By Alan Carasso
Just four days after his son Mounsieur Coco took the Proud Man S. over the Gulfstream all-weather, Boppy O (Bolt d'Oro) became the first graded-stakes winner for his freshman sire (by Medaglia d'Oro) and led home a top-three sweep for first-crop stallions when causing a 23-1 upset in Wednesday's GIII With Anticipation S. at Saratoga.
Ridden for some speed by Dylan Davis while making his first venture on the grass and over a distance of ground, the $190,000 Keeneland September yearling–a half-brother to last year's GII Best Pal S. hero and this season's GI Woody Stephens S. third, stablemate Pappacap (Gun Runner)–sat up right on the moderate pace set by fellow longshot El Conejito (Palace) through a half-mile in :50.09 over a turf course officially rated good, but tossing up times that suggested a fair bit more ease than that. Andthewinneris (Oscar Performance), a debut winner sprinting over the Keeneland turf course in April and favored by just less than $4,000 over the rail-drawn Battle of Normandy (City of Light) clocked the pacesetters from a close-up third and was first to come after them with every conceivable chance to run by. But he could not seal the deal when one-paced into the final eighth of a mile, and Boppy O kept on well enough to hit the line about a neck better than Battle of Normandy, who might have had his momentum stalled ever so slightly in upper stretch, but kicked on strongly to just miss.
“I was training Pappacap and Mr. Oxley called me at the sale and he said, 'Mark, have you looked at Pappacap's half-brother?' recollected rainer Mark Casse, who sent out Coinage (Tapit) to win last year's With Anticipation. “I said, 'I have and I really like him.' Then [Breeze Easy's] Mike Hall came up to me..and he said, 'Have you seen Pappacap's half-brother?' I said, 'I have, and Mr. Oxley's going to try to buy him. This is not going to be good.' So they said, 'Why don't we go together?' I called Mr. Oxley up and said, 'They're going to go after him, what do you think?' He said, 'Let's go partners.' And that's how it worked out.”
Just as Pappacap had done 371 days prior, Boppy O graduated at first asking in a five-furlong Gulfstream maiden May 20, but the bay never fired in this track's GII Sanford S., finishing a distant 10th behind Mo Strike (Uncle Mo).
“I kept telling the Oxleys and Mike Hall and Sam Ross after the race [the Sanford], 'Look, he's better than what you saw. I promise you, he's better than that,” Casse explained.
Pedigree Notes:
Boppy O is one of four winners from four to the races for Pappascat, who earned Grade III black-type with a longshot second in the 2014 GIII Cardinal H. over the turf course at Churchill Downs. The colt's stakes-placed second dam is also responsible for Fate Factor (The Factor), who has done her best work to date over synthetic tracks, with a pair of stakes placings at Turfway Park and a third on the Tapeta at Presque Isle Downs. The further female family includes four-time Peruvian champion Al Qasr (Aptitude), who won the Colonial Downs's Kitten's Joy S. while under the care of Ken McPeek in 2013.
Pappascap is the dam of a yearling colt by Omaha Beach, a colt foal by War Front's Classic-winning son War of Will and was bred to Candy Ride (Arg) this past breeding season.
Wednesday, Saratoga
WITH ANTICIPATION S.-GIII, $175,000, Saratoga, 8-31, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:46.93, gd.
1–BOPPY O, 120, c, 2, by Bolt d'Oro
1st Dam: Pappascat (GSP, $165,762), by Scat Daddy
2nd Dam: Redmeansgo, by Red Ransom
3rd Dam: Majestic Dy, by Dynaformer
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($190,000
Ylg '21 KEESEP). O-John C. Oxley & Breeze Easy, LLC;
B-Rustlewood Farm, Inc. (FL); T-Mark E. Casse; J-Dylan Davis.
$96,250. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $140,000. *1/2 to
Pappacap (Gun Runner), GSW & MGISP, $833,000.
Werk Nick Rating: C.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Battle of Normandy, 122, c, 2, City of Light–Adorable Miss,
by Kitten's Joy. 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE.
($500,000 Ylg '21 FTSAUG). O-West Point Thoroughbreds &
Woodford Racing, LLC; B-Gage Hill Stables, LLC & W. S. Farish
(KY); T-Claude R. McGaughey III. $35,000.
3–Andthewinneris, 122, c, 2, Oscar Performance–Run Like the
Boss, by Scat Daddy. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($67,000 RNA
Ylg '21 KEESEP). O/B-Susan Moulton (KY); T-Wayne M.
Catalano. $21,000.
Margins: NK, 1HF, 1 1/4. Odds: 23.10, 2.40, 2.25.
Also Ran: Determinedly, Noble Huntsman, Our Dream Rye'd, El Conejito. Scratched: Bourbon Therapy, Bramble Blaze, Lachaise, Quincy Cafe.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
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