With the Manitoba Derby and Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale approaching, two recent graduates showcased their abilities at the Downs.With the Manitoba Derby and Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale approaching, two recent graduates showcased their abilities at the Downs. Commandoslastdance, purchased for $17,000 at the 2022 yearling auction, surpassed $100,000 in prize money by winning the RC Anderson Stakes. She is now eyeing the Manitoba Oaks. No Show No Call, also a $17,000 purchase at the same auction, won an allowance race and is being prepared for the Manitoba Derby. The team behind No Show No Call attributes his success to winter training in Tampa Bay Downs. Both horses have trainer Mike Nault (Commandoslastdance) and Mike Taphorn (No Show No Call) and handler Katie Morris (No Show No Call) confident in their potential for further success.
With just over a week to go until the $125,000 Manitoba Derby on Monday, August 5, and just three weeks until the annual Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale on Sunday, August 20, two sale graduates continued to showcase their skills to a large, enthusiastic crowd at the Downs.
One is headed to the Manitoba Derby. The other just passed the $100,000 mark in prize money.
Commandoslastdance, the final foal of Going Commando and a $17,000 purchase at the 2022 yearling auction, surpassed the $100,000 mark on Monday when she won the 49th running of the $40,000 RC Anderson Stakes for trainer Mike Nault and owners A2 Thoroughbreds and True North Thoroughbreds.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Groom Katie Morris with Manitoba Derby contender: No Show No Call.
It was the second consecutive stakes victory in less than two weeks for the Manitoba-bred 3-year-old mare, who won the Hazel Wright Sire Stakes by a neck on July 9. This time, she won by 1 1/2 lengths under jockey Prayven Badie, and it was a big margin of victory for the deceptively talented big bay.
“She just does what she has to do,” said coach Mike Nault.
The A2 Thoroughbreds partnership consists of Nolan Allard, Arthur Roy and his father Jean-Marc Roy. True North Thoroughbreds are owned by Pat Beavis, Grant Sissons, Ray Bouchard and Phil Allard, Nolan Allard’s father. It was a natural partnership between the two groups, both of whom have invested heavily in Manitoba-bred horses and paid handsomely for them.
Bred by Keaton and Aiden Ziprick, Commadoslastdance has now earned US$83,928, which equates to more than $110,000 in Canadian dollars, with much more likely to come. Commandoslastdance is now eyed for the $50,000 Manitoba Oaks on Tuesday, August 6. A win in that signature race for three-year-old fillies and she’s well on her way to $200,000 in earnings. And she’s only just getting started.
Just like No Show No Call.
The last time we wrote about the Manitoba-bred 3-year-old gelding by Kentucky Bear, who was also purchased for $17,000 at the 2022 yearling auction, he had run in the Frank Arnason Memorial Sire Stakes on July 10. On Monday, No Show No Call moved up a class to compete against older allowance horses, and despite breaking from 10th starting position, he won by two lengths under jockey Ronald Ali as the odds-on favorite.
No Show No Call was bred by Cam Ziprick and Charles Fouillard and is owned by the Staffmax Stable and Club 3 D Stable partnership, which includes Kevin Gill, Keith Dangerfield and Cory Ricard. Gill owns the Winnipeg recruitment and employment agency Staffmax and Dangerfield owns Club 3D. As a former jockey agent, Ricard had some additional insight before purchasing No Show No Call, and the group has made some smart management decisions since then.
“His mother, She’s Regal, could really run,” Ricard said. “She was all heart. She was a stakes winner and she beat the boys, too. She was a really nice horse.” Breeder Cam Ziprick echoed similar sentiments when he was seen in the winner’s circle and says he plans to breed She’s Regal back to Kentucky Bear next year.
Meanwhile, trainer Mike Taphorn must figure out how to extend No Show No Call from his five sprints to the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Manitoba Derby, but he’s confident he can do it. He also has something to help him.
No Show No Call spent the winter training at Tampa Bay Downs with Albertan Craig Smith, where he made one run in a $53,000 Maiden Special Weight and finished eighth while racing green. The fact that he spent the winter training in Tampa will give him some much-needed ground as Taphorn struggles to gain stamina. A number of local owners are beginning to send their young horses south for the winter and it has certainly paid off for No Show No Call, who has now won four of five starts here and has earned US$47,145.
“We knew we could get a fitness edge in the stakes here if we sent him to Tampa,” Ricard said. “But at that point we didn’t know if he had enough talent. We took a bit of a risk there. It was pretty exciting. For the first time this year we had a horse that was the favorite in a race, and then we did it again in a stakes race.”
No Show No Call was favourite in three of his six lifetime starts and won them all. He won’t be favourite in the Manitoba Derby, but he does have a sharp trainer in Taphorn, who is winning at a 27 per cent clip this year with a record of 7-4-5 from 26 starts. He also has a top handler in 23-year-old Katie Morris, a Winnipegger who previously worked for Kevin Attard at Woodbine. Will that be enough to bring him home a winner?
On Derby day.
