By Alan Carasso
About 24 hours before Lane's End Farm's City of Light (Quality Road–Paris Notion, by Dehere) celebrated his first American winner in the form of Ellis Park second-time starter Roja Ligera, the first-crop stallion was represented by his first winner when the colt City of Knowledge raced away to graduate by daylight in a 5 1/2-furlong allowance over a sloppy strip at Hipodromo Camarero outside of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday, July 30.
Sent off the 4-5 second choice in a field of six, the $100,000 Keeneland September yearling and $32,000 OBS March breezer won the break and was soon clear beneath leading jockey Juan Carlos Diaz through an opening quarter-mile in :23.24. Opening up on his rivals on the turn, the dark bay carried a five-length advantage into the final eighth of a mile and went on to best favored Husky Driver (Outwork) by a handy 5 3/4 lengths. The final time was 1:04.71 (see below, SC 3).
Bred in Kentucky by Betz/B & K Canetti/J Betz/D J Stables/Graves/GTL, City of Knowledge is the first foal out of three-time winner and $174,425 earner Mo Knows (Uncle Mo), a half-sister to GSW & GISP Payton d'Oro, who was acquired by Bill Betz's Betz Thoroughbreds for $285,000 with the colt in utero at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. Mo Knows is also the dam of a yearling colt by American Pharoah and a colt foal by Justify.
Roja Ligera made it a weekend double for City of Light when running out a 1 1/4-length winner of a sloppy Ellis maiden July 31. The bay filly took some nibbles at 9-1 for her July 1 debut at Churchill, but bombed the start and finished well-beaten.
Spectacular in winning the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S., City of Light is the sire of 101 foals of racing age and stood the most recent breeding season for $60,000 at Lane's End.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
