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Lugan Knight registers 85 BSF in $150K Jerome

by NYRA Press Office

• Lugan Knight registers 85 BSF in $150K Jerome
• Law Professor earns career-best 98 BSF for Queens County romp
• Senior Prank earns 62 Beyer for debut victory; Aniston targets $100K Busanda
• Today’s Flavor notches third consecutive victory with impressive allowance score

Lugan Knight registered a career-best 85 Beyer Speed Figure for his game half-length score in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome, a one-turn mile for sophomores, at Aqueduct Racetrack. In victory, he secured the maximum allotment in the Road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying race which offered 10-4-3-2-1 points to the top-five finishers.

Trained by Michael McCarthy for George Yager’s BG Stables, the Kentucky homebred son of Goldencents outdueled graded-stakes placed Arctic Arrogance in a thrilling stretch drive to capture his stakes debut by a half-length on the stretch out. The top-five was rounded out by General Banker, Neural Network and Andiamo a Firenze.

“It was a great effort,” Yager said. “I didn't know what to expect, but he was very game. It was a one-turn mile, so he was OK.”

Yager, known to his friends as 'Big George', formed his namesake BG Thoroughbred Farm in 2014 in partnership with trainer Hector Palma. Located in Hemet, California, the 51-acre farm includes training and lay-up facilities and is home to 40-50 broodmares and a number of stallions including Capital Account and Originaire.

The Los Angeles native, a graduate of Cal State Northridge, has also worked as an actor and producer, including a role in the 1997 film L.A. Confidentialbased on the novel by James Ellroy.

Upcoming Kentucky Derby qualifiers at the Big A include the nine-furlong Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on February 4 [20-8-6-4-2], the one-mile Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham [50-20-15-10-5] on March 4 and the nine-furlong Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino [100-40-30-20-10] on April 8.

Yager said he’s not sure if Lugan Knight will want to stretch out beyond the one-mile distance his sire - a dual Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile-winner - excelled at and will leave the race planning in his trainer’s capable hands.

“That’s up to Mike,” Yager said. “I’m very realistic. He may have his limitations as far as distance is concerned. I've been in this game awhile and I don't get too carried away.”

Lugan Knight is out of the winning Speightstown mare Sly Roxy, while her second dam is multiple graded stakes-winner Roxy Gap, who banked $952,790 in a 19-race career that included 2012 Sovereign Awards in her native Canada for Champion Older Mare and Champion Female Sprinter. The versatile Roxy Gap was a graded winner on synthetic and turf and graded-stakes placed on dirt.

Sly Roxy graduated on debut in July 2017 at Saratoga Race Course, drawing off to a 5 1/2-length win in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight for the Hall of Fame duo of jockey Javier Castellano and trainer Mark Casse. She followed with a fifth-place effort in that year’s Grade 2 Adirondack, but failed to reach the heights of her talented dam.

“I bought her and she won first time out at Saratoga, but she lost her luster,” Yager said. “Since then, I've sold her - had I only known.”

Lugan Knight entered the Jerome from a trio of sprint efforts in Kentucky, graduating at second asking in October at Keeneland. He followed with a close third-place finish in an optional-claimer in November at Churchill Downs won by Victory Formation, who exited that effort to win the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park.

Lugan Knight successfully stretched out to one-mile in the Jerome, a cagey affair, as NYRA’s 2022 leading rider Dylan Davis allowed the colt to take command through moderate splits of 23.41 seconds and 47.70 over the good main track with Arctic Arrogance stalking from second.

Arctic Arrogance, who entered from a runner-up effort in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Remsen, loomed large into the turn but Lugan Knight continued to find more and staved off his rival to notch the win in a final time of 1:37.77.

Yager said he also has high hopes for the McCarthy-trained Friendlypersuasion, a sophomore daughter of Arrogate, who graduated at second asking in an off-the-turf tilt in August at Indiana Grand ahead of a prominent fifth in the Grade 3 Pocahontas in September at Churchill Downs.

She was last seen posting a 10 1/2-length score in a 1 1/16-mile optional-claimer on October 9 at Keeneland that registered a career-best 70 Beyer.

“She looked like she was going to be pretty good, but she got hurt,” Yager said. “She'll be back in a couple months.”

Friendlypersuasion, bred in Kentucky by Bridlewood Farm, is out of the graded-stakes winning Indian Charlie mare Brazen Persuasion.

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Law Professor earns career-best 98 BSF for Queens County romp

Twin Creeks Racing Stables’ Kentucky homebred Law Professor earned a career-high 98 Beyer Speed Figure for his 7 1/2-length score in Saturday’s $150,000 Queens County at Aqueduct Racetrack for conditioner Rob Atras. 

“He came out of the race good and he ate up this morning,” said Atras. “So far, all good.” 

Law Professor, a 5-year-old son of Constitution, pounced from just off the pace under the red-hot Manny Franco, who has won 10 races across the Friday and Saturday cards at the Big A, to take charge in the final turn and sprint clear down the stretch of the nine-furlong test for older horses. It was the dark bay gelding’s third career stakes victory, adding to a Grade 2 score in the off-the-turf 2021 Mathis Mile at Santa Anita Park and a victory over turf in the restricted Tapit in September at Kentucky Downs.

“I don’t want to say I expected it, because in this game you’ve got to roll with the ups and downs and can’t expect anything, but the way he had been training, we knew how much ability he has,” said Atras. “We were hoping for a performance like that.” 

The Queens County was the first win for Law Professor since a determined half-length victory over firm turf in the aforementioned Tapit. He followed with a strong runner-up effort to multiple graded stakes-winner Life Is Good in the nine-furlong Grade 1 Woodward on October 1 here and then finished his 4-year-old campaign with a closing fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in November at Keeneland. 

“The turf race was the owner’s idea and I had never run at Kentucky Downs, so I was a little hesitant, but he was training very well, so we went there and it all worked out,” said Atras. “After that, we started talking about the Woodward and we knew we probably couldn’t beat Life Is Good, but it was a big pot and it looked like on paper we could be second. He didn’t run a bad race in the Breeders’ Cup, and maybe a mile isn’t his best distance.” 

Atras said he was concerned about waiting an extra week to run Law Professor after the Queens County, which was originally slated for December 31, was re-scheduled to January 7 due to dense fog. 

“That’s always a concern. We had him there and he was ready to run and then they canceled it. I said, ‘Oh my God, I can’t wait another week to run this horse,’” Atras said, with a laugh. “He can be a little tough in the mornings to train and he was just really ready to run.” 

Law Professor has been named on the reserve list of invitees to the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on January 28 at Gulfstream Park. Atras said he is still considering other options if he does not make a trip to the Hallandale Beach oval. 

“We don’t have any other spot in mind at the moment,” Atras said. “We’re on the reserve list and it is a little quick back, but I’m not going to say yes or no to it just yet.”

Atras also recently sent out Michael Dubb and Gandharvi’s graded stakes-winner Battle Bling to a game runner-up effort to Falconet in the Ladies on New Year’s Day at the Big A. The daughter of Vancouver was defeated just two lengths, signaling a return to good form after an uncharacteristic off-the-board finish two starts back in the Grade 3 Go for Wand on December 3 at Aqueduct. 

Atras said it was good to see a strong performance from the 5-year-old dark bay, who has finished first or second in nine-of-11 starts since being haltered for $62,500 out of an optional claimer last December at the Big A. 

“She came out of the race good,” said Atras. “She ran a big race and I’m kind of relieved because she threw in a clunker the race before, which she has never done before. I don’t know what happened there. She didn’t have anything wrong with her bloodwork and had been doing everything normal. It’s just that day, she was flat in the paddock. She seemed more herself [before the Ladies]. I was happy.”

Battle Bling made the grade in November when scoring a gritty neck victory over Nostalgic in the Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm, notching the third stakes triumph of her career and second in-a-row after a tidy 1 1/4-length score in the October 1 Twixt at Laurel Park. 

Atras said he is still considering a next start for the six-time winner. 

“I don’t know where she’ll go next yet,” said Atras. “We’ve got her back galloping and so far, everything is good. There’s a race coming up at a mile that we’ll take a look at, and she’s run good out of town, too.” 

Atras’ recent stakes successes have come on the heels of a productive Aqueduct fall meet, where he finished third in the trainers standings with a record of 51-13-8-9. The 39-year-old native of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba has already posted impressive numbers just four days into the Aqueduct winter meet, hitting the board with 8-of-9 starters for a record of 9-4-3-1 as of Sunday morning. 

“We were real quiet at Saratoga and had a little bit of a tough meet there,” Atras said. “We came back here and were still quiet and couldn’t get the horses in the right spots. Now, it seems like they have been and a lot of them have been claimed, but they’ve been winning.” 

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Senior Prank earns 62 Beyer for debut victory; Aniston targets $100K Busanda

Spendthrift Farm’s homebred sophomore filly Senior Prank graduated at first asking on Saturday, registering a 62 Beyer Speed Figure for a half-length triumph over the Aqueduct main track. 

The Chad Brown-trained Senior Prank held command through every point of call, racing with close company in between horses down the backstretch, and fended off a late rally from Spelterini to cover the six furlongs in 1:12.79 under Manny Franco. 

The bay daughter of perennial leading North American sire Into Mischief is the first progeny out of the multiple graded stakes-placed Sky Mesa mare Thundering Sky, who was acquired by Spendthrift at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale for $500,000. 

Spendthrift Farm general manager Ned Toffey expressed a sense of gratification in the first-out win and said the road to the racetrack was not an easy one for Senior Prank, who was withdrawn from the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. 

“The vast majority of our yearling crop goes through the ring and gets offered at the sale. But not long before the sale, she developed some hind-end issues. We brought her home, gave her a lot of time, turned her out at the farm and had her broken locally,” Toffey said. “We gave her time, started the breaking process and she put all of that behind her. We got her going to where we were more than comfortable to send her on. Chad has done a good job handling her, so I’m thrilled to start off the year with a nice win with a 3-year-old homebred by Into Mischief. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.” 

The whereabouts of Senior Prank’s next start will be left up to Brown according to Toffey, who credited the four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer’s patience with his horses. 

“I think Chad will do right by her and bring her along slowly,” Toffey said. “We haven’t really talked about plans since the race yesterday, so we’ll see how she comes out. We generally put our horses with trainers who we feel good about their opinions and don’t try to micromanage. If Chad wants to go the allowance route, great. If he thinks she’s ready for a bigger jump forward than that, it’s his people in the barn every day. His people are better to make those judgements than we are.

“She certainly showed the right kind of tools and it’ll be interesting to see how she stretches out,” Toffey added. “She has a little more stamina on the bottom side and Into Mischief has shown he can get any kind. That’s always the question – do they want two turns? We’ll sort that out as we go.”

Toffey said Thundering Sky was initially purchased to be bred to Into Mischief, who stands at Spendthrift Farm for $250,000. 

“Usually when we’re buying mares at that level, that’s kind of the way we typically go,” Toffey said. “We actually bred her back to Medaglia d’Oro through a deal with Darley. We traded some seasons and we bred a group over there and they bred a group here, primarily to Into Mischief. That was the thought at the time we bought her and now we have a really nice filly. This is one of those ones where maybe our bad luck at the time turned out to be good luck.”

Thundering Sky did most of her running on turf, including NYRA circuit stakes triumphs in the 2016 Pebbles at Belmont Park and the 2017 Fasig-Tipton De La Rose at Saratoga Race Course. 

“We’re not opposed to that,” said Toffey when asked if turf could be in Senior Prank’s future. “We are a stallion operation and most of what we do feeds into that one way or another through the broodmare band or stallion prospect colts themselves. With the commercial still being dominated by dirt, that’s our first preference. But if we find that she makes more sense on the turf and she shows us that, we have no problem going that way.” 

Spendthrift’s silks could visit the Big A winner’s circle on Saturday with another sophomore filly in Aniston, who will target the $100,000 Busanda. The nine-furlong test offers 20-8-6-4-2 points towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 5 at Churchill Downs. 

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Aniston displayed a 4 3/4-length victory going nine furlongs on November 25 at the Big A. The chestnut daughter of Champion sire Curlin made her two-turn debut a winning one and registered a 55 Beyer Speed Figure for the score, which came two months following a distant seventh-place finish on debut going a one-turn mile at Belmont at the Big A. 

“She’s taken some time to come to hand and she’s more stamina than speed and precocity,” Toffey said. “But I know he [Pletcher] feels that she’s a solid filly. Her last race going two turns is what we’ve been waiting for.”

Aniston was bought for $550,000 from the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where she was consigned by Blake-Albina Thoroughbred Services. She is out of the unraced Indian Charlie mare Kateri, making her a full sister to graded stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Souper Sensational. 

Spendthrift Farm’s homebred graded stakes winner Following Sea has not raced since finishing a close second to fellow Pletcher trainee Americanrevolution in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile presented by NYRA Bets in December 2021. The 5-year-old son of Runhappy captured that year’s Grade 2 Vosburgh en route to a late-closing third-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. 

“He’s just had some really hard luck. After 2021, we were excited about the year he might have last year. We had to do some minor cleanup of some things on him and ran into some complications coming out of that,” Toffey said. “He’s had a couple of other health setbacks that have kept us from getting him back to the track. We’d like to have another year of racing with him. He was in Ocala with Todd’s father, J.J. Pletcher, but he left there and is now with Todd at Palm Beach Downs. It hasn’t been a smooth road back for him. We’re hoping to get him back for 2023 and have a good 5-year-old year with him.”

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Today’s Flavor notches third consecutive victory with impressive allowance score

Reddam Racing’s New York-bred Today’s Flavor earned his third victory in-a-row with an open-lengths state-bred optional claiming win on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack for trainer George Weaver. 

A 5-year-old gelded son of Laoban, Today’s Flavor scored the prominent 3 1/2-length victory in Race 4 under regular pilot Manny Franco, overcoming a bumpy start to duel with Foolish Ghost for the first quarter-mile before taking the lead at the half-mile call of the six-furlong sprint. The effort garnered a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure. 

“He came out of the race very well,” said Blair Golen, Weaver’s Belmont-based assistant. “He ate up, is acting well and is happy. I was happy because the last two times he ran, he’s never really had a big challenger. Foolish Ghost went with him and challenged him and it didn’t bother him.” 

Today’s Flavor’s win came on the heels of a state-bred first-level allowance victory, his first start against winners after a dominant 8 1/2-length maiden score in his first start for Weaver on November 27 after making his first four outings for conditioner Doug O’Neill. Weaver had considered sending Today’s Flavor out for his stakes debut in Sunday’s Say Florida Sandy, but opted for the allowance on Saturday. 

“George talked to the owners and they decided to go for the allowance,” said Golen. “You’ve got some tough horses in the stake and he’s been doing so well, so he just went there. There’s some stakes coming up, so we’ll see, and he’s eligible for some open company. There’s a lot of options for him.” 

Today’s Flavor, who was bred in the Empire State by Joseph Calvo, has now banked over $166,730 in total purses through a career record of 7-3-3-0. 

The Weaver barn will hope to see R.A. Hill Stable’s Sweetest Princess make a successful stakes debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Busanda, a nine-furlong test for sophomore fillies that awards 20-8-6-4-2 qualifying points towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks to the top-five finishers, respectively. 

The New York-bred daughter of Cairo Prince was last seen graduating at fourth asking in a one-mile state-bred maiden special weight on November 18 at the Big A. Bred by Fred W. Hertrich, III and John D. Fielding, Sweetest Princess has found her best stride on dirt after making her first three outings over the grass. 

“She breezed well the last two breezes and we’re very happy with her,” said Golen. “We might as well take a shot. She’s wintered very well and I don’t mind her at the mile and an eighth.”

Sweetest Princess breezed a half-mile in 48.87 seconds Saturday over the Belmont Park training track in company with Mean Mongol [49.22]. 

“Her last work was excellent,” said Golen. “She’s a cool filly.” 

A $60,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Preferred New York-bred Yearling Sale, Sweetest Princess is the first named foal out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Sweet Cause, a half-sister to graded stakes-placed mare Stormy Sky.