Whirl Around Storms To Win The Gr. 1 CA Classic

REVIEW:

 

California (CA)

Saturday, August 23, 2014  —  3:00 PM EST / Race ID  1233090

 

Grade 1  CA CLASSIC

 

Purse:   $1,000,000

Restricted To 3 YO’s and Up

10 Furlongs / About 2000 Metres / One Mile and One-Quarter

 

 

For Crystal and her Tisjuliet Racing Stables group, Saturday was a great day, indeed, as she watched her 4 year old colt Whirl Around romp and stomp his way to an easy 2 ¼ length win over #1 ranked Lepe in the $1,000,000 CA Classic this weekend.

But then again, for Crystal, it’s been that kind of a year.

It was the stable group’s fourth grade 1 winner of the year, including two in the Equinics in February, and Crystal couldn’t have been happier after Saturday’s race that almost clinched her colt a spot in the Breeders’ Bowl Classic in November, should she decide to take him there.

“I really did think he was going to fire today,” said Crystal after she watched her scratch-bred Medaglia D’Oro colt make a huge move on the backstretch to take command of the race about a furlong and a half from the wire and cruise to what looked like a pretty effortless win. “His best race to date was at 10 furlongs, and he hadn’t been the distance in a while.  Luckily, he appreciated it as much as I’d hoped!”

There was very little luck involved in the monstrous performance by Whirl Around in the prestigious Grade 1 CA Classic, one of the more important preps for older colts and horses who fancy a shot at the Breeders’ Bowl Classic in November.

After trailing by nearly a dozen lengths early in the race, Whirl Around made a huge move on the back stretch, splitting Shady Miner and Sea The Magic, before he simply ran past early pacesetter VT Indycat between the 1/8 and 1/16 poles. After that, Lepe (the #1 ranked colt in the dirt handicap division) came with his usual strong late run. But it just wasn’t enough to overtake Whirl Around, who was actually putting distance between himself and Lepe at the end of Saturday’s race.

Crystal said she thought the field in the CA Classic on Saturday was “even better than the ones he ran against in Dubai and the Equinics. For whatever reason, he wasn’t himself in Dubai. Maybe he didn’t take to the track, but he showed he belonged with these today. He gave it his all, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Whirl Around, who was sent off as an 8/1 shot at post-time, broke alertly out of the two hole and eased over to the rail, while VT Indycat was having a pretty easy time of it in on the front end in Saturdays CA Classic.

There wasn’t anyone to really challenge VT Indycat early, so that one was content to set some pretty pedestrian fractions on the front end early. At one point, VT Indycat opened up as much as a four-length lead on Harper II, the seven year old New York-bred who ended up settling for third place in Saturday’s million dollar race.

But neither of those two could withstand the furious late rush of Whirl Around, as he bounced out to the front and romped down the center of the course in California, clocking the ten furlongs in a time of 2:00.76.

The 2-6 exacta with Lepe paid $176.70, and the 2-6-4 trifecta with Harper II paid a walloping $1,525.10.

Evil Sunrise, Recoup, Shady Miner and Lemon Vodka were all tightly grouped behind the top three finishers. Then came Slick Candidate, VT Indycat, Imminence, Ello Guvnor, Pee Huzz, Sea The Magic and Natural Spring.

“I was scared of all of them,” said Crystal after the race. “You had the proven grade 1 types like Lepe, Hello Guvnor and Evil Sunrise in there, but any of the others in there today could have had a good day. You just never know.”

Whirl Around was her first colt to accomplish the grade 1 trick this year, Crystal said after the race.

She’s got three other grade 1 winners this year, but they were all fillies.

“He (Whirl Around) was bred a couple weeks prior to his first start,” said Crystal, when she was explaining why her four year old was so lightly raced.

He didn‘t debut until the middle of his three year old season.

“He didn’t win his first race, but the way he ran in his debut made me very happy.  I suspected then he was going to be a very good.  He marched right through his conditions after that, and he made his first listed stakes appearance right before the Equinics.  It was the Duke Ali Stakes in Maryland, and Lenny had a good colt in there.  I thought if we could beat that horse, Whirly was going places. And he did.  Smoke (the All Stars Racing Residency Manager) selected Whirl Around to compete for the ASR rez in the Equinics, and the rest is history.”

It’s not exactly quite history yet, for Crystal and Whirl Around.  Since this colt is so lightly raced, it would appear he’s just getting started.

“He came out of the race ready to rumble,” said Crystal, who said we would see the colt next in the Grade 1 Jockey Guild Gold Cup.. “Whirly is 2-3 in New York, and he loves the 10 furlongs. It’s an ideal spot for him.”

Crystal’s other grade 1 winners this year are all four year old fillies.  Falling Stars won the 8-furlong Grade 1 Equinics SIM WIDE Contests on the dirt, Cosmic Oasis won the 8-furlong Grade 1 Start Up Stakes a month ago in Deauville on the turf, and Blissfully won the marathon 12-furlong Equinics dirt event for fillies, the Grade 1 Tipsheet Writers in February.

Crystal has had a monster year, winning nearly three Equinics races for the All Star Racing residency. “I love them at ASR,” said Crystal. “There’s no better group of guys and girls to play the game with.  Jimmy and Tom really care about the residency, and you can see it in the efforts they make to keep it getting better. In a big event like the Equinics, those are special wins, because it’s not like winning a race for myself.  I consider it a win for the residency, too.  I’m just as happy when other ASR residents win.  My ASR flag is flown proudly.”

All in all, it’s been a very good year for horses from Tisjuliet Racing and Crystal, who says she really loves the breeding end of the game best.

“Maybe, strangely, I’ve always had a preference for fillies,” said Crystal. “Up until this year, my best have normally been colts, so it’s really nice to have a few graded quality fillies. However, it’s a challenge restraining myself from breeding just fillies.”

“I’d love to talk about the girls,” said Crystal, when she was asked about her three grade 1 winning fillies this year. “Cosmic Oasis is very exciting. She’s a bit of an up and comer. I think her best days are ahead. She’s pointing at a grade 2 in Ireland, and if all goes well there, it’ll be a grade 1 in either England or France afterwards.  The Equinics gutted Falling Stars.  She’s been getting a lot of time between races.  She became a bit of a piggy for a while, and she’ll run in an allowance race soon.  If she doesn’t come back to form, she’ll be retired to breed a late 2014 2-year old.  And, Blissfully is a bit of an enigma.  She’ll run a brilliant race, and then she’ll throw in a clunker or two. She came out of her last race needing rest, so she’ll be getting a good deal of that.  Hopefully, she’ll come back a bit more formful after that.”

But there’s one that Crystal seems really excited about most of all, and that’s Perilous War, a two year old by War Front, out of the Grade 3 winning Seeking The Gold mare Black Pearls.  All that one’s done is win four of its first five starts, including two group 2 races in the United Kingdom.

“Perilous is probably my best two year old ever,” said Crystal.  “I’ve never had one (a 2 year old) win more than a single graded race.  He is going in the Golden Slipper next. It’s already looking like a tough race, so we’ll be able to see what he’s got or doesn’t.”

For Crystal, it looks like she might have at least two, maybe as many as three, pointed for the Breeders’ Bowl races come November.  But Crystal said she’s being cautious about that, at least for the moment.

“I pushed a two year old to get there last year,” said the patient owner of Tisjuliet Racing, “and he hasn’t been the same since.  So I won’t be doing that again. Sure, it would be nice to win one (a BB race) one day, but I won’t be pushing any of them to get there.  We’ll see who’s going well and if the timing fits.”