First turf, first win: Ravello Storm follows family lead

After two unplaced efforts on dirt at Delaware Park, the connections of Ravello Storm sent him to Belmont Park and a date with $20,000 maiden-claimers on the grass.

Sent off at 11-1, the horse won in good style, and perhaps should have been expected to. After all, the son of Stormy Atlantic-Wave On, by Caveat, had five prior turf winners among his elder siblings, including Colonial Turf Cup-G3 and Poker S.-G3 victor SAILOR'S CAP and La Habra Stakes-placed Royal Wave. (Sailor's Cap was one of my favored horses of the past few years, and tragically died of Colitis-X as a 4-year-old.)

On Saturday at Belmont, Ravello Storm was treated by bettors like an outsider in a field that appeared to be wide-open. But unlike his dirt efforts, when Ravello Storm was never really in contention, on this day he bolted to the lead straight from the gate beneath Cornelio Velasquez. Tracked by 5/2 favorite Knockout through tepid opening fractions of 26.25 and 48.41.

Ravello Storm briefly surrendered the lead to 29-1 long-shot Pernice after a quickened six furlongs run in 1:09.90, disposed of that rival by the top of the stretch, then found another gear to discourage all others. He won in 1:44.78 for a mile and a sixteenth, 2 3/4 lengths clear of of Allen's Star.

Ravello Storm is owned by Lee Lewis and trained by Mark Hennig. He was bred in Kentucky by Lanni Bloodstock LLC, John Zolezzi, Westport Management and J. Smithwick. With a win from three starts, he has earned $13,330.

I shortlisted Ravello Storm as a Priority 1 horse when seeking bargain-minded prospects for a client at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training at Timonium, Md. The horse breezed 11-flat at a sale where that was at least average, and my biggest complaint about him upon visual inspection at the barn was that he just didn't seem very alert. Run through the ring as Hip 388, the dark bay colt didn't meet his reserve price, but sold privately before leaving the grounds for a reported $35,000.

Ravello Storm becomes the 108th prospect to break maiden from my 187-horse list of 2-year-old prospects in 2010. That's 57.8 percent. Those Maryland prospects from which Ravello Storm emerged as a group cost (or were RNAs) for about half the price of the sales average, but 42 have now started (87.5 percent) and he is the 26th to win (54.2 percent of all EASMAY selections, 61.9 percent of those to race).

Click here and scroll down to view the records of all 187 selections.

Terrain: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust

Still stinging from the startling, almost inexplicable losses of graded-stakes winner Sailor's Cap and debut stakes winner Olredlgetcha to less common maladies, the racing world has lost another notable horse.

Terrain (Sky Mesa-Minery, by Forty Niner) was steadied on the backstretch and then pulled up around the three-eighths pole of the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows Saturday night by jockey Robby Alborado. The gelding suffered a condylar fracture and a broken sesamoid in his right front. He was vanned off but the injuries were soon diagnosed as catastrophic and he was put down.

Terrain, who won three of 10 lifetime for $512,084 including the Arlington-Washington Futurity-G3, was described as "a classic over-achiever" by trainer Al Stall Jr.

The horse wasn't bred like the typical "over-achiever," from a winning sense. His sire annexed the Hopeful S.-G1 at 2 and his dam won an Ellis Park stakes race at 3. There is blacktype and brilliance in the family.

But from a budding breeder's standpoint -- and not to speak ill of the dead, his breeders or his connections -- Terrain wasn't necessarily bred for soundness, either.

His sire raced just six times; his dam only four. His second dam, Orseno, was unraced. And though she's foaled some runners of average soundness (or length of career, at least), she was strikingly inbred 1x3 to the brilliant In Reality and out of the mare Gana Facil, who was also dam of Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner Unbridled -- who ran 24 times but has been singled out by his critics as a source of unsoundness -- and his full brother and Grade 1 winner Cahill Road, who raced only six times.

I'm far from the first person to join the dogpile of critics regarding the "modern breeding for the sales and speed" every time a horse breaks down. I would argue that when such case was made about Eight Belles, for example, (even by the likes of Bill Nack, who got an Eclipse honorable mention for it), many critics habitually point to "unsound" sirelines or inbreeding to certain individuals (particularly Raise a Native and his sire Native Dancer) without looking at all or even any of the immediate ancestors around her. Eight Belles' dam, Away, ran a respectable 24 times and had a full brother, stakes-placed Fiddler's Find, who answered the call to post on 51 occasions. Eight Belles' second dam was unraced, but her third dam, Belonging (also dam of Belong To Me), raced 37 times, and fourth dam, champion handicap mare Straight Deal, retired from a blacktype career that saw her run just one race short of 100.

A number of horses in Eight Belles' relatively near-female family outran the breed average (by a little or a lot) when it came to sheer number of starts: 84 races (Golden Longing); 83 races (Survivor Call); 72 starts (stakes winner Loyal Groom); 71 calls to post (Let's Behave); 52 races (Joy Be Ridge); 43 starts (G3 winner Skipaslew, who did eventually break down in a workout); 39 starts each (Timber Yield, Premier Ensign and Forgivable Bob); 36 starts (Reminiscing); 35 races (Grand Ambition). I didn't have to go far out of my way to find those horses, and a dozen or more others have raced 15 to 30 times, average, or in excess thereof, for the breed.

Eight Belles was not willfully bred to be fast at the expense of fatal fragility.

But I will say that for the good of every foal, soundness needs to be introduced in the pedigree somewhere, and somewhere close.

Sky Mesa ran only six times, as did his sire, Pulpit. I would never recommend breeding Sky Mesa to a mare who wasn't rugged herself and whose longevity was typical of her durable family.

Minery's four lifetime starts, to me, demand that she be bred to a stallion who proved his worth at the track not over five or six spectacular races, but four or five or six seasons -- a talented but sound horse who made multiple-dozens of starts; not a half-dozen.

Terrain lasted 10 starts -- the total of his sire and dam combined. In that way, sadly, perhaps he had over-achieved.

Triumph to tragedy: Limehouse colt Olredlgetcha dead after historic win

Olredlgetcha, who became the first blacktype winner for freshman stallion Limehouse when he took Canada's Victoria Stakes at Woodbine in his debut on June 14, died just nine days later, The Blood-Horse reports.

The Florida-bred 2-year-old out of the blacktype Cobra King mare Mystical Beauty apparently suffered a "slight puncture wound" in the race, and a staph infection set in. Symptoms arose on June 16 and the colt was shipped to Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph. The Blood-Horse reports that the infection was "treated aggressively" but that it "rapidly spread to the joint capsule causing ... great suffering and a total deterioration of the hock."

Though the mode of death is completely different, the tragic story is reminiscent of the recent demise of Sailor's Cap, who was dead within days of his noteworthy victory over Kip Deville and others in the Poker S.-G3 at Belmont Park. The 4-year-old Distant View colt died of Colitis-X, a digestive tract disorder that is fatal nearly 100 percent of the time and can kill within three hours of the onset of symptoms.

We know these horses receive the best possible veterinary care, especially once they've achieved the status of Olredlgetcha and Sailor's Cap -- a first-out stakes winner and a multiple-graded stakes winner. The advances in medical and veterinary science tend to leave us thinking that virtually anything is treatable and that most ailments are survivable, and yet stories like these shake us with the harsh reality that sometimes we and our horses are all but helpless against the very worst nature throws at them.

This has to be a particularly tough loss for Sal and Colleen Simeone. Olredlgetcha was bred at their Sienna Farms and made his only race in the colors of their R Own Stables.

He was trained by Greg de Gannes and ridden to his victory by Emille Ramsammy.

My condolences to all concerned.

Sailor's Cap killer: Colitis-X

A necropsy of Sailor's Cap -- recent winner of the Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park who spiked a temperature, collapsed and died in his stall just days later -- has blamed the death on Colitis-X.

I won't share all the messy symptoms, you can read the Blood-Horse story for that, but Colitis-X is a mysterious ailment, causes not completely known, that strikes quickly and obviously is deadly. According to thehorse.com, the Merck Veterinary Manual says the illness is characterized by its "acute onset" of symptoms and that many of the affected horses have "a history of stress." A few other prior ailments are listed as possible precursors to Colitis-X, but apparently at this time veterinary science just isn't sure of the exact cause.

The necropsy was performed at the New Bolton Research Center in Kennett Square, Pa., part of the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school.

Sailor's Cap defeated four other rivals including Kip Deville in the Poker on June 14. On Tuesday the 16th, according to his trainer, Jimmy Toner, the colt's temperature rose unexpectedly. By Wednesday he was dead.

The 4-year-old son of Distant View out of the Caveat mare Wave On won four of 10 starts for $616,970 in his abbreviated career. At 3, he was victor of the drenched Colonial Turf Cup-G3 at 9.5 furlongs (pictured), and came home third behind Gio Ponti and Court Vision in his next start, the Grade 2 Virginia Derby at 10 furlongs over the same Colonial Downs course. His other stakes placing at 3 was finishing second behind Tizdejavu in the Crown Royal American Turf S.-G3 at Churchill Downs.

Sailor's Cap was bred in Kentucky by Wave On LLC, a partnership of Team Valor International, who campaigned the colt.

Poker champ Sailor's Cap collapses and dies in stall

This is a breaking, and heartbreaking story, but Thoroughbred Daily News reports that Sailor's Cap, who only Sunday defeated Kip Deville in the Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park, has collapsed in his stall and died.

Cause of death is not known.

"He spiked a temperature during the day on Tuesday and simply collapsed early in the morning," trainer Jimmy Toner told TDN. "We are all in complete shock over this turn of events."

The 4-year-old colt by Distant View out of the Caveat mare Wave On (pedigree) won last year's drenched Colonial Turf Cup-G3, as well (pictured), in a career that spanned 10 races and four victories, earning $616,970 for owners Team Valor International. He was bred in Kentucky by Wave On LLC, a Team Valor partnership.

I'm sure all involved are devastated, and as a new fan of the colt (hey, he beat my boy Kip, he earned his "props") they have my condolences.

Five-horse Poker game cruel to Deville

When the five players at the table showed their cards at the end of Sunday's Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park, it was Sailor's Cap and not Kip Deville who found himself raking all the chips into his connections' corner.

The 6-year-old Kip Deville -- truth be told, one of my favorite horses of all time -- was trying to bounce back from a 10th-place finish in the distant Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night March 28. He tried to bluff the field into submission by raising the ante early, leading from the gate, but the game set up for 4-year-old Sailor's Cap, who relished the soft going of Belmont's Widener turf course Sunday.

Sailor's Cap, some might recall, won what had to be one of the soggiest American turf races in recent memory, last year's Colonial Turf Cup-G3. (Pictured above.) The Distant View colt is 2-for-3 over extremely soft ground, with his lone defeat being by a neck in the Crown Royal American Turf S.-G3.

Kip Deville was pressured Sunday by Yield Bogey, who managed to hang on for third while Kip faded to fourth. Tam Lin got up for second as he did (behind Kip) in 2008, while Operation Red Dawn, last year's show-horse in this race, was never really a factor.

As a native Kansan with Oklahoma ties, I've long followed the Okie-bred Kip Deville. I'll never forget his ridiculous early lead in the 2006 Colonial Turf Cup, when he bolted to a nearly 20-length margin down the backstretch. Then-one-dimensional (all-speed), Kip ultimately gave the whole advantage way to Showing Up, who beat him by 3 1/4 lengths. But nobody else caught the gray gamer before the wire, and he finished a tired, but brave second in the mile and three-sixteenths contest.

Kip found his way into IEAH Stables colors soon after and has gone on to far outrun his fairly modest pedigree. His signature win, of course, was his upset in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Mile, but he came back to win a Grade 1 at 5 (the Maker's Mark Mile) and early this year collected the trophy for the shortened Gulfstream Park Turf S.-G1, now at 9 furlongs.

But I do wonder what he has left in the tank. He's 6 years old; not over the hill but no youngster, either. And those springtime trips to Dubai can take a lot out of a horse. Sometimes everything. Some horses never regain their full form upon return to the States.

Kip hadn't run since March and probably needed the race. But Sailor's Cap was making his 2009 debut, so the layoff can't be the whole excuse.

It will be interesting to see how Kip comes out of the race, and where trainer Rick Dutrow points him next. Certainly the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita was again the ultimate target -- his win in 2007 was followed by a second-place in that race in 2008 -- but there's a lot of work to be done between now and then to get the horse ready.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing where Kip lands at stud. His success on the track earned an upgrade from Oklahoma to Kentucky for his sire, Kipling (Gulch-Weekend Storm, by Storm Bird). But I have to think if folks were dying to breed to Kip Deville, he'd have been retired at 5.

Still, he's just the kind of horse I'd like for one of my mares to see: Talented, sound and game, which go a long way toward overcoming mediocre pedigree. Kip Deville's pedigree might not be entirely fashionable, but his dam, Klondike Kaytie (Encino-Charming Dawn, by Vigors) raced 63 times and won 20, including a minor stakes victory, for $173,802. Kip's half-brother, Gotthard (by Ghazi) raced 78 times and won 22 for $286,645 (including the 2001 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes). So when a member of this family does make it to races, they just might keep going back to the post for years.

Durability is something we should all be looking for in our racehorses.

Kip Deville pictured winning 2008 Poker Stakes (Photo/NYRA, Adam Coglianese)