Three-Year-Olds: Drake’s Passage wins Albany; Ichiban takes Fleet Indian

Christophe Clement and Robert Evans employ a simple strategy to their trainer-owner relationship.

“He doesn’t tell me how to train and I don’t tell him how to breed,” Clement said after the final stakes on Sunday’s New York Showcase Day program at Saratoga Race Course. “It works great that way.”

The protocol worked great with Tonalist – trained by Clement for Evans to victory in the 2014 Belmont Stakes – and with a couple runners who won stakes Sunday. Drake’s Passage capped the day for the team with a dominating victory over six fellow sophomore New York-breds in the $250,000 Albany Stakes.

Drake’s Passage won the 9-furlong Albany by 7 3/4 lengths in his stakes debut under Manny Franco, who won four races on the card. Clement also celebrated three Showcase Day stakes wins, adding the Albany to City Man’s score in the West Point and New Ginya’s victory in the Yaddo Handicap. The latter, like Drake’s Passage, was bred by Evans.

“The horse has always trained like a nice horse,” Clement said of the Albany winner. “He won last year … and came back after some time off. He came back, he won at Belmont and was very impressive this afternoon.”

Clement and his son and assistant Miguel always liked Drake’s Passage, a homebred out of Evans’ Grade 3-placed Speightstown mare Raucous. He trained with the stable’s summertime string at Belmont Park during last year’s Saratoga meet before shipping north to finish his training on the Oklahoma Training Track.

Drake’s Passage breezed three times on the dirt on the Oklahoma before a half-mile work on the grass 13 days before his debut, also on grass going 1 1/16 miles during the Belmont at the Big A meet, which actually wasn’t totally by design.

The Clements joked about that run, a fifth by 6 lengths on good turf, after the Albany.

“We won’t talk about it,” Miguel Clement said. “That was my mistake. I knew he wanted to go long, but we had 6 furlongs on dirt that day or a mile and a sixteenth on grass . . . I got in a lot of trouble. That was my mistake.”

Drake’s Passage made amends from there, finishing third going 7 furlongs a month later during the main Aqueduct fall meet before winning on a muddy track going 1 mile Dec. 8.

“We worked him with everything in the barn and he always outworked everything in the barn,” Christophe Clement said. “He’s a nice horse.”

Off until July 3, Drake’s Passage returned with another victory going 1 mile at Belmont Park before stepping into stakes company and going two turns for the first time in the Albany.

Gamblers bet Drake’s Passage down to 6-5 in a field that included the 1-2 finishers from the New York Derby in Allure of Money and Maker’s Candy and Chester and Mary Broman’s homebred Saratoga allowance winner Mariachi. Drake’s Passage bobbled a bit at the break before settling into a tracking position in second behind Mariachi through splits of :24.11, :48.44 and 1:12.55.

Mariachi held the lead into the lane but came under serious pressure from Drake’s Passage outside the sixteenth pole. Drake’s Passage took over from there and opened 3 1/2 lengths past the eighth pole. He widened the advantage from there as 15-1 longshot Jackson Heights closed from last to finish second, 1 ¾ lengths ahead of Miracle Mike with Maker’s Candy fourth. Mariachi, Allure of Money and Leo and Royal completed the lineup. Drake’s Passage won in 1:50.95 over the fast track.

“I just wanted to wait as long as I could because I know I had a lot of horse,” Franco said. “I know I’ve got the horse in the lead, so I take a peek back to see what the company was, and it was a matter of time . . . He definitely wants to go longer. Clement told me that the race before . . . that he wants to go longer and he was right.”

Drake’s Passage improved to 3-for-5, earned $137,500 and boosted his earnings to $231,480. He’s the first foal out of Raucous, a $300,000 purchase by Evans at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale who won two of seven starts including the Chelsey Flower Stakes at Aqueduct and placed in the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar.

Raucous’ second foal, a Gun Runner colt named Unique Insight in training at Saratoga, sold for $360,000 to Klaravich Stables at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. She’s also the dam of a yearling colt by Tonalist named Radauti and a weanling filly by Gun Runner born April 9.

– Tom Law

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Ichiban finds third win of meet in Fleet Indian

Coming into the 34th day of Saratoga Race Course’s 2023 meet, Linda Rice was three wins behind leader Chad Brown in the trainer standings with 27. But with all that success, she had yet to notch a stakes win.

That void ended in Sunday’s second race when 3-year-old filly Ichiban won the 1 1/8-mile Fleet Indian Stakes by 5 ½ lengths on the main track. The race was the first of six stakes in Sunday’s New York Showcase Day for state-breds.

Rice ran two fillies in the four-horse field, and had secured the services of both of the Ortiz brothers, one and two in the jockey standings. Jose rode the winner while Irad finished second on Amanda’s Folly for a Rice/Ortiz exacta.

For Ichiban, a daughter of Street Sense and the Out Of Place mare Cover Girl Elle, it was not only her first stakes win, it also completed a Saratoga hat trick with her third victory of the meet.

“She didn’t surprise me,” said Rice, of the 2023 meet’s first three-time winner. “She’s been training so forwardly and I think she’s still improving.”

Discussing race strategy, Jose said, “We knew [Timely Conquest] had the speed but was stretching out so we wanted to push her a little. Either one of us could have done it, but I broke better this time so I was the one applying the pressure. But I still wanted to give myself a shot to win. When I came up to the leader, I kind of felt she was done and I knew I still had plenty of horse so I decided to go on and my filly responded very well.”

Ken Gill, a partner with his wife Karen in the filly through Cypress Creek Equine and breeder Mike Moreno’s Southern Equine Stable, loved it.

“Powerful,” Gill said. “We expected it. We bought into this filly with Mike in July and she’s done nothing but win since.”

Ichiban lost her first four starts – in January at the Fair Grounds with Ricky Courville and three in New York with Rice – but has turned it around since. Second at Belmont June 25, she started the Saratoga triple with a 7 furlong maiden race July 15 and a 1 1/8-mile allowance July 26.

“We’ve got a good many horses in the New York program,” said Karen Gill. “It’s wonderful, you have the breeders’ program and you have all these races for New York horses.”

Ichiban’s share of the $200,000 Fleet Indian purse pushed her career earnings to $228,750 with a record of three wins in seven starts.

“As I said, she’s improved so much I don’t know right now where she goes next,” said Rice, an eight-time New York Thoroughbred Breeders trainer of the year. “Maybe she could graduate into the Empire Distaff [Oct. 29 at Aqueduct]. We’ll see.”

A perfect 3-for-3 on Ichiban, Jose Ortiz also picked up his third Fleet Indian victory (following Final’s Cave in 2022 and Sunset Ridge in 2017).

In addition to the Fleet Indian victor, Cover Girl Elle has produced five winners including stakes winner (and graded-stakes-placed) Ava’s Grace.

– Terry Hill

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/08/27/three-year-olds-drakes-passage-wins-albany-ichiban-takes-fleet-indian/

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Turf: City Man adds second West Point to resume; New Ginya captures Yaddo

City Man has been dominant among New York-breds, captured a Grade 2 stakes in open company and has won stakes five consecutive years, starting as a 2-year-old. But if you think there’s nothing left for him to accomplish, think again.

“Hong Kong or Dubai? What are we doing?” interjected Miguel Clement, assistant to his father and trainer Christophe Clement, as owner Dean Reeves conducted a winner’s circle interview after City Man rallied to win Sunday’s West Point Stakes on New York Showcase Day at Saratoga Race Course.

And while Clement said it with a wide smile, it turns out he wasn’t kidding.

“We actually have looked at it,” Reeves said. “There’s a nice race in Hong Kong (in December) and I think he could run in Dubai (next year). This guy is maturing and he’s running as well as he ever has. It’s not out of the realm.”

In winning the West Point for the second time (2021), the son of 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Mucho Macho Man improved his career record to 11-5-4, with 10 stakes wins in 30 starts and $1,189,170 in earnings. He did it by closing from fourth in the five-horse field and catching odds-on favorite Spirit of St. Louis, who had battled down the stretch with Jerry the Nipper, in the last 50 feet.

“I’m almost out of words to describe him,” Reeves said. “Eleven wins and more than a million dollars. He’s so consistent . . . Speed and stamina. That’s a tough combination to beat. He’s special to us.”

Jerry The Nipper led until the far turn, putting up fractions of :23.91, :48.83 and 1:13.64. Spirit of St. Louis took the lead on the turn and eventually put away a stubborn Jerry The Nipper, but by then City Man was rolling down the outside under Joel Rosario. The winning margin was 1 1/4 lengths in 1:42.63.

“He’s as good as any New York-bred out there right now,” Reeves said. “We’re so proud of him. He’s a tough customer.”

City Man, owned in partnership with Peter and Patty Searles, was in the second crop of Mucho Macho Man, also owned by Reeves Thoroughbred Racing. Out of the City Zip mare City Scamper, the West Point winner was bred by Moonstar Farm and sold for $20,000 as a weanling in 2017. Two years later he went to Reeves for $185,000 at the OBS April sale. City Man was named champion New York-bred turf male in 2022.

City Scamper is the dam of six-figure New York-bred earner Go Kelly Go and the Laoban colt El Mayor, who has earned $71,767. City Scamper also produced New York-bred mare Patty’s Temple; a New York-bred colt by Hoppertunity; Miss City Girl, a 2-year-old full-sister to City Man who has not yet raced; and a yearling filly by Vino Rosso.

– Paul Halloran

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Owner/breeder/buyer Evans wins Yaddo with New Ginya

It’s not the usual business model.

Robert Evans bred his four-time stakes winner Rapid Rhythm to his Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist in 2018. She produced a New York-bred filly a year later. Lane’s End consigned the bay filly to the Keeneland September Sale where she brought $25,000. Nine months later, the filly attracted the attention of Evans’ advisor Patrick Lawley Wakelin at the OBS June Sale. Evans bought her for $250,000 and sent her to trainer Christophe Clement.

Call it a reverse pinhook.

“His advisor liked her as a 2-year-old, called Mr. Evans and he said, ‘If you like her, why don’t we buy her back?’ ” Clement said. “You know, he was right. He’s done this many times, this is not the first time.”

Sunday in Saratoga, New Ginya made the math work with a last-to-first rally in the Yaddo Handicap at Saratoga Race Course. The win improved her record to four wins from 12 starts for $334,110.

Jockey Dylan Davis settled the 4-year-old filly in last behind a quick tempo set by She’s Dancing and Whatlovelookslike. Davis stayed on the hedge through a quarter in :23.52 and a half in :48.90 over the good turf, continued to bide his time in last through three-quarters in 1:13.54. Nearing the quarter pole, Davis swung New Ginya to the outside and it was over. New Ginya passed seven rivals in about seven strides to draw off by 3 ¾ lengths over Spungie, who had a rough trip, and Runaway Rumour. New Ginya finished 1 1/16 miles on the Mellon turf in 1:43.06.

New Ginya won her debut at Aqueduct in November 2021 and spent the next 17 months toiling in the New York-bred a-other-than division. She broke out of that level in her eighth start and has now three of her last five.

“We’ve always liked her, he bought her back because she had a very good work at OBS, we always knew she had ability and we just had to be patient. Patience, usually you get rewarded at some stage,” Clement said. “She was a little bit tricky mentally. She was always very worried and anxious as a younger horse. She was not easy.  She’s much better now, but it took a long time.”

A venerable owner and breeder on the national stage, Evans waded into the New York program at his trainer’s behest.

“Just very recently because of Tonalist, I’m the one who told him that maybe it would make sense to have a few mares in New York,” said Clement, who trained Evans’ Tonalist to victories in the Belmont Stakes, Jockey Club Gold Cup (twice) and Cigar Mile. “This might be one of the first ones he’s done. It’s good for him. I hope he’s going to carry on doing it because it seems to be working.”

Three hours after New Ginya tabbed the Yaddo, Drake’s Passage made it a double for Evans by dominating the Albany. And, this time, Evans didn’t have to buy up. The son of Tonalist has always been in the program.

“It’s great for an owner/breeder,” Clement said. “I trained Tonalist for Mr. Evans so this is like a full-time success for the operation. It’s nice when it works out.”

– Sean Clancy

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/08/27/turf-city-man-adds-second-west-point-to-resume-new-ginya-captures-yaddo/

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