November 30, 2008

Weathered takes Kamikaze Rick by six - 3rd '08 stakes win outside NY-bred company by Rab Hagin (Courtesy nybreds.com)

Photo: Adam Coglianese

WEATHERED

Scoring her third stakes victory outside of state-bred company in just over 7-1/2 months, Chevalier Stable's New York homebred Weathered romped by six lengths in Aqueduct's one-mile Kamikaze Rick for three-year-old fillies that had not won a 2008 graded race, once again prevailing as the youngest starter in her event. The May-foaled daughter of Key Contender was no surprise, going off as the 2.05-to-1 favorite among five starters with jockey Michael Luzzi on board for the fourth time in competition -- second consecutive -- while breaking on top from the outside post. She was immediately challenged by second choice Tar Heel Mom, who had won a sloppy track sprint stakes at Aqueduct 19 days earlier and shared 2.05-to-1 odds along with Weathered as one of three starters going into the Kamikaze Rick with two-for-two wet track records.

Tar Heel Mom led through even splits (23.25 and 23.29) over the muddy, sealed surface, with Weathered stalking a length to a half-length behind in second place while two-to-three-wide, but the one-turn contest was essentially over following a third quarter-mile, as Weathered took command and Luzzi glanced back. Weathered's lead was a length and a half at mid-stretch and grew four-fold through the final furlong, as NYRA announcer John Imbriale described her as "much the best" during her stretch run. Tar Heel Mom placed second, and finishing third was 2.60-to-1 Hamsa, who had placed second to multiple Grade 1 winner and 2008 Eclipse Champion candidate Music Note in Belmont's Grade 1 Gazelle in September and had beaten eventual 2008 Grade 1 winner Backseat Rhythm in May.

The Kamikaze Rick marked the fourth race and second stakes win aboard Weathered for jockey Luzzi, who 18 days earlier had piloted the chestnut filly to a runner-up effort behind fellow three-year-old filly rival By the Light in Aqueduct's one-mile Flip's Pleasure Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares. In Luzzi's first race aboard the Chevalier Stable homebred and Weathered's stakes debut, the two had teamed up to win Aqueduct's open 6-1/2-furlong Lizzy Cool Stakes for three-year-old fillies in April. Victory in the Kamikaze Rick -- named for the winner of Belmont's 1985 Grade 1 Gazelle and Grade 2 Rare Perfume -- increased Weathered's earnings to $276,363 and improved her record to 7 - 1 - 1 in 11 starts, which includes a 4-1/2-length romp in Delaware Park's $160,300 Susan's Girl in June.

Trained by Karl Grusmark, who six days prior to the Kamikaze Rick had given her a sharp half-mile workout over Belmont's training track, Weathered campaigns for the Chevalier Stable of owner-breeder Edward Shapoff of Pelham -- a long-time client of Carl Lizza Jr.'s and Joseph Bartone's Highcliff Farm in Delanson. The filly's Grade 1-winning sire, syndicated Key Contender, stands at Highcliff Farm, where the stakes winners that stallion has sired include another versatile filly/mare and 2008 black-type winner, New England-based icon Ask Queenie ($627,285), who has won 16 stakes on dirt and turf. Weathered's Kamikaze Rick victory has pushed the progeny earnings for Key Contender to close to $7.4-million. A half-sister to stakes-placed nine-time winner Dare to Be Great ($191,441), Weathered is the fifth of six winners, all New York-breds, produced from New York-bred stakes-placed winner Thunder Stand, who was trained by Stanley Shapoff. Thunder Stand, who is by former leading New York-bred money-earner Thunder Puddles (last reported to be enjoying life as a pensioner at Highcliff Farm), is a half-sister to New York-bred stakes winners Liver Stand ($248,106) and Endsaseeket and to three other stakes-placed winners, including Boundanddetermined ($205,503).

Weathered is among 33 New York-bred winners of 2008 black-type stakes outside state-bred company and is the sixth New York-bred to win a stakes outside of state-bred competition during November. The Kamikaze Rick was the 43rd open (to horses bred/conceived anywhere) black-type stakes captured in 2008 by a runner bred in the Empire State -- at 19 different tracks in 11 U.S. states plus Canada and England.

August 14, 2008

Megapixel goes gate to wire to score 1st stakes win in Spa's Van Raalte by Rab Hagin (Courtesy nybreds.com)

Photo: Adam Coglianese

MEGAPIXEL

First from the gate like a rocket and then never headed in Saratoga's seven-furlong Van Raalte Stakes for New York-bred three-year-olds on Thursday, Flying Zee Stable's odds-on homebred MEGAPIXEL set controlled splits and prevailed at the wire with stakes winners on either side, scoring his first stakes victory. The tenacious colt finished the Van Raalte in 1:22.28 over a drying-out "good" track -- easily Saratoga's fastest off-track seven furlongs of 2008 and almost within half a second (.57) of the Spa's fastest seven panels in 21 contests at that distance this year. Megapixel was 95 cents on the dollar among five participants in the event and was the only starter that had not raced since July, having most recently placed third behind undefeated Tin Cup Chalice and 2008 stakes winner Groomedforvictory in Belmont's seven-furlong Mike Lee on June 22. The three stakes-winning homebreds that fought to an almost blanket finish in the Van Raalte look like three more standouts to represent the already stellar New York-bred crop of 2005.

For the fourth consecutive time in competition, Megapixel was ridden by Eclipse Award-winning jockey Edgar Prado, who guided the colt through a surprisingly easy 23.64 opening quarter-mile before allowing him to pick up the pace through identical back-to-back splits of 23.27 each. Stalking closely behind him while three-wide was 1.55-to-1 second choice Law Enforcement, who was himself shadowed by 11.90-to-1 fifth choice Be Bullish on the rail, and in the final furlong those two narrowed the gap on the favored front-runner, advancing to within his throatlatch before the wire came up. For Prado, it was the first of two winning rides on Thursday aboard New York-bred three-year-olds going seven furlongs on Saratoga's main track.

Victory in the Van Raalte -- apparently named for the Dutch immigrant and pastor who had traveled by rail from Albany to Buffalo in 1846 and wrote extensively about his impressions -- increased Megapixel's earnings to $188,220 and improved his never-worse-than-fourth (in debut) record to 4 - 3 - 1 in nine starts. The chestnut colt has been trained throughout his career by Carlos Martin, who after the Mike Lee 53 days earlier had given Megapixel workouts on Belmont's training track, Saratoga's main track (a half-mile "bullet" drill over a "good" surface), and Saratoga's turf training track. The Flying Zee Stable homebred had placed second in Belmont's 6-1/2-furlong Screenland Stakes for state-bred three-year-olds on May 7 in his stakes debut and his first of four consecutive outings under Prado. Going that same distance a month later in a restricted N2X allowance/optional claimer at Belmont, Megapixel had won by two lengths over Law Enforcement in virtually identical time to the winning clocking in the Screenland.

A homebred for the Flying Zee Stable(s) of Carl Lizza Jr. of Wharton, New Jersey, who also bred and owns graded-winning turf filly I Lost My Choo, Megapixel was foaled at Highcliff Farm in Delanson that Lizza owns with Joseph Bartone -- arriving 22 days prior to I Lost My Choo. Flying Zee Stable had purchased Megapixel's dam, Picture, for $37,000 at Keeneland's 2000 September yearling sale. Megapixel -- inbred 3 x 4 to Mr. Prospector -- is by Tale of the Cat, who has sired graded winners up to nine furlongs in Grade 1 competition, and his dam is a full sister to a turf winner and a half-sister to a $220,725-earner on dirt. Their dam (Megapixel's maternal granddam) is main track route stakes winner and graded runner-up Autumn Mood. Megapixel already has been worked on turf, and his breeding suggests that he could stretch out in distance.

July 19, 2008

I Lost My Choo is 19th NY-bred open 2008 SW - 9th '08 graded winner Rab Hagin (Courtesy nybreds.com)

Photo: COADY PHOTOGRAPHY.COM

I LOST MY CHOO Winning G3 Virginia Oaks July 19

Becoming the 19th New York-bred open stakes winner of 2008 and the ninth state-bred graded winner of '08 -- five from the emerging star crop of 2005 -- Flying Zee Stable's New York homebred I LOST MY CHOO captured Colonial Downs' $200,000 graded Virginia Oaks for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, July 19. The stretch-sprinting daughter of Western Expression was the 2-to-1 favorite among nine in the mile and an eighth turf event, for which jockey Edgar Prado was on board for the fifth consecutive time in competition, scoring her second stakes victory in three weeks. I Lost My Choo is the 10th New York-bred open '08 stakes winner from the talent-laden crop of 2005 and the fifth state-bred graded winner this year from that crop, which was conceived the year after Funny Cide's 2003 Eclipse championship season.

Breaking from the outside post, I Lost My Choo stalked the pace in sixth place through three-quarters of a mile as 11.60-to-1 fifth choice Julia Tuttle -- coming off back-to-back big-margin wins at Colonial Downs in June -- opened up a 15-length lead. In the final three-eighths of a mile, the New York-bred overtook five rivals with a four-wide move, including Julia Tuttle (who still held a 10-1/2-length advantage at mid-stretch) plus fellow late-closer Namaste's Wish, the 3-to-1 second choice and a turf stakes winner at Belmont. I Lost My Choo drove clear late to win by a length and a half over Namaste's Wish, giving Prado his second consecutive turf stakes-winning ride of the day, while the royally-bred Julia Tuttle held for third under two pounds less weight than the top two finishers.

Prado intimated that he had not been concerned when Julia Tuttle drew off to her seemingly insurmountable lead: "I knew my filly had a nice kick," Prado revealed afterwards.

Photo: COADY PHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Winning trainer Philip Serpe, who also had trained I Lost My Choo's sire, Western Expression, had been less confident: "Speed can be very dangerous, and a lot of times they just forget to stop and back up, and that seemed like it might be the case at the three-eighths pole. But I could see in the stretch that our filly had cut loose and was gaining, and the other filly (Julia Tuttle) looked like she might be tiring just a little bit."

The Virginia Oaks victory came three weeks after I Lost My Choo's initial stakes tally in Belmont's Elmont for New York-bred three-year-old fillies going a virtual one-turn turf mile, and it increased her earnings to $271,640 off five wins plus two thirds (both graded) in eight starts. Serpe had given the racy-looking bay filly a six-furlong workout over Belmont's inner turf course six days prior to the Virginia Oaks.

I Lost My Choo is a homebred for the Flying Zee Stable of Carl Lizza Jr. of Wharton, New Jersey, and she was foaled at Highcliff Farm in Delanson that Lizza owns with Joseph Bartone. Lizza also owns Landmark Builders, which is involved in office and housing construction in New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, as well as Western Expression, whom he had purchased for $200,000 at Fasig-Tipton's 1997 Saratoga select yearling sale. Since Western Expression is New York's leading 2008 turf sire, trainer Serpe must wonder why he only tried the stallion once on grass -- in Belmont's graded Poker (mile) 58 days after Western Expression had missed by a head while placing second in Aqueduct's Grade 1 Carter Handicap at seven furlongs. Western Expression had caught a slightly wet grass course plus turf miler specialist Affirmed Success at the top of his game in the Poker and faded after breaking from the outside post among 10 and chasing the pace in third place for three-quarters. He could not have had a more challenging introduction to grass. Western Expression, who stands at Highcliff Farm, currently has progeny earnings of more than $6.3-million and 101 winners from his first four crops.

Inbred 3 x 5 to unbeaten European superstar Ribot, I Lost My Choo is the eighth winner bred by Flying Zee Stables from turf winner Fairy Queen, who was from one of Tom Rolfe's last crops and had been purchased by Lizza for $45,000 at Keeneland's 1989 September yearling sale. I Lost My Choo has two winning full siblings, and her half-sister Kevin's Decision ($218,374) captured turf stakes at Belmont and Aqueduct. There are five other winners by Western Expression produced from half-sisters to I Lost My Choo, including stakes-placed Everythings Groovy plus Dazzle Me Darlin ($119,486). Dam Fairy Queen is a half-sister to Puerto Rican champion Don Serafin ($140,521) and to stakes-placed seven-time winner Some Runaway.

The Virginia Oaks was the 22nd black-type stakes event won by a New York-bred outside state-bred competition in 2008 and the 10th graded contest captured this year by a runner bred in the Empire State. Those 22 open (to horses bred anywhere) 2008 stakes victories by New York-breds have been registered at 13 different tracks and racing facilities in New York, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Louisiana, Canada, and England. In 2007 up to the beginning of Saratoga's race meeting, New York-breds had won 16 black-type stakes outside state-bred competition and had captured three graded events.

June 28, 2008

I Lost My Choo scores 1st stakes win with late rally in 1-mile Elmont S. by Rab Hagin (Courtesy nybreds.com)

Photo: Adam Coglianese

I LOST MY CHOO #1

Coming off consecutive graded-placed grass efforts in April and May, Flying Zee Stable's homebred I LOST MY CHOO scored her first black-type victory in Belmont's one-mile Elmont Stakes for New York-bred three-year-old fillies on Saturday but found state-bred company almost as challenging as -- and possibly rougher than -- graded competition. The talented daughter of Western Expression was odds-on (.65-to-1) among seven in the virtual one-turn turf event but was bottled up near the back and next to the rail until exiting the turn, when she trailed a wall of rivals with nowhere to go. Jockey Edgar Prado, who was race-riding I Lost My Choo for the fourth consecutive time and had to steady her repeatedly on the turn, steered her outside at the three-sixteenths pole, allowing his mount to unleash a devastating stretch drive from near-last-to-first despite a 22.95 final quarter-mile. The Flying Zee homebred's head victory over Delehanty Stable's royally homebred third choice, Blitzen Too (6.70-to-1), was achieved by sprinting her own final quarter-mile split in about 22-1/5 seconds, getting her to the wire in 1:34.26.

I Lost My Choo's April stakes debut -- following consecutive January-February-March wins on Gulfstream Park grass -- had been in Keeneland's graded Appalachian at a mile on turf, when she was rank on the first turn but placed third among 10 in a three-way photo-finish, missing victory by a head. The New York-bred missed out in another photo 45 days later in Belmont's Grade 2 Sands Point at a mile and an eighth on grass, getting nipped by a nose for second by a favored rival that was carrying two pounds less weight. In the four-week interval between the bay filly's Sands Point placing and her Elmont tally, trainer Philip Serpe had given I Lost My Choo grass workouts at Belmont on June 16 and 22, punctuating the latter work with a five-furlong "bullet" drill over five furlongs. Victory in the $77,750 Elmont increased I Lost My Choo's earnings to $151,640 and improved her record to four wins and two thirds in seven turf starts, with her only off-the-board effort coming in her juvenile debut last November at Aqueduct.

A homebred for the Flying Zee Stable of Carl Lizza Jr. of Wharton, New Jersey and foaled at Highcliff Farm in Delanson that Lizza owns with Joseph Bartone, I Lost My Choo also qualified her owner-breeder for $12,595.50 in breeder and stallion owner awards because of her Elmont victory. Flying Zee Stable owns the filly's sire, Western Expression, whose other stakes winners include New York Thoroughbred Breeders 2007 Champion Three-Year-Old Male Stunt Man ($370,589) -- also bred by Flying Zee Stables. Western Expression, who in a recent three-day span (Monday-Wednesday, June 23-25) had been represented by four winners, currently has progeny earnings of more than $5.9-million from four crops to race.

Inbred 3 x 5 to unbeaten European superstar Ribot, I Lost My Choo is the eighth winner bred by Flying Zee Stables from turf winner Fairy Queen, who was from one of Tom Rolfe's last crops and had been purchased by Lizza for $45,000 at Keeneland's 1989 September yearling sale. I Lost My Choo has two winning full siblings, and her half-sister Kevin's Decision ($218,374) captured turf stakes at Belmont and Aqueduct, but Lizza has indicated that his current three-year-old filly possesses significantly more talent than any of Fairy Queen's previous offspring. There are at least five other winners by Western Expression produced from half-sisters to I Lost My Choo, including stakes-placed Everythings Groovy and recent (Wednesday, June 25) top-weighted Presque Isle Downs winner Dazzle Me Darlin ($119,486). Dam Fairy Queen is a half-sister to Puerto Rican champion Don Serafin ($140,521) and to stakes-placed seven-time winner Some Runaway. This is the old Meadow Stud (C. T. Chenery -- co-founder of the New York Racing Association) distaff family of two-time Eclipse Champion Riva Ridge.