Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Fahan Mura to Pegasus Turf
ARCADIA, Calif. – Catch her, if you can.
Santa Anita-based frontrunner Fahan Mura will ship next week to Gulfstream Park, where she is likely to set the pace in the $7 million Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 26.
Trainer Vladimir Cerin is finalizing details this week for the 5-year-old mare, who rose from the claiming ranks to become one of the top female turf runners in California. In her most recent start, on Dec. 29, Fahan Mura won the Grade 3 Robert J. Frankel at 1 1/8 miles.
Fahan Mura’s odds will be high, but her influence on the 1 3/16-mile Pegasus Turf is significant due to a shortage of pace. That was a factor in the decision by Cerin and majority owner Michael Mellen (Bran Jam Stable) to take a shot and face males for the first time.
“She has a unique running style which on occasion has a chance of prevailing, even against horses that are much more accomplished,” Cerin said. “I think we have a chance to hit the board, and maybe hit it really hard.”
Fahan Mura, whose rider is Edwin Maldonado, has won seven races and $365,665 from 11 starts for Cerin in California. Her career record is 9 for 23, with earnings of $431,815.
Beyond a potential pace advantage, Fahan Mura is training enthusiastically, according to Cerin.
“She trains with greater interest than ever,” he said. “I think she’s just a lot more confident.”
Fahan Mura is nominated to the Grade 3, $100,000 Megahertz on Monday at Santa Anita, but is scheduled to work a day earlier on Sunday. Fahan Mura likely will ship next week on a flight expected to include Santa Anita-based Pegasus World Cup favorite Accelerate and Pegasus Turf contenders Next Shares and Catapult.
The date of the Pegasus Turf is exactly one year from Fahan Mura’s first start for Cerin, a $32,000 claiming victory at Santa Anita.
Conquest Tsunami on dirt
Roy H, the reigning champion sprinter, will not be the only runner in Saturday’s Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita from trainer Peter Miller’s stable. Miller said on Wednesday that he plans to run the turf-stakes winner Conquest Tsunami in what is being considered an experiment.
“We want to try him on the dirt,” Miller said. “We know he’s fast. We know he’ll be up on the lead.”
Owned by Gary Barber, Conquest Tsunami has won 8 of 28 starts in his career and 5 of 12 races on dirt or synthetic surfaces. A 7-year-old gelding, Conquest Tsunami won the Street Sense Stakes on dirt at Churchill Downs in October 2014 when trained by Mark Casse.
He joined Miller’s stable in the winter of 2017-18. Last year, Conquest Tsunami won 2 of 7 starts while racing only on turf, with both wins on the hillside turf course. He won the Grade 3 Daytona Stakes on the hillside turf course last February.
In his first start this year, Conquest Tsunami set a scorching pace and finished third in the Grade 3 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course on Jan. 1.
Roy H will be heavily favored in the $200,000 Palos Verdes at six furlongs, his first start since a win in the BC Sprint at Churchill Downs in November.
Machowsky joins Fasig-Tipton
Mike Machowsky plans to train through mid-February before he disbands his stable to become the California-based representative for Fasig-Tipton Sales, he said on Wednesday.
Fasig-Tipton announced Machowsky’s hiring on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Machowsky said he has about 10 horses to run in the next month from his 23-horse stable.
“Hopefully, I’ll win a couple and go out in style,” he said. “I’ve got another month to train.”
Fasig-Tipton has scheduled two sales at Santa Anita this year – one for 2-year-olds in training in June and a yearling sale in September. The sales replace events held previously by Barretts Sales, which ceased operations in 2018.
Machowsky, 53, began training in 1989. He trained Southern Image, who won the 2004 Santa Anita Handicap, and Kelly Leak, who won the 2009 Sunland Derby. In 2018, Machowsky won 15 races from 172 runners, down from 32 winners from 172 starters in 2017.
◗ Jockey Drayden Van Dyke, who through Sunday was tied for fifth in the standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with eight wins, will serve a three-day suspension from Saturday through Monday for a riding infraction at Santa Anita in September. He recently withdrew his appeal of the suspension.