Force the Pass

2nd-KEE, $80K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2fT, 1:32 p.m. A $700,000 acquisition out of the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale last October by Wesley Ward and Three Chimneys Farm, BUNDCHEN (Gun Runner) will look to close out Ward's Keeneland spring meet on a high note with this turf sprint debut. Her dam No More Parties, while unraced herself, is a full-sister to GI Belmont Derby Invitational winner Force The Pass (Speightstown) and from the extended family of MSW & MGISP Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful). Joel Rosario gets the call. TJCIS...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 1st-SAR, $88K, Msw, 2yo, f, (S), 5 1/2f, 1:05 p.m.   IM JUST KIDDIN (Justify), a homebred for prolific breeders Chester & Mary Broman, is a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint upsetter Bar of Gold (Medaglia d'Oro), who earned over $1.5 million in her career. She herself went on to produce GSW Coinage (Tapit) and $825,000 Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Sale purchase Chulligan (Justify). Trained by John Kimmel, who also oversaw the career of her successful half-sister, Im Just Kiddin picks up...

4th-Churchill Downs, $105,843, Msw, 6-3, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:04.73, ft, 2 1/4 lengths. WONDER WHEEL (f, 2, Into Mischief--Wonder Gal {MSW & MGISP, $904,800}, by Tiz Wonderful) was sent off the narrow 2-1 second choice in this unveiling but put in a gutsy, professional performance to graduate. Not the fastest off the break, Wonder Wheel tracked from fifth and quickly made up ground coming through the turn, her march carrying her four wide into the stretch. Second at the head of the lane, the $275,000 KEESEP grad confronted a...

4th-Monmouth, $56,125, Msw, 9-6, 2yo, 6f, 1:11.20, ft, 6 1/2 lengths. AFFABLE MONARCH (c, 2, Arrogate--Social Queen {MGSW, $344,164}, by Dynaformer) gave his late sire (by Unbridled's Song) a second first-crop winner at Monmouth Park about 30 minutes after Adversity broke the mold up at Saratoga. The Colts Neck homebred, off at 13-5, was beaten for speed and trailed behind a quick pace through the opening exchanges. Equipped with a shadow roll for this first go, the gray colt made stealthy inside progress leaving the three-eighths pole, got through an...

The first foal by Grade I-winning millionaire Force the Pass (Speightstown--Social Queen, by Dynaformer) arrived Feb. 4 at Murmur Farm in Maryland. The filly is out of Magical Point, a daughter of Point Given out of a stakes winning and producing full-sister to Grade I winner and sire Include (Broad Brush). Magical Point, the dam of three winners, and her filly are both owned by Wasabi Ventures Stables, who also stood Force the Pass at Anchor & Hope Farm in Maryland during the 2020 breeding season. Racing as a homebred...

The first mare bred to Wasabi Ventures Stallions' Grade I scorer Force the Pass (Speightstown--Social Queen, by Dynaformer) was confirmed in foal Mar. 12 at St. Omer's Farm in Forest Hill, Maryland. The mare, Wasabi Ventures Stables'-owned Magical Point (Point Given), is out of a full-sister to Grade I-winning sire Include and is the dam of three winners. Campaigned by his breeder, Richard Santulli's Colts Neck Stables, Force the Pass won the 2015 GI Belmont Derby as a 3-year-old. Also victorious in the GIII Penn Mile that season, he added...

The day it happened, Aug. 12, 2019, Louis Merryman didn't know what to expect, only that the next several months would not be easy ones. The main barn at his Anchor and Hope Farm had burned to the ground, and the list of problems seemed to stretch on forever. The only thing that he knew for sure was that this was not the end of his farm. "I look around and think that a small group of us have accomplished an awful lot in the last several months," he said....

After a devastating 2019 fire at Louis and Grace Merryman's Anchor and Hope Farm in Port Deposit, Maryland, the rebuilding process has come full circle with the arrival of Force the Pass, a Grade I-winning son of Speightstown, who will begin his first season at stud at the farm this year. Force the Pass also marks a new beginning for T. K. Kuegler's Wasabi Ventures Stallions as the first stallion to stand for the growing syndicate. Kuegler grew up listening to racing stories from his great grandfather, trainer P. J....