A Tale of Two Furlongs Less Travelled

Real Writing on Racing 💯

“Belmont at Saratoga”

Like most other communities, racing has its share of sacred cows, perhaps the most famous of them being the ‘first Saturday in May’ is reserved for the Kentucky Derby. Not too far behind, in the hearts of many racing fanatics, is the distance of the third jewel of the Triple Crown, the 12 furlongs of the Belmont Stakes. In a sport in which a wide swath of change has vastly altered racing and stakes schedules nationwide, shortening the mile and a half of the Belmont seems to trigger more consternation than virtually any other topic. In 2020 during the early days of a global pandemic where much of Thoroughbred racing was struggling to keep its head above water, one of the first major sporting events to take place in the United States was the 152nd Belmont Stakes. That edition, held in front of an empty grandstand with strict social distancing protocols in effect, was won by Tiz the Law and was unique by taking place prior to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes which were postponed till the fall. The big change to that 2020 Belmont Stakes was shortening the distance of the race to 9 furlongs as asking lightly raced 3 year olds who hadn’t run in months (most of the later Derby preps had been cancelled due to the pandemic) to run 12 furlongs simply for sentimental sake, seemed to be excessive. Yet the common sense move by NYRA stoked ‘off-the-charts’ outrage, the catch phrase “Test of Champions” trending on racing social media sites, often followed by screeds written by people that perhaps had been shut-in too long as they seemed to take the distance change personally. At the time I wondered aloud, where had all these traditionalists been as racing had carved up many of the older, traditional stakes, cutting distances of venerable stakes stalwarts like the Jockey Club Gold Cup and CCA Oaks, moving the Woodard to Saratoga, eliminating the winter distance tests like the Display Handicap, not to mention most of our great handicap races period. It isn’t that there wasn’t a touch of handwringing over those changes but it paled in comparison to tampering with the sacred mile and a half of the Belmont Stakes.

That being said, we have already seen a great deal of paranoia over the latest Belmont Stakes news with the official announcement of it being held during a 4 day racing festival at Saratoga. The Spa course is a 9 furlong track which makes the mile and a half distance impossible to run so the natural choice made by NYRA officials was to run the Classic at a mile and a quarter, the same as the “Midsummer Derby”, the Travers. Despite this being rumored for months (we broke this news last February in a Going in Circles Digest piece but nobody paid attention obviously) the amount of purveyors of distance doom surprised me once again.

Let’s be clear, the Belmont Stakes distance won’t be changing permanently, once the extensive renovations are completed in Elmont, the race will be heading back to its normal place on the calendar, at its usual distance. There is zero chance that NYRA, after successfully lobbying the state of New York for a $450 million dollar loan to rebuild Belmont Park, will not start and end their signature race in front of its shiny new grandstand. There has been no talk of changing the circumference of the main track, especially with three new courses inside of it but I suppose that it’s natural for racing followers to be paranoid considering the murky transparency that generally exists in Thoroughbred racing circles.

What’s been lost in the consternation over distances and general malaise towards any move that NYRA makes in some circles, is the potential for the unique awesomeness of a 4 day racing festival in June at Saratoga. Late spring weather at the Spa is much kinder on the heat scale and it’s difficult to argue that the lead up to the big day will be a lot more interesting at Saratoga than the old Belmont. Yes it won’t be cheap (hotel rooms that week reportedly in excess of $1000) and ticket packages won’t be bargain priced, but the great thing about racing at Saratoga is you can have a whole lot of fun at the races without sitting in a suite or box. Yes running the Met Mile out of the Wilson Chute makes one feel queasy, even if the name of the chute isn’t connected in any way to disgraced Jets QB Zach Wilson or former jockey Rick Wilson. My only bit of free advice to NYRA officials is to just bite the bullet on the coolers in the picnic area as banning those will surely set off a firestorm of bad will that won’t soon be forgotten in these parts. The distance police are not even in the same venomous ballpark as the Spa beer drinkers union.

🆓 Past Performances for tonight’s Hong Kong Int’l races can be found Here. Aesop’s Fables (Ire) who may have been best in last months BC Turf Sprint, races in the 5th, the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1) where he is listed at 11-1.

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To be honest, the stakes fare in early December is usually on the light side and we figured that we can change things up this week. We are going to take a look at Saturday’s Garland of Roses Stakes from the Big A from a different standpoint than usual. One complaint that we often hear is how we only point out the negatives of racing, which to be fair, may have a grain of truth to it. In our defense, many of the issues that we tackle and stances that we take are ones that you won’t hear anywhere else, at least not to the degree of truthfulness that we strive to adhere to. This is an insular industry with little true, independent media coverage and a sensitivity level that borders on neurosis so when we look for issues that need to be discussed, it’s a target rich environment to say the least.

So today I thought we’d touch on one of the games biggest issues which is a diminishing owner base. Using the field for the Garland of Roses, a 6 furlong stakes for three and up fillies and mares for $125,000 at Aqueduct, we will point out the tremendous opportunities that exist for owners, even those that are not spending tens of millions a year on horseflesh. We will also comment on other items of interest but not handicap, you are on your own there.

Garland of Roses (listed) $125,000 3&up fillies and mares 6 furlongs

1. Disco Ebo - this is a 4yo Pennsylvania bred filly that was purchased for $52,000 at the Fasig Tipton yearling sale in Maryland in 2020. Her career launched at Monmouth Park as a 2yo, running 2nd in open company before making 5 additional starts as a freshman, including breaking her maiden by 10 at Parx and earning PA bred bonus $ for winning in open company. She did the same in her very next race when she won an open company allowance at Penn Nat’t before running away with a 200k Pa Bred stakes before faltering versus the boys in a stakes to end the year. She earned a whopping $210,460 for her connections including Parx based trainer Butch Reid, never running faster than a 75 Beyer speed figure in doing so. Disco Erb’s 3yo campaign was a little rocky, especially early in the year when she wasn’t that competitive in open company stakes which likely were the only spots available for a filly that had cleared her first two allowance conditions. However that fall Reid found an allowance race that suited her at Penn and she got back on track winning easy before shipping to Mahoning Valley to take down the 100k Youngstown Oaks before running 3rd in last year’s version of the Garland of Roses. As a 3yo her record was 7-2-0-2, good for a profitable $111,624 in earnings plus adding more blacktype to her resume with a stakes win and placing with her top Beyer fig being an 83. She made 4 starts at Parx to kick off this season, recording 2 easy allowance scores and a stakes win in the 75k Penns Landimg before running 2nd in another Parx stakes after which she was given some time off. She returned to the races on Halloween when scoring in another allowance race at Parx, setting her up for second try at the Garland of Roses, which is likely to be her final race as a 4yo. So far in her career she has made in excess of $534,000 in 18 starts with 9 wins including 3 stakes wins. As a 4yo she started running big girl speed figs including a 97 in the Penns Landing stakes win and seems on course to get some graded blacktype as a 5 year old but nevertheless has been a huge success for her owners since they wisely purchased her as a reasonable yearling. These are the stories that need to be told.

2. Kant Hurry Love - This 4yo New York bred filly by Kantharos was a $40,000 Fasig Tipton NY bred sale yearling that started off her career in the Chris Clement barn. She also made 6 starts as a 2yo but despite racing well in the first 5, she remained a maiden heading into her 3 yo season. Yet with the lucrative purses of the New York bred program, her record of 6-0-3-2 good for $67,400 didn’t put her owners in the black but sure paid a lot of expenses. She immediately kicked off her 3yo campaign with a win, albeit after a lengthy layoff from December to August but the 88k purse for that first victory didn’t hurt. She ran okay in a few NY bred allowance races afterwards and again held her own financially, making $77,800 despite only making 4 starts as a 3yo. Kant Hurry Love has had a great 4yo season which she got started with a blowout allowance win in January, beating statebred fillies by 5 in the slop, the first of her 4 wins in 2023. Transferred to the Dave Duggan barn after that score, she competed in open class races throughout the spring in conditions that she’d already been through because she was a state-bred in NY, a huge incentive to race NY breds at NYRA. She had a win, a second and third in three starts before trying stakes company, winning the $125,000 NYB Dancing Renee at Belmont, running 2nd in the NYB $125,000 Union Avenue at Saratoga before fading to be 4th in the Pumkin Pie stakes in her last in October at Aqueduct. So far her record going into todays race is 18-5-6-4 with earnings of $400,850 and her lifetime best Beyer figure is an 88.

3. Self Isolation - she has a far different career path than the first two fillies. The 5yo mare was bred in California by her owner Paul Reddam, who bred and raced both her dam and sire. She started off her career as a 2yo, making a single start in May where she ran 3rd before a long, long layoff till October of her three year old year when she finally returned to the races. After several dull efforts and a switch to the grass, the Square Eddie filly kicked into gear winning a Ca bred maiden and allowance race in consecutive starts in the spring of her 4yo season. That summer at Los Al, Doug O’Neill tried her back on the dirt and she responded with a 7 length allowance win. After a couple of ‘no show’ starts at Del Mar on the turf, she was switched back to dirt racing, again winning an allowance at Los Al before being sold privately to the current connections who shipped her east to run at the Belmont at Aquedcut meet last fall. She paid instant dividends by winning two allowance races in a row before going off form for the winter and most of the spring this year. After short freshening, she returned to the winners circle at Monmouth easily scoring in an $100,000 claiming race before shipping to Laurel to take down an allowance race. She bombed at 8-5 in the Regret Stakes back at Monmouth but rebounded to win another allowance race at Laurel, followed by a pair of 4th place finishes before running 2nd in another Laurel allowance. Her lifetime record to this point is 27-9-3-2 good for $453,670, pretty good considering that she has yet to even hit the board in a stakes event.

4. You Look Cold - The Pa bred daughter of Frosted is aptly named for a filly racing in a December stakes at Aqueduct despite today’s weather being mild for this time of the year. She only has made 17 starts which almost sounds odd considering the hand wringing that exists around horses making fewer starts these days. She started her career as a 2yo making four starts for former trainer Rob O’Connor, winning her debut at Monmouth and taking down a PID stakes for Pa breds with the two other starts being dull efforts against open stakes competition. Her 3yo season was a mixed bag with a decent effort when 4th in a GP stakes in the spring before winning an allowance at Parx only to later be DQ’ed for a positive drug test. The summer saw her run 2nd in another PID state bred stakes but that was the highlight of an otherwise unproductive year. Transferred to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott for her 4yo campaign, she has made 7 starts, all in allowance company and outside of one relatively terrible non-effort on the turf, racked up a nice record of 7-2-1-3 with earnings of $157,580 which pushes her lifetime record to 17-4-2-3 $291,150.

5. Olga Isabel - The least experienced entrant in this race, this homebred Tiznow filly makes her stakes debut today despite having a pretty stellar record thus far in her career. After flashing speed in her debut at Gulfstream in March of her 3yo year, trainer Gustavo Delgado shipped her to Churchill to break her maiden on the undercard of the Kentucky Oaks card. She showed back up in the entires at Keeneland that fall winning an allowance race but getting DQ’ed for interference before a runner up finish in the same class later in the meet. She re-emerged 9 months later in the care of Brad Cox, in an allowance race at Ellis Park in July where she romped by 7. Cox shipped her to Saratoga where she cleared the second level of allowance conditions before heading back to Keeneland to win a 3rd level allowance condition this past October. Despite a modest number of starts her 7-4-2-0 is good for $302,350 despite her never having even appeared in a stakes race.

6. Headland - This 7yo Paynter mare is on the other end of the starts spectrum, having made 42 starts in her career, with 10 wins and 17 additional placings, earning $680,085 in her career. She originally was a $50,000 OBS April 2yo in training that made 5 starts that year, wining in the 5th try. Headland motored right through her conditions as a 3yo including winning a $40k claiming race, a starter and 3 allowance races, giving her 5 wins before summer was in full swing. She kicked around the Midwest a for a few years, racing mostly in higher class allowance races, usually picking up a check but rarely winning. As a 7 year old this season she has changed hands several times via high priced claims but has a nice 9-2-2-2 record to show for it with a graded stakes placing two starts back when technically 3rd in the Gallant Bloom (Gr II) though getting moved down from 2nd after a dubious DQ by the Steward’s.

7. Hot Fudge - Four year old Liam’s Map filly was a pricy $235,000 OBS April purchase that went on to have some success that year, breaking her maiden in start number two at Belmont before running 2nd in listed stakes on grass in the Fall. She missed her entire three year old season but has had a nice 4yo campaign, with 4 allowance wins and a third in 6 starts, her only miscue was running 6th in an incredibly tough turf sprint stakes in May. Despite her not having any stakes earnings, she still managed to make $212,505 this year which runs her lifetime total to $290,405. Considering that she must have been injured as a three year old when making zero starts, she has gone a long way toward recouping much of that expensive purchase tag and she seems primed to be a solid stakes competitor moving forward.

Is the Garland of Roses a major stakes that everyone desires to capture when they think of owning a horse? Unless you have some lingering Aqueduct inner track fetishes, the answer is probably no but in our view a race like this offers a glimpse into the real possibilities for successful ownership without having to spend a million dollars in order to do so. Of the seven fillies and mares entered (two were scratched) the lowest lifetime earner was the most expensive of the group, Hot Fudge who has only made $290k. Almost all started as two year olds, most have only changed trainers once, they are durable and often have full campaigns that aren’t interrupted by big gaps between starts. Many are from regional state bred programs and have taken advantage of that to win restricted stakes races, receiving bonuses not shown in purse earnings and were allowed latitude in racing conditions because of state bred status. This is a field full of horses that weren’t a drain on an owners budget, most have paid the bills along with recovering their acquisition cost and that is despite the fact that none have even gone beyond scratching the surface in graded events. You can keep your head above water owning horses, you don’t require a supertrainer, you don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to find a stakes filly, and racing your horses often is not a negative trend. I don’t know who will win todays race, which is scheduled to go off around 3:40 eastern, and it’s doubtful that much conversation will take place in racing circles about the Garland of Roses or it’s results. Yet these are the types of races and horses that still exist in the 2023 racing world, good solid fillies and mares that do more racing than resting, earning nice checks and providing the action that most owners crave.