Soontobeking up the inside to win Gander

George Weaver watched the pace battle unfold in Saturday’s $125,000 Gander Stakes down the backstretch and liked what he saw.

“They were stacked three or four across kind of scrumming a bit and I was happy to see that because we needed some pace,” said Weaver, represented by Soontobeking in the 1-mile stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds.

Weaver got the pace – solid fractions of :23.87 and :47.98 set by Givememythememusic, Mo Plex, Skytown and National Identity – and Soontobeking did the rest. The son of New York-based sire King for a Day cut into the lead around the far turn, continued his prolonged run through the lane and came up the inside to edge National Identity and Mo Plex at the wire for his first stakes victory.

“I was just happy to see the horse sustain the rally,” Weaver said. “I’ve never been quite sure if the mile is his best distance, but he just kept coming and that’s what we love about the horse. He just gives 110 percent every time and doesn’t stop trying and fighting. He wants to win, so he’s earned a special place in our hearts winning that race. Man, he’s a cool dude.”

Sent off as the 6-1 fourth choice under Eric Cancel, Soontobeking won by a nose over 6-5 favorite National Identity with graded stakes winner Mo Plex a half-length back in third. Soontobeking won in 1:41.26.

“He’s a pretty tricky horse,” Cancel said. “You just have to let him be wherever he wants to be and sit patient with him. Once you think it’s time to go and you start asking him, he picks it up. He knows his job and I’m really happy he got the job done.

“I saw the other two horses in front of me battling it out and they were kind of getting out a little bit in the stretch, so I decided to tip in and if I get there, I get there and if not, at least I did the right thing. He’s very hard-knocking. Every time he comes out to run, he shows up. It doesn’t matter the competition he runs in; he always gives 200 percent. I have a lot of confidence in him. It was just a matter of the timing and today the timing was right.”

Soontobeking won for his breeders and owners Our Blue Streaks Stable and Steve Venosa’s S G V Thoroughbreds. Weaver also owns an interest in the colt, who breezed an eighth in :10 before last year’s OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training and was reported sold for $80,000 to J U Racing Stables.

Soontobeking raced for his breeders and Weaver from his first start May 10 at Aqueduct, where he finished third before returning two weeks later to win for trainer Mitch Friedman in an off-the-turf open-company maiden event. Back with Weaver from there, Soontobeking competed in six straight stakes after that win, finishing second in the Funny Cide at Saratoga and Aspirant at Finger Lakes and third in the Sleepy Hollow and Notebook at Aqueduct.

Weaver gave Soontobeking some class relief in his first start of 2025 and the colt won a 6 1/2-furlong state-bred allowance-optional January 12 at Aqueduct. He finished third behind Sand Devil and National Identity last time out in the February 8 Damon Runyon Stakes going 7 furlongs.

Foaled at Irish Hill Century Farm in Stillwater, Soontobeking is the first foal out of the winning New York-bred Freud mare Swayed. Campaigned by Our Blue Streaks Stable, Swayed went 4-4-2 in 21 starts and earned $143,328. She’s out of the Johannesburg mare Easy Erin, a daughter of champion New York-bred and graded stakes winner Dancin Renee.

Swayed is also the dam of a 2-year-old New York-bred colt by Cairo Prince and was bred to Leinster in 2024.

“His mother was Swayed, who we trained as well,” Weaver said. “She was a sway-backed filly that Sanford Bacon had bred and he didn’t want to stay in on her, so she was kind of a house horse. She was a hard-trier as well and she knocked out her races at a lower level for the most part. She was hard-trying and put that in this horse.

“We got him from the 2-year-old sale and he worked well there, and he’s been straightforward ever since. He’s been sound, we’ve been able to run him, and this horse has put together quite a string of races for a young horse. He likes what he does.”

Soontobeking’s first stakes victory also provided his sire with his first stakes win. King for a Day, a 9-year-old son of Uncle Mo out of the French Deputy mare Ubetwereven, stands for $5,000 at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions LLC in Stillwater.

King for a Day finished second on New York’s freshman sire list in 2024 – siring three winners and the earners of $423,421. Soontobeking, who placed in four stakes as a 2-year-old, finished the season as King for a Day’s leading earner with a bankroll of $197,878. King for a Day came into Saturday ranked second on New York’s second-crop sire list with $240,474 in progeny earnings, less than $1,000 behind 2024 freshman sire leader Honest Mischief.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/03/08/soontobeking-up-the-inside-to-win-gander/

---

Bernieandtherose rolls in Maddie May

Another Saturday, another stakes win at Aqueduct for a daughter of the Freud mare Berning Rose.

Bernieandtherose did it this time, adding the $125,000 Maddie May Stakes for 3-year-old fillies to her resume four weeks removed from winning the $121,250 East View Stakes. The daughter of Accelerate also added to the wintertime haul for her owners and breeders, Robert Rosenthal and Brad Bernstein, who celebrated two weeks ago when Bernietakescharge topped open company foes in the Heavenly Prize Invitational Stakes. Dominick Schettino trains both fillies.

Under regular partner Katie Davis, Bernieandtherose won her fourth straight dating back to a maiden-winning score November 3 during the Belmont at the Big A meeting. She added an allowance-optional three weeks later before the February 8 East View going 7 furlongs.

Stretched out to 1 mile in the Maddie May, Bernieandtherose hounded 47-1 longshot Howling Wind throughout before taking command around the far turn en route to a 3 1/4-length victory over 6-5 favorite Lottie Margaret. Bernieandtherose, the 5-2 third choice, earned $68,750 for the win and boosted her bankroll to $231,750. She won in 1:41.35 over the fast track.

“I don’t think my friend and trainer gets enough respect,” Rosenthal said. “He’s done a phenomenal job with this horse, with Bernietakescharge and their dam Berning Rose. We are just blessed to have horses like this giving us so much pleasure and this is really special.

“I can’t give enough credit to Domenick and to Katie, who gets on the horse every day. They know the horse and are developing her and she just keeps getting better and better. We’re ecstatic.”

Foaled at Indigo Farm in Stanfordville, Bernieandtherose is the third foal out of Berning Rose. Her first foal, the Honor Code mare Berning Honor, went 1-3-1 in 10 starts and earned $82,573 for the same connections. Bernietakescharge, a 4-year-old daughter of Take Charge Indy, improved to 5-for-15 and $354,580 in earnings with her victory in the Heavenly Prize. She finished third in last year’s Maddie May and second in last year’s East View.

Berning Rose is the dam of the New York-bred 2-year-old Always Dreaming filly Roseberns Dream and a yearling colt by Central Banker. Berning Rose was bred to Americanrevolution in 2024.

A daughter of the multiple stakes-winning Flying Chevron mare Peach Flambe, Berning Rose went 2-for-3 racing for Rosenthal, Bernstein and Schettino including the 2017 Maid of the Mist Stakes on Empire Showcase Day at Belmont Park.

“I’ve been in the breeding and racing business for more than 30 years, and I have to say this is just an incredible thrill,” Rosenthal said. “She’s now won four in a row and we’ve won seven of the last eight races between the two [half-sisters], three stakes. … It’s just incredible and it’s what you’re in this business for. It’s a tribute to Domenick and the patience he has with young horses and the way he develops them. From Galloping Grocer, who was one of my homebreds back in the day, to these horses now, it’s been great.”

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/03/08/bernieandtherose-rolls-in-maddie-may/

---

Mi Bago continues climb with Florida stakes win; NY-bred tops February digital sale

Stuart Morris went to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale in 2017 with fairly specific instructions from his father Jeff about a mare. And ignored them.

The intended purchase didn’t measure up, for whatever reason, and Stuart spent $12,000 on Wabanaki instead. Consigned by Sequel Thoroughbreds, the New York-bred daughter of Indian Charlie never raced and neither had her three foals. Carrying a foal by New York sire Freud, the bay mare traced to a deep female family though, and Stuart liked what he saw. Dam New Harmony had produced six winners. Second dam Battle Creek Girl had produced 15, topped by Canadian champion Wavering Girl and graded winners Tricky Creek, Parade Ground, Parade Leader and Speed Dialer.

Going on eight years later, Wabanaki’s son Mi Bago is blossoming into a New York-bred star after winning the Colonel Liam Stakes at Gulfstream Park March 1.

The $215,000 turf stakes for 3-year-olds turned into a showcase for the son of Vekoma, who led at every call for Irad Ortiz Jr. and won by 4 1/2 lengths in a quick 1:32.51 for a mile. Trained by Mark Casse for Gary Barber, the bay colt won his second stakes of 2025 and his third consecutive race while improving to 5-for-7 lifetime with $387,850 in earnings.

Bred by the Morrises’ Kentucky-based but New York-supporting Highclere operation, Mi Bago was foaled at Dr. Jerry Bilinski’s Waldorf Farm in North Chatham in 2022 and was raised at Highclere in Lexington. In 2023, the colt sold as a short yearling for $62,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s February mixed sale as part of the Stuart Morris consignment.

“He was always a really cool horse,” said Stuart. “He was a bit unassuming, very simple, uncomplicated. The horse didn’t have a lot of flash about him. He was one you forgot about because he took care of himself so well. You liked looking at him, he moved well, he was a correct, simple, uncomplicated horse. All you had to do was feed him and vaccinate him and let him be himself.”

The strategy has paid off at every step.

Original buyer Carlos Munoz tried to pinhook Mi Bago at Fasig-Tipton’s New York-bred yearling sale at Saratoga, but he failed to meet his reserve on a bid of $90,000. A year later, with Munoz as owner/trainer, Mi Bago dominated maidens in his debut sprinting on the dirt at Colonial Downs in Virginia. Barber bought the colt privately after that win and sent him to Casse. Twenty-four days out of the maiden win, Mi Bago finished sixth in the Funny Cide Stakes against fellow New York-breds – his only start in the program – at Saratoga.

Casse regrouped and moved Mi Bago to the turf. In October, he won the Algonquin Stakes at Woodbine. A month later, he finished fifth in a stakes on Breeders’ Cup Weekend at Del Mar. A month after that, he won the Pulpit Stakes at Gulfstream and added the Dania Beach on the Florida track’s synthetic surface on New Year’s Day.

For a substitute mare, Wabanaki did her part. Her foals now include five winners, three sold by Highclere for a combined $147,000. In foal to Highly Motivated, she sold for $45,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s December 2024 digital sale.

For Stuart Morris, the success has been fun to watch. Mi Bago joined racing Hall of Famer Silverbulletday, 2019 New York-bred turf male champion Gucci Factor and a slew of others on the farm’s roster of stars.

“Mi Bago is another cool horse to come off that farm,” he said of Highclere, a former cattle farm his father purchased in 1979. “We moved there when I was 4 years old and I just turned 50. It’s been a pretty remarkable run.”

The story could get even cooler, as Casse and Barber nominated Mi Bago to the English 2000 Guineas[2] at Newmarket May 3.

RACING NOTES: Mi Bago was one of three New York-breds to win open stakes last weekend. At Aqueduct Saturday, Bank Frenzy won the Stymie[3] for LSU Stable and trainer Rudy Rodriguez. Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, the Central Banker gelding won for the seventh time in 15 starts and improved his career bankroll to $506,670 . . . Central Banker completed a weekend double a day later when Sunday Girl won Aqueduct’s Correction Stakes[4] for Mitre Box Stable, Clear Stars Stable and Eighth Note Stable and trainer David Duggan. Now a six-time winner, Sunday Girl was bred by McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds (where Central Banker stands) and Spruce Lane Farm. Mitre Box bought her for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale in 2023 . . . New York-breds have won eight open stakes (through March 4) this year.

 

New York-breds earn Kentucky Derby points

Sovereignty and Journalism hogged most of the attention this weekend among the national 3-year-old leaders on the road to the Kentucky Derby, but New York-breds took their swings too.

In the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park Saturday, River Thames led in deep stretch but couldn’t hold off Sovereignty’s late charge. Bred by CTR Stable, River Thames was beaten a neck while settling for second, and earned 25 points toward a spot in the Derby field for CHC and WinStar Farm.

Unraced at 2, the Maclean’s Music colt won a 6-furlong maiden race January 11 and followed up with a 1-mile allowance score February 1 for trainer Todd Pletcher. CHC, Siena Farm and WinStar’s Maverick Racing paid $200,000 for the colt, out of the Discreet Cat mare Proportionality, at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale in 2023.

At Aqueduct Saturday, Chester Broman’s homebred Sand Devil finished second in the Grade 3 Gotham for trainer Linda Rice, earning 25 Derby points as well. The son of Violence and the Mineshaft mare Mineralogist (a multiple New York-bred stakes winner) won his first three starts including the Damon Runyon Stakes in February. Sand Devil represents a deep Broman family through his dam, granddam Seeking The Ante and third dam Antespend (a 1997 purchase from Kentucky’s Elemendorf Farm as a 2-year-old).

 

February Digital sale success

Another New York-bred made headlines to bring February to a close, this time in the digital sales ring.

A 2-year-old colt by freshman sire Yaupon out of New York-bred champion Frosty Margarita sold for $250,000 to top the Fasig-Tipton February digital sale. Shane Yeager purchased the topper with bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill handling the bidding. The colt was sold as Hip 42[7] as the property of De Meric Sales and off a traditional virtual inspection and video of an untimed gallop at De Meric Farm in Ocala, Florida.

Bred by Gabrielle Farm and Saratoga Glen Farm and foaled at Saratoga Glen Farm in Stillwater, the colt is the second foal out of the multiple stakes-winning Frost Giant mare Frosty Margarita. The same partnership bred her first foal, the placed Malibu Moon gelding Malibu Margarita.

Gabrielle Farm bred and raced Frosty Margarita, an eight-time winner who earned $599,876. She earned New York-bred champion 2-year-old filly honors in 2015 and won four stakes during her 36-start career.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/03/05/mi-bago-continues-climb-with-florida-stakes-win/

---

Sunday Girl holds on to win Correction Stakes

Sunday’s $121,250 Correction Stakes at Aqueduct naturally belonged to Sunday Girl.

The 4-year-old daughter of four-time leading New York sire Central Banker nosed out St. Benedicts Prep for her second stakes victory in the 6-furlong open-company event for fillies and mares.

Owned by Mitre Box Stable, Clear Stars Stable and Eighth Note Stable and trained by David Duggan, Sunday Girl added the Correction to her score in last year’s Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series at Aqueduct. Katie Davis rode Sunday Girl, the even-money favorite in the field of five who won in 1:13.50.

“What a race,” Duggan said. “That was some game effort by St. Benedicts Prep. I knew if we were taking her on that today was the day, but hat’s off to her.”

Longshot Disco Ebo took the lead from post two just to the outside of Sunday Girl and withstood pressure from that foe through the opening quarter-mile in :23.39. Sunday Girl continued to hound Disco Ebo around the turn down inside as St. Benedicts Prep inched into contention ahead of Shop Lifting.

Sunday Girl came on even terms with Disco Ebo past the quarter-pole and the half-mile split in :47.46 before edging ahead turning for home. Sunday Girl put the early leader away approaching the eighth pole, opened up and braced for the late run from St. Benedicts Prep.

“I knew [Disco Ebo] wanted to go with us, but at that point I was half-way in and half-way out and I didn’t want to take out at that point,” Davis said of staying on the inside early aboard Sunday Girl. “I hit the turn and we started to move and if he [Abner Adorno on Disco Ebo] made any slight move, we would have been bouncing off the fence. But she’s so game, she ran right through that, she don’t care.”

St. Benedicts Prep made one final run just outside the finish but Sunday Girl hit the wire in time. Disco Ebo finished 2 1/2 lengths behind the top pair in third.

“I got nervous that last jump because she started mellowing out just a touch, but she held on,” Davis said.

Sunday Girl won for the third straight start and improved to 6-for-8 overall with earnings of $394,988. Her lone defeats came when seventh in the Bouwerie Stakes last summer at Saratoga Race Course and second in the Staten Island division of the NYSS in late November at Aqueduct.

“She’s stepping up but she’s coming along and become a more mature filly. That was a game effort,” Duggan said, adding that targets in upstate New York would again be on the agenda for Sunday Girl. “We will more than likely press the pause button now and look toward Saratoga.”

Sunday Girl brought the highest price for a New York-bred in the open portion of the 2022 OBS October yearling sale on a bid of $43,000 from Kathryn Martin. Mitre Box Stables purchased her for $100,000 about seven months later at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale, out of the de Meric Sales consignment.

Bred by McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds LLC and Spruce Lane Farm and foaled at McMahon of Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, the chestnut filly is out of the winning Harlan’s Holiday mare Lady Daphne.

Sunday Girl is a half-sister to Lady Jasmine, a New York-bred daughter of Cairo Prince also bred by McMahon and Spruce Lane who won her debut in 2022 at Saratoga Race Course. She’s won two of 17 starts with two other placings and earned $101,988.

Lady Daphe is also the dam of the winning New York-bred Laoban mare Proper Grammar, who earned $60,984 through the end of 2024.

Lady Daphne, purchased by McMahon of Saratoga for $17,000 at the 2016 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, is also the dam of the 3-year-old Solomini colt Brimsley and a 2-year-old full brother to Sunday Girl who was a $29,000 RNA at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred sale. McMahon of Saratoga and Spruce  Lane also bred a yearling full brother to Sunday Girl and Lady Daphne was bred back to Central Banker last season.

Central Banker, a 15-year-old son of Speightstown, stands for $7,500 at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds in Saratoga Springs. He topped last year’s New York general sire list with progeny earnings of $5,436,573.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2025/03/02/sunday-girl-holds-on-to-win-correction-stakes/

---