Dakota Gold wins fourth stakes in Hudson Valley
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Dakota Gold wins the inaugural Hudson Valley at Belmont Park for his fourth career stakes wins. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.
By Paul Halloran
In his last start, 8 1/2 furlongs wasn’t enough for Dakota Gold, who found himself last after a half-mile and came up a half-length short despite closing fast, finishing third to the classy City Man in the Kingston Stakes for New York-breds. On Monday at Belmont Park, a mile on the Widener turf was just right as the son of Freud got a perfect trip and rolled down the stretch to a 3-length victory in a very swift 1:32.28.
The race looked like it would set up for a closer and that’s how it played out, with the horses who were first and second at the halfway point (Call Me Harry and Ruse) finishing sixth and fifth, respectively.
Dakota Gold, meanwhile, made a gradual progression under Irad Ortiz Jr., from fifth after a half-mile to fourth after 6 furlongs, before unleashing a five-wide rally and taking the lead by the stretch call. It was as easy as it looked for the odds-on favorite, who closed into :22.67, :45.67 and 1:09.09 fractions.
“I wanted to be closer than last time,” Ortiz said. “I had too much to do and I had to wait too long. I was pretty confident today. I was hoping he was going to give me what he had and he did.”
Somelikeithotbrown, the lone millionaire in the field, figured to get back to his pace-pressing ways, especially with the addition of cheater-cup blinkers. Instead, the Mike Maker trainee broke last and stayed there until closing in the last 2 furlongs and nailing Jerry the Nipper for second on the wire.
During the gallop out, Cold Hard Cash, who finished last while making his first start of the year for owner Barry Schwartz and trainer Linda Rice, suffered an apparent cardiac event and collapsed and died. Jockey Jose Lezcano was uninjured.
“I was a little frustrated the last time he ran, but today he sat a better trip and it worked out well,” said Danny Gargan, trainer of Dakota Gold. “Irad knows him as well as anyone. This is his third stakes win on him. He’s a quirky type of horse – some of that trouble, he causes. He has a little play around in his game, but he’s growing out of it. We’re really happy with him. (Owner) Dean (Reeves) is a big supporter of the New York program and it’s paid off with him to be patient with this colt.”
Bred by Sequel Thoroughbreds and Ron Bowden and foaled at The New Hill Farm in Hoosick Falls, Dakota Gold was the second of four foals out of the Lemon Drop Kid mare Dakota Kid, a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Dakota Phone and five-time winner Black Hills Goldie. Dakota Dancer, a full brother to Dakota Gold foaled in 2018, won twice in 15 starts. Ramblin’ Wreck, a 3-year-old son of by Redesdale, won a division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes in June. A 2-year-old by Mucho Macho Man has not yet raced. Each of Dakota Gold’s first five dams are stakes producers.
Reeves paid $83,000 for Dakota Gold as a weanling at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga October mixed sale. After easily winning his first two starts, he was thrown into the deep end with a start in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, running a respectable fifth while losing to European superstar Modern Games by only 2 1/4 lengths.
Gargan ran him five times last year, resulting in two wins and a second in restricted stakes and a third by a neck in the open-company Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park. His 2023 campaign began with a good fourth in the Canadian Turf at Gulfstream, before the close call in the Kingston.
“Mentally, he’s growing a little more,” Ortiz said. “He’s much better than last year. Last year, he would get to looking around and not knowing what he was doing. Today, he showed that he’s grown up a little bit and he’s all business right now. He’s much more straightforward.”
Monday’s win improved Dakota Gold’s career earnings to $680,950.
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/dakota-gold-the-hudson-valley-credit-susie-raisher.jpg
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/07/03/dakota-gold-wins-fourth-stakes-in-hudson-valley/
A Shin Forward pensioned to Old Friends at Cabin Creek
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Group 1 winner A Shin Forward, who stood in Japan and his native New York, will retire to Old Friends at Cabin Creek later this summer. Barbara Livingston Photo.
By Tom Law
New York-bred multimillionaire and Group 1 winner A Shin Forward, who returned to his native state in time for the 2018 breeding season, has been pensioned from stud duty with plans to retire at Old Friends at Cabin Creek in Greenfield Center later this summer.
Vivien Malloy, who bred, raised and sold the 18-year-old son of Forest Wildcat in the name of her Edition Farm, said the time was right to retire the sire of 26 winners and the earners of more than $2.6 million.
“He’s healthy, but he’s getting older,” Malloy said. “Although he was still very fertile and everything.”
A Shin Forward, who was recently gelded and is recuperating at Rockridge Stud in Hudson before his anticipated move to Old Friends at Cabin Creek, bred seven mares in 2022. He bred six in 2021, one in 2020, eight in 2019 and 12 in 2018, his first season back in the U.S. after siring five crops in Japan.
A Shin Forward stood for an advertised $2,500 at Rockridge.
“It was my decision to bring him home, to bring him back to the states and to New York,” Malloy said. “I thought once people saw him, knew about his stats in Japan, they’d come with mares. And it doesn’t happen at all. … I didn’t want to do it alone. It takes a lot to make a stallion.
“So, I thought I’d keep breeding, see how many mares I can get and those will be the ones to start off his career. He had winners. So far everything I’ve bred to him have won. But it’s that whole blacktype thing. … You’ve got to get that blacktype or forget about breeding a mare.”
A Shin Forward is the sire of 50 foals from nine crops. His leading runner, the Japanese-bred 8-year-old Lord Ace, remains in training this year and has won five of 30 starts and earned $645,465.
Edition Farm bred and races his leading U.S. runner, the 4-year-old filly Shinful, who is 2-4-0 in 13 starts with earnings of $159,220. Trained by David Donk, Shinfull won back-to-back starts at Aqueduct to end 2022 and start 2023 and last started in a Belmont Park allowance on the grass in late June.
Malloy bred A Shin Forward out of her multiple stakes winning New York-bred Cure the Blues mare Wake Up Kiss. She purchased Wake Up Kiss, the winner of the 2003 Yaddo Handicap at Saratoga and earner of $248,997, carrying A Shin Forward in utero for $380,000 at the 2004 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
A Shin Forward sold through the Denali Stud consignment for $125,000 at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings, a point of pride for Malloy and her team at Edition.
“Craig Bandoroff is my consignor and for years we’ve had this thing, where we go back and forth about where to sell,” Malloy said. “It’s an ego thing to get a horse in the select Saratoga sale. But he always said, ‘you’re not going to get the money. You’ll drown with all those wonderful horses. He would be a star in the New York-bred sale.’ ”
Malloy convinced Bandoroff that time, and put her then yearling in one of the world’s boutique markets.
“I just told him, ‘please, can’t we just this once have some fun?’ ” Malloy said. “He’d just laugh and tell me we might not get the money we deserve. Then he sold for $125,000, and to me that was great.”
Purchased by Rayzin the Bar, A Shin Forward showed up at the Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected 2-year-olds in training in March 2007. He posted quarter-mile breezes of :22.1 and :21.1 during presale workouts before selling for $290,000 to Hirotsugo Hirai.
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A Shin Forward wins the Group 1 Japan Autumn International Mile Championship at Kyoto racecourse in 2010. Photo courtesy of Japan Racing Association.
A Shin Forward raced for five seasons in Japan for Eishindo Co. Ltd., which prefixes many horse names with the “A Shin” or “Eishin.” He won six of 31 starts with three seconds and three thirds over five seasons, with a defining victory coming in the 2010 Group 1 Japan Autumn International Mile Championship.
A Shin Forward also won the Group 3 Hankyu Hai in 2010 and retired with earnings of $3,416,216. He stood at Lex Stud in Hokkaido, Japan, before returning to the U.S.
“The most enjoyable moments were when he was racing and I would get the videos from Japan,” Malloy said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a race called in Japanese, but it’s intense. I said to the children, ‘I’m going to send you a video of A Shin Forward winning this race, but I’ll send it also in English.’ They laughed and said, ‘Oh no, we like the Japanese one better.’ Over there it’s so exciting. They are crazed about horse racing and he was a star.
“I couldn’t be more excited for him to go to Old Friends at Cabin Creek. I love that place. The people are great, JoAnn and Mark (Pepper). I always thought if I brought him back I’d like him there and not in Kentucky, where I wouldn’t see him very much. It’s great that they have tours during Saratoga and hopefully he’ll be there by that time.”
Endnotes:- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/A-Shin-Forward-10.18-Barbara-Livingston-photosend.jpg
- [Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/A-Shin-Forward-G1-Mile-courtesy-Japanracing.jpg
Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/07/03/a-shin-forward-pensioned-to-old-friends-at-cabin-creek/