Scholar Athlete

Einstein – Creme Catalan, by El Prado

($85,000 purchase by West Point Thoroughbreds at 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of select 2-year-olds in training)

Ballena Vista Farm’s freshman sire Calimonco was represented by his first winner when the 2-year-old filly My California scored a  9 1/ 4-length, gate-to-wire victory in a $57,035 maiden special weight at Santa Anita on June 16 in her second start. Her time for the 5 furlongs on a fast track was :58.06.

Bred in California by owner Mercedes Stables and trained by Robertino Diodoro, My California is the first foal from Give My Regards, a winning daughter of Smart Strike and half-sister to graded winner Broadway Empire and Grade 2-placed Cinderella’s Dream.

Multiple Grade 1-winning Get Stormy was represented by his first stakes winner when Get Sassy got up late to win a $34,220 maiden special weight race at Presque Isle Downs on June 16.

Owned by Lloyd Duncan and Blazing Meadows Farm and trained by Timothy Hamm, Get Sassy won the 4 1/2-furlong race by a neck over favored Diamond Dollar at odds of 18.30-1 while making her first start. She earned $21,060 and completed the distance in :52.41.

Bred in Pennsylvania by John R. Penn, Get Sassy was sold for $5,000 as a weanling at the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.

Owner-breeder Mike Repole has sold the breeding rights to his Wood Memorial Stakes winner Outwork to WinStar Farm and Woodford Thoroughbred when the horse is eventually retired to stud at WinStar in Versailles, Ky., it was announced today.

The pressure that comes with being a No. 1 draft pick has driven an army of promising athletes into obscurity under the weight of those expectations.

Don’t count Belmont Stakes winner Creator among that group.

Several American-bred horses, led by champion Tepin, will be in the spotlight at this week’s Royal Ascot meeting, and the British racecourse has announced new initiatives to honor the breeders of winners at the renowned event.

New York-breds fared well against open company during Belmont Park’s extravaganza of stakes, led by a rising star in the 2-year-old Silver Mission.

Silver Mission, by New York freshman sire Mission Impazible, rolled by 6 1/4 lengths to best a short field in the Tremont Stakes on Friday. The diminutive colt remained unbeaten in two starts.

“He’s pretty quick for a little guy,” jockey John Velazquez said. “He’s also pretty talented for as little as he is.”

New York-based owners and breeders Patricia and Frank Generazio not only watched homebreds Pure Sensation and Disco Partner run one-two, separated by a neck, in the Grade 3 Jaipur Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park – they watched Pure Sensation establish a North American and course record, completing the six furlongs on turf in 1:06.76.

A Peruvian-bred horse has never won a Grade 1 event in the United States, but the South American nation has made a major impact on some of the Northern Hemisphere’s biggest events through outstanding broodmares. The latest example came when Creator, out of Peruvian champion Morena, nosed out Destin to win the Belmont Stakes.

Through the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the stories told were of freshman phenom Uncle Mo, whose scores of stakes performers from his first crop include Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, and of young classic juggernaut Curlin, whose latest top runner is Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator. Suspiciously quiet was Tapit, as North America’s two-time reigning leading sire failed to record a placing with three individual starters in those two races.