• For those who have not seen it, the bellwether Keeneland September yearling sale has smashed all kinds of records, with horses selling for insane prices, topped by $8,200,000 spent for a yearling filly as you can read here in the Thoroughbred Daily News. 20 yearlings sold for over one million dollars and 61 sold for $700,000+. This is a very select area of the market where a few billionaires are competing for elite pedigreed racing prospects. The vast majority of these horses will never win a stake of any kind, never earn back a fraction of their purchase price, and never be worth a fraction of what they were purchased for. Many will fail to win a single race of any kind or end up running in claiming races. There’s simply no logic to it, just people with so much money they don’t mind spending a few million dollars for entertainment, just as most people don’t mind spending a few hundred dollars for football or basketball tickets. You can read our blog, The Madness Continues With Record Prices at Keeneland Yearling Sale
• Starring John Wain was entered for Saturday at Los Alamitos and the race went, a large field, last race of the day. Let’s hope nothing happens so he can finally get to run. Anyone looking for assistance with seating or admissions please let us know.
• Annie’s Candy is not expected to run Friday at Los Alamitos, totally unrealistic spot for him. We’ll try to scratch and look for something else.  
• We’d have liked to run ShimmyShimmy Shake at Monmouth Park one more time but the next option is 10 days from now, so we’re going to send her to Sunset Meadows Farm in New Jersey shortly for about 3 weeks just for some R&R and then ship her to Mark Salvaggio at Penn National to race there for the fall-winter. She can’t run outside of Monmouth Park until the end of October, so the timing is perfect for a very quick vacation at the farm before heading to Penn to have her fresh and ready for the season there.
• Life On the Edge good, will breeze this week. She’s nominated for the $75,000 Hollywood Wildcat stakes on the dirt at Monmouth Park September 22^nd. We plan to enter her if she’s doing well, look at the race and either run there or scratch and run in one of several allowance races towards the end of the month at various tracks.
• Solar seems to be fine now, the cut is healing and did not bleed at all after training the past week so we’ll be looking to breeze him soon and assuming he’s good out of the work look for a race for him later this month at Monmouth Park.
• Magic Musketier good, there’s a race on Sept. 21^st for him at Los Alamitos.  
• Rapstorerocks good out of his debut, will run back in 3-4 weeks.
• Start A Fire and Giuliana Vee both good out of their works. There’s a race at Monmouth Park in 2 weeks for Start A Fire’s debut, hopefully it will go. Giuliana Vee continues to impress in her training, about 4-5 weeks away from her debut if all keeps going well.
• Night Of Idiots good out of her work last weekend  at Golden Gate. “I think she’s getting close (to a race), she got a little tired on the gallop out but she’s doing well, maybe a couple more (works) and run”, trainer Jonathan Wong. 
• New Found Treasure good. There’s an ideal spot for her against what should be slightly softer company September 21^st at Monmouth Park, hopefully it will go. She’s ready!
• No Good Deed breezed at T-Square Stud Wednesday and did absolutely great. Assuming she comes out of it well she will ship into trainer Ron Spatz at Gulfstream Park next week. 
• Shake It Up Baby will go back into training at T-Square Stud end of next week.
• Bullion will return to training Friday with Steve Asmussen at Churchill Downs.
• Exchanging Ember arrived safely at her new home, St. Omer’s farm in Maryland, where she’ll be bred to new sire Force The Pass her new owner Wasabi Ventures Stables reports. It’s a lovely facility and a great home for her. Remember Kenwood and her co-owners have a participation interest in her first two foals to look forward to. Below is a very nice photo of her just arrived at the farm, she looks wonderful and you can see just from the background it’s a lovely facility.

Exchanging Ember at St Omers Farm. Photo courtesy of Adam Parker.

• Lisa Limon’s stock continues to skyrocket, she’s in foal to first crop sire Liam’s Map, whose two year old son Basin ran away with the grade 1 Hopeful stakes at Saratoga and currently ranks as one of the top two year olds in the country. Last weekend Liam’s Map had two more impressive maiden special weight winners at Belmont & Gulfstream. Plus Lisa’s two year old half-brother placed in a stake (2^nd by a neck in a very game effort) in his 2^nd career start, so there’s a lot of good things going on with her family. She is entered in the Keeneland November sale in Kentucky and we are excited to see her sell there.

• Annie’s Candy will not run Friday, totally unrealistic spot for him. We’ll have to scratch and look for something else.  
• Starring John Wain will be entered Wednesday for this weekend at Los Alamitos.
• Magic Musketier  good out of work (below), there’s a race on Sept. 21^st for him at Los Alamitos.  
• Rapstorerocks good out of his debut yesterday at Monmouth Park, will run back in 3-4 weeks.
• Start A Fire and Giuliana Vee both good out of their works yesterday at Monmouth Park. There’s a race at Monmouth in 2 weeks for Start A Fire’s debut, hopefully it will go. Giuliana Vee continues to impress in her training, about 4-5 weeks away from her debut if all keeps going well.
• Life On the Edge good, will breeze this week. Looking to run her back in 2-3 weeks in an allowance event or maybe a stake on the dirt at Monmouth Park on September 22nd.
• No Good Deed will breeze at T-Square Stud tomorrow and if she comes out of it well and seems ready to return to the track will ship into trainer Ron Spatz at Gulfstream Park the end of this week.
• Shake It Up Baby and Bullion fine on the farm. Shake It Up Baby will go back into training at T-Square Stud end of next week.

Results, works, entry

• Rapstorerocks made his career debut today at Monmouth Park in an overflow field of talented maidens (as most maiden two year old grass races are) and finished 6^th. He broke sharply, sat a nice trip under Jomar Torres, and didn’t run badly for a first race while very ‘green’ throughout. He galloped out in front of the entire field. His rider felt he had talent and would benefit greatly from the addition of blinkers to help focus him. The next race will tell a lot more, we expect him to make a nice move forward there.
• Start A Fire and Giuliana Vee both breezed very well today at Monmouth Park from the gate (works below). Start A Fire worked a very nice half mile with a strong gallop out 5/8 in 102.0. “He had his head down, focused, galloped out strong, much more professional today. I think we’re pretty close to a race”, Kelly Breen. Giuliana Vee worked a very quick 3/8 mile in 36.0 in company, head to head with another horse. See photos below. Making excellent progress towards a debut next month.

• Looking for a race for ShimmyShimmy Shake, maybe we’ll get something for her next weekend. We’d like to run her at Monmouth Park one more time before she ships out to Penn National. Training well.
• Annie’s Candy’s claiming race at Los Alamitos did not go for Friday so he’s in a starter allowance event, we will evaluate the race and decide what we want to do. He’s training great and ready to run.
• Magic Musketier good out of work (below), there’s a race on Sept. 21^st for him at Los Alamitos.  
• Starring John Wain doing well, a nice maintenance work this morning (below) there’s a spot to enter in for him also this week at Los Alamitos..
• Night Of Idiots worked this morning at Golden Gate Fields and is doing well. “I think she’s getting close (to a race), she got a little tired on the gallop out but she’s doing well, maybe a couple more (works) and run”, trainer Jonathan Wong. 

• Life On the Edge good, will breeze this week. Looking to run her back in 2-3 weeks in an allowance event or maybe a stake on the dirt at Monmouth Park.
• Solar galloped nicely again this morning at Monmouth Park, his second time back on the track since he sustained a really nasty cut on his left rear stifle that bled profusely during his race last week. Seems to be fine now, the cut is healing and did not bleed at all after the gallop so we’ll be looking to breeze him soon and assuming he’s good out of the work look for a race for him later this month.
• New Found Treasure:good. There’s an ideal spot for her in two weeks at Monmouth Park against what should be slightly softer company, hopefully she’ll be ready and it will go.
• Lisa Limon’s stock continues to skyrocket, she’s in foal to first crop sire Liam’s Map, whose two year old son Basin ran away with the grade 1 Hopeful stakes at Saratoga and currently ranks as one of the top two year olds in the country and yesterday Liam’s Map had two more impressive maiden special weight winners at Belmont & Gulfstream. Here is an article from yesterday profiling Liam’s Map, Liam’s Map Stays Hot, Sires Second ‘Rising Star’. He’s on track to be one of the leading two year old sires in North America this year. Plus Lisa Limon’s two year old half-brother placed in a stake (2^nd by a neck in a very game effort) in his 2^nd career start, so there’s a lot of good things going on with her family. She is entered in the Keeneland November sale in Kentucky and we are excited to see her sell there.

Horse Workout Notification
September 8, 2019
Start a Fire (2-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse
Date: September 8, 2019
Track: MONMOUTH PARK
Distance: Five Furlongs
Time: 1.02:00 Breezing
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt

Giuliana Vee (2-Year-Old Filly)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse, purchased OBS MArch 2019
Date: September 8, 2019
Track: MONMOUTH PARK
Distance: Three Furlongs
Time: 36:00 Breezing
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 3/25

Starring John Wain (3-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: Private purchase
Date: September 8, 2019
Track: LOS ALAMITOS
Distance: Five Furlongs
Time: 1.01:20 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 4/5

Night of Idiots(4-Year-Old Filly)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse, claim 12-8-18 @GGF
Date: September 8, 2019
Track: GOLDEN GATE FIELDS
Distance: Five Furlongs
Time: 1.03:00 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: All Weather Track
Rank: 36/73

Results, claim, works

• Smarty Cat made her second career start Saturday at Monmouth Park, looking to build on a nice 3^rd in her debut and ran dead last as the heavy favorite in a small field on the dirt. While she did get caught up in a speed battle early and had the rail, which was the deepest part of the track due to heavy rains last night, she really had no excuse for stopping that badly, thus we were not sorry to see her claimed from us for $40,000 out of the race. We wish her new owners luck with her, and have no problem moving on to other horses.
• Rapstorerocks makes his career debut tomorrow at Monmouth Park. It’s an overflow field of seemingly talented maidens (as most maiden two year old grass races are) and he’s not bred to be a precocious type, but that said he’s trained well for this and is on the surface he’s bred for (turf) at the right distance so hoping for a solid debut.
• Start A Fire and Giuliana Vee were scheduled to breeze together today at Monmouth Park, but due to the overnight rains mentioned above, none of our horses had timed works, just gallops, so they are scheduled to breeze together tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
• Annie’s Candy and Magic Musketier both had fine works today at Los Alamitos (below) as they look for their next starts.   
• Starring John Wain doing well, just looking for a spot to run at Los Alamitos.
• Night Of Idiots also doing well in California
• Life On the Edge good, will breeze this week at Monmouth Park.
• Solar galloped nicely this morning at Monmouth Park, his first time back on the track since he sustained a really nasty cut on his left rear stifle that bled profusely during his race last week. Seems to be fine now, the cut is healing and did not bleed at all after the gallop.

A fine morning for training Monmouth Park this Saturday as a large group of current owners and members of our final ‘owner for a day’ seminar for 2019 watched most of our horses train.  Later, everyone enjoyed a fine afternoon of racing from a parterre suite. All four of this year’s seminars were over sold once again this year, and we are pleased to welcome an all-time record number of new owners to our Taste of Thoroughbred Ownership program for 2019. We have a lot of exciting changes – developments coming to the program for next year, stay tuned!

Horse Workout Notification
September 7, 2019
Magic Musketier (4-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: Private purchase
Date: September 7, 2019
Track: LOS ALAMITOS
Distance: Four Furlongs
Time: 48:60 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 5/14

Annie's Candy (6-Year-Old Gelding)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse, claimed 10-28-18 at GGF
Date: September 7, 2019
Track: LOS ALAMITOS
Distance: Five Furlongs
Time: 59:60 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 2/18

Another entry, another big weekend

• Rapstorerocks makes his career debut Sunday at Monmouth Park, in race 7. It’s an overflow field of seemingly talented maidens (as most maiden two year old grass races are) and he’s not bred to be a precocious type but that said he’s trained well for this and is on the surface he’s bred for (turf) at the right distance, so hoping for a solid debut
• Race for ShimmyShimmy Shake on Sunday at Monmouth Park had just two entries, they don’t use two horse races and they don’t bring them back so she’s not running this weekend. Maybe we’ll get something for her next weekend, we’d like to run her at Monmouth Park one more time before she ships out to Penn National
• Smarty Cat makes her second career start Saturday at Monmouth Park, looking to build on a nice 3^rd in her debut as she comes back on 2 weeks rest. It’s a small field on the dirt, she gets leading rider Nik Juarez, and if she can handle the shorter than usual time between races she should be tough to beat in here.

All owners who need help with seating-admissions for this exciting weekend please email George@Kenwoodracing.com

Final call for MORNING TRAINING at Monmouth Park this Saturday, please RSVP if you wish to attend. A special invite for those new owners who have yet to attend a morning training session, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how this business really works and see your horses up close. We hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity at least once before racing ends for the season at Monmouth Park next month.

Another entry, another big weekend

Final call for MORNING TRAINING at Monmouth Park this Saturday, please RSVP if you wish to attend. A special invite for those new owners who have yet to attend a morning training session, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how this business really works and see your horses up close. We hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity at least once before racing ends for the season at Monmouth next month.

• Smarty Cat makes her second career start in race 2 at Monmouth Park, looking to build on a nice 3^rd in her debut as she comes back on 2 weeks rest this Saturday. It’s a small field on the dirt, she gets leading rider Nik Juarez, and if she can handle the shorter than usual time between races she should be tough to beat in here. All owners who need help with seating-admissions please email George@Kenwoodracing.com
• Rapstorerocks and ShimmyShimmy Shake will both be entered tomorrow for Sunday at Monmouth Park, so if their races go it will be another action-filled weekend for Kenwood Racing runners.
• Start A Fire and Giuliana Vee worked together from the gate this morning at Monmouth Park with a 3^rd horse and both went really well. Not timed works, the next of those for both of them is scheduled for this Saturday (when we will have morning training for owners at Monmouth), but both went really well. Start A Fire is about three weeks and Giuliana Vee about six weeks from their debuts. You can see a video taken by trainer Kelly Breen here:

• New Found Treasure: there is an ideal spot for her in two weeks against what should be slightly softer company, hopefully she’ll be ready and it will go.
• Starring John Wain and Annie’s Candy doing well, just looking for a spot to run them, maybe at Los Alamitos in September
• Night Of Idiots and Magic Musketier also doing well in California
• Scat Daddy filly Lisa Limon fine at farm in Kentucky. She’s in foal to first crop sire Liam’s Map, whose two year old son Basin ran away with the grade 1 Hopeful stakes at Saratoga and is currently ranks as one of the three top two year olds in the country. Plus Lisa Limon’s two year old half-brother placed in a stake (2^nd by a neck in a very game effort) in his 2^nd career start, so there’s a lot of good things going on with her family. She is entered in the Keeneland November sale in Kentucky and we are excited to see her sell there.

This is a good time to remind our many new co-owners that all races mentioned may or may not go, all horses may need more or less time than timing - dates shown on our website, etc. New owners regularly email us with questions like “I see my horse is scheduled to run on ---- date, I want to make plans – buy plane tickets for that day”……There are never guaranteed race dates with any horse anywhere in the world, anytime in history (seriously!). Sorry, it’s not a football or basketball game, it just doesn’t work that way. Famous champions have gotten sick or hurt the morning of a Triple Crown race and been scratched, horses get scratched at the starting gate. Once at Parx, the entire racing card was cancelled because of little rodents on the track (really!). This year, they cancelled half the races on Haskell Day at Monmouth Park with no notice because of heat as many of you remember. We didn’t have any horses running but if we did you’d have made a trip for nothing with no notice. In this business, shit happens! Thus sayings like ‘this is the most wonderful and the most frustrating business in the world’ and ‘there’s 1 way to win a race and 100 ways to lose a race’.

Morning update and plans for next weekend

Happy Labor Day to everyone and congratulations to Liam’s Map’s son Basin, who won the Grade 1 Hopeful stakes at Saratoga today, going away in a cakewalk! Our own Lisa Limon is in foal to first-crop sire Liam’s Map and scheduled to sell at Keeneland in November. Congratulations to all of Basin’s connections including trainer Steve Asmussen (who trains Bullion for Kenwood Racing and partners) and especially to the owners of Lisa Limon. This one is a gamechanger!

BASIN & @Jose93_Ortiz take the #Runhappy Hopeful! Congrats to connections Trainer Steve Asmussen & Jackpot Farm! pic.twitter.com/I8rio40xVr

— TVG (@TVG) September 2, 2019

A quick update on your horses after all the excitement yesterday and plans for the coming week…

We expect to have MORNING TRAINING at Monmouth Park this Saturday (still not finalized but there will be something later this week and that’s the most likely date). Space is always limited so please RSVP if you wish to attend. A special invite for those new owners who have yet to attend a morning training session, this is a great opportunity to learn more about how this business really works and see your horses up close. We hope everyone will take advantage of this opportunity at least once before racing ends for the season at Monmouth Park next month.

• Life On the Edge good this morning. She ran an absolutely excellent and courageous race; set a very fast pace (almost as fast for the first 6 furlongs as older males ran in the graded Red Bank stakes a few races later). It was one of those cases where the placing said little about the talent and effort she showed. The footnotes in the official chart of the race detail how well she ran. While she handled the turf fine, she didn’t move up on it like some horses do, her career will probably be mostly on dirt. Might prove best at sprints but as you could see yesterday, her speed lets her get a clear lead in routes which is a major advantage, so future distances are open to discussion. Bottom line to quote trainer Kelly Breen “she showed today she’s a racehorse”. Her owners have a lot to look forward to with this filly.
• Solar good this morning out of his race where he sustained a cut during the race. Looks like he’ll be fine to run back in a few weeks with no long term effects. 

weekend, results & works

An exciting and action filled day at Monmouth Park, as a large group of owners enjoyed the day in a private Parterre Suite watching two Kenwood runners compete.

• Life On the Edge ran an absolutely excellent and courageous race at 31 to 1 odds in the $100,000 Sorority Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park. Broke sharp, went right to the lead and set a very fast pace (almost as fast for the first 6 furlongs as older males ran in the graded Red Bank stakes a few races later) while running hard every step of the way. She led into the stretch before tiring noticeably late to finish 6^th but it was one of those cases where the finish said little about the talent and effort she showed. The footnotes in the official chart of the race actually detail how well she ran very clearly. It was an ENORMOUS leap from maiden claiming to stakes company, plus going from dirt to turf and from a sprint to a mile. A lot to digest to say the least and she proved competitive here with a very game effort. To quote trainer Kelly Breen “she showed today she’s a racehorse”. Her owners have a lot to look forward to with this filly.

• Then Solar ran in the final race of the day also at Monmouth Park under premier rider Paco Lopez. He was primed for a top effort and went off the heavy favorite, finishing off the board. He got cut during the race, which no doubt factored into not firing, but came out of the race fine.
• New Found Treasure  good out of her 3^rd place finish yesterday at Monmouth Park.  
• Starring John Wain had an excellent work this morning at Del Mar (below) and is ready for anything we can find for him.   

Horse Workout Notification 
September 1, 2019
Starring John Wain (3-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: Private purchase
Date: September 1, 2019
Track: DEL MAR
Distance: Five Furlongs
Time: 1.02:60 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 3/7

A huge weekend: races, workouts and more! Read below for a ton of exciting news….

• New Found Treasure began another big weekend today in a nice spot, hoping to end the month with another good effort and finished 3^rd at Monmouth Park She didn’t run badly; got a perfect ride from top jockey Paco Lopez, had a clean trip and just didn’t have enough punch to catch the top two horses when asked for run while besting the rest of a strung out field. It’s very similar to the 3^rd she ran for us in her Kenwood debut last time, she’s an honest, consistent filly. There’s an ideal spot for her in three weeks against what should be slightly softer company, hopefully she’ll be ready and it will go.
• On Sunday, Life On the Edge will run in the $100,000 Sorority Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park. Off her super impressive win, as well as she’s training and with the talent she’s shown that she deserves a chance to see if she can be competitive in this spot. Then Solar runs in the 13^th and final race of the day, he gets premier rider Paco Lopez, and is primed for a top effort. Kenwood will have a parterre suite for the day with food and drink for all owners, please join us.  Anyone wishing help with seating – admissions – parterre suite this weekend, kindly contact George@kenwoodracing.com 

Workouts this morning for several horses (all below).

• Start A Fire worked in company and beat his workmate at Monmouth Park. An improvement from last week while still a slow work.
• Giuliana Vee had her first timed work at Monmouth Park since her return from the farm and went super, fast and easy, just what you want to see. If all goes well this puts her in line to run towards the end of October.
• Rapstorerocks worked really well at Monmouth Park also, a final tune-up for his career debut September 8^th. For a grass-distance horse to work as well as he has at 4 furlongs is certainly promising.
• Finally, Annie’s Candy worked quick at Los Alamitos after races for him at Del Mar failed to go twice. Doing well, just looking for a spot to run.

Horse Workout Notification 
August 31, 2019
Start a Fire (2-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse
Date: August 31, 2019
Track: MONMOUTH PARK
Distance: Four Furlongs
Time: 49:40 Breezing
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 37/67

Giuliana Vee (2-Year-Old Filly)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse, purchased OBS MArch 2019
Date: August 31, 2019
Track: MONMOUTH PARK
Distance: Three Furlongs
Time: 36:40 Breezing
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 5/18

Rapstorerocks (2-Year-Old Colt)
Your comments for this horse were: Purchased oBS June 2019
Date: August 31, 2019
Track: MONMOUTH PARK
Distance: Four Furlongs
Time: 48:80 Breezing
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 17/67

Annie's Candy (6-Year-Old Gelding)
Your comments for this horse were: KRP Racehorse, claimed 10-28-18 at GGF
Date: August 31, 2019
Track: LOS ALAMITOS
Distance: Four Furlongs
Time: 47:80 Handily
Track Condition: Fast
Surface: Dirt
Rank: 4/21

A big week continues with a huge weekend, read below for a ton of exciting racing news….

• Magic Musketier was in a nice spot for his return to the races after a summer freshening today at Del Mar. Sat a good trip close up early, but stopped badly in the stretch after being blocked with nowhere to go. He’d been training really well for this and we expected much better. We’ll see how he comes out of it and go from there.

BIG entry news for this weekend:

• As previously reported New Found Treasure  gets in the entries at Monmouth Park Saturday in a nice spot, hoping to end the month with another good effort here. Then we begin September with two huge entries Sunday.
• Solar’s race at Monmouth Park finally went, he’s doing excellent, gets premier rider Paco Lopez, and is primed for a top effort.
• Life On the Edgeis entered in the $100,000 Sorority Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park

Anyone wishing help with seating – admissions this weekend, kindly contact George@kenwoodracing.com

Remember, all entries for possible upcoming races are here.