America
So Happy upsets the G1 Santa Anita Derby
By Jill Williams, TDN
When 3-year-old colt So Happy (Runhappy) won his first two starts – both sprints – impressively, then yielded when stretched out to 1 1/16 miles in the G2 San Felipe Stakes on March 7, it could be assumed he had distance limitations. After all, his sire was the 2015 champion sprinter.
So Happy ignored his sire's aptitude on Saturday, not only scoring at 1 1/8 miles, but doing it at the highest level to capture the G1 Santa Anita Derby and punch his ticket to the G1 Kentucky Derby. Saturday's race awarded Derby points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale.
It was trainer Mark Glatt's first Santa Anita Derby win and jockey Mike Smith's sixth, including the rider's fifth since 2018. Smith has twice previously won the Kentucky Derby, but So Happy will mark the first starter in the Classic for Glatt. The win on Saturday was a popular and emotional one, as Glatt suddenly lost his wife of 25 years, Dena, two months ago to heart failure.
“It's pretty hard to describe,” said Glatt immediately after the race. “We have had an overwhelming amount of support that's helped us get through this very tough time. (Dena) got that horse there today. I'm just so thankful to the owners for giving me an opportunity. They are big contributors to my stable. They are not really owners, they have become lifelong friends.”
So Happy has been sent through public auctions three times. He first brought US$12,000 (AU$17,400) as a weanling at Keeneland November from Majed Alabdulkarim, then US$20,000 (AU$29,000) from Sander Blanco as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling. Glatt signed the US$150,000 (AU$217,800) ticket for him at OBS March as a 2-year-old last year after he worked a furlong in 0:10.
For a time, the Santa Anita Derby was officially named the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. Runhappy's owner Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale extensively promoted his champion sprinter and Claiborne sire before abruptly exiting the racing business last September and selling Runhappy to South Korea. Runhappy now gets his second career Grade 1 winner as a sire with So Happy's victory in the race that formerly bore his name. With six crops to race, Runhappy has five Graded winners and 20 black-type winners.
Two of Runhappy's black-type winners are out of Blame mares, with So Happy's winning dam, So Cunning (Blame), hailing from the same female family as G1 Carter Handicap winner and G1 Hopeful Stakes winner Silver Wagon.
Further Ado wins G1 Blue Grass
By Alan Carasso, TDN
Spendthrift Farm had a bitter pill to swallow over the winter when it was announced that their Eclipse Award-winning Ted Noffey (Into Mischief) would be forced to miss the 2026 Classics with bone bruising.
It must be nice to have an understudy the calibre of Further Ado (Gun Runner), who graduated by no fewer than 20 lengths at bucolic Keeneland Race Course last October and is now a fellow Grade 1 winner after toying with six other sophomores in Saturday's G1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes in Lexington.
The victory was good for 100 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, now less than a month down the road. Ottinho moved into the top 20 on 56 points.
“What a huge blessing for our family and our team, a lot of whom were here,” said Spendthrift owner Eric Gustavson. “We're just so thankful. The first thing we wish is that the Derby was here at Keeneland, because obviously Further Ado's got a fondness for this place. So we're thankful for that, and we're just excited that he did it and he did it the way he did it.
“All things being equal and God willing, we'll go to Churchill in a month and see what happens. Obviously you're taking all the best of the best a month from now, going up against them, but we're among them now, and maybe we belong, it seems, where maybe there was a question mark there. But right now we just want to celebrate this one. This is pretty sweet.”
Eric Gustavson | Image courtesy of Spendthrift Farm
Further Ado is the 13th elite-level winner for Gun Runner and is the fourth Grade 1 scorer out of a mare by Sky Mesa. John Oxley paid US$480,000 (AU$550,000) for Further Ado's third dam Beautiful Pleasure at the 1997 Keeneland April Sale of 2-Year-Olds In Training and raced her to six Grade 1 scores, including the 1999 G1 Breeders' Cup Distaff to cap off a championship season. She was also placed in this track's G2 Alcibiades Stakes.
A mating of Beautiful Pleasure with Oxley's 2001 G1 Kentucky Derby hero Monarchos resulted in Further Ado's second dam To Dream About, who never made it to the races, but bred seven winners, chief among them the 2017 G1 Del Mar Oaks heroine Dream Dancing (Tapit), who has since produced Dreamaway (Flameway), a stakes winner and placed in this track's Limestone Stakes last spring.
Further Ado's dam Sky Dreamer did her best work on synthetic surfaces, finishing second in the 2012 G3 Arlington Oaks, and her four additional winners includes Kimbear (Temple City), a two-time scorer at Group level in Dubai.
G1 Madison Stakes won by Eclatant
By Alan Carasso, TDN
Stonestreet Stables homebred Eclatant (Into Mischief) locked up with the easy-in-the-markets Grand Job (Justify) with a bit more than a furlong to travel in Saturday's G1 Resolute Racing Madison Stakes at Keeneland and was shoved across the wire first by Irad Ortiz, Jr. to take a thrilling renewal.
Traveling well within the grasp of Ortiz, Jr. midway on the turn, Eclatant was fanned into about the five path in upper stretch and she and Grand Job sailed past the pacesetter as a team. Grand Job carried a slender advantage into the final furlong and looked like she was doing enough for the victory, only to be chinned on the line by Eclatant.
A full sister to Mutasaabeq who won Keeneland's G2 Bourbon Stakes at two in 2020, Eclatant becomes the 30th Grade 1 winner for her sire, who just last Saturday was represented by G1 Florida Derby winner Commandment and Renegade, victorious in the G1 Arkansas Derby.
A little more than a year after Mutasaabeq's success up the hill, dam Downside Scenario (Scat Daddy) was purchased by Stonestreet for US$1.15 million (AU$1.67 million) at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale, carrying the filly that would become Eclatant.
Gun Runner quinella in G2 Santa Anita Oaks
By Jill Williams, TDN
Meaning (Gun Runner), a Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners colour bearer, proved her win over Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly Super Corredora (Gun Runner) in the Las Virgenes Stakes on February 8 was no fluke and asserted herself as California's division leader with a resounding victory in the G2 Santa Anita Oaks on Saturday. The Santa Anita Oaks awards 100-50-25-15-10 qualifying points toward the May 1 G1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
Brooklyn Blonde (Gun Runner) - like Meaning, a Michael McCarthy pupil - begrudgingly yielded just before the 16th pole as Meaning pulled clear to win with aplomb by two lengths. Santa Ysabel runner-up Bank Shot (Game Winner) was another 13.75 lengths behind Brooklyn Blonde in third.
“I'm proud of both of these fillies. I felt good in the stretch, but I felt a lot better after crossing the line. I was thinking about the demanding side of this track today. We'll get them both to Churchill and prepare from there,” McCarthy said.
A US$440,000 (AU$638,000) Keeneland September yearling, Meaning improves her record to three wins from four starts, having impressed enough in her Sepember 20 Los Alamitos debut to make a play for the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup behind a star-studded trio: eventual champion Super Corredora, which is her only career loss.
Michael McCarthy | Image courtesy of Michael McCarthy Racing
Gun Runner added two new Graded winners to his CV – one on each coast – in the span of less than 15 minutes Saturday with Meaning's victory coming moments before Always a Runner's win in the G3 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct. For good measure, approximately 30 minutes later, he added a top-level scorer to the mix with Further Ado's G1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes win at Keeneland. The Three Chimneys super sire now has 39 Graded winners and 58 black-type winners in his five crops to race. He also nabbed the Santa Anita Oaks exacta, with Brooklyn Blonde getting her first black-type with the runner-up finish.
Meaning’s dam Figure of Speech (Into Mischief), third in the G1 Spinaway Stakes in 2019, is a granddaughter of Graded stakes winner Colcon (Pleasant Colony). Meaning is her first foal.
South Africa
By Renee Geelen, TTR
Zackey on top of Champions Day in South Africa
Jockey Craig Zackey celebrated a Grade 1 double with trainer Justin Snaith with Double Grand Slam (Saf) (Vercingetorix {Saf}) in the G1 Empress Club Stakes and See It Again (Saf) (Twice Over {GB}) in the HKJC World Pool G1 Premier’s Champions Challenge. He was filling in for the pair’s regular rider Andrew Fortune who is sidelined with an injury.
“(See It Again) has got a great action. He was still unwinding at the line. Andrew Fortune said ride it like any other race. Relax. You’ve got the horse. How right he was!” Zackey told sportingpost.co.za.
A R125,000 (AU$10,700) Cape Premier Yearling Sale purchase, See It Again was bred by Drakenstein Stud and now has four Grade 1 wins among his nine career victories that have netted him R10.2 million (AU$873,000).
“I felt what Andrew Fortune has been talking about. She’s a freak. Thanks to the Snaith team and the owners. And my Dad Simon, who secured me some top rides today,” Zackey said of Double Grand Slam.
Bred by Varsfontein, she was a R1 million (AU$86,000) National Yearling Sale purchase, Double Grand Slam races in a partnership of Gary Player, Dave Maclean and Drakenstein Stud. She has earnings over R4.3 million (AU$368,000) from her 11 wins, with four at Grade 1 level.
Redoute’s Choice influence in Turffontein
Kenneth Pillay’s Kestorm Investments and trainer Tony Peter won Saturday’s G1 Comptaform Sprint Classic with Buffalo Storm Cody (Saf), a son of Wilgerbosdrift-based Redoute’s Choice stallion Buffalo Bill Cody (Ire).
Jockey Richard Fourie rode the 8-10 favourite Buffalo Storm Cody to a 1.9 length victory over stablemate Taxi To The Moon (Saf) (Vercingetorix {Saf}) and they covered the 1000 metres in 56.55s. The winner was bred by Narrow Creek Stud and was a A R410,000 (AU$35,000) Cape Yearling Sale purchase. Buffalo Storm Cody took his win tally to ten with stakes of R2 million (AU$171,000).
The 49th annual BSA National Yearling Sale will be held on April 16 and 17.
