Washington Connections Fare Well
at 2007 Breeders' Cup

Washington-bred two-year-old Margo’s Gift pulled off a dramatic upset when he decisively won the $250,000 Favorite Trick Breeders’ Cup Stakes at Monmouth Park on October 26. Picked out of the 2006 WTBA Winter Mixed Sale as a yearling for $10,000 by trainer Doris Harwood for Ken Alhadeff and his wife Marleen of Seattle, Margo’s Gift races in the name of their historic Elttaes (Seattle spelled backwards) Stable which was first used by Ken’s grandfather Joseph Gottstein. It marked the fourth stakes victory for the gelded son of state freshman leader Polish Gift out of Burgundy Jones, by Knights Choice. Margo’s Gift is one of several topnotch statebred racehorses bred by the late Bill and Barbara Nelson at their Gunshy Manor in Redmond.
    Margo’s Gift – who went off at $26.70-to-one – and 2007 Emerald Downs leading rider Ricky Frazier were content to rate off the pace in the 10-runner field over the sloppy New Jersey track surface before rallying between rivals deep in the stretch and drawing off to the impressive victory in a final time of 1:10.19. Margo’s Gift earned $150,000 for his victory and has now recorded five wins in seven starts with earnings of $243,714. Race favorite Lantana Mob finished third.

Continuing the weekend charge on the New Jersey shore, Maryfield, the six-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality who won the first running of the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint is out of Sly Maid, a daughter of classic-placed Desert Wine – who was raced by Dan Agnew and spent his final years at stud at Gary and Christine Jackson’s St. Hilaire Thoroughbreds. The Doug O’Neill trainee has nine wins and has earned $1,334,331.

Finishing third in the inaugural $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Stakes was Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey’s Cannonball, a son of Catienus trained by 1984 Eclipse Award apprentice jockey and Yakima-born Wesley Ward. Winner of the mile race was Nownownow, a son of the equally redundantly named Whywhywhy.

The third new Breeders’ Cup stakes, the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile Stakes, was taken in convincing fashion by Corinthian, a son of Pulpit. Finishing second was Gottcha Last, a stakes-winning son of Pleasant Tap whose stakes-winning dam is a half-sister to El Dorado Farms’ two-time stakes winner Private Gold, whose first crop reaches the races in 2008.

On Saturday, the first Breeders’ Cup championship race was the $2 million Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). Among the field of 13 distaffers was Northwest Farms’ unbeaten Smarty Deb, who went off as third choice at $8.40-to-one. With Ricky Frazier aboard, Smarty Deb had to be “steadied between horses in tight on the first turn then steadied sharply again approaching the backstretch.” She finished fifth, beaten 10 1/4 lengths by winner Indian Blessing, and earned $50,000.

(Of note, the 2007 Gottstein Futurity has proven to be quite formful, as besides winner Smarty Deb and third place finisher Margo’s Gift’s good showings, Gottstein runner-up Gallon, who races for Mike and Amy Feuerborn, won a 7 1/2 furlong optional claiming race over Bay Meadows turf course on October 26 and earlier on the same card, Moonrunners LLC’s Cafe Tortoni, who had run fourth in the Futurity, won a mile starter allowance. Both runners are trained by Jim Penney.)

Next up, the $2 million Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) saw War Pass, by Cherokee Run, take the race by 4 3/4 lengths over 10 other colts and geldings. The son of Cherokee Run is out of stakes-placed Vue, a half-sister to Grade 3 stakes winner and former Washington sire Country Light.

The $2 million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) was won by Lahudood (GB). The daughter of Singspiel (Ire) was the only foreign-bred winner on the championship card.

Mike Pegram and Watson and Weitman Performance LLC’s Midnight Lute was a convincing winner of the $2 million TVG Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). The son of Pegram’s classic winner Real Quiet has won half of his 10 starts, including the Grade 1 Forego Stakes, and is odds-on to be named champion sprinter.

The fifth Breeders’ Cup Championship race of the day was the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) won by Kip Deville, an Oklahoma-bred colt by Kipling.

In a hard-fought battle to the wire, Ginger Punch came back to out-duel Hystericalady – who is co-owned by prominent Seattleite Dr. George Todaro – and win the $2 million Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) by a neck. Ginger Punch was the second Monmouth stakes winner over the weekend for 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Awesome Again – and his fourth Breeders’ Cup champion – as Tessa Blue had taken the $250,000 Inside Information Breeders’ Cup Stakes by 12 1/2 lengths on Friday. Hystericalady, who proved the unlucky runner-up, earned $452,000 for partners Todaro, Jerry Hollendorfer and Rancho San Miguel.

The final two races of the 24th Breeders’ Cup World Championships – the $3 million John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) and the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) – helped guarantee their winners’ sire, Smart Strike, an unsurpassable lead and new record as the nation’s leading sire in 2007. First came English Channel’s seven length trouncing of seven rivals in the Turf, and it was soon followed by Curlin’s 4 1/2 length coronation as horse of the year and champion three-year-old colt in the Classic.

Among the other hopefuls over Breeders’ Cup weekend with Washington connections, Herman Sarkowsky’s homebred juvenile Dixie Chatter (Dixie Union out of champion Phone Chatter’s daughter Mini Chat) was a late scratch for the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile after coming down with a fever. Another scratch was two-year-old Dagger out of the $250,000 Epitome Breeders’ Cup Stakes (which went to the War Chant filly Sea Chanter with Grace and Power, a daughter of More Than Ready out of a daughter of Defensive Play running third). Dagger, a daughter of Tactical Cat who had finished third in the Matron Stakes (G2), is the first foal out of David and Sophie Thorner’s young Cape Town mare Pat Hand. Dagger instead raced in the $100,000 Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park on October 27 where she finished second to Saki to Me.