DADDYSPRIZE RETURNS TO THE RACES IN TOP FORM
Since Day one, trainer Tim McCanna has thought highly of Daddysprize, a ridgling by Scat Daddy out of the stakes-winning mare YoutheprizeandI. In the middle of 2018, he broke his maiden at first asking before winning a pair of allowance races, signifying right away that McCanna’s early evaluation of his talented sprinter was correct. Daddysprize made his stakes debut in the 2018 Real Good Deal Stakes at Del Mar in July and ran a better than looked second that day, finishing a half-length behind even-money favorite Take the One O One after dueling on the lead and setting fast fractions.
“With a little bit of a better set up, he might have won,” said McCanna. “He ran a winning race.”
After the Real Good Deal, Daddysprize suffered a setback and was sent to a farm for recovery. He returned in a March 22, 2019 allowance race at Golden Gate, finished at the back of the field, and was given over a year off after another issue arose.
Making his 2020 debut in a second-level allowance sprint last Sunday, Daddysprize stalked the pace before taking the lead in upper stretch and holding off Southern California invaders Oiseau de Guerre and Brandothebartender. Under jockey Kent Desormeaux, Daddysprize won the six-furlong contest by three-quarters of a length and earned an 84 Beyer speed figure for his effort.
“He ran great,” said McCanna. “He was training really well, but you never really know how they are going to perform coming off such a long layoff. We’ve always known he was a really nice horse and he showed it against a good field on Saturday.”
“I think we’ll keep him at one turn,” continued McCanna. “Maybe we’ll shoot for some California-bred stakes races, but we’ll take it one race at a time.”
BADILLA OFF TO A GOOD START AFTER GOLDEN GATE’S “REOPENING”
We’ll cut right to the chase: trainer Manny Badilla had his entrants ready to roll last week. From eight starters, the longtime Bay Area horseman won four races with two additional seconds, one third and a fourth-place finish.
On Thursday, Badilla scored with maiden claimers Takes a Village and Please Zip It. Both fillies went off favored in their respective races. Two days later, Irish-bred Promote easily won a starter allowance race against fellow female sprinters.
Sunday was the busiest afternoon for Badilla, who saddled five runners on the ten-race card. He kicked off his day in a high-level claimer with hard knocker Qafilah, who ran second, and first-time North American starter Never Be Enough, who checked in third. Another Badilla first-out North American important, Fuente, finished fourth in an allowance race to end the Sunday program.
The highlight of the week for Manny may have come in Race 5 on Sunday when his duo of entrants, five-year-old mare Ziarah and four-year-old filly Morning Cynn, finished first and second in the filly and mare second-level allowance route affair. Ziarah won her third race in a row while Morning Cynn put up a very respectable effort racing two turns for the first time.
“Ziarah is a monster,” said Badilla. “The more she wins, the more competitive she gets.”
Ziarah is likely to compete next in the Golden Poppy Stakes on June 7, which will be run at a mile and one-sixteenth on turf. Morning Cynn will also be nominated to the Golden Poppy, but where she lands next is yet to be determined.
“Morning Cynn…she’s a runner,” said Badilla. “I’m really proud of her. The owner wanted to see if she could route and I thought it was a good time to try it. [Jockey] Juan [Hernandez] has gotten her to stalk the pace in sprint races and said that he thinks she can rate her in a route, too.”
This week, Badilla has three noteworthy entrants, all of whom are barn favorites: 9-year-old Gratzie, 10-year-old On the Key, and 8-year-old My Friend George.
“All three of them are hard-knockers,” said Badilla. “I love ’em. They enjoy running and they go out and try to win every race. They’re all happy and doing well.”
WONG AND TOMMY TOWN THOROUGHBREDS EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE
With a barn full of horses at Golden Gate Fields, a string of trainees at Santa Anita Park, and equines both young and seasoned on multiple farms, trainer Jonathan Wong has a lot to look after.
Not surprisingly, the leading trainer at Golden Gate Fields was extremely active in the entry box last week. Five of his 20 Golden Gate starters picked up victories, including a trio of maiden special weight winners that Wong is eager to develop. All three maiden graduates are owned by Tommy Town Thoroughbreds.
Kicking off the list of maiden victors is 3-year-old filly Don’t Unzip Me, the winner of a one-mile turf route last Friday. Purchased for $130,000 as a yearling, she is sired by fledgling stallion Honor Code and out of the 9-time stakes-winning turf sprinter Unzip Me.
“She has always shown us in the mornings that she wants to route,” said Wong. “It took her a little time to figure things out, but the light bulb is turning on now. Heading into her race on Friday, she was training really well-as well as she ever had. She’s getting the hang of things.”
One day later, 3-year-old filly Praise and Honor won a five-and-a-half-furlong sprint on Tapeta against eight other rivals. Praise and Honor was purchased for $330,000 as a yearling and is another that possesses attractive pedigree, by Honor Code out of the stakes-winning Speightown mare Going to Kukaro. Wong was “very impressed” with Praise and Honor’s effort.
“She won by a nose and really got going late in the race,” said Wong. “She was fourth at the sixteenth pole, flew in the final yards and galloped out really well. I thought she could win the race on talent but there were some other trainers that were high on their fillies in the race, too, and I knew my filly wanted a little more ground. I was excited to see her run the way she did.”
Wong indicated that he plans on nominating Don’t Unzip Me and Praise and Honor to the $75,000 California Oaks, a May 31 stake for 3-year-old fillies to be contested at one-mile and a sixteenth on Tapeta. That said, Wong and Tommy Town already have a strong probable for the ‘Oaks in Dynasty of Her Own, a March 29 allowance winner currently in training at Santa Anita.
The third maiden special weight victory of the week came on Sunday with the Tommy Town homebred I am Allthatyouare, a 4-year-old son of Tale of the Cat out of the versatile stakes-winning mare U R All That I Am. He won Race 6 on Sunday, a five-furlong Tapeta sprint, and had plenty left in the tank as he hit the wire four lengths ahead of the second-place finisher.
“He’s a really nice horse,” said Wong. “The race was taken off the turf, but I didn’t mind. He was training really well heading into the race and we were just happy to run him.”
In other news, Wong noted that he is excited to debut another Tommy Town Thoroughbreds racer, 3-year-old colt Let’s Rejoyce, in a California-bred maiden special weight this Sunday. This Monday, Wong sends out Grade 2 winner Keeper Ofthe Stars in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Abel Cedillo is slated to ride for Wong and Tommy Town.
A number of Tommy Town Thoroughbreds 2-year-olds are either with Wong at Golden Gate Fields or prepping at local farms to be shipped to the Bayside racetrack in the coming weeks. Out of the large crop of their 2-year-olds, one to keep an eye on is the Honor Code colt Honorable One, a $600,000 sale purchase and a half-sibling to Grade I winner It Tiz Well.
“I’m really, really grateful for the opportunity to train so many nice horses,” concluded Wong. “It keeps me busy, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
ALL AMERICAN STAKES THE HIGHLIGHT ON MEMORIAL DAY MONDAY
This Monday, Golden Gate Fields offers a special holiday/Memorial Day program. First post is 12:45 PM.
The feature race on the Memorial Day Monday card features some of the best older horses on the grounds: the one mile and a sixteenth, $100,000 All American Stakes for three-year-olds and upward. Among the leading probable’s include the Michael McCarthy trained pair of Cono and Ohio. Victor Trujillo’s Kiwi’s Dream, and Grade 2 placed Camino Del Paraiso for trainer O.J Jauregui. Entries for the 2020 All American Stakes will be drawn on Friday, along with the rest of the Monday program.
FINISH LINES: Juan Hernandez picked up right where he left off-winning races-and holds a massive lead in the jockey standings with four more weeks left to go at the current meeting. Trainer Jonathan Wong paves the way in the trainer standings….Jockey Kyle Frey has rejoined the riding colony after a stint at Parx Racing in Pennsylvania. Frey is represented by agent Fernando “Shoes” Navarro. “Kyle will be working a lot of horses this week and hopefully the business in the mornings will transfer to live business in the afternoons,” said Navarro…Bettor Trip Nick (trained by Bill Delia) and Tomlin (Steve Specht) finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in two separate stakes last weekend at Santa Anita Park…The first 2-year-old race of the season goes as Saturday’s fourth race for 2-year-old fillies. Miss Ever Ready (trained by Brendan Galvin) and I’m So Anna (Steve Sherman) are two fillies who sport solid workouts leading up to their career debuts and are likely to go off as the top two betting choices…The Golden Pick Six pool saw a mandatory payout last Thursday afternoon. Heading into this Thursday’s card, Golden Gate Fields has a Golden Pick six jackpot carryover of $24,243. The sequence goes as Races 2-7…Also in Thursday’s second race, there is a Super High Five carryover of $2,867.