Happy Horses Win

Emory A. Hamilton’s Hungry Island collared Tapitsfly in the final furlong and went on to score a one-length victory in the $223,400 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile (gr. IIT) May 5.
Ridden by John Velazquez for trainer Shug McGaughey, Hungry Island was fifth early in the field of seven as Jenny Wiley Stakes (gr. IT) winner Daisy Devine, Tapitsfly, and 3-2 favorite Marketing Mix made the early running. Daisy Devine, leading by one length, got the first quarter on a turf course labeled good in :24.78 and half in :48.68. As the field raced into the stretch, 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Tapitsfly took over as the leaders began to back up.
Racing in mid-track, Hungry Island began a steady advance on Tapitsfly, continuing on gamely to wear down the leader. Hungry Island put her rival away in the closing strides after switching to her left lead. The final time for a mile on grass was 1:36.20.
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Boisterous made his return to New York a winning one, closing resolutely through the stretch for a one-length victory over Desert Blanc in the $150,000 Fort Marcy Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Belmont Park May 5.
Sent off as the narrow 7-5 favorite in the field of six, the 5-year-old son of Distorted Humor stayed in mid-pack behind fractions of :25.68 and :50.89 set by Upgrade over the yielding turf course. Moving up on the turn, Boisterous hit his best stride once in the stretch and took the lead 110 yards from the wire.
“I know my horse can run the last part, so I wanted to be patient,” said winning jockey Alan Garcia. “I was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, and turning for home I let him run and he did really well.”
“We originally were disappointed in his last race because he didn’t finish, but looking further at it, he made an early move and then flattened out,” said Robbie Medina, assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. “That type of turf course with the short stretch doesn’t suit him; he prefers making that one run through the stretch.”
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Making 3-5 look like a bargain, To Honor and Serve inhaled pacesetter Bold Deed approaching the stretch and ran away from three outclassed rivals in Saturday's scratch-riddled Westchester Stakes at Belmont Park.
In what resembled a public workout more than a graded stakes race, To Honor and Serve ($3.20) couldn't have been more impressive in his 4-year-old debut if he tried – and he didn't need to try too hard after Jersey Town, Marilyn's Guy, and Ponzi Scheme all were withdrawn.
Bold Deed sprinted to a long early lead under Javier Castellano through ambitious fractions of 22.95 and 45.05 seconds. Meanwhile, Jose Lezcano allowed To Honor and Serve to settle into stride down the backstretch.
To Honor and Serve quickly gained on the turn, took over readily just before six furlongs in 1:09.79, and drew away to win the mile race by five and one-quarter lengths in 1:34.84 while eased up the last sixteenth of a mile.
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The Phipps family has long been known for producing quality horses whose pedigrees have a lasting impact on the racing industry.
The enduring nature of one of the sport's most famed breeding programs showed itself again on Friday as the Phipps Stable homebred Point of Entry, a half brother to the multiple Grade I winning filly Pine Island, came up four wide in the stretch to capture the Grade II, $150,000 Elkhorn Stakes on the closing day of Keeneland's Spring Meeting.
Though Pine Island made her name on the dirt, winning the Grade I Alabama and Gazelle in 2006 before fatally breaking down in that year's Breeders' Cup Distaff, there just weren't as many main-track options for the 4-year-old Point of Entry and his stamina-laden style.
After making five of his first six career starts on the dirt, the son of Dynaformer switched to grass exclusively for his last five outings and won a 11/2-mile allowance test over the Keeneland surface on April 12.
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Even as Bill Mott tries to explain that Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Westchester is just a prep for To Honor and Serve to get to next month's Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap, it's hard to believe the Hall of Fame trainer won't have his horse ready for a big effort.
And even though the seven-horse field for the Westchester includes fellow Grade 1 winners Boys At Tosconova and Jersey Town – both with recent good form – it's hard to believe To Honor and Serve isn't still the horse to beat in the first graded event of the Belmont spring/summer meet.
The Westchester, a one-turn mile, will be To Honor and Serve's first race since he won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct last Nov. 26. It will be To Honor and Serve's first race at Belmont since he won a 1 1/16-mile maiden event here by 8 3/4 lengths in Oct. 2010.
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Incredicat passed his first serious Queen's Plate test with flying colors with a 1 3/4-length score here in last Saturday's 1 1/16-mile Wando Stakes.
Incredicat had won his maiden over 5 1/2 furlongs at first asking here last Dec. 4, but then got caught up in a speed duel when finishing third in a 6 1/2-furlong first-level allowance at Gulfstream on March 24.
Racing last Saturday with blinkers off, Incredicat relaxed nicely under Luis Contreras and turned back a couple of challenges while leading at every call.
"He might have exceeded our expectations, with the fact that he would go his first quarter in 25 and one," said Ian Black, who trains Incredicat for a high-powered partnership that includes Woodbine's chairman of the board David Willmot and directors John Fielding, Ben Hutzel, Clay Horner, and Doug Murphy. "It's not that there was real pressure but they were sitting outside him, and that could have made him keen. We'd been working on getting him to relax behind horses. And, Luis gave him a very, very good ride."
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Waterville Lake Stable's multiple stakes-winning and Grade 3-placed homebred Miss Valentine came back a winner at four on Saturday, going from last to first to capture the $75,000 Northern Willy Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares on Aqueduct's closing weekend.
Paired for the first time with Cornelio Velasquez to go the mile on the Aqueduct main, Miss Valentine was coming off a five-month vacation following a successful sophomore campaign for trainer Christophe Clement. The late-running daughter of Afleet Alex went off as the 4-5 post-time favorite.
Breaking in a leisurely way from post two, Miss Valentine may have given her backers pause in the early stages of the running, as she raced fifth and last, and further off the pace than usual, traveling as much as nine lengths behind Risk a Chance, who won the battle for the lead from Lady Gracenote and set the early fractions (23.62 and 47.13).
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The road to the June 24 Queen's Plate begins in earnest Saturday at Woodbine in the $100,000 Wando, and the promising Perfect Tay will make his stakes debut in the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack route for 3-year-olds.
Perfect Tay has made both of his starts over 1 1/16 miles on the grass at Gulfstream. He was based at the Payson Park Training Center with trainer Roger Attfield prior to his debut for a $75,000 tag on Feb. 18, in which he rallied strongly for second.
Trainer Lorne Richards claimed Perfect Tay from his opener on behalf of True North Stable, and then ran him back a month later in a maiden special. After a stalking trip, Perfect Tay came along the rail in the stretch to edge out the blue-blooded Bill Mott trainee Night Site for the win.
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Stuart Janney III's homebred Data Link came from off the pace to run down favored Turallure in the final jumps, capturing the $300,000 Maker's 46 Mile (gr. IT) at odds of 12-1 April 13 at Keeneland.
Making his first grade I start against a good field that included TVG Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. I) runner-up Turallure and defending Maker's Mark Mile winner Get Stormy, Data Link was sent off as the second longest chance in a field of six turf milers. The 4-year-old son of War Front trailed for six furlongs before launching his winning move while racing wide on the final turn. He passed a trio of horses inside the sixteenth pole to win for the first time this year.
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Trainer Ian Black admitted to being pleasantly surprised when Fifty Proof was named Canada's champion older male at the 2011 Sovereign Awards ceremony.
"I thought it was a very open category," said Black, whose horse was a finalist along with Don Cavallo and James Street. "All three finalists had won one stake. But, I was worried that we'd been gone so long and people tend to forget."
Fifty Proof, owned by David Willmot, John Fielding ,and Ben Hutzel, had won his first two starts of 2011 on the main track, including the Grade 3 Eclipse, and then finished second in back-to-back Grade 2 stakes on the turf when his campaign came to a halt in late July.
"We found a small tear in a suspensory," said Black. "We just sent him to the farm, and gave him the time.
"The last time we ultrasounded it, in January, it was okay."
Fifty Proof started up at Willmot's Kinghaven Farm and trained there for a couple of weeks before shipping to Florida to join Black at Payson Park.
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Race to Urga made it three-for-three at Gulfstream Park this winter and four-straight going back to November at Aqueduct in winning Sunday's Wait a While Stakes on closing day.
Trained by Christophe Clement for Castleton Lyons, Race to Urga won her first stakes race in the Wait a While after winning two optional claiming races at Gulfstream and an allowance race at Aqueduct after breaking her maiden at Belmont Park in July.
The 4-year-old daughter of Bernstein sat just off of pacesetter Frontside through fractions of :24.07, :47.75 and 1:34.67 in the Wait a While, then caught her at the top of the stretch. The two raced together with Frontside on the rail, but Race to Urga began to draw away inside the final furlong and went on to a three-length victory with jockey Jose Lezcano aboard. Race to Urga covered the 1 1⁄16 miles in 1:40.55.
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Trainer Shug McGaughey had toyed with the idea of flying to New Orleans to watch his beloved Kentucky Wildcats play their arch rival Louisvile Cardinals in the semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament instead of staying in town to saddle Hit It Rich in Saturday's $150,000 Orchid at Gulfstream Park. As things turned out, the Hall of Fame horseman was glad he decided not to make the trip.
In a race that unfolded in a surprising and somewhat unorthodox manner, Hit It Rich outfinished the pacesetting Aqsaam to register a half-length victory under leading rider Javier Castellano in the Grade 3 Orchid. Keertana, the 6-5 favorite, rallied belatedly to finish another head further back in third.
Hit It Rich, who is owned by his breeder Stuart Janney III, settled off the early pace of Aqsaam who sprinted more than a dozen lengths clear of the field before completing the opening half mile of the 1 1/2-milefurlong Orchid. Hit It Rich, winner of the Grade 3 Long Island Handicap in his 2011 finale, began to advance around the final turn before finally overtaking the game leader in late stretch.
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Bill Mott arrived in Dubai on Tuesday morning, reuniting with the filly, Royal Delta, he had shipped here from Florida a week ago. It was a trip he had first thought about taking four months ago. It was a trip he wondered for some time if he would be permitted to make.
In the four days between the time Royal Delta won the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4 and went through the auction ring at Keeneland Nov. 8, Mott said he thought about the prospects of running Royal Delta, the 2011 3-year-old filly champion, in the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan, which will be run Saturday night.
"Just because you think, what do you do with one like this?" said Mott, who won the inaugural running of the World Cup in 1996 with Cigar, the 1995 Horse of the Year. "What's the next challenge? If she's that good you got to think about the big races."
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Extra distance was the key for James Karp's homebred Newsdad to exact revenge on Simmard, as the son of Arch came from off the pace to win the $150,000 Pan American against a short field March 24 at Gulfstream Park.
The 4-year-old colt was stretching back out to 1 1/2 miles on the Gulfstream turf after being beaten a nose by Simmard at 1 3/8 miles in the Feb. 26 Mac Diarmida in his last start. After trailing for most of the way in a field of four, he made his winning move on the final turn under Julien Leparoux and had plenty left in the stretch en route to his two-length victory.
It was the first graded stakes win for Newsdad, who was bred in Kentucky and is out of the Pulpit mare Storm Tracer. It was also his second win this season over the Gulfstream turf course, as he romped in a 1 7/16-mile optional claimer on Jan. 28. The colt is trained by Bill Mott.
The final time over the firm turf was 2:24.93. Hailstone finished second, a neck in front of Simmard. Harrods Creek was last.
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Arena Elvira posted her fifth straight victory by edging out R Gypsy Gold in the $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
With the track's leading rider, Leandro Goncalves, aboard, Arena Elvira raced in mid-pack before getting up in the final strides to win the 1 1/16-mile race by a head as the odds-on favorite. R Gypsy Gold, the 5-2 second choice, finished six lengths ahead of Dash Dot Dash in a field of seven fillies and mares.
Arena Elvira, a 5-year-old mare by Ghostzapper, was making her first start since ending the 2011 season with a victory in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs. She returned $3.80 after finishing in 1:44.57 over a fast track.
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Arena Elvira will attempt to start off 2012 just the way she ended 2011 and keep her winning streak intact Saturday in the $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
Eight older fillies and mares, including a Marty Wolfson entry, are entered in the Wayward Lass, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race that anchors an 11-race Saturday card. First post is 12:27 p.m. Eastern, with the Wayward Lass going at 4:10.
Arena Elvira, owned by Carolyn Wilson and trained by Bill Mott, has been training smartly at Payson Park in recent weeks since concluding her 4-year-old season with a gritty victory as the favorite in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap at Churchill Downs last Thanksgiving. That triumph was her fourth in a row, and her seventh from her last nine starts, and it gave her Hall of Fame trainer hope that further development could make her one of the top older mares in North America this year.
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Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta remains on target for her main goal for the opening half of her 2012 campaign, the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31.
Trainer Bill Mott said Royal Delta is "doing wonderful" and on schedule for the World Cup. Winner of the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic, she has started once this winter, finishing a distant second behind Awesome Maria in the Grade 3 Sabin here on Feb. 25. She has worked once since the Sabin, going five furlongs in 1:03 last Saturday at Payson Park.
"It certainly doesn't appear like her first race set her back any. Sometimes you never know," said Mott, who trained Royal Delta during her championship season, when she was owned by the late Saud bin Khaled's Palides Investments, and continues to guide her fortunes for Benjamin Leon's Besilu Stables, which bought her for $8.5 million at the Keeneland November sale. "She'll work again here this weekend and fly out on Tuesday night. I might do a little something with her over there but nothing serious. We're going where we want to go. So far everything is on schedule."
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The migration of better horses to New York from south Florida is still several weeks away. One horse getting a head start on his brethren, however, is Birdrun, who arrived at Belmont Park over the weekend and will start in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct.
Birdrun, who won last year's Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont, has not run since finishing second to longshot Afleet Again in the Breeder' Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs last November.
Bill Mott, who trains Birdrun for the Preston Stables, had the 6-year-old son of Birdstone at Payson Park all winter and was contemplating staring him in last month's Stymie at Aqueduct, but that race didn't draw enough entries to be carded.
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Heinz Steinmann's Creative Cause, considered by many to be the leading classics contender from the West Coast, took a step closer to the first Saturday in May but needed nearly every inch of the stretch to do just that in the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Santa Anita Park.
The Giant's Causeway colt got a stiff challenge from front-running Bodemeister in the stretch and did not wear that foe down until deep stretch for his first victory in his last three starts. Creative Cause did get the better of Bodemeister, however, by three-quarters of a length and moved closer to both the Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) with the win. Final time for the 1 1/16 miles was 1:41.84 on a track rated as fast.
"I don't think he has much more to prove," winning trainer Mike Harrington said. "He'll probably move forward a bit more [off the San Felipe]; he's on a good cycle."
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Dixie Strike, who is a half-sister to last year's Queen's Plate winner Inglorious, has been made the 4-1 favorite in this year's Queen's Plate winter book. The hypothetical winter book, compiled for the first time by Daily Racing Form 's Ron Gierkink and Bill Tallon, lists odds for the 117 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds who remained eligible for the Queen's Plate as of Feb. 1.
Hard Not to Like, a homebred filly who races for Garland Williamson and is trained by Gail Cox, is the third choice at 6-1. Although all five of her juvenile starts came on turf, Hard Not to Like showed considerable ability with wins over males in two races, including Woodbine's Cup and Saucer and a close fifth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs. Hard Not to Like is preparing for her 3-year-old campaign at Payson Park in Florida.
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Ron the Greek scored the biggest win of his career Saturday at Santa Anita where he won the historic 75th running of the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. 1), the first race to carry a $100,000 purse back in the 1930s.
Since being transferred to trainer Bill Mott's barn, Ron the Greek has won three of five starts including Saturday's grade-one victory, his first graded stakes win since winning the Le Comte Stakes in 2010. Prior to joining Mott's barn, Ron the Greek had won three races in 11 starts. Not only was Ron the Greek bred in Florida, but he shipped in to California from Mott's winter base at Payson Park Training Center, near Indiantown, Fla.
Named for breeder-owner Jack T. Hammer's late friend, Ron Skrumbellos, Ron the Greek now joins the venerated list of "Big Cap" winners that includes Seabiscuit, Round Table, Nodouble, Ack Ack, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, John Henry, Broad Brush, Alysheba, Tiznow and Lava Man.
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Trainer Bill Mott's team swooped into Southern California with Ron the Greek to snare the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I) in convincing style March 3.
The 3 1/2-length triumph was the first graded stakes win in more than two years for the 5-year-old son of Full Mandate owned by Jack T. Hammer, Nils Brous, and Adam Wachtel.
The big-striding bay, ridden by Jose Lezcano, lost ground on the far turn when he was hemmed inside behind traffic by jockey Victor Espinoza aboard Setsuko. But Ron the Greek would re-gather himself to rally impressivley in the lane, sweeping past Setsuko in the middle of the track to score easily as the 7-2 third choice.
"I didn't want to be on the inside so I had to use him the whole way to make him keep going," Lezcano said. "At the half-mile pole I had a lot of horse, but I had to keep asking my horse. My horse is like a bicycle, you keep asking and he will keep running."
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In February, some 397 three-year-olds were nominated to the 2012 U.S. Triple Crown, (Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes) including seven horses trained by Woodbine's leading trainer Mark Casse.
The 2012 Kentucky Derby, which will be held on May 5 at Churchill Downs, is limited to 20 starters. Should more than 20 horses enter, the entries will be determined by the amount of graded stakes earnings accumulated by each horse.
Ian Black's Excaper ($240,736), who currently sits in ninth position in the graded earnings list topped by Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile champ Hansen ($1,160,000), will not be among the starters expected to break from the gate on the first Saturday in May.
"We had to stop on him for a little while and it's (the Derby) not in our plans," confirms Black, from Payson Park in Florida. "We gave him a break after the last time he ran and hopefully by the time the turf starts (at Woodbine), we'll be ready to go."
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Trainer Roger Attfield and William Werner's Simmard would not be denied in Sunday's Grade 2, $150,000 Mac Diarmida Stakes at Gulfstream Park, just getting his nose down on the wire ahead of game rival and 2-1 favorite Newsdad.
Simmard was never far back as Center Divider and Mambo Meister battled it out for the lead in the 1 3/8-mile turf contest. The three hit the half-mile point separated by only two heads when a time of :49 2/5 was flashed on the tote board, but jockey Javier Castellano quickly settled Simmard a little bit behind by the time Mambo Meister had registered six furlongs in 1:13 3/5.
Castellano finally gave Simmard his cue and the Dixieland Band horse took off to circle the leaders rounding the final turn about three wide. He hit the stretch in front by a half-length, but suddenly had to contend with Newsdad, who had bided his time running in the second flight of horses down the backstretch.
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With the elation of her Breeders' Cup victory and disappointment of her aborted trip to Argentina now in the rearview mirror, Perfect Shirl will finally begin her 2012 campaign when she takes on a full field of long-distance, filly and mare turf specialists in Saturday's $100,000 The Very One at Gulfstream Park.
Perfect Shirl has not started since pulling off a 27-1 shocker in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. That was the only victory of the season for Perfect Shirl, a daughter of Perfect Soul who was graded stakes placed on two other occasions in 2011. She was scheduled to conclude the campaign in the Group 1 Gran Premio Internacional Pelligrini in Argentina but never made the trip because of a series of canceled flights.
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In an era when even smaller tracks such as Delta Downs and Charles Town are hosting million dollar races, a $100,000 purse rarely buys more than a field of allowance-type horses no matter the venue. So it's all the more amazing that for a mere 100 grand Gulfstream Park has managed to attract an Eclipse Award champion, Royal Delta, and a Grade 1 winner riding the crest of a four-race victory streak, Awesome Maria, for Saturday's Grade 3 Sabin.
The match between two of the leading members of the filly and mare handicap division in the 1 1/16-mile Sabin highlights an outstanding 12-race program that also includes the $250,000 Davona Dale for 3-year-old fillies and the $100,000 The Very One on the turf, featuring the 2012 debut of Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Perfect Shirl.
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Michael Dubb and partners' Grace Hall, last seen finishing second to the brilliant My Miss Aurelia in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4 for trainer Anthony Dutrow, is set to launch a new campaign Saturday as the favorite and horse to beat in the $250,000 Davona Dale Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park.
The Davona Dale for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles will share the spotlight on an outstanding card Saturday with the highly-anticipated match-up of 2011 Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly Royal Delta and Awesome Maria in the $100,000 Sabin Stakes for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles and Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) winner Perfect Shirl returning in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes (G3) at 1 3/8 miles on turf.
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Despite carrying purse money of only $100,000, the field for Saturday's Grade 3 Sabin at Gulfstream Park couldn't have turned out much better. The 1 1/16-mile event features the return to action of two of racing's top fillies from last season, the three-year-old champion Royal Delta and Grade 1 winner Awesome Maria, who won all of her 2011 starts in an abbreviated campaign. They will face three others, including Grade 3 winner Groupie Doll.
Royal Delta, who cemented championship honors with a 2 1/2-length score in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic in November, will use the Sabin as a stepping-stone for the Group 1, $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 31. Days after her Breeders' Cup triumph, the filly went through the sales ring at Keeneland November and brought $8.5 million from Benjamin Leon, who operates Besilu Stables. Leon eventually allowed trainer Bill Mott to resume training the filly, who also captured the Grade 1 Alabama and Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan last season for the late Saud bin Khaled's Palides Investments.
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Law Enforcement's comeback from a life-threatening bout with colic two years ago was completed Monday at Aqueduct when the 7-year-old New York-bred rallied from last to win the $75,000 Hollie Hughes Stakes.
Under Alan Garcia, Law Enforcement rallied from 15 lengths back after the opening quarter to run past Head Heart Hoof in the final 50 yards and win the race by 1 1/4 lengths. Head Heart Hoof finished second by a head over Be Bullish, last year's Hughes winner. He was followed in the order of finish by Dr Disco, Ground Force, Freudian Dilemma, and Bug Juice. The win ended an 11-race losing streak for Law Enforcement, dating back to Aug. 5, 2009 when he won the John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga.
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Barring any complications, Royal Delta will make her much anticipated 2012 debut in the Grade 3 Sabin here at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 25.
Trainer Bill Mott confirmed that's the race he has picked out for Royal Delta's first start since her easy victory in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic and to use as a prep prior to her current goal, the $10 million Dubai World Classic, on March 31. The Sabin is carded at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
Royal Delta was purchased privately by Benjamin Leon's Besilu Stable for $8.5 million at the Keeneland November sales just four days after her Breeders' Cup victory and returned to Mott's care later that month at Payson Park.
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Shug McGaughey's been here before. He wouldn't have become a member of the Racing Hall of Fame if he and his horses didn't show up in big spots.
But having been here and done that, he used to winning and takes it in stride. McGaughey took the heart stopping victory of Hymn Book in the storied Donn Handicap Donn Handicap in stride, an excited, wide grin notwithstanding.
McGaughey had to know he did something a little out of the ordinary, beating the deepest field of handicappers assembled this year, including the 2011 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winners, and did so off the bench.
"What happened, Shug, couldn't find an allowance race for him?"
That's when McGaughey really began to smile. "The way he finished up in the Cigar Mile, I said to myself this is what I want to do right here. But I didn't know it would come up this strong."
"So we decided to give him a little blow, came down here [Payson Park Training Center], trained well and blew out real good. When I saw him in the receiving barn before the race he was tearing it down." Spoken like a proud papa and Hall of Famer.
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The Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic winner, Royal Delta, has been working toward her initial start of the new campaign under the banner of Besilu Stables, as Benjamin Leon Jr. purchased the daughter of Empire Maker, out of A.P. Indy mare Delta Princess, following her emphatic win in the Breeders' Cup for a whopping $8.5 million in the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
Trained by Bill Mott, the Kentucky bred 4-year-old filly is expected to get her 2012 season underway in the Group 1 $10 million Dubai World Cup at the Meydan, over a distance of 1 ¼ miles over the venue's synthetic surface, against a massive star studded lineup which include the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic runner up, Game on Dude, the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom, Europe's top horse, So You Think, and many others.
Royal Delta on 9 February, 2012, at Payson Park worked six furlongs in 1 minute and 16.30 seconds, and the last year's champion 3-year-old filly, downed five races so far in her eight starts with the earnings of $1,694,600.
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