Dr Ardito enjoys outside run in Evan Shipman

By Tom Law

When it comes to Dr Ardito it’s all about the trip and the timing. 

The trip because the 5-year-old Liam’s Map gelding doesn’t like to be inside making his run. The timing because he’s been ready to run since late May but couldn’t without a race for him, and other times because he’s endured setbacks here and there that have prevented him for making an appearance at Saratoga Race Course. 

None came into play Friday in the $121,250 Evan Shipman Handicap, as Dr Ardito enjoyed an overland late run and made his Saratoga debut a winning one with an upset in the 1-mile stakes for New York-breds. 

“The problem we have is there are so few New York-bred stakes races like this,” said Mike Dubb, who co-owns Dr Ardito with Mike Caruso. “He’s been in the barn since May, it’s August now. He’s a hard-hitter, tries every time, he’s honest as can be. We know what he’s capable of, he just needs to get a race and the trip. He got the trip today. It all came together.”

Dr Ardito, winning for the seventh time in 10 starts, won the Evan Shipman by 1 ¼ lengths over Sheriff Bianco with champion New York-breds Bankit (third) and Americanrevolution (fourth at 2-5 odds) in the beaten field. Manny Franco, aboard for all of Dr Ardito’s 10 outs, rode again as the gray gelding won in 1:37.77 over the fast track. 

Trainer Chad Brown, who won four races on Friday’s card including the Grade 2 Hall of Fame the race before the Shipman, also praised Franco’s ride. 

“He has taken the time and effort to really understand this horse and any horses he’s riding,” Brown said. “He’s a smart young jockey and he knows what the best trip is for this horse and an opportunity came up down the backside to get him outside and follow the favorite and put him where he’s happy to see if he’s good enough. It was really the winning move.”

Dr Ardito came into the Shipman off back-to-back defeats in the Grade 3 Westchester in early May and Commentator Stakes on Big Apple Showcase Day in late May, both at Belmont Park. He endured trouble in both of those starts, which came after he won the restricted Haynesfield Stakes to cap a six-race win streak dating back to April 2021. 

Dr. Ardito, named for a close friend and Dubb’s physician, went to the post as the 6-1 third choice in the field of five reduced by three scratches. 

Franco was content to led Dr Ardito trail the field from the break out of the Wilson chute as Sheriff Bianco led the way through modest opening fractions of :24.01 and :47.28. Barese, last year’s New York Derby winner; and Bankit, a nine-time winner who came in with earnings of $1,406,405, took up the chase early with Americanrevolution trying to recover from a stumble at the start. 

Americanrevolution, off since finishing second in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup last September at Saratoga, recovered enough to inch up to second behind Sheriff Bianco through 6 furlongs in 1:11.67. He came under pressure from there, couldn’t get past the leader and tired between rivals. Franco guided Dr Ardito four wide around the far turn and toward the leaders in the lane. 

“The main thing was to break well and let the race develop and try to get him to the outside,” Franco said. “As soon as we broke, I let those three horses go and I went outside and [followed Americanrevolution] that stumbled and was outside of me. I let him go, bided my time and when I was at the three-eighths pole I knew I had to go. I was able to get in the clear.”

Franco stayed busy in the stretch as Dr Ardito made up 3 lengths on Sheriff Bianco in the stretch, collared the leader about 75 yards from home and won going away. 

“I knew I had to ride him, but I also knew that’s what he likes,” Franco said. “He likes to be ridden and he’ll give it to you every time you ask him. I’ve ridden this horse since his debut, so he’s special to me. He’s a lot more mature. He knows where the wire is and he tries every time he runs. I’m just grateful to be on him.”

Dr Ardito picked up $68,750 and boosted his bankroll to $372,350. 

Sherrif Bianco held second, 4 lengths clear of Bankit in third with Americanrevolution another 2 lengths back in fourth. Barese completed the lineup. 

A $95,000 purchase at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale, Dr Ardito won his Saratoga debut off his only four works in upstate New York in his career. He’s trained primarily with Brown’s main string at Belmont Park, with a few stints at Fair Hill while recovering from various physical issues. 

Brown’s four wins helped break a tie with Linda Rice atop the trainer standings and he heads into today’s card with 22 victories at the meet. And he moves forward with Dr Ardito, who more than likely will wind up in the Empire Classic on Empire Showcase Day if the timing is right. 

“It’s wild,” Brown said of the fact Dr Ardito hasn’t made the races at Saratoga until this year. “It goes to show you how tough it is for certain horses with timing. When they do have issues and when you have to stop on them. This horse constantly missed Saratoga for one reason or another and I’m happy he had his day today in front of everybody.”

Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding bred Dr Ardito out of the winning Indian Charlie mare Delightfully So. Hertrich purchased Delightfully So for $55,000 as a 3-year-old at the 2013 Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

Delightfully So is the dam of two other winners – Delightof The Nile and Navistar – and is the dam of a 2-year-old filly by Audible who sold for $15,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. She’s also the dam of a yearling filly by Volatile that sold as a weanling for $180,000 at last year’s Keeneland November breeding stock sale and a weanling colt by Liam’s Map born on April 10.

Hertrich and Field also bred Americanrevolution, New York-bred Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male in 2021 and New York-bred champion older dirt male in 2022.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/08/11/dr-ardito-enjoys-outside-run-in-evan-shipman/

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Grannys Connection blazes to Union Avenue win

By Joe Clancy

It’s 2:54 Friday afternoon. At Saratoga Race Course, fans light cigars, balance empanadas on a plate, slurp Modelo’s, decipher form and ponder whether they can cut through The Porch lunch tables on the way to the clubhouse.

Behind them, in front of an old screen door with a NO ENTRY sign near the Carmen Barrera Horsemen’s Lounge, Tom Morley frets through the last few moments before the Union Avenue Stakes. The trainer’s filly Grannys Connection is 2-5 in a field of five contesting the $125,000 stakes for New York-breds and Morley looks stressed. 

The gates open. A server shuffles past with a tray of dirty dishes. Morley leans left, then right, then a little forward, eyes up and on a television hanging from the ceiling. A man in billowy white shirt and navy short stands right in front of him. Morley slides right. A minute and 11 seconds later, he lets out a long, slow breath and smiles.

“I love this filly so much. She just . . . she just . . . ahh . . .” he says as she gallops out past him and the rows of tables full of Saratoga lunch customers. “To win a stake up here with any horse is great, but it’s special with her. She has to overcome a lot of physical problems. They’re all minor, but when they’re this fast it just scares you every time they go out there.”

If she heard any of that, Grannys Connection would tell Morley to relax. She had it all the way. 

The 4-year-old daughter of Connect won her fifth race, and first stakes, to go with two seconds in seven starts while earning $68,750 for Orpen Horses, Jack Towell Jr. and Alan Griffin. Bred by Paul Pompa Jr., Grannys Connection set fast fractions and made them stand up while winning by 1 1/2 lengths over Kant Hurry Love with Bank On Anna third after 6 furlongs in 1:11.09.

The Union Avenue win avenged a nose loss to Kant Hurry Love in the Dancin Renee Stakes at Belmont Park June 25. That day, Grannys Connection also set the pace but got caught in the final stride. The loss came after four consecutive daylight wins, by a combined 27 1/4 lengths, as the bay filly ran through her conditions to earn the stakes try.

“The last time I don’t think she saw the winner until two strides before the finish,” Morley said. “She’s never had to run all the way to the line. She’s normally winning under wraps and that filly is a very nice filly too. She was getting to us at the line.”

Friday was different. From the inside post, Grannys Connection and Javier Castellano broke a quarter-step behind the rest before breezing through along the rail to take the lead. She led Kant Hurry Love by 2 lengths just before the first quarter-mile split of :21.89 and stayed comfortable through a half in :44.81. Kant Hurry Love tried to rally off the turn as Castellano glanced over his right shoulder and Grannys Connection hit the stretch in the four path. The winner switched leads early in the stretch, responded to Castellano and saw out the victory as the first three didn’t change order. Vallelujah made up ground late to grab fourth.

Aboard for the first time, Castellano said Grannys Connection came with instructions.

“The trainer told me to be very careful because the first jump for her is not too fast, but then she can take off – you ask her, she’s going to be gone,” the jockey said with a smooch sound for emphasis. “I just had to be careful. The first jump, from the one hole, you want to come out of there. You don’t want to be back there and have somebody take your path away. Then you are behind horses and some horses get rank.”

Nobody took her path, and Grannys Kitchen didn’t get rank. She erased a half-length early deficit without working and took control.

“I let her go, I didn’t send her, she just took herself,” Castellano said. “She did it easy in a good way. I didn’t want to struggle with her and I didn’t want to send her either. Just go with the flow with her. The way she did it was very nice.”

Grannys Connection cost $57,000 as a 2-year-old at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March 2-year-old sale in 2021 but didn’t make her debut until December 2022. Second there, she started the four-race winning streak in her next start and continues to improve.

Morley will continue to fret, however, and credited his staff (especially exercise rider Niko Ordonez Vilchis) with the filly’s development.

“Feet, little niggly things, you’ve just got to watch them with her and you can’t train her hard because she’s so fast,” he said. “Niko rides her every single day and does such a good job on her. He does owe me like $300 though because every time I tell him I want her to go in :50 (for a half-mile) or it will cost him, she goes faster. She never works in :50.”

Grannys Connection is the first foal out of winning Old Fashioned Granny’s Drink, who is out of the multiple stakes winner and $177,730-earner Cintarosa. Granny’s Drink is also the dam of Dixie Lullaby, an unraced Kentucky-bred 3-year-old full sister to Grannys Connection who sold for $42,000 at the 2021. Keeneland January horses of all ages sale.

Granny’s Drink, who sold in foal to Connect for $25,000 at the 2021 Keeneland January sale, is also the dam of a yearling colt by Vekoma and a weanling filly by Blame born Feb. 18.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/08/11/grannys-connection-blazes-to-union-avenue-win/

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