LEVY COUNTY, FL (352today.com) – Levy and Marion Counties were represented with winners at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 2 at the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, CA.
Morriston-trained Sierra Leone won the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic; Williston-trained Straight No Chaser won the $2 million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint; and Summerfield-trained Thorpedo Anna won the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
The extremely consistent Sierra Leone, who has never finished worse than third in his career and was second in this year’s Kentucky Derby, picked up his third stakes win of 2024 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“He was a highly regarded colt when he came to me from the yearling sales, being a big-ticket price of over $2 million,” said David Scanlon, who trains at Oak Ridge Training Center n Morriston. “We were thrilled with him when Chad (Brown, his trainer at the racetrack) was reporting how well things were going, and obviously with his early races.”
Scanlon knows how to win Triple Crown races. He and his father have both had winners in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, but the Kentucky Derby has slipped away from him. It’s been an up-and-down year for Sierra Leone. Still, everything came together in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“We were starting to feel pretty confident coming down the backside,” said Scanlon. “He started rolling, and I said, ‘Man, he’s in a great spot, he’s moving,’ and around the turn, he was like a freight train.”
Sierra Leone, after coming in second and third in stakes races at Saratoga, including the Belmont Stakes, discovered that he enjoyed southern California.
“I thought his kick in all his races at Saratoga lacked a bit of the punch that showed at Keeneland in the Blue Grass Stakes; I just don’t think he had the same punch at Saratoga in his races,” said Scanlon. “I said to my wife, ‘Getting out of Saratoga might be good; I don’t think he liked it there.’ His races didn’t seem to have the same punch, his late kick to them.”
Paul Sharp Stables in Williston, owned by Paul and Sarah Monohan-Sharp, have a history of their graduates winning during major thoroughbred racing events. Notable past winners at the Breeders’ Cup include Monomoy Girl, Catch a Glimpse, British Idiom, Pizza Bianca, and Goodnight Olive. Straight No Chaser is the newest success story, showcasing the effectiveness of the Sharps’ training program.
“As a yearling he was a very nice-looking horse, very well-balanced and very muscled,” noted Sharp.
Straight No Chaser was the sole winner from this year’s Breeders’ Cup that came from the 2-year-old sales. It was sold for $110,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton May Timonium 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, bought by Myracehorse.com. Ocala is known as the hub for 2-year-old sales and training. In the race, Straight No Chaser overtook the Florida-bred Bentornato in the final stretch to win by half a length.
“He trained really well on our track, and that’s why we decided to go to Maryland as opposed to OBS—we just thought we could showcase him a little better on the dirt,” said Sharp, referencing the synthetic track at OBS. “He was easy to train, and it’s so cliché, but a very straightforward horse. We sold him well, and we were happy with what he brought.”
It was déjà vu for the Sharps, as last year at the Breeders’ Cup, they were at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport when one of their horses, Goodnight Olive, won the 2023 PNC Bank Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. This year, they returned to the same airport when Straight No Chaser won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
“We’re going to book a flight to Atlanta every year,” laughed Sharp before referencing the race prior to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. “The race that got everybody thinking about this horse was the Santa Anita Sprint Championship. He proved his mettle. He’s a very nice horse.”