that he had underestimated her opposition. She still got the job done, catching Anabaa’s Creation right on the line, and will run next in the Lady’s Secret Stakes (October 10), then remain at Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup, either the Ladies Classic (which she won last year) or the Classic itself. In a less stellar season, Gio Ponti might be a Horse of the Year candidate. But, short of switching to an artificial surface and winning the Classic, he is more likely to have to settle for the title of America’s top turf horse. He emphasised his superiority on grass in the Arlington Million, albeit on officially ‘good’ going that was more like ‘yielding’ and inconvenienced his chief rivals, Einstein, Cima de Triomphe and Gloria de Campeao. Trainer Christophe Clement and Irish owner Shane Ryan, of Castleton Lyons, have a bit of thinking to do about Gio
Age 6 3 3 4 4 3 5 2 2 2 3 6 2 3 3 4 5 3 4 2
Sex G C F C F C G C F G G H C F F C G F F F
Sire Smart Strike (CAN) Elusive Quality (USA) Cactus Ridge (USA) Out of Place (USA) Empire Maker (USA) Medaglia d’Oro (USA) City Zip (USA) Smoke Glacken (USA) Offlee Wild (USA) Dixie Union (USA) Repriced (USA) Lucky Roberto (USA) Broken Vow (USA) Rocky Bar (USA) Malibu Moon (USA) Sligo Bay (IRE) Jump Start (USA) Menifee (USA) Stormin Fever (USA) Pulpit (USA)
Dam Fabulous Find (USA) Kobla (USA) Reduced Sentence (USA) Taxable Deduction (USA) Sluice (USA) Maya (USA) Java Gal (USA) Echo Harbor (USA) Trappings (USA) Tutorial (USA) Free To Soar (USA) Great Stampa (ARG) Broad Pennant (USA) Kits Peak (USA) Kings Lynn (USA) Mona Lisa (USA) Native Ghost (USA) Liberty School (USA) De Bertie (USA) Madcap Escapade (USA)
Ponti’s Breeders’ Cup target, as he is already a winner on Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride artificial surface. The rain-softened ground also played a key role in the other Arlington Turf Festival races, Dynaforce revelling in it to see off the French visitor, Alnadana, in the Beverly D Stakes, and Take The Points catching Irish raider Black Bear Island close home in the Secretariat Stakes. Godolphin suffered a dismal start to its US campaign. But everything came right at Saratoga, where 14 runners brought eight victories including four at Grade 1 level. The most recent of these came via new recruit Pyro in the Forego Stakes, while the fillies Flashing and Music Note had earlier won the Test Stakes and the Ballerina Stakes respectively. Saratoga’s other female features saw Careless Jewel follow up her easy Delaware Oaks triumph with an even easier score in the Alabama Stakes and Icon Project, fourth in the 2008 Ribblesdale Stakes when trained by Brian Meehan, break her Grade 1 duck by an astonishing 13 and a half lengths in the Personal Ensign Stakes. Another former British filly making waves on the other side of the Atlantic is Magical Fantasy, who took five tries to win a maiden when with James Nicol as a juvenile. Now four, her John C Mabee Stakes
Broodmare Sire Lost Code (USA) Strawberry Road (AUS) Broad Brush (USA) Prized (USA) Seeking The Gold (USA) Capote (USA) Java Gold (USA) Boston Harbor (USA) Seeking The Gold (USA) Forty Niner (USA) Unbridled (USA) Senor Pete (USA) Broad Brush (USA) Pine Bluff (USA) Mt Livermore (USA) You and I (USA) Silver Ghost (USA) Pine Bluff (USA) De Niro (USA) Hennessy (USA)
success was her fourth American Grade 1 triumph. Two prestigious all-aged events produced surprises, outsider of six Bullsbay seeing off Macho Again in the Whitney Handicap, and the unheralded Richard’s Kid getting up late to deny the Arlington Million disappointment, Einstein, in the Pacific Classic. The two-year-old pecking order is beginning to take shape, the Californians Mi Sueno and Lookin At Lucky making early bids for top honours. Mi Sueno followed up her Sorrento Stakes win in the Del Mar Debutante and Best Pal Stakes hero Lookin At Lucky did the same in the Del Mar Futurity. Over on the East Coast, Hot Dixie Chick carried the colours of Jess Jackson’s wife, Barbara Banke, to beat the same rival (Beautician) in the Spinaway Stakes as she had five weeks earlier in the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes. Dublin broke a hard-to-believe four-year Grade 1 drought for the once-dominant D Wayne Lukas in the Hopeful Stakes. Finally, the prize for most unlikely Grade 1 winner of the month goes to Telling, a first ever starter in such vaunted company for trainer Steve Hobby, who snapped a ten-race losing sequence by beating a tenyear-old and an eight-year-old in the Sword Dancer Invitational.
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER 89