Shadwell Stable's Tamarkuz (Speightstown), a three-time group winner at Meydan during the 2015 Dubai Racing Carnival, surged to the lead at midstretch and soared clear to give jockey Mike Smith his 23rd Breeders' Cup win and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin his third championship weekend victory and first since 2007 in Friday's Dirt Mile.
“This feels great,” McLaughlin said. “This finally gets the monkey off my back with my first Breeders' Cup winner [since 2007]. I'm not really surprised, though. I really thought he had a chance. Mike really rode a great race. When they were turning for home is when I thought we had a real good chance to win. What a feeling.”
Martin Garcia hustled Dortmund (Big Brown) out to the early lead, but last year's Sprint champion Runhappy (Super Saver) overtook the favorite heading into the first turn. Runhappy was under a snug hold as he took the field through a quarter in :22.45 and a half in :45.37. Tamarkuz, meanwhile, was enjoying clear running while some eight lengths off the pacesetter leaving the backstretch. Dortmund easily surged past Runhappy with a powerful move, but Gun Runner was shadowing the favorite menacingly. Dortmund's lead was short-lived as Gun Runner took control at the top of the lane, but Tamarkuz was making a major move of his own, coming into the stretch three wide and rolling past the game sophomore with a furlong to run.
“I had really a good trip,” Smith said. “It set up. There was a lot of pace. Tamarkuz has speed himself and right away they opened 2, 3, 4 [lengths], so I knew they were going fast. After that, it was just a matter of getting him into a comfortable rhythm and a happy place. When I called on him, he finished like he's been finishing for me. I really thought he had a good shot today.”
Connections were far from disgraced by the runner-up effort of Gun Runner, whose six on-the-board finishes in graded races this year include a third in the GI Kentucky Derby.
“I had a beautiful trip,” jockey Florent Geroux said. “My horse ran good. He just got run down by the winner.”
Trainer Steve Asmussen added of the runner-up, “I'm very fortunate to have him. He's a tremendous physical specimen. [Assistant trainer] Scott [Blasi] and the whole team have done a great job keeping him where he's at. I think we got in a hurry with him today, but he put Dortmund away and tackled the fast horse early and paid the price for it, but we didn't come out here to give it away. We're dreamers in this game and we were working him last summer thinking we would maybe win the Derby with him this year. He's just a tremendously talented horse. I think it's a situation where you're disappointed you didn't win and you're proud of the horse. People don't realize how much pressure goes on him before the Derby and now he's still out here and he's taking it and still showing up. I love him.”
Bob Baffert, trainer of the beaten favorite, said, “We were hoping to go to the front and didn't, but got into a good position. It was a pretty hot pace. He looked great down the backside. When I saw the fractions, I got a little worried. The track is demanding today. He just didn't bring it like he has before.”
Tamarkuz reeled off three straight victories over a mile at Meydan in the winter of 2015 in the Feb. 12 G3 Firebreak S., Mar. 7 G3 Burj Nahaar S. and Mar. 28 G2 Godolphin Mile, but had yet to find the winner's circle in six subsequent U.S. outings. Off-the-board in three outings for McLaughlin last summer and fall, Tamarkuz resurfaced with a ninth-place effort in the June 11 GI Met Mile. He showed hints of better things to come with a pair of recent runner-up efforts. Second behind A.P. Indian (Indian Charlie) in the seven-furlong GI Forego S. at Saratoga Aug. 27, he chased Anchor Down (Tapit) home when second again in the one-mile GII Kelso H. at Belmont Oct. 8.
Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell Stable, responsible for all three of McLaughlin's Breeders' Cup wins, purchased Tamarkuz for $325,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September sale. He began his racing career in England with trainer Saeed bin Suroor.
“He was bought as a yearling and taken to Europe where he had a decent career, but when they put him on the dirt in Dubai is when we really figured out what he was about, and that's why Sheikh Hamdan sent him back to us,” explained Shadwell racing manager Joe DeSantis.
McLaughlin will saddle Godolphin's Frosted (Tapit) in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic and some consideration had been given to running that gray in the Dirt Mile.
“Well, now all the media knows why Frosted is running in the Classic,” McLaughlin said. “We thought we had one good enough to win the Mile already.”
Pedigree Notes:
Tamarkuz is the first Breeders' Cup winner for his sire Speightstown, who won the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. He is the first foal out of the unraced Without You Babe (Lemon Drop Kid) and his half-brother by Frankel (GB) RNA'd for 650,000gns at this year's Tattersalls October Yearling sale. Out of Marozia (Storm Bird), Without You Babe is a half-sister to GI Travers S. winner Stay Thirsty (Bernardini), as well as to graded stakes winner Andromeda's Hero (Fusaichi Pegasus) and GISP Superfly (Fusaichi Pegasus). She produced a filly by Kingman (GB) this year. Breeder John Gunther purchased Marozia for $50,000 while in foal to Kingmambo at the 2003 Keeneland November sale.
Friday, Santa Anita Park
LAS VEGAS BREEDERS' CUP DIRT MILE-GI, $920,345, SA, 11-4, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:35.72, ft.
1–&TAMARKUZ, 126, h, 6, by Speightstown
1st Dam: Without You Babe, by Lemon Drop Kid
2nd Dam: Marozia, by Storm Bird
3rd Dam: Make Change, by Roberto
($325,000 Ylg '11 KEESEP). O-Shadwell Stable; B-John D.
Gunther (KY); T-Kiaran P. McLaughlin; J-Mike E. Smith.
$550,000. Lifetime Record: 20-8-4-0, $1,840,444.[bullet ad=”glenwood-tamarkuz”][bullet ad=”win-eligible”]Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating: A.
2–Gun Runner, 123, c, 3, Candy Ride (Arg)–Quiet Giant, by
Giant's Causeway. O-Winchell Thoroughbreds LLC & Three
Chimneys Farm; B-Besilu Stables, LLC (KY); T-Steven M.
Asmussen. $170,000.[bullet ad=”bridlewood-farm-training-graduate”][bullet ad=”ea-bloodstock-2-yo-selection”][bullet ad=”niall-brennan-nbs-graduate”]3–Accelerate, 123, c, 3, Lookin At Lucky–Issues, by Awesome Again. ($380,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Hronis Racing LLC; B-Mike
Abraham (KY); T-John W. Sadler. $90,000.[bullet ad=”bluewater-shell-big-fish”][bullet ad=”hip45″]
Margins: 3HF, NK, HF. Odds: 11.90, 4.00, 42.70.
Also Ran: Dortmund, Tom's Ready, Point Piper, Vyjack, Runhappy, Texas Chrome. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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