June and July have been two extremely busy months for us. Earlier in the year, we were very lucky to have Cynane break her maiden impressively at Belmont Park, booking a ticket to Royal Ascot to compete in the Queen Mary Stakes. For the ownership group, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Well, hopefully it’s not once in a lifetime, but you don’t get the opportunity to take part in these races very often, and you have to take the right horse.
Cynane has a tremendous temperament and she proved that 100% by handling her trip to England astonishingly well. She had a final work on June 9 at Belmont before vanning to Churchill Downs the following night, where she spent a little over a day in Brendan Walsh’s barn. This allowed her to break up her journey before vanning to Indianapolis Airport on the night of June 12 and boarding her transatlantic flight to England. She was unbothered by the trip and trained very well in Newmarket. Leading up to the race, we were cautiously optimistic until we got an inch of rain that Monday night. This meant the ground was on the soft side of good and not ideal as this is a filly who really wants firm ground.
In hindsight, perhaps I should have thought of waiting two days and running the alternate. That is what the joy of hindsight is all about. Still, Cynane equipped herself very well to finish tenth in a field of 26, and her ownership group had the most wonderful time at Ascot.
It was such a treat to spend the week prior to Royal Ascot in England with Mum, and an even bigger treat for the girls when Granny came back with us after Ascot to spend a week hanging out during their summer holidays.
On June 22, Trevor McCarthy rode Sonic Speed to his first win of the year and then came back battling two days later on Empire Ride to win by 1 ¾ lengths. Notable second place finishes in the month of June were run by Grannys Connection in the Dancin Renee and Mauritius on June 25.
July is always a little bit of a hectic month with us moving to Saratoga and several of the two-year-olds showing up to prepare for their debuts. The horses shipped to Saratoga on July 9 and Maggie, the girls, George and I joined them on July 11, avoiding all the carnage, which was lovely.
Saratoga is one of the hardest places to win races, full stop. We got off to a little bit of a sticky start when Portos ran an unlucky, wide trip to finish third on opening day. The following day, however, Unified Alliance made her first start for the barn and had everything go her way. This is a very talented three-year-old filly who seems to have improved dramatically in the short time she’s been with us. Despite her race getting rained off the turf, she maintained an advantageous post position and the dirt track remained fast. These circumstances allowed for the perfect storm. Javier Castellano gave her a confident Hall of Fame ride to win, getting this filly’s first major Black Type victory. Having finished second in the Jersey Girl one month prior at Belmont, this was another step in the right direction. Her owners, Reagan Jack Racing, had a wonderful weekend here as the following day their relatively green maiden, American Know How, ran very good in his fourth start. After hitting the front at the top of the lane, he just didn’t quite understand how to finish the race and got caught in the final strides to cross the wire in third. Still, it was a solid effort that made opening weekend at The Spa all the more exciting for the Hickey brothers.
We’ve got a busy end to the month of July. Curbstone, Empire Ride, and Ocala Dream ran last week, and Social Whirl made her first start of the year to finish fourth on July 23.
I am back at Belmont this week to watch a few of the two-year-olds put in their final works. But for now, it’s head down heading into Saratoga, with the wind already under our belt.
