Aqueduct Barn Notes: Hoist the Gold Goes Platinum

(Hoist the Gold / Photos by Coady Photography)

From the NYRA Media Team:

• Hoist the Gold registers career-best 109 BSF in G2 Cigar Mile
• Dornoch lives up to expectations with tenacious G2 Remsen triumph
• Life Talk registers career-best 84 BSF for G2 Demoiselle score
• Dr B doubles up in G3 Go for Wand
• G2 Cigar Mile second Senor Buscador rolls on to G1 Pegasus World Cup

Dream Team One Racing Stable’s Kentucky homebred Hoist the Gold earned a career-best 109 Beyer Speed Figure for his frontrunning tour-de-force in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap presented by NYRA Bets, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Dallas Stewart and piloted by Hall of Famer John Velazquez, the 4-year-old Mineshaft colt zipped through splits of 22.41 seconds, 44.88 and 1:09.04 en route to a 4 1/2-length score over the late-running Senor Buscador in a final time of 1:34.28.

Jim Culver is the President of Dream Team One Racing Stable which he previously operated as a syndicate but went private following the pandemic. Culver was unable to attend Saturday’s race in person after hurting his back earlier in the week, but said the impressive performance got him up on his feet.

“I was jumping up and down in my living room like crazy watching it,” Culver said. “It was pretty exciting.”

It was Velazquez, who won the Cigar Mile for the fourth time, that picked out the race after Hoist the Gold finished a disappointing sixth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint in November at Santa Anita – an effort that came on the heels of sharp score out of the inside post in the six-furlong Grade 2 Phoenix in October at Keeneland.

“We finally figured out what he likes to do. He does not like to take dirt in his face – he shies away from it and it just kills him in a race,” Culver said. “He got him out front quick in the Phoenix and he won, but in the Breeders’ Cup he got stuck on the rail behind the leaders and he just took too much dirt that day.

“Johnny said, ‘he gallops out tremendously, so let’s go a little longer and he’ll win this race for fun,’” added Culver. “Johnny picked the race for us and he was right. I was a little surprised when he got that five-length lead at the top of the stretch – wow. It was just a tremendous performance.”

Culver is best known as the original owner of multiple Grade 1-winning multimillionaire Mucho Macho Man, who he would campaign with Reeves Thoroughbred Racing through much of a tremendous career that included a third-place finish in the 2011 Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. Dean Reeves bought the horse outright in 2012 and Mucho Macho Man went on to win the 2013 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic as the highpoint of five career graded scores.

“I bought him as a yearling off the farm and raced him and then Dean bought a majority interest. We stayed in partnership with them for a long time and then sold out the rest of him later in his career to Dean, who ended up owning all of him,” Culver said.

Culver purchased Hoist the Gold’s dam, Tacit Approval, for $62,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed Sale.

“She was owned by West Point and they decided to put her in the sale,” Culver said. “A couple of the West Point partners approached me about buying her with the hopes of racing her again.”

While Tacit Approval didn’t show enough in training to move forward with their dreams of racing her, the Tapit mare has performed beyond expectations as a broodmare producing three foals to race thus far – all winners – including Hoist the Gold and Mucho Macho Girl, by Mucho Macho Man, who will race later today at Fair Grounds.

“We decided to breed her and about every three years we skip a year of breeding her just to give her a break. She’s done well for us,” Culver said.

Culver said he was a big fan of Hoist the Gold’s sire Mineshaft. The son of A. P. Indy earned honors as Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse in 2003 for a seven-win campaign that included Grade 1 wins at Belmont Park in the Suburban Handicap, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“I loved Mineshaft when he raced,” Culver said. “He didn’t even nick well with the mare, but I dismiss that type of analysis when there’s a small percentage of horses that are used to evaluate.”

Hoist the Gold RNA’d at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale in what has proven to be a fortunate turn of affairs for Culver as the 4-year-old dark bay has now banked in excess of $1.1 million through a record of 26-5-6-3.

“We didn’t plan to keep him,” Culver said. “We were going to breed and race every other year’s horse and he was on the list to sell. We put him in the sale but he didn’t bring what we’d hoped. We put him in training and I guess we made the right decision.”

Culver said Hoist the Gold, who will have a couple of weeks off at a farm in Kentucky before returning to training, is likely to try and add to his bankroll with a trip to the Group 1, $20 million Saudi Cup in February at King Abdulaziz Racecourse.

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Dornoch lives up to expectations with tenacious G2 Remsen triumph

After trainer Danny Gargan declared 2-year-old colt Dornoch the greatest horse he has ever trained earlier this summer, the talented son of Good Magic helped to confirm that assessment yesterday when battling back strongly in the stretch to capture the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen by a nose at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Owned by West Paces Racing, R.A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing and Pine Racing Stables, Dornoch led through swift splits of 23.09 seconds, 46.97 and 1:11.56, and appeared defeated an eighth from the finish when he bumped the rail before the Chad Brown-trained Sierra Leone swept past him to take the advantage. But Dornoch showed true heart along the inside and refused to lose the nine-furlong test for juveniles, digging in under Luis Saez to stick his nose back in front and cross the wire first in a final time of 1:50.30.

“It’s crazy. Usually when a horse hits the rail at the eighth pole like he did, they just stop running altogether,” said Gargan. “I can’t believe he re-rallied after that. He did see the other horse and get running back at him, but hitting the rail knocked him off stride and then it took him a few jumps to get back going. I think if he doesn’t hit the rail, he stays in front. I’ve never seen a horse get passed a length and then come back and win. It was a really good race.”

Dornoch, a full-brother to this year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby-winner Mage, earned the first stakes win of his career on the heels of a dominant third-out graduation when taking a 1 1/16-mile maiden by 6 1/2 lengths on October 14 at Keeneland. He had previously finished a hard-trying second in the one-mile Sapling in August at Monmouth Park and in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden in July at Saratoga Race Course.

For his Remsen victory, Dornoch earned the maximum allotment of the 10-5-3-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points available to the top-five finishers, respectively. With his name now on the list of top Derby prospects, Dornoch has his connections dreaming of the First Saturday in May.

“When you’ve got a horse like this, you can run second in a big prep and he’s in,” said Gargan. “We just have to plan out the right arrangement to get him there.”

Gargan said one key to getting Dornoch into the Derby starting gate will be maturity.

“We need him to focus running. He kind of looks around playing a little bit, and that’s why he hit the rail,” said Gargan. “He’s got to grow up a lot, and he’s still out there goofing off. He did dig in in this race in the end, but he kind of put himself in that situation running green early. I think if another horse is around him, he won’t lose focus. What we’ll probably do next time is bring him off the pace which he can do. He’ll finish in the lane so he’ll get a little more out of the race and mature a little bit from it.”

Dornoch will now likely get a freshening in preparation for his sophomore campaign with potential targets including the Grade 3 Withers here or the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 2 at Gulfstream Park, according to Gargan.

“We’ll take him down to Palm Meadows and keep him with us. He’ll tack walk for two or three weeks and then we’ll figure it out from there,” said Gargan. “We’ll probably see him around the Fountain of Youth. The Withers is always something you could win real easy if you wanted to win a race, it just depends who’s where.”

In the filly division, Gargan sent out Peter Callahan and James Reiley McDonald’s Ringy Dingy to a seventh-place finish in yesterday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle. The daughter of Dialed In, who entered from an open-lengths triumph in the White Clay Creek in October at Delaware Park, raced wide at the back of the pack throughout the nine furlongs and failed to make up ground late, finishing 17 lengths behind the victorious Life Talk.

“She didn’t like the mud,” said Gargan. “She never got ahold of the track, and sometimes horses just don’t like the mud. She’s a smaller, finnicky filly, and in the first turn, she got hung out wide. It was one of those things where we probably should have just let her fly out of there and get up in the race, but she might not want to get a mile and an eighth either. She looked like she was going to make a run and she kind of flattened out. She’s going to get more time off and she’ll probably be off for six weeks. We’ll just try to have a nice 3-year-old season with her.”

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Life Talk registers career-best 84 BSF for G2 Demoiselle score

Repole Stable’s Life Talk was awarded a career-high 84 Beyer Speed Figure for her pacesetting triumph in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle, a nine-furlong test for juvenile fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the daughter of Gun Runner rebounded strongly from a game fourth-place effort in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November where she stalked the pace and brushed with a foe before coming up 3 1/2 lengths shy of the victorious Just F Y I. In the Demoiselle, she broke sharply over a muddy and sealed main track and dictated terms at each point of call, drawing off with ease down the stretch to post the 3 3/4-length victory in a final time of 1:51.10.

“She’s good this morning, perky – she cleaned up last night,” said Amelia Green, Pletcher’s Belmont Park-based assistant. “She was already mentally very smart even before this race.”

For her victory, Life Talk earned the maximum allotment of the 10-5-3-2-1 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points available to the top-five finishers, respectively. In addition to the Demoiselle, the $335,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase earned another 3 points when she finished third in the Grade 1 Frizette, and six points for her Breeders’ Cup effort. She is out of the winning Bernardini mare Touchy Feely, a half-sister to Grade 2-winner Indian Firewater.

One race after Life Talk took the Demoiselle, the Pletcher team watched KimDon Racing’s Tizzy in the Sky put in a game performance to be second to Dr B in the Grade 3 Go for Wand, a one-mile route for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up.

The daughter of Sky Kingdom gave chase behind the pace set by Dr B and made up ground late, but could not reel in her foe and was defeated 3 3/4 lengths. That effort came on the heels of a close second to Interstatedaydream in the nine-furlong Turnbackthealarm on November 3 here.

“It wasn’t quite her distance yesterday and they went fast early, but she closed nicely for second,” said Green. “She came back good this morning.”

Green added that Pletcher’s other two stakes contenders on the card, Moonlight and Private Desire, each returned well from their efforts after finishing fourth and 10th, respectively, in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen.

***
Dr B doubles up in G3 Go for Wand

Cash is King and LC Racing’s Dr B scored with a frontrunning performance over a wet track for the second straight year to take Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Go for Wand, a one-turn mile for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Butch Reid, Jr., the 5-year-old Liam’s Map bay made every pole a winning one over a muddy and sealed main track under Jose Lezcano to score by 3 3/4-lengths over Tizzy in the Sky. It was a near duplicate effort to her grade-making score here last year under Irad Ortiz, Jr. when 4 1/4-lengths the best over Bank Sting on a sloppy and sealed main track.

Dr B was making her first start since a fourth-place finish against the boys in the Parx Dirt Mile on September 23. She was freshened briefly at Patty Hogan’s farm and returned with a flourish to score her first win since last year’s coup.

“It was a nice idea to send her to the farm for a couple of weeks. We got some nice breezes in her and obviously it did her a world of good. She ran a big race,” Reid, Jr. said.

Reid, Jr. credited Lezcano with getting Dr B to the lead ahead of the pacey Gerrymander.

“We wanted to break her sharp, but Jose was on his own after that,” Reid, Jr. said. “He got her on out of there and got the nod on the outside horse and she’s very tough when she gets on the lead like that as we saw in this race last year. If they back off her a little bit, she’s not going to stop.”

Reid, Jr. said Dr B exited the race in good order and is now back at his Parx Racing base while plans are considered for the talented mare, which could include the Interborough here in January with a longer-term goal of the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie on February 17 at Laurel Park.

“She’s a little tired, but that was a big effort by her yesterday so she figured to be a hair tired,” Reid, Jr. said. “Initially, the plan was another race or two and then get her pregnant and sell her in the fall. But after that effort yesterday, maybe we’ll get one more year out of her and sell her next fall.

“With a couple retirements in the older filly and mare sprint division, she could be moving to the top of that class next year,” Reid, Jr. added. “So, it’s something we’ll definitely have to think about.”

Dr B, out of the Proud Citizen mare Boleyn, has banked $583,240 through a record of 22-6-7-2.

***
G2 Cigar Mile second Senor Buscador rolls on to G1 Pegasus World Cup

Joe R. Peacock Jr.’s multiple graded stakes-winner Senor Buscador rallied gamely from last-of-12 to finish second to Hoist the Gold in Saturday’s Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap presented by NYRA Bets.

Trained by Todd Fincher and piloted by Junior Alvarado, the connections hoped the 5-year-old Mineshaft bay would utilizing a more close-up approach as he did when taking last year’s Grade 3 Ack Ack traveling a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs.

Instead, Senor Buscador reverted to the deep-closing tactics that saw him win the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap in July at Del Mar and that he repeated through three follow-up efforts in Grade 1 events including a seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November at Santa Anita.

“He does what he wants to do. Junior tried to let him run away from there, but he just took himself out of it,” Fincher said. “There’s not a whole lot you can do about that. He was way, way back on a track where everyone won on the lead and the rail and then he went wide with nowhere to go.

“They made it tight on him down the lane,” added Fincher. “A horse on the inside of him came out and another horse was laying on him – he overcame a lot, that’s for sure. Hoist the Gold is also a great horse and he ran a great race himself. He was on the better side of the bias but you have to give him credit, he ran a great race.”

Fincher said Senor Buscador, who matched a career-high 101 Beyer Speed Figure with his Cigar Mile effort, exited the race in good order and is en route to Gulfstream Park with an eye towards a start on January 27 in the nine-furlong Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational.

“He ate all his dinner last night and jumped on a van to Gulfstream Park. We’re planning for the Pegasus,” Fincher said of the talented bay, who has now banked $923,427 through a 16-6-1-2 record.

Senor Buscador, bred in Kentucky by Peacock, Jr. and the late Joe Peacock, Sr., is out of the multiple stakes-winning Desert Gold mare Rose’s Desert. She has produced five winners from as many foals that all were campaigned at one point by Fincher, including graded stakes-winner Runaway Ghost, multiple stakes-winner Sheriff Brown, and stakes-winner Our Iris Rose. A fifth half-sibling, the 2-year-old filly Aye Candy, made a winning debut Tuesday at Zia Park for Fincher.