Radical Fringe: Bet him win-place and show a profit

Want one of the safer win-place bets in horse racing? Look no further than Radical Fringe.

I keep an eye on the 4-year-old Van Nistelrooy gelding because his dam, stakes-winning mare Broad Victory (Spartan Victory-Below Broad Street, by Kokand) is a full sister to one of my mares, Bushes Victory. And while the horse is lightly raced, when he does run, he tends to send you to the pay window.

Radical Fringe on Sunday finished second in a $40,000 claiming race at Keeneland, losing by a head to former stakes-winner Power Surge going 6 furlongs on Polytrack in 1:09.60. Thus, from six races, Radical Fringe has three wins, three second-place finishes, and $74,420 earned. And that mark would be better if he hadn't been caught completely flat-footed at the break in his debut at age 3, in which he was last early by double-digit lengths in a big group going only 5 furlongs, and managed to finish a closing fifth.

The horse is fast and consistent. He's won on turf and synthetic, and even when he's second, it ain't by much.

Radical Fringe broke maiden handily on turf in August 2008, missing an Arlington track record by 0.16. He followed that win with a synthetic victory at Arlington, coming even closer to a 5-furlong track mark -- 0.03 ticks (56.54). In his fourth start he was second beaten a half-length in a Keeneland allowance going 6f in a brisk 1:08.86. (By My Best Pal Red, a stakes-placer who finished third Sunday in Radical Fringe's race at Keeneland.) Then, "Rad" finished his 3-year-old campaign with a turf-sprint win at Hawthorne.

That's why I was surprised to see him resurface this year -- after a long layoff -- for a claiming tag of $35,000 at Arlington. He didn't disappoint in the race, finishing a hung-wide second beaten a length by former Woodbine stakes winner Stradivinsky going 5 furlongs on turf in 56.27. And on Sunday he came much closer to a win for a $40K tag, but was not among the two horses that were claimed.

The odds are never long on Radical Fringe; usually around 5-1. But if he places at least second (which he almost always has), you'll make a tiny bit. If he wins, you'll make out nicely.

And as consistently as he performs -- 6-for-7 finishing at least second place; beaten when he does lose only by horses with blacktype back-class -- I wonder how many more times Radical Fringe can run for a tag without getting himself claimed from Hugh Robertson and Wolfe Racing LLC.

CDI's YouTube videos like 'living' catalog page update

Like many breeders -- both new to the game and experienced -- I keep a close eye on the family of my mares. If an earlier foal of theirs, or a cousin or nephew, happens to be running, I want to know about it.

The same is true as a stallion owner. When one of Silver Music's relatively few (at present) offspring are racing, I want to know the outcome.

I use the Virtual Stable tool at Equibase.com as one means of facilitating this knowledge. It provides a no-cost way to track workouts, entries and results for a certain number of horses. (For a very small cost, since I have very few horses, I also use the Equineline.com Portfolio to track the actual offspring of my mare who has foals at the track, though it isn't as helpful with following more distant relatives.)

But today I was just thinking how much I appreciate the fact that Churchill Downs Inc. tracks (and perhaps some others I haven't needed to see) are posting all their race videos to YouTube, at least within 24 hours or so of the race being run. Now I can not only read the charts after a race, but within hours I can see how the horse really looked on the track. ... In a slightly small, or bigger and grainy sort of way, at least.

The video above is of a Sept. 12 race at Arlington. The 12-horse is Radical Fringe, the nephew of my mare Bushes Victory. Radical Fringe (by Van Nistelrooy) is the first foal of Tory's turf-sprint stakes-winning full sister, Broad Victory. He didn't win on this day, but it was his first race since last November when he closed out his 3-year-old campaign with three wins at Arlington and Hawthorne and a close second at Keeneland from five starts. And bear in mind that this race was won (impressively) by, Stradivinsky, a former Woodbine stakes winner of $325,259.

Final time was 56.27 seconds for 5 furlongs on turf; the track record at Arlington is 55.90. Not a bad comeback for Radical Fringe. And I like to watch him run, because Tory's little girl, Oracle at Delphi, is the spittin' image of her cousin, if only in color and socks.

Radical Fringe's half-brother has been running at a CDI track, too. Big Zeet is a gray or roan 2-year-old by Limehouse, and so far has been unplaced twice on dirt, devoid of speed early but plugging along at the end.

I'd like to see Big Zeet get a chance on the grass, considering his dam was a turf stakes winner and his grandsire, Grand Slam (sire of Limehouse) has thrown turf and Polytrack-types. Recall that Breeders' Cup Sprint champ Cajun Beat also won the Kentucky Cup Sprint-G3T, Grand Slam daughter Lady Digby won the All Along S.-G3 on turf, daughter Just Little is a G3 winner on turf in France, and son Ball Four won both the Kentucky Cup Classic-G2 and Fayette S.-G3 over all-weather surfaces.

I dunno if Big Zeet would like the grass, more distance, or what. But he's definitely not first out of the gate in the videos below, nor dominant traveling over Calder's dirt, though he was much a much-closer sixth the second than he was in sixth the first.

My own budding barn of runners

It isn't often enough that I find my way up U.S. Highway 15 to Gordonsville, Va., where my horses reside. But Saturday provided the opportunity, so I made the trip and I have photos to prove it.

For those who don't know -- which is probably most folks who blunder by -- the budding Golden Gale Stables breeding and racing string consists of a pair of 2009 foals, their dams, and a bun in the oven by a stallion I relocated from New York for this season. The quintet reside at Hilltop Farm VA, just north of Gordonsville, in the able care of Sarah Warmack.

Head of the household, so to speak, is Silver Music (Silver Ghost-Music Bell, by Stop the Music), an 18-year-old who was foaled not all that far away from his current home, as one of the many great racehorses to emerge from Edward P. Evans' Spring Hill Farm near Casanova, Va.

Like most Evans-breds, Silver Music (pictured clowning for the camera this weekend) is the product of splendid pedigree, by a reputable sire and out of a dam whose own mother, Belladora (Stage Door Johnny-Prayer Bell, by Better Self) was not only a Grade 3 winner in her own right, but also a three-quarters sister to 1969 champion juvenile Silent Screen (Prince John). His fourth dam was Spinaway Stakes-winner Sunday Evening (Eight Thirty-Drowsy, by Royal Minstrel).

After starting his career in Kentucky and Florida, Silver Music went west for owner Lauren Cohen and won a pair of turf stakes under trainer Wally Dollase -- one sprinting in the Baldwin Stakes at Santa Anita and one at a mile and a sixteenth in the Bold Reason Handicap at Hollywood Park -- and narrowly missed a pair of Grade 3 wins on both surfaces in the California Derby at Golden Gate Fields and the Will Rogers Stakes at Hollywood. Then he scored the win of his life in the Swaps S.-G2, covering 10 furlongs on the main track at Hollywood Park in 2:00.76 to defeat Dramatic Gold and Valiant Nature.

A fifth-place finish in the 1994 Pacific Classic-G1 (won by the spectacular Tinners Way) led to a layoff, and Silver Music was raced just once at age 4 before retirement. He finished his career with five wins (three stakes) from 19 starts and $351,905.

Mr. Evans had a good deal of success with this cross of Silver Ghost with Music Bell (who herself is alive and well in retirement at Spring Hill). Silver Music has a full brother who was a Grade 2 winner on turf, Musical Ghost ($252,024), who won the Red Smith Handicap going 11 panels at Aqueduct in 1998. Full brother Ghost Soldier earned $784,916 racing in Japan. And, their unraced full sister, Ghost Bell, is the dam of Philly Park stakes winner Monsoor (Mt. Livermore).

A half-sister of that quartet, Prospector's Song (Prospector's Music), won five stakes on her way to eight wins from 17 starts, earning $264,256, and is a minor blacktype-producer.

At stud in New York for his entire career, Silver Music is yet to sire a stakes winner. He does have three stakes-placers (reflecting his own versatility, one of them short on the dirt at 2 and two of them around two turns on grass at 3), and he's sired some competitive New York-breds from very slight opportunities, such as Time to Rap (7-for-17, $169,894), Stevie Stressor ($163,273, former record-holder at Belmont), Archers Gal ($111,930), Givensilver ($103,958) and Rock Queen ($92,970 in 13 starts, dam of two winners).

I'd hoped that he would attract a few outside mares in his first season in Virginia, but the economy, resulting discounts to pricier studs out of state, and some bad luck conspired to leave only me trying to breed mares to him this year. And since only one of mine foaled early enough to be bred back, that's how many 2010 foals Silver is expecting -- one.

That one, barring a lost pregnancy, will be a son or daughter born to Bushes Victory (Spartan Victory-Below Broad Street, by Kokand), who had her first foal this season. A modest winner at Finger Lakes, "Tory" is, however, the daughter of a stakes winner of $103,043 and a full sister to Broad Victory, Colonial turf-sprint stakes winner of $158,156 and dam of Radical Fringe (Van Nistelrooy), who won three of five as a 3-year-old and returned Saturday at Arlington after an 11-month layoff to finish second for a $35,000 tag to former stakes winner Stradivinsky -- three lengths clear of third place in a 5-furlong turf race run in a pretty brisk 56.27.

Tory's 2009 filly is Oracle at Delphi, mentioned and pictured on this blog prior. The chestnut filly (with three stockings to match her great-great-grandsire Secretariat) is by Mighty Forum (Presidium-Mighty Flash, by Rolfe), a multiple-G3-winner on turf whose sire was a blacktype half-brother to Group 1 winners Kris and Diesis, G2-winner Rudimentary and stakes winner Keen. Certainly the names in "Delphy's" pedigree won't inspire many American racing fans, but there are runners in the family, she seems to have been blessed with good balance and a "big engine," and if she can muster some of that turf ability displayed by her sire, her aunt and her cousin, she could be competitive at Colonial Downs. (Pictured: She also seems to have inherited or developed her dam's disdain for dogs.)

Delphy is co-bred and co-owned along with Sarah and Hilltop Farm.

And, pictured with her 2009 colt is Lady's Wager (Valid Wager-Lear's Lady, by Lear Fan), herself a winner of 10 races from 36 start (at eight different tracks all along the Eastern Seaboard) for $71,519.

Her dam was an allowance winner on turf and one of 10 winners out of Idiomatic (Verbatim-Swiss Forest, by Dotted Swiss), who also produced Acqueduct stakes-winner Bold Mate (Nasty and Bold) and 11-race winner Naskramatic (Naskra). Idiomatic was a half-sister to G2-winner Replant (No Robbery). Through fourth dam Forest Song (Mr. Music-Sylvanaise, by Meridien) this is one of the most productive tail-female lines of Bruce Lowe's Family 19, boasting several dozen stakes winners including: Grade 1 winners Slewpy (Young America S., Meadowlands Cup), Croeso (Florida Derby), 15-win filly Top Corsage (Spinster S.) and Appealing Zophie (also a Spinster winner); Grade 2 winners Replant, Super May (Mervyn Leroy H., $826,500) and Diamond on the Run (Davona Dale S.); and four-times G3 winner and sire Ide, among other graded and listed stakes winners.

Lady so far has produced a modest winner at Charles Town in her eldest foal, 4-year-old West Appeal (Way West), who runs for her former owners Dale and Patricia Shockey. Lady's second foal, a 2-year-old filly, Lady's Bopette (Bop), is close to her gate card for the Shockeys, as well. With turf runners for their sires and a second dam who was a turf winner, by a Grade 1 turf horse, I'd like to see both of those runners get a chance on the grass either at Mountaineer or perhaps shipping into Virginia next summer to run at Colonial.

Lady's Wager's 2009 colt is by Laurel Park stakes winner Inner Harbour (Capote-Blue Sky Princess, by Conquistador Cielo), and like his dam is chestnut in color, hence his name, "All In On Red." Apparently a barn favorite, he alternates between sleeping like a log and bouncing around the farm like Tigger. A smart and inquisitive foal, one of the teenage girls who frequents Sarah's place said she caught "Red" trying to sneak into the tack room the other day, and if she hadn't called him back, they'd probably have "found him in there later, napping on the couch."

Yes, I'm excited to be starting out in the race game, even if very much on the ground floor. So if this information wasn't enough for you, e-mail me and I'll ramble on all day about my horses ... or your horses, or anybody's horses.

Good night, good luck and good health to all with equine interests -- particularly my own.