Tiger Ridge Becoming a Tiger

- Made it to the Big A for the late Pick 3 on Sunday, and it led off with a small field of five distaffs for the nongraded House Party stakes. Bank Audit looked to me like a filly who had simply left her best form behind last spring, as her last three were definitely on the dull side. I scoffed at the bettors who made her the favorite until just before post time, and used the eventual favorite Ebony Breeze and 6-1 Baldomera instead. Ebony Breeze is owned by Steinbrenner’s Kinsman Stable and trained by Bill Mott; she was just clobbered at the windows in the last two minutes, going from the 2-1 second choice to the clear 6-5 favorite. But Bank Audit (Wild Rush) changed tactics, took the lead early and showed her back class, drawing out to an impressive win, as Baldomera rallied for second. So much for my scoffs, as well as for my Pick 3’s, sigh..


I had hit the all button for the eighth, the Huntington for two year olds. It looked like a wide open betting race, and I figured that Master of Disaster would be overbet. But as so often is the case, the betting can be quite different from what you might figure it to be. There are times that I have to double check the program to make sure I’m looking at the right race.…or the right track! Justawalkinthepark (Ecton Park), 4-1 third choice in the morning line, was established as a clear favorite from the opening of the pools, off of a maiden race at Monmouth that he won by seven at 3-5 with a 90 Beyer for trainer Alan Seewald. In his prior start, his debut, he missed by a nose at 7-5. Joe Bravo was in for the ride. He drifted up a bit but still went off as the 8-5 choice. I at least had the right idea for this race in my Pick 3’s, as Justawalkinthepark settled for third behind Saint Daimon, at 6.80 – 1 the second longshot in the short field. He's yet another stakes winner for Saint Ballado, the current leading sire for 2005.

Well, I wouldn’t have had the Pick 3 anyway, as I crapped out in the ninth. By the time that one rolled around though, my mind was off to Louisville, and I was paying full attention to the action at Churchill Downs. This time of year, there’s always the late two or three at that track to look forward to once the NY action ceases. After getting reversed in the 8th exacta, I turned my attention to the Commenwealth Turf, and I’ll just come out and say that in this one, I had the winner Therecomesatiger ($16.40) squarely on top, and didn’t cash a ticket. He looked like a definite overlay, considering that the 2-1 second choice T.D. Vance finished just a length in front of him last time. Looked like the kind of race in which I could make some money, as I gave a shot to several longshots in the field to hit the board. Unfortunately, the 13-1 place horse Cosmonaut was not amongst them, though the 11-1 show horse was. No regrets at all; sometimes I just feel like I gotta take a shot if the opportunity is there.

Therecomesatiger is by Tiger Ridge, a very interesting sire indeed. He’s a Storm Cat half brother to A.P. Indy who stands for $7500 in Florida. By virtue of that breeding, he’s intensely inbred, 3x2, to Secretariat! After what appears to have been an extremely slow first crop year in 2004, he’s come on to be 11th on the second year sire list. He serviced a whopping 151 mares in 2004 but only 71 last year as his first juveniles took to the track. I imagine his business will pick up next year: this is his sixth stakes winner of the year, and his fourth within the last month – talk about a hot stallion! His Tiger Belle took the Calder Oaks on 10/15, Taming the Tiger took the off the turf Lawrence Realization on 10/23 at Belmont, and Mexican bred Savona took a rich stakes there on 10/23. In addition, on Friday at Aqueduct, Darley sent out his three year old daughter Rum Ridge to romp in her maiden win by 12 at 4-5. And he’s the sire of Bashert, who ran second to the late What A Song in two stakes, finishing ahead of Stevie Wonderboy in the Hollywood Juvenile.

As a racehorse, Tiger Ridge raced just five times, all at age four, with just a second and third to his credit. But with a pedigree like that, he still got his shot at stud. Though none of the abovementioned progeny had breeders bold enough to add yet another hit of Secretariat to the pedigree via the broodmare, all of them except Bashert do add another cross of Big Red’s sire Bold Ruler, and the Darley and Mexican fillies are inbred to Secretariat’s broodmare sire Princequillo as well. At $7500, it’s a chance for broodmare owners to inexpensively access some classy bloodlines, and it will be interesting to see if he starts to attract some more expensive mares.