On Saturday, Ezmosh took the G3 Arlington Classic to become Ten Strike’s first Graded Stakes winner in just 2 years of the syndicate’s existence. A recent private purchase for the group, he stalked the pace and showed a quick turn of foot in the stretch to draw away from the field.
Both Ten Strike and Madaket Stables (Sol Kumin) teamed up to partner with original owners Zayat Stables on the 3 year old Brad Cox-trainee who is now 2 for 2 since switching surfaces to the turf. Ezmosh will point to the G3 American Derby on July 7th at Arlington for his next start.
Marshall Gramm was recently featured in the Blood Horse following Black Stetson’s win in the Bridgetown Stakes. Click below to read the full article:
Black Stetson scored in the first ever running of the Bridgetown Stakes at Aqueduct going wire-to-wire 6 furlongs on the Turf at 18-1 for trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero.
Privately purchased by Ten Strike after a last place finish in a Maiden $75k at Keeneland, Black Stetson has truly rounded into form under Juan Carlos Guerrero. He broke his maiden in his second start for Ten Strike, ran 2nd in an Alw-1X and on April 14th, won the Bridgetown Stakes at Aqueduct in a gritty fashion. He hasn’t finished out of the top two in his three starts of 2018 earning just shy of $100,000.
After this tenacious victory against stiff New York company, Black Stetson looks to be primed for a Stakes filled Spring/Summer campaign.
Dot Matrix, a homebred for Ten Strike Racing, turned in a major effort to run 2nd by a nose to G2 winner Arklow in an Allowance on February 24th at the Fair Grounds. Traveling two-wide the entirety of the race, he was just caught by a late running Arklow who is a very talented turf horse geared for a big 2018.
Since transferring barns to Brad Cox, Dot Matrix has now strung together back-to-back impressive performances (a first and second) at the Fair Grounds.
Dot Matrix is out of Aunt Dot Dot who Ten Strike co-founder Marshall Gramm claimed in 2008. It was the first horse he ever claimed and he still owns her.
Not only did Dot Matrix earn a career best 90 Beyer, his TimeFormUS rating of 116 came back higher than Arklow’s in the same race (115).
A New York bred that has earned $184,241, he will head back to New York for his next start. Dot Matrix gave the Ten Strike Partnership a massive thrill this past summer at Saratoga, and is trending toward more thrills to come!
Since first entering the barn of Brad Cox in June of 2017, Cheponera has displayed flashes of serious talent. On Friday, she put it all together storming home to a 3 length Allowance score.
Purchased by stable manager and bloodstock agent Liz Crow on behalf of Ten Strike Racing from the 2017 OBS June Sale for $27,000, she made two starts before breaking her maiden in her third start on Thanksgiving Day at Churchill Downs.
On Friday, she made her first start of 2018, winning a $76,000 Allowance race at Oaklawn Park. This was her first test around two-turns and she handled it like a complete professional. Jockey Fernando De La Cruz settled her on the rail as they stalked the pace setting First Alternate. As they entered the stretch, Cheponera briefly engaged First Alternate before putting her and the rest of the field away (Replay here).
Cheponera, who is now undefeated since adding blinkers, earned a 78 Beyer and a 12 ½ Ragozin and winning her last two starts by a combined 7 ½ lengths. This win and subsequent numbers places her, and Ten Strike Racing, in the middle of a Kentucky Oaks bid. She will next target the G3 Honeybee going 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn.
Below is an excerpt from an article written in the DRF on Cheponera and her performance:
“Cheponera, also ridden by De La Cruz, stalked the pace, overtook the leaders, and shuttled home for a 3 1/4 length win in the 1 1/16-mile allowance for 3-year-old fillies. It was her first start at two turns, and her second straight win behind a $30,000 maiden-claiming race at a one-turn mile Nov. 23 at Churchill Downs.
“She stepped up,” Cox said. “The first couple of races she just didn’t perform quite as well as we thought she would. She’s gotten better with distance. Her last two races have been really nice.”
Cheponera, a daughter of Flat Out who races for Ten Strike Racing, earned a Beyer Figure of 78 and will be pointed to the Honeybee, a 1 1/16-mile race March 10 at Oaklawn that serves as the final stepping-stone to the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy on April 13.” Full article here.
Congratulations to all of our partners on a fantastic win! Lots to look forward to and she has certainly become a favorite of the group! Pictured below with Sophia (daughter of Ten Strike partner Gary Garlington)
Blood-Horse Article:
Ten Strike Racing’s Zanotti shipped outside Parx Racing for the first time since 2016 and found the going at sloppy Aqueduct Racetrack to his liking as the Gio Ponti gelding rallied on the outside to post a neck victory in the $125,000 Queens County Stakes at 38-1 odds.
Settled in mid-pack by jockey Jorge Vargas Jr., Zanotti stalked comfortably in fifth as favored Alex the Terror led the field of nine through fractions of :24.33 for the opening quarter-mile with the half-mile in :48.47. At the quarter pole, Alex the Terror remained in front as Zanotti angled four-wide into the upper stretch and began passing foes. Zanotti collared Alex the Terror at the sixteenth pole and they engaged in a battle to the wire, with Zanotti securing the win with the last bob.
The final time was 1:51.64 for the 1 1/8 miles over the sloppy, sealed track.
Zanotti returned $78.50, $25.20, and $11.60 across the board.
Trained by Juan Carlos Guerrero, the 4-year-old picked up his first black-type win Saturday and improved his record to 7-3-2 in 18 starts, with earnings of $251,904. The Queens County was the first start for the winner since he took an optional-claiming allowance at Parx July 25.
“First of all I have to give a lot of credit to Carlos Guerrero,” Vargas said. “He brought this horse with his ‘A’ game. He hasn’t run since July, that was my main concern, but he was training so good. When I asked him to take a shot, he was all out for me. I thought he was going to be a little sharper (out of the gate) than he was, so I just let him flow out there and he just put me in the right spot. Good trip. When I angled out he just took off.
“I have always told Carlos that he is a nice horse. He can run all day. You work him five-eighths, he goes in a minute and then he wants to keep galloping out to the quarter pole without even blowing.”
Zanotti was bred by Kilboy Estate and Castleton Lyons, the farm near Lexington where the winner’s sire, Gio Ponti, stands for a 2018 fee of $5,000.
Co-Founder of Ten Strike Racing Marshall Gramm, spoke at the Global Symposium on Racing in Arizona on December 4th.
Article in the Daily Racing Form…
TUCSON, Ariz. – A succession of racing analysts appearing on a Tuesday panel at the University of Arizona Global Symposium on Racing urged racetracks in the U.S. to lower takeout rates for single-race bets such as win and exacta wagers in order to reverse protracted declines in betting on horse racing.
The panelists, appearing on the opening morning of the two-day Symposium, included an economics professor specializing in wagering markets, a former top official at the New York Racing Association and the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and the head of a rebate shop. All contended that both racetracks and their customers would benefit from the reductions, while cautioning that any proposal to reduce takeout rates would need to be endorsed long-term by the largest racetracks in the country to bear fruit.
“It has to start with the industry leaders,” said Bill Nader, a former chief operating officer of the New York Racing Association who was also the executive director of racing at the Hong Kong Jockey Club for eight years, ending in 2016. “And they have to make a big leap. This will not work in isolation.”
In a larger context, the comments from the panelists could be viewed as an unusually sharp rebuke to Keeneland, the central Kentucky racetrack that drew widespread criticism from the horseplaying community earlier this year when it raised the takeout rates for its bets for the fall meet. All three panelists cited the Keeneland decision while making their remarks, with several taking particular issue with Keeneland’s justification of needing more revenue from wagering to boost purses.
“There may be short-term gains, but there are long-term losses,” said Marshall Gramm, a professor of economics at Rhodes College who is well known in the horseplaying community and who described himself in his opening remarks as “a horseplayer first, and an economist second.”
Citing statistical models he built to examine the impact of takeout rates on the amount racetracks retain from wagering, Gramm said that reductions in takeout long-term would have no statistical impact on the amount of money retained by tracks because of the impact of churn. Under the low-takeout model, because players would bet more of their winnings back into the pools, racetracks would retain the same amount of money on betting over the longer period of time, Gramm said.
To optimize the impacts of churn, Gramm and the other two advocates for lower takeout rates said that racetracks needed to prioritize single-race bets such as win, place, show, exacta, and trifecta for the takeout reductions. They also claimed that lowering or maintaining low takeout rates for multi-race wagers like the pick 4 and pick 5, along with jackpot-style bets that only pay out if there is a single winner, is counter-productive, contradicting a handful of recent decisions by racetracks. (Keeneland raised all of its takeout rates with the exception of the pick 5, which it lowered.)
“I don’t personally understand why a 15 percent takeout rate is needed on a pick 5 when it only comes out once and that money is tied up for five races,” Nader said.
Both Nader and Gramm pointed out that bettors are more likely to cash a winning bet on single-race wagers, and that they are also more likely to bet the winnings from those wagers back into the pool. As an ancillary benefit, Nader and Gramm said, racetracks should also push new horseplayers to bet on the simpler low-takeout bets in order to maximize the possibility that those players will have a rewarding experience when playing.
To read more go to DRF.com or click here
Written By Eric Wing, December 5, 2017
Of the 128 entries that left the starting gate for last Saturday’s $78,729 cash game at HorseTourneys, Tanya Taylor, in hindsight, had to be among the least likely winners—at least as of the start of the day.
That is no knock on the Little Rock, Arkansas, resident’s handicapping acumen—which is considerable—but rather a function of her decision earlier that day to only play in the game if she won a $695 entry for it in that morning’s Early-Bird, $78 feeder.
“I don’t consider myself a big gambler,” admitted the 54-year-old physical therapist, who will be playing in her third straight NHC next February, and has qualified for the BCBC a couple of times and The BIG One once, but hasn’t really played in many high-stakes cash games.
Still, with it being opening day at Gulfstream and Cigar Mile Day at Aqueduct, Taylor knew it could be her kind of day.
“I like to play on days when horses I like are running,” she said. “I keep a watch list and on big days like Saturday, I know the horses are really trying. Lower-level claimers are not my thing. Sometimes those horses need a race or are being given a race.”
The contest day started early for Taylor, with her last-minute feeder commencing at 10:30 am local time. When her pick in the Aqueduct opener, Memories of Peter, registered a victory at 2-1 odds, Taylor was pleased, though she knew that win guaranteed nothing. After the first at Gulfstream, though, things got considerably more exciting.
“There was a first-time starter in there going long on the grass named Ms. Peintour,” said Taylor. “She was by Paynter, which I liked. And the trainer stats I was looking at said that the trainer [Lilli Kurtinecz] had run four horses going first time grass and had a winning percentage of 50% with a $10.00 R.O.I. I said to myself, ‘This fits perfectly.’”
Clearly, not many others handicapped the race as Taylor did. Ms. Peintour went off at 65-1, and when she won, her believer in Little Rock had a max win/place payoff of $64.00 that basically assured her of the top-10 finish she needed for a $695 spot in that afternoon’s big-money game.
Her early objective now completed, it was time to study up on the later races.
“I only used the Brisnet PPs that come with an entry on the HorseTourneys site,” Taylor said. “I seem to have good luck with those. I spent an hour or so quickly looking over everything and then entered all my picks. I don’t usually like to change my picks much even in a live contest.”
Her first 10 picks in the 15-race final were solid but not remarkable. With five races to go, she was in 25th place or so. But no giant prices had come in, so it was a pretty bunched up field.
In the 11th at Gulfstream, the Claiming Crown Jewel, she was torn between a pair of longshots—16-1 Flowers for Lisa and 29-1 Diamond Bachelor. Her initial pick earlier in the day was Flowers for Lisa. Then when she saw the big odds on Diamond Bachelor, she switched the pick to him. As the horses began to load, though, thoughts of her sister (and frequent companion to Oaklawn Park) Meleah came to mind.
“My sister thinks my first thoughts are my best thoughts,” Taylor said. “When we’re at the races together, she won’t ask me who I like. She’ll say, ‘What was your first pick?’ She jokes about wanting to play in contests just using first choices that I switch off.”
As the Jewel field loaded, Taylor thought about her sister’s good-natured ribbing and decided to switch her pick back to original selection Flowers for Lisa? But would there still be time?
She toggled to the selection page as fast as she could and, thanks in large part to the large, 12-horse field, she got the pick switched in a nick of time. Two minutes later, Flowers for Lisa won the Jewel (Diamond Bachelor finished third) and the payoff of $35.80 to win and $16.40 to place catapulted Taylor all the way to seventh place.
There were now four races left, all from Los Alamitos, and after two of those races, she was up to fourth. Then came race 7.
“I was excited about the last two races because I knew the two I liked had odds,” Taylor said, referring to a pair of longshots. “One was Krsto Skye in the 7th. This was a horse I had played before, and I liked that Stewart Elliott was jumping on board for this race. I thought he had been riding well of late. He was 20-1 in the morning line but got bet down early to 7-1. Fortunately he floated back up.”
Neither Elliott nor the toteboard let Taylor down. Krsto Skye won and paid $28.20 to win and $10.20 to place. Taylor was now in first place by $11.80. Would the lead hold up?
The final-race horse that Taylor originally liked was 49-1 shot Empress of Love. But would playing such a horse make sense now that she was in the lead?
“I saw the odds and thought to myself, ‘She’s not going to do anything.’ But I thought about it some more and figured that if anyone other than the first or second choices won, I’d probably lose. So I stuck with her. She wound up running a creditable fourth.”
Taylor watched the race at home with her two dogs, including Max, who likes to hoot and hollar right along with his master when she is cheering a horse home. (Max gets extra excited, according to Taylor, when it’s Trevor Denman calling the race. She’s says he really likes his voice.)
Happily for Taylor (and Max), the two favorites–numbers 1 and 4–opened up a big lead turning for home, and that’s the way they finished. No one near Taylor in the standings had either horse, and she was home free—the winner of $35,428.
“I was so excited. This is my very first one,” Taylor said of her big contest win. “I’d won seats before to the BCBC, which is worth $10,000, but nothing like this.”
The immediate future holds great excitement for Taylor. In addition to her NHC appearance next February, she enjoys following the four horses she owns in partnership via Ten Strike Racing. The quartet includes a pair of Brad Cox trainees — Pioneer ofthe Nile 2-year-old Take That for Data and recent Churchill Downs winner Cheponara.
She also expects to continue playing the races enthusiastically on weekends, and to continue playing tournaments online.
“It’s easier for me,” she said. “I’m used to the $2.00 win/place format.”
She does see one potential change in her routine going forward, though.
“I guess I might start playing in more cash tourneys,” Taylor said with a laugh.
Anyone in the Thoroughbred industry knows that owning a horse that wins a race is a great accomplishment in itself. Owning a horse that wins a race at Saratoga is something even greater. But on Thursday, August 24th, Ten Strike Racing accomplished something very few owners ever have:
Win with a homebred at Saratoga.
Ten Strike co-founder Marshall Gramm claimed his first horse in 2008, a 6 year-old mare by Gulch that had made 42 career starts. Her name was Aunt Dot Dot and she raced seven more times before he retired her in February of 2009 and bred her to the full brother of Giant’s Causeway, Freud. The mating resulted in a bay colt named Dot Matrix.
Dot Matrix has had 14 Career starts and run in the money 8 times including 3 wins. His most recent win, of course, was at Saratoga in a $35,000 Claiming Race. View Race Replay here (Thursday, Aug. 24, Race 3).
Marshall Gramm summed the win up best, “Nothing beats winning with a homebred at Saratoga”
Ten Strike Racing is no stranger to the winner’s circle at Parx Racetrack. Currently, they lead all other owners at the Philadelphia track in number of wins, win percentage and top 3 percentage as seen below:
Their momentum has been strong in the past week with three impressive performances, two of which came at Parx and one at Indiana Grand:
July 18, Indiana Grand – Dance Proudly (click her to watch the replay)
Trainer: Randy Matthews
Jockey: Richard Bracho
Dance Proudly broke smartly from the gate and Richard Bracho gave the gelding a ground saving trip on the rail as they went in 21.31 and 43.76. Turning for home, Black Tavish looked as if he was going to pull away from Dance Proudly, but the Ten Strike color bearer dug deep, regained his balance and came with a run that saw him win by 1 ¾ lengths.
July 24, Parx – Tarpy’s Surprise (click here to watch the replay)
Trainer: Shea Stuart
Jockey: Eddie Castro
Tarpy’s Surprise, a private purchase for Ten Strike Racing in June, was making his first start for the partnership and trainer Shea Stuart. He broke well and settled in a stalking position on the rail in 4th. Tarpy’s Surprise was sent on by jockey Eddie Castro at the half mile pole and by the top of the stretch, there were no challengers for tarpy’s Surprise as he won by 5 ½ lengths. This was trainer Shea Stuart’s first win with tarpy Surprise and first for Ten Strike Racing.
July 25th, Parx – Zanotti (click here to watch the replay)
Trainer: Juan Carlos Guerrero
Jockey: Jorge Vargas Jr.
Zanotti was sent off the heavy favorite in this race. He broke mid pack and settled two wide behind the leaders. Zanotti slowly began to pick off his opponents one at a time and by the time they reached the ¾ pole, he was cruising past the leader. Jorge Vargas gave Zanotti a hand ride down the stretch to win by 7 lengths. Zanotti now has 7 starts for 4 wins and 3 places.
Ten Strike Racing