Talk About Tennis 2.0

So, I can report that Danceswithbourbon has been confirmed pregnant, and the veterinarian has confirmed a fetal heartbeat. She will give birth in late January or early February of 2023. The daddy is By My Standards. You can see his race record at https://www.equibase.com/profiles/Resul ... registry=T. He was a disappointing 11th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby (the same race where Maximum Security was disqualified), but he won four Grade 2 stakes races and was second in two Grade 1 stakes races. All in all, he had 7 wins from 17 starts. TruNicks rates the mating a B+ (the highest rating being an A++).

DWB's racing syndicate is being dissolved, but a separate syndicate from the same partnership still has Unified Dreams who has now resumed formal training at Tampa Bay Downs under Jordan Blair. Barring any additional setbacks, we're hoping he'll be ready to race at Keeneland or Churchill in the late spring/early summer.

Fun Fact About Jordan Blair: You may recall DWB was his first ever win with a first-time starter. Jordan now has one of the highest first-time starter winning percentages among trainers at Tampa Bay Downs. He just needed someone to get the ball rolling, and that was DWB.

dryrunguy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:44 pm So, I can report that Danceswithbourbon has been confirmed pregnant, and the veterinarian has confirmed a fetal heartbeat. She will give birth in late January or early February of 2023. The daddy is By My Standards. You can see his race record at https://www.equibase.com/profiles/Resul ... registry=T. He was a disappointing 11th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby (the same race where Maximum Security was disqualified), but he won four Grade 2 stakes races and was second in two Grade 1 stakes races. All in all, he had 7 wins from 17 starts. TruNicks rates the mating a B+ (the highest rating being an A++).

DWB's racing syndicate is being dissolved, but a separate syndicate from the same partnership still has Unified Dreams who has now resumed formal training at Tampa Bay Downs under Jordan Blair. Barring any additional setbacks, we're hoping he'll be ready to race at Keeneland or Churchill in the late spring/early summer.

Fun Fact About Jordan Blair: You may recall DWB was his first ever win with a first-time starter. Jordan now has one of the highest first-time starter winning percentages among trainers at Tampa Bay Downs. He just needed someone to get the ball rolling, and that was DWB.

Oh, c'mon, how retrograde can you be?! Leave them alone, let them marry because they are in love. The father of the child has to meet your standards before you will consent? I am so disappointed of you, Dry!
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It's time to start introducing you to my three 2-year-olds from the Shooting Star syndicate. I think I mentioned it before, but this year's syndicate will be a little different. We'll have the horses running under Shooting Star for a year-and-a-half instead of a year. So we'll be running them for a longer period of time before we have to decide what to do with them.

I'll start with our filly, Imperiously. She is a Florida-bred and was purchased for $19K as a yearling. She is a gray daughter of The Big Beast, who won 4 times in 9 starts in his racing career with all of his wins coming at the 6-furlong and 7-furlong distances. So he was a sprinter. In his short career, he never finished worse than fourth. Her dam, a daughter of Imperialism, only won twice in 41 starts with both wins coming on the turf at Gulfstream Park and Calder (later known as Gulfstream Park West before it shut down last year or so), but those wins came at distances of 1 1/16 miles and 1 mile. So there's a good bit of flexibility as to where Imperiously's career will go in terms of distance and surface.

Imperiously has two published training works so far--and both were bullet works (fasted time clocked that day at that distance). She went 3 furlongs in both works clocking times of 37.16 in her first work and 36.38 in her second work. That's REALLY fast.

If all continues to go well, Imperiously should be ready to race as soon as the Florida tracks start posting races for 2-year-olds in April or May.

I'd love to know where that one white foot came from.

Like all your horses, beautiful.

Next, I'll mention the first of our two 2-year-old colts, Courageous Copper. He is also a Florida-bred and was purchased as a yearling for $10K. He is a son of Chitu, who won 4 times in 7 starts (including a Grade 3 stakes win) and also finished 2nd in one start (Grade 2) and 3rd in another (Grade 1). Chitu's wins came at 6 furlongs on dirt, 7 furlongs on dirt, 1 1/8 miles on dirt, and 6 furlongs on the synthetic, His dam, Swift Lady, was a 3-time winner in 9 starts with one win at 5.5 furlongs on dirt and two wins at 6.5 furlongs on the downhill turf at Santa Anita.

He has two published works so far--both at 3 furlongs and both a little slower than Imperiously (they've trained on the same days so far) at 37.67 and 37.21. Courageous Copper will almost certainly be a sprinter and should also be ready to race in a month or two--probably at Keeneland in one of their 4.5-furlong races for 2-year-olds.

Finally, we have Doc Ballard. He is a Kentucky-bred that was purchased as a yearling for $16K. He is a son of Gormley who caused quite a stir last year when his first crop of babies started racing as 2-year-olds, and they quickly became well known for their ability to win early. Gormley won 4 times in 9 starts with all of his maiden win coming in his first start at Del Mar and his other three wins coming in three of his next four races at Santa Anita, including two Grade 1 stakes wins and a Grade 3 stakes win. However, he was a disappointing 9th at the 2017 Kentucky Derby.

Doc Ballard's dam, Welcome Aboard, won 8 starts in 30 races--all of her early wins came on turf at distances of 7.5 furlongs, 1 mile, and 1/16 miles, but then she later proved to be equally adept at longer distances on dirt as well.

FUN FACT: Doc Ballard has Buckpasser in the X position in his pedigree (see https://www.pedigreequery.com/doc+ballard). I mentioned this once before. Among old school handicappers, Buckpasser in the X position in the pedigree is supposed to increase the likelihood of having a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender. The theory is based on the power of mitochondrial DNA. Of course, that's hasn't meant a damn thing for many, many years. But hey, who knows? We can dream, right? Everything about Doc Ballard's pedigree suggests he wants distance. But how much distance? That also means he may take a bit longer to get going because it will be some time before tracks start carding longer races for 2-year-olds.

We'll probably point him toward a mid-distance sprint race at Churchill for the debut and then figure it out from there. They won't start listing those types of races until late spring or early summer.

I hope I am not jinxing them.

The earliest Shooting Star has ever had a 2-year-old ready to race was last year--Rock Along at Keeneland on 4/22/21.

This year, all three of our 2-year-olds appear to be ready to go with just a few gate works remaining to prove they're ready.

Our filly, Imperiously, will be entered in a 4.5-furlong dirt race at Gulfstream on 4/21.

One of the colts, Courageous Copper, will be entered in a 4.5-furlong race at Gulfstream on 4/22. He wasn't able to breeze this week because he lost one of his shoes. That's been fixed, and he should be able to get in a work sometime in the next few days.

The other colt, Doc Ballard, will be entered in a 5.5-furlong race at Keeneland on 4/28 on turf. (The leaders of the partnership are convinced he really wants more ground than 5.5 furlongs--but they won't start writing races for longer distances for 2-year-olds until later this year. So you have to start somewhere when the horse shows you they're ready to go.)

Several things can go wrong with this plan--races not filling, races being over-entered and our horses getting bumped out, or one or more of the horses not coming out of one of their upcoming preparation works in top condition.

But for now, the future looks really, really bright. Fingers crossed!

We are so going to miss you when your win a Kentucky Derby and not come by here anymore. So much

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 02, 2022 2:22 am We are so going to miss you when your win a Kentucky Derby and not come by here anymore. So much

Ha! Let's get a stakes winner first.

Speaking of the Kentucky Derby, three major Derby prep races will go today.

The Arkansas Derby, which will go at 7:35 p.m. EST, has a fun wrinkle. Secret Oath is a filly trained by D. Wayne Lukas that will be taking on the boys, including Un Ojo (I posted his last race upthread). Lukas hasn't had a serious Derby contender in a long, LONG time. But he's got a live one here. She'll be the favorite and comes into the race with speed figures that far eclipse the other horses in the field.

The Florida Derby will go at 6:38 p.m. EST. The morning line-maker sees this as a four horse race, and Pete is probably right about that. I'll be rooting for White Abarrio trained by Saffie Joseph, but he's up against it.

Finally, we'll have the Jeff Ruby Stakes at 6:23 p.m. at Turfway Park on the synthetic. The last horse to win the Jeff Ruby and then go on to win the Kentucky Derby was Animal Kingdom in 2011. That race is wide open.

All three races with go at 1 1/8 miles (9 furlongs).

And if you're wondering, "Where are the Baffert horses?", they're gunning for the Santa Anita Derby next weekend. Baffert horses are not eligible to earn points toward the Kentucky Derby, so the owners of the horses with Derby hopes have transferred training duties to other trainers--Tim Yakteen and Rodophe Brisset. It was a game of chicken between Baffert and Churchill Downs--and Baffert was the first to flinch.

Here's the 2022 Curlin Florida Derby. It actually went the way I hoped.

And here is the 2022 Arkansas Derby. Surprise, surprise, surprise. The filly finished third. The race starts around the 2:05 mark. Thrilled for Florent Geroux. You may recall he rode Bold Article to her second win at Churchill back in 2020.

I wasn't going to post the Jeff Ruby race, but since the winner put up a 105 Equibase speed figure (albeit on the synthetic)...

The final three Kentucky Derby prep races race today. First, we have the Wood Memorial today at Aqueduct.

Next, we had the Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland.