Post Belmont Stakes we returned to conclude the summer meets at Aqueduct before moving up to Saratoga, where we’ve had a number of successes thus far.
In these last few weeks of racing, it’s been great to see Magic Eight Ball finally get firm turf, two turns, and a lovely ride from Trevor McCarthy to break her Maiden for Steven Rocco and Airdrie Stud, who bred the filly and stayed in for a piece of her. This is a quirky filly who has not had things go her way through her career so far. I’m hoping she can start to string some consistent efforts moving forward. Her win came on June 23.
On June 14, Mauritius finally broke through his second level condition for The Elkstone Group under an excellent ride from John Velazquez, wiring the field, as is his favourite tactic.
A special mention for Latest Edition—a filly who’s been plagued by the weather—who made her way to Finger Lakes to win on dirt, which is not her favoured surface, but the need to get a race into her was paramount. Returning to metropolitan New York, I ran her back very quickly in an Allowance Other Than on the grass on June 15, and John Velazquez gave her a fantastic ride. Having had a very limited racing career so far due to the fact that she’s repeatedly been rained off the grass over the last two years, she then found herself taking part in two races in two weeks and winning both of them.
Homebred for DutchessViews Farm, this daughter of Lord Nelson has progressively got faster, having broken her Maiden going two turns. Her frame has allowed her to fill out and get faster and faster outstretched, and she’s now become a very decent sprinter. She once again got rained off at the beginning of the Saratoga meet, but I’m looking forward to seeing how she equips herself for the next second level Allowance, going five and a half furlongs on the grass.
The highlight of this blog though has to be to the stable stalwart, The Big Torpedo. This colt by Big Brown not only won the NYSSS Spectacular Bid at Aqueduct but then repeated the effort at Saratoga, winning the New York Stallion Series Stakes Cab Calloway Division going a mile on the turf.
He’s an admirable three-year-old colt who appears to be improving with each and every start, and I’m delighted for his owners, Thomas Albrecht, Vincent Fusaro, and James Klein. When we identified this horse was probably going to be best on the grass, the three of them let me shape his three-year-old season around these two lucrative prizes for New York-breds. A huge credit to the horse himself and my team at home as well as Eric Cancel. This is not a very straightforward horse in the mornings. He has only partial vision in one eye and can get easily spooked, so he spends a lot of time with the pony with both Axelle and William.
He’s also most comfortable at Belmont. His grooms Carlos and Joannie have done a wonderful job of nurturing him while in the barn, and Nico did a wonderful job as well when he transferred up to Saratoga, keeping him focused and safe on the racetrack. Jockey Eric Cancel has the absolute supreme confidence in this horse. When he sprinted in the Spectacular Bid, he gave him every chance to settle in behind the leaders and let him carry on in the race before picking a lovely ¬¬¬¬¬spot up the rail to explode through a hole at the eighth pole and win very comfortably going away by three and a half lengths. This resulted in him getting a career-high Beyer of 88.
The concern came for me at the idea of him going back around two turns, but Eric said something to me along the lines of: He’s simply the best horse in the race. Let’s have confidence that he’s going to be able to win this race with an end to end gallop. If somebody’s giving me a lead, all the better.
After that, he took the bull by the horns out of the gate in Saratoga and never looked in danger of getting beat, quickening up smartly at the quarter pole, and putting the race to bed to win again by four and a half lengths on July 18—and this time with another career high Beyer of 89. We now look towards the Rick Violet stakes in the middle of August in Saratoga, but will keep our options open with the possibility that he may go to Colonial Downs to run in the Gr. 2 Secretariat, which is for three-year-olds going a mile on the turf.
We’ve had to be supremely patient with Itza Mirrakle. This expensive son of Arrogate is owned by John Zanotti’s RAM-ZANOTTI Stables, West Paces Racing LLC, and his breeder Curtis Green. He got a minor stress fracture of a tibia at the back end of his two-year-old year, which meant he went to Bruce Jackson’s Rehabilitation Center at Fair Hill for the winter. He’s come back this year a bigger, stronger horse, however, as my wife pointed out in the paddock, he’s going to continue to get even better with age.
He’s still got a very leggy frame, a little bit like the enigmatic sixteen-year-old basketball player who you can’t wait to see at twenty-four. Itza Mirrakle ran an eye-catching second the day before the Belmont in a seven-furlong Maiden at Saratoga, and then returned for the nine-furlong Maiden Special Weight on July 14 and beat a horse who’d already been placed in Graded Stakes, trained by Todd Fletcher, breaking his Maiden very impressively while recording a 99 Beyer. This is a colt with a huge amount of upside. We’re really looking forward to seeing how he gets on through the second half of his three-year-old career and into his four and five-year-old years. We will point him towards one more Allowance before hopefully stepping up into Graded Stakes company.
Speaking of Graded Stakes, Donegal Momentum recently ran in the Gr. 2 Amsterdam after having been nailed on the line last time by an older horse. I really wanted to let this horse run against straight three-year-olds only for his next start. Having recorded a 92 and 93 Beyer Speed Figure, we let him take his chance in a small but very select field going six and a half furlongs on July 26, where he finished fourth.
August will bring more runners upstate, plus two sales, and hopefully we have a productive remainder of the meet in Saratoga. It’s always good to get a couple of wins early, and hopefully we can carry on with that momentum going forward.
Grace’s very dear godfather, Toby Sheets, recently passed doing what he loved doing in her company—building sandcastles on the beach. He will be very much missed by all of us.
