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Running at the Rail- SA Derby Week
By
McDuffy
Apr 5, 2010,
11:24:46 AM
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Running The Rail
 SA Derby Week
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Headed to the westcoast to take in the SA Derby this weekend and also to see who was posting some of the faster morning works on the week. The track was listed as fast for most of the week with just one off day coming on Wednesday when both the dirt and the turf courses came up good. I was also hoping to catch up with another trainer in the morning and hopefully get some insight into their morning work regiment or even a closer look at their barn and how this season is coming along. I was actually able to catch up with a lightly raced trainer here at HRP who I missed talking to back at DMR during the trials and he just happened to be here at SA for the Derby. I will share what he had to say a little later in this article.
SA Derby- The stands were packed as many turned out for this years running of the SA Derby ( See SRF Article for complete coverage) and the crowd was not disappointed as less then a second seperated first from last in this six horse field. The even money post time favorite GlueFactory's Prophet would close in the late going to capture the victory by two. To say this sophomore likes the footing here at SA would be an understatement, He loves it! He has already won the Gr. III San Rafeal and the Gr. II San Felipe Stakes this season, so the SA Derby was the obvious choice, as was Gomez. How he will handle the switch to the eastcoast surfaces is still yet to be seen, but he will definitely love the return here in the fall when the Breeders Cup events are run. Already having a World Ranking of 117 in just nine career starts is quite an accomplishment and his sire Penal Colony is a key to those reults. He won the Gr. III Rebel and losts by a nose in a photo finish in the Gr. II AR Derby heading into the Triple Crown. His best finish came in the Kentucky Derby finishing third after setting the early fractions over a muddy surface. So the bloodline is definitelyproving its worth with Prophet and he should grab some attention come May 1st.
The lone filly in the event, Ken Allan's Machiavellian Lady put on a brilliant showing ending in a dead heat for second with Zoological. Will be interesting to see if she will give the boys a run for their money in the Derby. Deschutes Racing's Flight Risk was a part of that threeway photo finish for the place purse.
Morning Works- Some familiar names were once again back on the lists as far as trainers go. Always making his presence felt is Dynark Stables who had a few top five workouts on the week. His sophomore filly Point To Royalty ( 1:36.00) would be the second faster mile turf work on the week finishing behind a brilliant work laid down by Mb Stables five year old gelding Mind On The Prize going 1:35.04. That one also put a bullet effort in the previous week for six furlongs on the turf in 1:08 and three handily. Dynark Stables also added Consuelo ( f.4) to the top mile works on the grass with a 1:36.05. Diabo Diablo's Legs Eleven ( g.4) was right behind with a 1:36.17 H
As for the dirt course mile works, Meat's Irish Stu ( g.5) would take the top spot with a 1:38.05 H followed by Triple K's Ghost Variation ( f. 3) in 1:39.12 and Pan Farms Jasper Carrot ( g. 3) with a 1:39.26, as that one could be looking at a shot at the TC.
Top five furlong works were Angelos Stable Life Charm ( g.4) who clocked a 58.96 H on the dirt, while Ringleader's Bradley Hdcp. winner Tempted took top honors on the grass with a 56.99 H. The four furlong distance works saw a pair on Monday runners just split the difference by one one-hundredth of a second with two breezing works. First 88 Jayhawk would post a 47.67 B work with King Dusty ( c.3), then Angelos Stable's Striking Curiosity ( f.4) would go 47.68 B a short time later. The turf top spot of the week went to Blood Horse Stables Kicking Ash ( c.3) with a time of 46.56 H. He would finish just four one-hundredths of a second ahead of Spankys Barn's Clank ( g.4)
Trainer Of The Week- A few weeks back at DMR I wanted to give one of the smaller barns a chance to speak out on his/her vision of HRP and see how they felt about what keeps them interested. I was watching the morning works and a three year old colt by the name of The Deed Is Done caught my eye as he breezed a four furlong work in 48 and one that day. I ran into his owner Andrew from Big Guns Stables in the betting line here and asked if we could sit down and get a glimpse into his barn and his outlook. He accomplished only one victory in 2008 with One Sweet world, then last season raced fifty seven starts with three victories. Slowly improving with each year, he may have only two victories so far this season, but he definitely has a love for horses and this game. So to the questions;
Tell me Andrew a little bit about yourself
In regards to my personal background I am a pretty young horse racing fan (by today's standards) 29 years old and a frequent visitor to my home track Santa Anita. I've been a fan for over 5 years and the biggest win wager I ever hit was when I bet Giacomo to win the Kentucky Derby in 2005 at 50-1 odds. My favorite wagers (and the one's I seem to do best at) are exacta keys and exacta boxes. And as a handicapper I like to use the DRF formulator in combination with Thorograph figures. More recently I've paired up with a good friend to go after the pick 6. We haven't hit yet but we've been close. Not bad for players on a small budget like ourselves. My favorite real life horses include Colonel John, Rags to Riches, Mr Gruff, and of course Zenyatta. And in regards to this years derby I think Lookin at Lucky, Awesome Act, and Sidneys Candy are gonna show up big on the first Saturday in May.
So what about The Deed Is Done? How do you see him progressing?
What do I like about him? I like his heart. I think he always tries his hardest. As you may have noticed both his wins were by a nose. He's not the most talented horse I have but he's very honest. In addition I love his pedigree. Obviously I love Tollbooth Willie (I'll get to that later) but I was also really attracted to his dam Judsonia. Judsonia is a mare out of HRP-Hasili by HRP-Damascus. Both have Excellent Mile Dirt pedigrees. One thing I'm not certain about is my assumption that The Deed is Done only wants turf. I haven't really tried him over dirt, except for his first race in which he lost by 4 lengths to Lonely Jack, currently a force in the Triple Crown hunt, because he's shown so much ability on the sod. His next race will be a dirt sprint at GG however. So we'll see what happens there. I think his brilliant speed will always give him a big chance to win whenever he runs though.
Who do you feel is your most talented horse in your stable?
I think my most talented horse is Space Kitten. She is a filly by Excellent Cat out of Nasa, and she is a full sister to stakes winner and graded stakes placed Cosmic Cat. I bought her at auction for $125 as a 2yo and perhaps asked too much of her early on. She performed well in the Cinderella S. at Hollywood Park but then didn't really move forward as I had expected in some graded stakes at DMR. I gave her a couple months off and she came back to finish 3rd in an ALW race. Then I experimented with her over turf and going a route of ground before I got her back to doing what she really wants, and that's sprinting on dirt. In that race she earned a career high 94 SRF and I'm expecting big things from her this season as I think I've finally figured her out. My future plans for her are to race her as a 3yo and to retire her sometime during her 4yo campaign next year. I think her precociousness and speed will make her very valuable in the breeding shed...
Any up and comers that you feel strongly about?
The up and comer in my small stable of horses is my new sire Living Large. I bred him privately 4 times in the first quarter on 2010 and all his offspring so far are running 5f times in 1:04 and under. His filly Living Spontaneously ranks 200 overall among 2YO fillies across the country with her 1:03 and change work at DMR clocked last week, and 13th overall among 2YO fillies at DMR since January 1st. I am especially excited about his potential as a sire because the conformation of his offspring seem to favor longer distances. Currently I am offering 5 breeding services in the 2nd quarter for $4.99, but there still remains 1 more service in the 1st quarter for only $2.22! A great deal in my opinion.
My other new sire is Dr Dre who showed ability routing over the turf in his career but never really had that will to win x-factor. I believe that if he is paired with the right mares he will be very successful as a sire. His sire is HRP-Tiznow and his mare is the great HRP-Searching. The most precocious 2YO filly in my barn is his first baby Blue Lingerie. She is out of the very productive mare Great White Bunny, who I purchased at auction in December 2009 for only $3.55. She is the dam of The Fireman (20-4-4-6 $180.51), Zen Fever (22-7-2-2 $343.78), and the 3YO colt Antagonistic (5-3-1-1 $102.00). Blue Lingerie's 5f work at DMR ranks 8th overall amongst 2YO fillies working 5f at DMR since January 1st and she's definitely one to watch in my opinion. In regards to her dam Great White Bunny, she'll be bred this quarter to Thornton Mellon.
What attracted you to put out the just over 81 dollars to purchase Tollbooth Willie, and is he the backbone to your breeding game?
I was very intrigued by the quality of offspring that Tollbooth Willie was consistently producing as a sire. Even though I haven't bred him a lot since purchasing him (just can't afford it) he still ranks among the top sires in the game and he's produced horses that run on dirt and turf, and horses that can sprint and route. He also gets a relatively high percentage of stakes winners. From what I can tell he seems to excel at producing quality sprinter/milers. One thing that really stands out is the quality conformation of his babies. Ideal and Very Good seem to be the norm. He was for the past year the backbone of my small breeding operation. However now I am spreading the wealth among him and the two new sires that I mentioned previously.
Finally, what attracted you to HRP and what are your goals for success?
What attracted me to HRP is how realistic the game is. Before I found HRP I played Digiturf and found it not to be enough for me. The thing I like most about HRP is the breeding. I like that you can research and breed your own offspring. And the details are incomparable (conformation, bloodlines, SRF figs, etc). I also find HRP to be extremely reasonable when it comes to how much it costs to play. In general it just seems like the developers of HRP have put a lot of work into the development of the game and they've kept to task with their enhancements to the game over time...
...My short term goal as an HRP owner/trainer is to breed my own Graded Stakes winner, and my long term goal is to breed a Kentucky Derby Winner and/or Breeders Cup Race winner. Unfortunately, I think in order to do this I'll have to invest a substantial amount of money into my breeding operation. However I'm not too concerned with this because I think in order to get ahead in this game you have to be successful as a breeder. Besides the discount you get for breeding your own runners, the potential income from breeding (offering sire services, leasing mares, and breeding for auctions) is endless. So as the saying goes without risk there is no reward. I am very excited about my future here at HRP.
As you can see, Andrew has a great passion for this game as he held nothing back to any question I tossed his way. It was obvious I could feel his intensity as he talked. I wish him nothing but great success and hope that I get to cover the event and congratulate him when he captures that first Graded title.
I will be taking a break next week and then my concentration will move to the sophomores the following week as they prep for some of the top horseracing glory when they compete for the Triple Crown
Leaning at the Rail
I'm Mc.D.
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