John Shirreffs
5th-Fair Grounds, $60,000, Alw (NW2$X), Opt. Clm ($50,000), 1-2, 4yo/up, f/m, 6f, 1:09.61, ft, 3 1/4 lengths. JUSTIQUE (m, 5, Justify--Grazie Mille, by Bernardini), named a 'TDN Rising Star' on debut for John Shirreffs, was a stakes winner and Grade II placed back in 2022 and added a pair of graded placings on the main track as a sophomore before a switch to the grass. Despite not getting her picture taken in eight tries over the surface, the $725,000 KEESEP yearling hit the board in the GIII Megahertz Stakes and...
4th-SA, $60K, Msw, 3yo, 6f, post time: 4:32 p.m. ET Zedan Racing Stables' COLLMUS (Gun Runner), purchased for $2.2 million at the 2023 OBS April sale, makes his belated debut for trainer Bob Baffert. The bay colt is out of Perfect Wife (Majesticperfection) and is a full-brother to GIII Indiana Oaks winner Runaway Wife. John Shirreffs saddles C R K Stable's firster Pursuit of Freedom (Speightstown). The gelding was purchased for $725,000 at Keeneland September in 2022. The 3-5 favorite is March of Time (Justify), who makes his first start...
9th-DMR, $54k, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 7:28p.m. ET Looking to add to Puca (Big Brown)'s remarkable streak of runners, BAEZA (McKinzie) will go to post in the turf night cap at Del Mar. Racing for the partnership of C R K Stable and Grandview Equine, the John Shirreffs trainee has big shoes to fill as the half-brother to MGISW Dornoch (Good Magic) and his full-brother, GI Kentucky Derby hero Mage. Even before those two, their dam had produced another stakes runner, namely Gunning (Gun Runner). She was placed in the Listed...
C R K Stable's Skinner (Curlin), second as the favorite as a 3-year-old in last year's GIII Native Diver Stakes, went one better in Saturday's renewal in a breakthrough performance. The $40,000 Keeneland September yearling turned $510,000 OBS April breezer (:10 1/5) had made only one start since, finishing a very useful second sprinting in an optional claimer on the Breeders' Cup Friday undercard. Last of six beneath Hector Berrios through an opening quarter in :23.15 here, the 7-2 chance was up a spot in a well-placed fifth through a...
7th-DMR, $54K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, 6:30 p.m. ET. MADAME SECRETARY (Constitution) makes her first start for MyRacehorse and Brook Smith after she was purchased at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale for $900,000 by Rocket Ship and Gandharvi. Sent to Richard Mandella, the filly is out of MSP Nina Fever (Borrego), who was taken home by Blandford Bloodstock for $500,000 while Madame Secretary was in-utero. This dam produced GI Frizette Stakes heroine and $3 million Fasig-Tipton Mixed Sale buy Nickname (Scat Daddy), who herself is responsible for Irish group stakes...
When bloodstock agent David Ingordo bought Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) for just $60,000 out of the 2005 Keeneland September Sale he probably thought he had found that once-in-a-lifetime horse. Little did he know that the 2010 Horse of the Year, who was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 2016, might not be his very best purchase. Fourteen years after he discovered Zenyatta, he picked out Flightline (Tapit), paying $1 million for the future superstar. There was nothing coincidental about any of these selections. Over the years, Ingordo has solidified...
GSW Stay Hot (Summer Front) may have been the 6-5 choice in the GII Twilight Derby after finishing in front of Atitlan (c, 3, The Factor--Armanda {Ger}, by Acatenango {Ger}) in both a La Jolla Handicap win and a GII Del Mar Derby placing, but it was the latter who is an improving sort and inverted the results Saturday at Santa Anita to secure his first stakes win. Cathal (Ire) (No Nay Never) finished third in his first stakes try. With Curlin's Kaos (Clubhouse Ride) speeding to the front early...
Early Kentucky Derby favorite Muth faced several twists and turns earlier in the 2024 season. Despite winning the GII San Vincente Stakes in January and the GI Arkansas Derby in March, Muth was precluded from running on the First Saturday in May due to his trainer's forced exclusion from the Classic over the past three seasons. Shipped to Pimlico two weeks later for the GI Preakness, the colt spiked a temperature which forced him out of the second jewel of the Triple Crown, shuttling him to the sidelines. Given plenty...
The freakish vitality and durability of his trainer stands in poignant contrast to the posthumous legacies entwined by the success of Seize the Grey in the GI Preakness S. Most obviously, as colleague Jill Williams highlights in her Saturday Sires series, the industry has been given fresh cause to lament the premature loss of Arrogate. For the family and friends of Seize the Grey's breeder, however, Saturday was a more intensely personal cue to honor the memory of Audrey "Tolie" Otto, barely a year after her passing. Otto's stable, Jamm...
6th-SA, $54K, Msw, 3-5yo, 5 1/2f, 6:30 p.m. ET. PARENTING (Justify) debuts for Gandharvi LLC., who purchased the colt at last year's OBS April Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale for $750,000. The Bob Baffert trainee's dam is a half-sister to Canadian champion turf male El Tormenta (Stormy Atlantic) and GSW Zero Tolerence (Mizzen Mast). The other half of the Baffert uncoupled entry is first time starter Middleburg (Tapit). A $485,000 buy for SF Bloodstock, Starlight and Madaket at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale, the gray is out of MGSW Selcourt (Tiz...
After a long lifetime marked by notable wins on the racetrack and in the business world, prominent owner-breeder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Marty Wygod has passed away aged 84. "I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor," said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track. Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster. "The first time I met him...
The GII San Felipe S. last its headliner with the scratch of the Bob Baffert-trained Nysos (Nyquist), but Baffert still dominated the race with stablemates Imagination (Into Mischief) and Wine Me Up (Vino Rosso) running in tandem for much of the 1 1/16 miles and in lockstep down the stretch before Imagination just got his nose in front on the wire Sunday at Santa Anita. Of his one-two finish in the San Felipe, Baffert said, "We're trying to develop these horses, so it was good for both of them. Wine...