Keeneland spring opening weekend wrap-up
Sierra Leone is a fourth-generation stakes winner at Keeneland
By Frances J. Karon
A physically imposing dark bay $2.3 million Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling purchase, Sierra Leone had his first gallop over the track at Keeneland on April 2nd, and he trained aggressively but in hand every morning thereafter in preparation for the April 7th G1 Toyota Blue Grass.
The son of Gun Runner went off as the favorite and ran out a dirt-splattered 1 1/4-length winner over Just a Touch (Justify). In the process, Sierra Leone became a fourth-generation stakes winner at Keeneland for his direct female line: dam Heavenly Love (Malibu Moon) won the G1 Alcibiades in 2017; second dam Darling My Darling (Deputy Minister) won the Raven Run in 2000 and the Doubledogdare in 2001, both listed stakes, and was placed in the G2 Beaumont; and third dam Roamin Rachel (Mining), a Grade 1 winner at Saratoga, won the G2 Beaumont in 1993 and placed in the G1 Ashland less than two weeks later. Debby Oxley bred Sierra Leone, bred and raced Heavenly Love, and raced Darling My Darling. Chad Brown, who is on the board with three winners—tied for the early lead with Wesley Ward—at the meet, trains Sierra Leone for the partnership of Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Westerberg, and Brook T. Smith.
Sierra Leone is the seventh Grade 1 winner for Three Chimneys standout sire Gun Runner, and like last year’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity winner Locked, he’s out of a Malibu Moon mare.
Alva Starr’s Grade 1 win is a first for connections
Alva Starr had been training so powerfully at Keeneland ahead of her engagement in Saturday’s G1 Resolute Racing Madison that she required the company of a pony to keep her in check on her last two mornings of galloping. Going off as the slight favorite over Vahva (Gun Runner), who’d beaten her by half a length in Keeneland’s G2 Raven Run last October, Alva Starr prevailed against that rival by the same margin. She’s the first Grade 1 winner from four crops by her deceased sire Lord Nelson (Pulpit), who stood at Spendthrift, as well as the first Grade 1 winner for trainer Brett Brinkman, who co-bred the 4-year-old filly with her owner Dale Ladner. The winner of the G2 Prioress at Saratoga last summer has won five-of-eight and never been worse than second while accruing over $775,000 in earnings.
Dam Sittin At the Bar, bred by Spendthrift, was from the first crop of Into Mischief. She was a $30,000 yearling at a sale in Louisiana, where she won nine stakes races—most of them restricted to fellow Louisiana-breds—and $700,000+ for owner Ladner and trainer Brinkman. She’s produced four stakes winners from four foals of racing age (excluding her 2-year-old Frosted filly): Grade 2 winner Cilla (California Chrome); Club Car (Malibu Moon), who ran second in the G2 Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland in 2021; and Jack the Umpire (Bodemeister). Sittin At the Bar has a yearling filly by Vahva and Sierra Leone’s sire Gun Runner.
Alva Starr is the second Grade 1 winner for Into Mischief as a broodmare sire. The other, White Abarrio (Race Day), was also conceived at Spendthrift.
No stopping Into Mischief
Supersire Into Mischief notched his 21st individual Grade 1 winner with Leslie’s Rose’s three-length upset over previously undefeated champion 2-year-old filly Just F Y I (Justify) in Friday’s G1 Central Bank Ashland for 3-year-old fillies. Todd Pletcher trains Whisper Hill Farm’s $1.15 million Keeneland September buy, who was bred by John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock Services. Her unraced dam Wildwood Rose (Galileo) is a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks-placed Grade 2 winner My Miss Sophia (Unbridled’s Song), the dam of Annapolis (War Front), a Grade 1 winner at Keeneland two years ago. (You can read more about Annapolis here.)
Leslie’s Rose is one of three new graded stakes winners—including two at Keeneland—for Into Mischief in a three-day span, along with Resilience in the G2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on Saturday and Denim and Pearls in the G2 Beaumont on Sunday. Denim and Pearls, a full sister to last month’s Grade 1 winner Newgate (out of the Majestic Warrior mare Majestic Presence), became Into Mischief’s 149th overall stakes winner. She’s trained by Brad Cox for Red White and Blue Racing LLC. (Sid Fernando recently wrote about Into Mischief’s explosion of Grade 1 winners here.)
Into Mischief’s son Maximus Mischief joined in on the weekend stakes action at Keeneland when Glengarry won the Lafayette on the Ashland undercard. It was Glengarry’s second stakes win at Keeneland for trainer Doug Anderson, who co-owns the 3-year-old colt with Aaron Kennedy and Toby Joseph. Into Mischief and Maximus Mischief are based at Spendthrift.
Buchu a repeat Keeneland graded stakes winner
Rigney Racing, LLC’s homebred Buchu, who was led out unsold for $275,000 at the Keeneland September sale in 2022, is a two-time graded winner on the Keeneland turf following her half-length win in Saturday’s G2 Appalachian Presented by Japan Racing Association. Rigney, trainer Phil Bauer, and jockey Martin Garcia also teamed up for an allowance win on Friday with Lagadema (Arrogate).
Buchu is one of four stakes winners, including Grade 1 winner City of Troy and Grade 3 winner Red Riding Hood, by Justify out of Galileo mares. Justify, who was bred by John D. Gunther, stands at Coolmore America.
Naples Bay (Giant’s Causeway), the second dam of Buchu and likewise a dual Grade 2 winner, is a half-sister to top sire Medaglia d’Oro, whose sire El Prado is by Sadler’s Wells, the sire of Buchu’s broodmare sire Galileo. Medaglia d’Oro sired Prevalence, the winner of an allowance/optional claimer at Keeneland the same day as Buchu’s win, and he’s the broodmare sire of allowance winner Landed (Omaha Beach) on Sunday’s card.
Thousand Words first to the wire
To no one’s surprise, a Wesley Ward-trainee dominated the first N. American baby race of the year when Shoot It True (Munnings), a filly in against colts, was an easy 7 1/2-length winner of Friday’s 2-year-old maiden. She’d put together a string of impressive workouts at Keeneland over the past month and ran to those early morning performances. Along with 3-year-old filly Roman Grace, Shoot It True is one of two opening day maiden special winners, both ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, by Coolmore America’s sire Munnings.
In the more hotly contested race for the first freshman stallion to get a winner, Spendthrift’s Pioneerof the Nile horse Thousand Words pulled that off when his daughter The Queens M G won the filly maiden special weight on Sunday’s card for trainer Israel Acevedo, paying $92.74. Seven-pound apprentice rider Andres Calleja, whose previous win at Keeneland—also a 2-year-old maiden special weight—paid $178.24 last October, was aboard. The Queens M G defeated West Memorial—from the first crop of Crestwood’s Caracaro (Uncle Mo)—by a head.
Odds and ends: Three-year-old Neat (Constitution, who stands at WinStar), who became a stakes winner in January, moved up in class to give his sire a 32nd graded stakes winner when he prevailed by a nose in the G3 Transylvania Presented by Keeneland Select on Friday. He’s trained by Rob Atras...Sons of Giant’s Causeway—Not This Time (who stands at Taylor Made) and Creative Cause (a former Airdrie stallion now at Marjorie Farms in Texas)—sired the winners of two of the 10 Keeneland opening weekend stakes. Arzak (Not This Time), who was bred by John Oxley—the husband of Sierra Leone’s breeder Debby Oxley—earned his second Keeneland graded stakes with a one-length win over 2022 G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (at Keeneland) winner Mischief Magic (Exceed and Excel) in the G2 Shakertown. Arzak was bred from a mare John Oxley purchased as a yearling from Leslie’s Rose’s co-breeder John D. Gunther, who’d also bred and raced Arzak’s Grade 2-winning second dam Bending Strings (by Gunther’s Grade 2 winner American Chance). Meanwhile, Bo Cruz (Creative Cause) earned his first career stakes win in the G3 Commonwealth. His half-sister is the dam of 2024 Latonia S. winner Dana’s Beauty, by Not This Time, and his dam is half to Preakness winner Cloud Computing (Maclean’s Music). Third dam Halo America (Waquoit) won the 1997 G1 Apple Blossom as a 7-year-old…Wesley Ward had Fandom (Showcasing) ready off an almost 10-month layoff when he won the listed Palisades S. as the fifth betting choice. Fandom’s two wins from three starts have both come over 5 1/2 fur. on the Keeneland turf. The Stonestreet 3-year-old is the 68th stakes winner for Showcasing, who stands at Whitsbury Manor in England…Assuming all goes well from now until the Derby, Sierra Leone and Forever Young (Real Steel) will give Debby Oxley’s mare Darling My Darling an interesting distinction, as she is the granddam of both through her graded stakes-winning daughters of A.P. Indy sons Malibu Moon and Congrats, respectively. We don’t know if two Kentucky Derby competitors in the same year having the same second dam is a first, but if it isn’t, it’s definitely a rarity…The third dam of Barksdale (Street Sense), winner of a starter allowance on Sunday, is Grade 3 winner Dowery (Full Pocket), whose half-sister Reluctant Guest (Hostage) is the granddam of Gold Allure (Sunday Silence). Gold Allure is the sire of Copano Rickey, who is in turn the sire of T O Password, this year’s Road to the Derby invitee from Japan. Forever Young and T O Password are Japanese-bred great-grandsons of Sunday Silence, the 1989 Kentucky Derby winner.