Spring Jump pounces in the stretch for CT victory

Sent off as the favorite and settling in sixth place early under Fredy Peltroche, Spring Jump overhauled the front-runners in the stretch won by 3 1/2 lengths Friday night in allowance company at Charles Town.

Shefoggedmyglasses finished second, Little Miss Nora was third, and sadly fourth-place Gutterball Mary broke down after the wire.

Spring Jump was bred in Florida by Jeanne H. Cutrona and Jerry M. Cutrona Sr. and is owned by Dorado Circle Stables LLC. She is trained by Flint Stites.

The win was Spring Jump's first in four starts at age 3, but she was a winner twice (and placed second in the White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware Park) as a juvenile. Her record now stands at 3-2-0 from nine starts, for $76,600.

I recommended the daughter of Jump Start-Meg's Answer, by West Acre, on a shortlist of 48 prospects from last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training at Timonium, Md. Spring Jump sold for just $19,000 as Hip 234.

Click here and scroll down to view the full list and race results of my 187 sales picks (and nine pans) from selected juvenile sales of 2010.

On Appeal on the mark at Calder

On Appeal did all the work and reaped the majority of the reward Thursday, winning Race 2 at Calder in gate-to-wire fashion, albeit by just a head over a closing Rick the Bartender.

A chestnut son of Closing Argument-Oh Nyet, by Time For a Change broke on top for jockey Luis Jurado, disposed of early challenger My Mass Media and 4/5 favorite Wildcat Formation by the top of the stretch in fractions of 22.23 and 46.07, and enjoyed a two-length lead before Rick the Bartender made his late bid. Final time for 6 1/2 furlongs on dirt was 1:19.57.

The race was for $25,000 claimers, non-winners of two lifetime. A winner from seven starts at age 2, On Appeal was third by a half-length (and a nose out of second) in his 3-year-old bow last out, for a $16,000 price. Stepped-up in class, he delivered the goods on Thursday, and at $20.80 to win. He has now earned $27,314.

I recommended On Appeal prior to his selling for $25,000 as Hip 218 at Ocala's April sale last year. He is one of 187 juveniles of 2010 that I recommended on this blog from selected 2-year-olds-in-training sales.

Click here to follow them all.

Evangelical wins again, but is she well?

One of the pricier picks I made during the 2010 juvenile sales season on Sunday collected her fourth win from her last five starts, but circumstantial evidence suggests that Evangelical might benefit from a few prayers for soundness.

The chestnut filly was sent off at prohibitive 2/5 odds in the field of six $12,500 to $10,500 claimers at Monmouth Park Sunday. She bobbled at the start and was in third place early, but won by a widening 8 1/2 lengths under only mild urging by rider Ramon Moya.

Evangelical has four wins, two places and a show from seven lifetime starts, for $113,530.

It is telling that the daughter of Speightstown-Evangelizer, by Saint Ballado -- who failed to sell when $100,000 wasn't enough to meet her reserve price as Hip 9 at Keeneland April 2010 -- also failed to be claimed on Sunday for a modest $12,500.

Evangelical broke maiden in her third lifetime start among special weights at Belmont last autumn, then went on the shelf for the winter. She returned at Gulfstream April 9, entered for a $35,000 tag, winning by 4 1/4 without being fully asked. On that day, Evangelical was claimed from owner North Shore Racing and trainer Barclay Tagg by trainer Joseph C. Catanese III, for JMJ Racing Stables LLC.

Her new connections wheeled Evangelical back for a $45,000 tag in an optional-claimer her next out at Gulfstream. She was third as the even-money favorite, beaten 8 1/2 lengths, and was claimed by trainer Edward J. Coletti Sr. for Dennis and Eileen Jacques, her current connections of record.

Coletti and the Jacques have raced her twice at Monmouth, for sharply declining tags. She won by six as the even-money favorite for a $25,000 claiming price on June 19 and stayed in the hands of Coletti and Jacques. Evangelical was entered for $10,000 in a race that was canceled due to heat on Friday at Monmouth and cross-entered for $12,500 in the race she won with ease on Sunday, and still went unclaimed.

And, speaking of ease, Moya pulled up Evangelical earlier after the finish than the rest of the horses in the field. Granted, that might be more readily done when the horse wins without being under a full drive. But it's still a little disquieting to see a filly win by 8 1/2 and yet the other horses in the race gallop-out beyond her after the wire.

I did pose the question of soundness despite recommending Evangelical as a possible "Second Chance Deal" (an RNA one might purchase privately or at another sale) from Keeneland 2010. Her female family is peppered with blacktype, from ill-fated Canadian champion juvenile KNIGHTS TEMPLAR (died of lymphoma at 3), G1-placed FOR ALL SEASONS and DIAL A SONG, to multiple G2-winning sprinter EATON'S GIFT, to Evangelical's own half-sister, G2-placed Worship the Moon. Three of her first six dams were unraced (though all of them were stakes producers), and her own dam raced just three times.

"So, I'm concerned about her durability," I wrote at the time, "but the family has talent."

Though I could be wrong, I suspect Evangelical is nursing a bowed tendon (or some other malady) and won't be making 15 or 20 lifetime starts. But if she keeps dropping in class, she's worth considering as a claim, even if you had to retire her to the breeding shed, where females from her family have excelled at passing along precocity and talent, if not durability.

Just, please, if you do claim and breed Evangelical, send her to a source of rock-solid soundness.

Click here to follow along with Evangelical and her 186 companions on my 2010 list of sales selections.

I'm First, again

A bargain selection from last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale of 2-year-olds in training appears to have found his friends among modest turf claimers at Colonial Downs.

I'm First saw his name finally rendered accurate when he overcome a bumping incident and a five-wide trip to break maiden by fourth lengths going a mile on grass at Colonial in his 3-year-old debut on July 7. On Thursday night, in his first race after becoming a winner and again in for a $5,000 tag, I'm First and jockey Luis Colon were near the pace throughout and drew off to win by 4 1/4 lengths among NW2L company.

I'm First paid $15.60 to win in his maiden-breaker and got less respect at the window Thursday evening, returning $22.80 to the relative few who numbered themselves among his faithful. The exacta over 2/1 favorite Eighteen Twelve paid $99.60 and the $2 trifecta with clear 9/2 second-favorite Dane Austin was worth $258.80.

Meanwhile, the Susan Cooney trainee bettered his maiden-breaking one-mile time of 1:40.27 by double-digit lengths Thursday, finishing the mile in 1:36.95.

I recommended the bay ridgeling by Soto-Ladies First, by El Raggaas, as Hip 212 when consigned by Randy Miles at EASMAY 2010. His unraced dam produced nine to race and six winners (two of a dozen races each) from 10 prior foals, and his second dam was stakes winner who had 12 lifetime victories and produced 10 winners from 11 foals, including four stakes horses. I'm First breezed 11.1 (fair for the sale) and checked out OK conformationally. As I wrote on my blog after the fact: "Why wouldn't this one be a racehorse of some sort?"

In looking for bargain prospects, I also reasoned that sons of Soto -- who had been banished as a sire not just from Kentucky, but from the country -- would be among the most likely to fall into the price range I was asked to peg. That he did, selling for $11,000 to B&B Racing Stable LLC, who saw him place third twice from five starts at age 2, and now have gotten their picture taken twice in as many starts at age 3. Granted, the horse has earned just $12,656 from two wins in seven starts, but that's more than the owners paid for him, something probably a majority of auction purchases can never claim. And as noted, if he can reproduce sub-1:37 miles and stay sound, he can earn his keep for awhile at the racetrack, even if only among modest company.

In fact, I recommended both sons of Soto from EASMAY 2010, and Lookin At Options -- who sold even cheaper as Hip 163, for $8,500 -- broke maiden in his fifth start at age 2 for a $25,000 tag, and has $29,240 banked from seven starts in Pennsylvania.

In other tip-and-rip action Thursday (and recently), Akkadian, a dark bay son of Tiznow-Papa Sids Girl, by Souvenir Copy, was fifth in stakes company at Del Mar. I criticized this one, declaring that his purchase price of $270,000 as Hip 86 paid by successful owner Gary Broadwas among the "surreal" tickets signed at Keeneland April 2010. Actually, the colt is a real looker, has two wins in six starts, and has not embarrassed himself in two straight stakes-company exposures, finishing fourth in the G3 Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park and fifth beaten just 4 1/2 in Thursday's restricted Oceanside Stakes. ... With $86,002 earned, he has a ways to go in order to pay back $270,000. But he's one of the few horses among the 10 I criticized from last year's sales (on price vs. likely talent) who seems to have much chance of making me eat my words.

Also, in late June I missed noting that SIGNAL ALERT, a formerly undefeated-in-four-starts recommendation of mine sent to Trinidad, had finished second to stablemate Readbetweendlines in the PKF 3-year-old Sprint Stakes at Santa Rosa Park. A stakes-winner at 2 and Santa Rosa record-setter at 3, Signal Alert was relegated to third place in his prior effort (and first loss) by multiple-champion Bruceontheloose and Readbetweendlines in the Santa Rosa Dash-G2. He has now earned $32,248, with purses converted to U.S. dollars. I recommended Signal Alert as Hip 465 at OBSAPR 2010, where he sold for $35,000.

Click here to follow all 187 picks and nine pans.

Coach no longer Seeking that first win

Diego Sanchez hustled his gray charge to the front straight from the gate Sunday at Arlington Park, and Seeking the Coach responded by wiring a field of maiden-claimers by a clear-cut five lengths.

In the process, the gelding becomes the 94th horse to break maiden among my 187-horse list of 2010 juvenile sales prospects. It's a milestone win for the class, pushing the percentage of winners above the halfway mark -- now 50.3 percent of my recommendations have managed to win at least one race.

Seeking the Coach was 10th in his March debut at Gulfstream Park, then 10th again going a mile on turf for a $25,000 tag at Arlington in a race that did see him shuffled around a bit in traffic. Switched to Arlington's Polytrack surface and dropped to the $10,000 level, the gelding finished third in consecutive starts before collecting his first win on Sunday. He covered the 5.5 furlongs in 1:05.98 and paid $10.80 to win.

The gray or roan son of El Prado-Oxford Scholar, by Seeking the Gold, was bred in Florida by Adena Springs. He is trained by James DiVito and owned by DiVito and Lee Battaglia.

I recommended the horse prior to his selling for $26,000 as Hip 237 at the 2010 Ocala April sale of 2-year-olds in training. I've long been a fan of his late sire, and his dam was a 2-year-old stakes winner who produced two stakes winners and another stakes-placer of her own from an accomplished brace of earlier foals.

Click here to follow all 187 sales selections.