Grant Forster
Forster, 30, got his training license three years ago. The Langley, British Columbia, Canada native arranged the private purchase of Rugula after the filly won her first two starts at age 2 by a combined 15 ¼ lengths. He is the son of Vancouver British Columbia Racing Hall of Fame trainer Dave Forster.
Greta Kuntzweiler
Kuntzweiler was born in Ames, Iowa and grew up in Montana. She was in college for a year at the University of Montana and then decided to ride. The first racetrack she ever went to was Churchill Downs. She galloped horses for Gary Hack out at his farm in Lagrange, KY and at the Sports Spectrum and also galloped and rubbed horses and broke babies for four years before riding her first race. She has ridden at Tampa Bay Downs, Oklahoma, Oaklawn, Arlington, Fairmount Park, Beulah, Thistledown, River Downs and all the Kentucky tracks. She was among three finalists for the Eclipse apprentice of 2000.
Al and Saundra Kirkwood
The Kirkwoods own Ridgefield Farm in Washington state. They have had one Kentucky Derby starter: Hello, who finished 8th in 1997.
05.04.05 - Wednesday Barn Notes 05.03.05 - Tuesday Barn Notes 05.02.05 - Monday Barn Notes 05.01.05 - Sunday Barn Notes 04.29.05 - Rugula Joins Oaks Cast After "Bullet" Churchill Work 04.16.05 - Servis' Round Pond Rolls In Oaklawn's Fantasy
RUGULA ran a game second in the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park last out when she made an uncontested lead and held up for second despite the onslaught of Round Pond, who would have fit well in this field and has a good future. Rugula is lightly raced enough to improve again here but like Summerly it is hard to know how she will run without the lead if unable to break on top and assert herself. Love her works leading up to Oaks 131 and her trainer is generally underrated. Still a very tough assignment especially when several others with equal to better early foot are factored in. A huge try puts her third to fifth here.
Rugula is a daughter of Bernstein, who stands stud at Castleton Lyons farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Bernstein raced in Ireland at age two, take the Group Three Railway Stakes there. The following year, he raced in both Europe and the United States before retiring after just five lifetime starts. A son of Storm Cat out of the outstanding mare La Affirmed, he is a full brother to the Grade Three stakes winners Country Cat and Caress. Ranked among Kentucky's top ten freshmen sires of 2004, Bernstein is the sire of Graded Stakes winners Toll Taker and Berbatim, and while he was basically a sprinter in his brief career, he is bred top and bottom to be a two-turn horse.
Rugula also comes from a young mare, Skygusty, who has had but two foals, and our subject filly the only one to race. She won three of twelve starts, twice on the turf, once on a dirt route. Rugula is the lone black-type horse in the first two generations in her tail female line. Her third dam is Terra Incognita, winner of the 1 1/16 mile Alcibiades (GII) at Keeneland.
Dosage Index: 1.40
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