Gulfstream: Saturday Stakes Advances

By David Joseph —-

Flying Fortress, Good American Meet in $100,000 Via Borghese

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Stablemates Flying Fortress, exiting her first graded-stakes attempt, and Good American, racing in the U.S. for the first time, will line up against each other and six rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 Via Borghese at Gulfstream Park.

The seventh running of the 1 3/8-mile Via Borghese for fillies and mares 3 and up is one of two stakes over Gulfstream’s new turf course on the 11-race program, followed by the $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens for 3-year-olds and up going two miles.

First race post time is 12:10 p.m.

Joseph Allen homebred Flying Fortress and Andrew Rosen’s Good American represent the first starters at Gulfstream for Reeve McGaughey, the son of Hall of Fame horseman Shug McGaughey and nephew of Charlie LoPresti, best known for training two-time Horse of the Year and 2020 Hall of Famer Wise Dan.

“They’d be my main influences, really, throughout my lifetime and certainly on the racetrack,” Reeve McGaughey said. “This is what I grew up wanting to do.”

The 33-year-old McGaughey’s five years as an assistant with LoPresti coincided with the Wise Dan years. When he was retired following the 2014 season, McGaughey returned to working for his father before going out on his own, starting his first horse Feb. 2, 2020 and picking up his first winner, Franknjymme – bred by LoPresti and owned by his wife, Amy – March 19, 2020 at Oaklawn Park.

McGaughey notched his first stakes win with Fact Finding in the 2020 DTHA Governors Day Handicap at Delaware Park, and picked up a graded triumph last November with Bees and Honey in the Comely (G3) at Aqueduct. He is overseeing a string at Gulfstream for his father, who is serving days and scheduled to return Dec. 19.

“I’ve been training for a couple years and I kind of wanted to go back to helping my dad for a few more years and I’ll probably start training again whenever the time comes,” said McGaughey, who has 28 wins and more than $1.3 million in purse earnings from 238 starters.

“I’ve been lucky,” he added. “When I was with Charlie he had a pretty strong stable with four or five really nice horses. The years I’ve spent working with my dad we’ve had quite a few nice ones and, usually, most of the other ones have the chance to be nice.”

Flying Fortress dueled on the front end with Beside Herself in the 1 ½-mile Dowager (G3) Oct. 23 at Keeneland before finishing fifth, three spots and more than three lengths ahead of Todd Pletcher-trained Beside Herself, who also returns in the Via Borghese.

“We all thought she ran pretty well given the circumstances of the race. She got hooked up early with Todd’s filly and they just battled each other really into submission,” McGaughey said. “But she did well to hold on and only get beat as little amount as she did. This go around we’re hoping to get her to relax and rate so, hopefully, if somebody wants to go she can just sit right off of them.”

Flying Fortress, by champion Uncle Mo, was a neck shy of being unbeaten in her other three starts this year that included allowance wins at Laurel Park in April and Colonial Downs in August.

“She had a couple good races at Colonial and she’s steadily improved all year long. We expect her to run well,” McGaughey said. “I think she’ll appreciate the distance if she can kind of avoid what happened last time. I don’t think the distance will be an issue, as long as the first part of the race is reasonable.”

A daughter of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, Good American has raced six times in her native England, her lone win coming in her September 2021 debut. In her most recent start she was second, beaten a half-length, in a 1 3/8-mile stakes over the all-weather surface at Kempton Oct. 31.

“She hasn’t been here long. She came into Gulfstream a couple weeks ago and she’s trained well since she’s been here, so I figured we’d go ahead and run her right off the plane, basically. We’ll figure out what to do next once she runs Saturday,” McGaughey said. “It just seemed like a good opportunity for her. Distance wouldn’t be an issue, I wouldn’t think.”

Good American got a look at Gulfstream with a half-mile breeze in 48.94 seconds Dec. 11 over the Tapeta course.

“We worked her the other day and she worked really well,” McGaughey said. “It was her first work over here, she came out of it well and she’s doing well. The last 10 days or so she really seems like she’s kind of turned a corner and has done very well.”

Junior Alvarado will be aboard Flying Fortress from Post 4, while Tyler Gaffalione gets the call on Good American from outermost Post 8.

Michael Tabor’s Beside Herself, also by Uncle Mo, raced three times at Gulfstream last winter, breaking his maiden going 1 1/16 miles Jan. 30 and finishing sixth in the one-mile Herecomesthebride (G3) March 5. She has won two of six subsequent starts and was third in the 1 1/8-mile Regret (G3) June 4.

Stonehaven Steadings’ Champagne Ivy has made 13 of her 17 lifetime starts at Gulfstream with a pair of wins and a third in the 2021 Miss Gracie on turf, but this will be her first race since being claimed for $35,000 out of her most recent effort, a runner-up finish as the favorite Nov. 5 on Gulfstream’s Tapeta.

Victory Racing Partners’ 3-year-old Treasure of War returns to the turf after running second by less than a length against her elders in a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer Oct. 31 at Horseshoe Indiana. Both of her wins from six career starts have come over older horses.

Starship Mallomar, Lisheen and Viburnum complete the field.

Another Mystery Bred for Distance of H. Allen Jerkens

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – A son of graded-stakes winner and exceptional broodmare Ioya Two, Team Block’s Another Mystery hardly surprised breeder/owner/trainer Chris Block with his highly successful career.

Another Mystery is the last of Ioya Two’s 10 foals to race. Of her nine winners, seven have earned at least $100,000 with Another Mystery, a 6-year-old son of Temple City, being one of two $500,000-plus earners.

“We’ve had the family for generations. He’s one of the last ones remaining. We’re very proud for our family to carry on generation after generation. We’re very proud to have Another Mystery,” Block said.

Another Mystery is scheduled to run in Saturday’s $100,000 H. Allen Jerkens, a two-mile stakes for 3-year-olds and up on turf that will co-headline an 11-race program with the $100,000 Via Borghese, a 1 3/8-mile stakes for fillies and mares on turf.

Ioya Two, a homebred daughter of Lord At War, won 11 of 33 starts, including a triumph in the 2001 Modesty (G3) at 1 3/16-miles on turf at Arlington Park. As successful has she was on the racetrack, the Illinois-bred mare was even more successful in producing top-quality offspring.

“All of them are a little bit different the way their characteristics are. With Another Mystery we see a lot of Temple City in him. That Dynaformer nick has worked with Ioya Two’s family,” Block said. “Each of them has been kind of a different horse to train. When we get to know their likes and dislikes, we adapt to them. With Another Mystery, there isn’t much he doesn’t like.”

Another Mystery really, really likes to run long.

“He’s the kind of horse that matured in the middle part of his racing career as a horse who prefers three turns. He’s pretty consistent. He shows up virtually every time. He is versatile,” Block said. “You can cut him back in distance but usually his best distance is from a mile and three-eighths to, hopefully, two miles. We’ll see on Saturday if he’s capable of handling that.”

Another Mystery, a multiple-stakes winner of eight of 31 starts, captured the John Connelly (G3) at 1 ½ miles on turf at Sam Houston in January. The Illinois-bred veteran finished third, beaten by a quickly diminishing neck, in the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup (G2) Sept. 10 prior to a late-running third in the Oct. 15 Pizza Man at 1 1/16-miles over yielding turf course at Hawthorne last time out.

“He’s a no-nonsense horse. Nothing bothers him. He goes out and gives us 110 percent every time he runs. He’s a pretty straightforward horse to train. He’s a pretty straightforward horse to run,” Block said. “It appears the farther he goes distance-wise, the stronger he gets. We’re hoping that translates to the two miles.”

Block sent Another Mystery to Gulfstream trainer James Gulick, who will saddle the late-running turf star for the Jerkens. Irad Ortiz Jr. has the call.

Trainer Keri Brion will be represented by two horses in the 12-horse field – Molly Willis, Paul Willis and CFC Stables’ Agitare and Upland Flats Racing’s Pleasecallmeback.

Agitare, a 5-year-old gelded son of Teofilo, is an Irish import who recently made a victorious U.S. debut at Far Hills in the John Forbes Memorial at two miles on a yielding turf. Pleasecallmeback has run over hurdles in his last seven starts after capturing a 1 ¾-mile optional claiming allowance at Woodbine for Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield last year.

Julien Leparoux is named on Agitare, while Angel Suarez has the mount on Pleasecallmeback.

Attfield is scheduled to send out Charles Fipke’s Ready for the Lady, a 3-year-old son of More Than Ready, for the Jerkens. Ready for the Lady captured the Singspiel (G3) over 1 3/8 miles on turf at Woodbine three starts back.

Paco Lopez is scheduled to ride Ready for the Lady for the first time.

Trainer Jeff Hiles and Thorndale Stables LLC’s Time for Trouble, who captured the 1 1/16-mile Claiming Crown Iron Horse over a sloppy main track at Churchill Downs last time out, has demonstrated a fondness for turf routes at Churchill Downs and Belterra this year.

Edwin Gonzalez has the call on the gelded son of English Channel.

Trainer Michael Maker is scheduled to be represented in the Jerkens by Michel Hui’s Value Engineering and Jordan Wycoff’s Wicked Fast.

Ocean’s Map, Sole Volante, Reigning Spirit, Kinenos and Barberini round out the main body of the field. Basso and Six Minus are also-eligibles.

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