Epicenter
Not This Time – Silent Candy, by Candy Ride
Bred in Kentucky by Westwind Farms ($260,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Winchell Thoroughbreds)
The young stallion Not This Time has enjoyed a stellar spring with his runners. His leading 3-year-old is Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter, who will be among the favorites in the Kentucky Derby in less than three weeks.
A precious few each year get to say they bred a Kentucky Derby runner. With thousands of Thoroughbreds born each year, it’s a longshot – especially for smaller programs outside of Kentucky that raise a relative handful of foals.
But for Ohio-based Bruce Ryan, who bred Santa Anita Derby winner Taiba, it’s a longshot that he’s around to enjoy this spring at all.
Fillies by Street Boss and War Front held the fastest times at their respective breeze distances as the weeklong under-tack preview show for the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training concluded Saturday.
Taiba
Gun Runner – Needmore Flattery, by Flatter
Bred in Kentucky by Bruce C. Young ($140,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds; $1.7 million Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream 2-year-old purchase by Gary Young, agent for Zedan Racing)
Gun Runner has emerged from prep season for the spring classics with an embarrassment of riches. The record-setting young sire added Taiba to his Kentucky Derby candidates last weekend and could wind up with multiple entrants in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks.
Straight Fire showed promise as a juvenile before being forced into a premature retirement, but some of the partners who raced him supported him as a stallion at Legacy Ranch in California. They are now reaping the rewards of doing so.
Straight Fire’s 3-year-olds swept a pair of California-bred stakes on the Santa Anita Derby undercard Saturday, with Power Surge springing a $155.20 upset in the Evening Jewel Stakes and Smuggler’s Run winning the Echo Eddie Stakes. Another son, What in Blazes, was third in the Echo Eddie.
Brendan Walsh experienced what, to the best of his memory, was a first for his training career Saturday when he sent out a pair of half-siblings to win on the same card. Prevalence won the Grade 3 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland, three races after his younger half-brother Emirates Road won a maiden special weight.
Both colts race as homebreds for Godolphin, for whom Walsh trained multiple Grade 1 winner Maxfield. That son of Street Sense retired to the stallion barn for this year, but Walsh also has a half-sibling to that star in his barn, the filly Loved.
Messier
Empire Maker – Checkered Past, by Smart Strike
Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm ($470,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky selected yearling purchase by SF/Starlight/Madaket)
Messier, who takes his one and only shot at earning a Kentucky Derby berth on Saturday at Santa Anita, is from a pedigree that has had classic success on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border for legendary breeding operations.
The durable racehorse Majestic Harbor, a Grade 1 winner who made 42 starts, died of a suspected cardiac event Tuesday at Harris Farms, where he has been standing at stud, according to his co-owner, Lori Hebel-Osborne, who raced Majestic Harbor as part of a partnership.
Majestic Harbor scored the biggest win of his career in the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita in 2014, defeating, among others, Game On Dude and Clubhouse Ride.
