Risk Taking

Medaglia d’Oro – Run a Risk, by Distorted Humor

Bred in Kentucky by G. Watts Humphrey Jr. ($240,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Mike Ryan, agent)

The Jockey Club has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that challenges the organization’s decision to impose a cap on the number of mares a stallion can cover, calling the suit a “hodgepodge of speculative claims.”

The response to the suit cites more than 50 decisions by courts to dismiss lawsuits under similar grounds, including cases in which the plaintiffs did not have plausible grounds to argue for an injury, the main thrust of the response. The initial lawsuit was filed last month by three high-profile Central Kentucky breeding farms.

Performer, a multiple Grade 3 stakes winner, has been retired from racing, his connections said this week.

Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne Farm, which co-owned Performer with the Phipps Stable, said Performer came out of a third-place finish in the Gulfstream Park Mile on Feb. 27 with an ankle injury, similar to the injury that sidelined him for a good part of 2020.

“We always put the horse first, there was no sense of risking further injury,” Hancock said. “We thought he was going to have a big year but we had to pull the plug prematurely.”

Grade 1 winner Unbridled Forever died earlier this month, following foaling complications after delivering a surviving colt by Medaglia d'Oro on March 15.

Unbridled Forever, a 10-year-old daughter of Unbridled's Song, was a homebred runner and broodmare for Charles Fipke, who has experienced a recent run of bad luck with his star-studded broodmare band at his CF Farm in Paris, Ky., this foaling season. Lemons Forever, the dam of Unbridled Forever, also delivered a Medaglia d'Oro foal this month who died later in the day.

The international Godolphin operation enjoyed an outstanding day with multiple stakes winners on Saturday, highlighted by homebred Mystic Guide's dominant victory in the Group 1, $12 million Dubai World Cup. In a fitting note, Godolphin welcomed a new arrival earlier in the day, as that runner's dam, multiple Grade 1 winner Music Note, delivered a Medaglia d'Oro colt in Kentucky, just hours before her son's smashing performance.

Two-time Royal Ascot winner Caravaggio became the first Northern Hemisphere freshman sire of 2021 to record a winner, as his daughter Tenebrism won on debut at Naas in Ireland on Sunday.

Tenebrism, who is trained by Aidan O'Brien for Coolmore, Westerberg, and Merriebelle Stables, won by 3 3/4 lengths going five furlongs on the turf. The filly is out of the British champion and multiple Group 1 winner Immortal Verse.

Liam's Map, one of the accomplished runners in a stellar class of third-crop sires, showcased his versatility with a fantastic Saturday of three stakes winners at Gulfsteam Park.

The stallion's daughter Crazy Beautiful punched her ticket to the Kentucky Oaks with a breakthrough victory in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks.

Elsewhere on the card, Churn N Burn won the Grade 2 Pan American Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on turf, and Basin took the Sir Shackleton Stakes at seven furlongs on dirt.

Greatest Honour

Tapit – Tiffany’s Honour, by Street Cry

Bred in Kentucky by Courtlandt Farm

Greatest Honour, who is seeking his third consecutive graded stakes win at Gulfstream Park in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby, has established himself as a standout contender for the Kentucky Derby. He has a pedigree suited to the 1 1/4-mile Derby – but perhaps even more tailor-made for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes.

Larry Best, who buys, breeds, and races as OXO Equine, has been a Thoroughbred owner since 2017. In less than five years, he has raced a bevy of graded stakes winners, and is now drawing a bead on the Kentucky Oaks with one of those. He also will have a rooting interest in the Kentucky Derby, thanks to the progress of his broodmare band.

A quarter-century ago, America’s reigning Horse of the Year, Cigar, shipped halfway around the globe for a game victory in the then-$4 million Dubai World Cup, granting instant credibility to the race inaugurated in 1996.