Sun Day Shuvee Sunday ☀️
Real Writing on Racing 💯
🎪 Nest captured the CCA Oaks in decisive fashion, though it wasn’t exactly the set up that was expected before the race. She broke well, dueling first with Society, after the expected pacemaker stumbled leaving the starting gate then rushed up to challenge for the lead. Nest put her away approaching the far turn when Secret Oath and Luis Saez took the race to her. The duel that everyone had wanted to see was on. Then almost as soon as it began, Nest asserted her dominance and shrugged off Secret Oath and pulled away, coasting home to a 12 1/4 length beat down. Secret Oath, the Kentucky Oaks winner, managed to hold for second with Nostalgic checking in third. Society tired to be 4th and Butterbean stumbled at the start and was never even close. It was visually impressive though perhaps a portion of that was from the fact that other than Secret Oath, the rest of the field was light on grade 1 credentials and showed it. Nest earned a super Beyer fig of 104 and consider that was with a final furlong in 14 seconds while she was geared down. The Alabama is next for Nest and supposedly Secret Oath as well and unfortunately I don’t expect too many more as the short field syndrome plaguing graded stakes has arrived and even the Spa isn’t immune as we will be finding out in the next few weeks.
🏄🏼♂️ At the start of the Haskell, I saw Florent Geroux take Cyberknife back from his rail position and wondered why he wanted to be so far off the pacesetters especially with the way the Monmouth track was playing. Turns out he was employing the winning strategy, as he and Cyberknife, shot through an opening on the inside in the stretch and outgunned Taiba to win the Haskell (Gr I) in thrilling fashion. Race favorite Jack Christopher, was well placed just off the lead as expected, however when he was asked to accelerate by Jose Ortiz at the quarter pole, unlike his previous one turn races, he found the tank empty. Taiba set up shop on the inside behind the quick pace on a ludicrously fast main track, angled out to make his move three wide past the tiring early leaders, appeared mid-stretch to be heading towards Bob Baffert’s one millionth Haskell win (ok 10th) but couldn’t fend off Cyberknife late.
Unlike many races at the top level, post race there were four things that emerged as being very clear: 1) Jack Christopher is a miler which we here at Going in Circles had been preaching since the days of the Derby trail when much handwringing occurred about his Kentucky Derby absence. Go to his sires, Munnings stallion page and see his top performers list is littered with sprinters and Jack’s female side isn’t exactly loaded with stamina either. He is clearly the best three year old up to a mile and perhaps if given a chance in the BC mile at Keeneland, he can win around two turns in grade I company. The Allen Jerkens (Gr I) should be next if he comes out in good shape and that is still one of the top races in America for three year olds. 2) Taiba is the real deal. No he isn’t a superhorse and the hype surrounding him after his maiden win and subsequent score in the Santa Anita Derby was overstated, but make no mistake he is a good horse and will be a threat wherever he appears next (Travers? 🤔). 3) Cyberknife is finally living up to his potential that he flashed earlier in the year. It’s not just that he won the Haskell after gutting out the Matt Winn (Gr III) in his previous start, it’s that he has clearly turned the page in his head, as I’m not sure we would have seen him employing a straight line, rail run earlier in his career when he often ran erratically. We point out that supertrainers often win often simply because they numbers game it, but trainer Brad Cox has done a really good job with this horse and Flo Geroux rode a perfect race when it wasn’t readily apparent what his strategy should be. 4) White Abarrio isn’t a prime time performer. Sorry Mike Rennie ☹️.
🚔 Speaking of the Monmouth track surface, it was a prime example of management creating a wildly fast surface for a big day that artificially inflates what happens on the track. Cyberknife and Highly Motivated are nice horses but only the tooth fairy 🧚♀️ would believe that TWO races being run faster than Spend a Buck’s Monmouth Handicap in 1985 (previous track record for 9 furlongs) on the same card isn’t a direct result of an ridiculous track maintenance manipulation. That old mark of 1:46.4 survived 9 Baffert Haskell’s including a Triple Crown winner, Forty Niner vs Seeking the Gold, Spectacular Bid, Racheal Alexandra, Bet Twice vs Alysheba vs Lost Code, Holy Bull, Skip Away and Big Brown but not Highly Motivated? In the 6th race a horse named Awesome Aaron coming out of an 11th place finish at Churchill Downs missed the track record for 1 mile and 70 yards by .12 seconds after going 22.1 - 45.2 - 1:08.3 - 1:38.90. I have no idea if the TV crew covering the Haskell card pointed out the ridiculous nature of the racing surface but it’s more likely they fawned over the fast times than anything.
🎪 The lid lifter at the Spa yesterday was a maiden race for two year olds going 8.5 furlongs on the inner turf. Every year it’s seems we get one race where a green young horse doesn’t corner well and heads to the outside. This season it was yesterdays first where a horse aptly named Wideright, took a wide right and in the process shoving favored Activist Investing (GB) 9 wide with him. Activist Investing (GB) actually ran really well after that incident cost him at least 7-8 lengths, and pre-race when he dumped Irad Ortiz prior to heading onto the turf course. The winner was Really Good, a Hard Spun colt who was pretty good, getting a nice trip under Luis Saez.
🎪 Jane Mast held off Veronica Green and Mozay to win the 4th, a MSW race for three and up fillies and mares going a mile on the grass. Mozay may have been best as it seemed rider Junior Alvarado spent much of the second half of the race coaxing the filly to come through on the inside which she appeared hesitant to do and once he got her off the inside and into the clear she was making up ground willingly. Just a hunch but that might wind up being a really productive maiden race.
🎪 Bring Theband Home flashed speed in his debut at Gulfstream last month, just failing to last when finishing second. That experience helped as he was with the pace again, putting away Balsa passing the half mile and grimly holding on under Dylan Davis for Mark Casse and owner/breeder Live Oak.
🎪 Stage Left rallied from off the pace to register a 5 length win in race 8, an entry level allowance going six furlongs on the dirt. Jockey Cancel lost his whip mid-stretch but it didn’t matter as the Congrats gelding cruised home a winner for Mertkan Kantaemaci and Krakow Racing and America’s Pasttime stable. Highly Respected was well respected at the windows going off as the even money choice but never menaced and checked in 7th.
🎪 Stage Raider whose main claim to fame is being Justify’s brother (in a Billy Carter type role) cleared the second level allowance condition yesterday with an easy 3 length win in the 9th earning a 99 Beyer for the Brown, Ortiz, Gunther triumvirate.
🎪 The Caress results should be exhibit A in how turf sprints can be inscrutable and perplexing. Take favored Caravel for example. She never doesn’t fire especially against fillies yet yesterday she steadied on the turn and went into steady retreat to finish last. Second to last was wiseguy filly Toby’s Heart who did no running at all. Bout Time who was off at 5-2 was flat in the stretch when 6th. Star Divine (Ire) who is a consistent board hitter, finished 5th with no excuse. Congrats go out to the winner, Robin Sparkles who finally found a group that she could flaunt her speed against and still hold on for good guy trainer Bruce Brown and owner Micheal Schrader. Souper Sensational just missed win number 3 on the day for Mark Casse (who won a stake at Woodbine also, as usual) and Miss J McKay may have set an unofficial record for most times steadied in a 5.5 furlong race.
🍷 Like a fine wine, driver Wally Hennessy showed he still has it last night at Saratoga Casino (Saratoga Raceway) as he drove a clever race to come up the passing lane and capture the 250k Gerrity pace with Tattoo Artist. The 65 year old hall of famer also won a 51k division of the NYSS for 2 year old pacers to cap off a big night for the Saratoga Raceway and Pompano Park driving legend. This publication gave Tattoo Artist a push and if you played, you were rewarded with $7.30 mutuel
🍳🥩🍔🏌🏼🚣🏼 We will be releasing our 25 things to do and places to go in Saratoga tomorrow! Check it out and we want to hear where your favorite places are!
Day 9 (31 Racing Days to go)
Shuvee Grade II $200,000 9 furlongs older Filly/Mares
Exotic West - Gary Sciacca has done an excellent job with this Hard Spun filly he claimed for $40000 for Nove’s Louis Lazzinnaro at this meet a little less than a year ago. She is now a stakes winner, capturing the Top Flite Invitational at Aqueduct and has raced nine times since the claim, only missing the board twice, once with a ton of traffic trouble and once when she stumbled badly and unseated her rider. Last out Exotic West was left in the wake of a supersonic performance by Super Quick in the DuPont on Black Eyed Susan Day. She is a cut below the top two, doesn’t have a tremendous amount of early speed but might wind up on the lead in a completely paceless event.
Crazy Beautiful - NYRA should give McPeek a participation trophy by saving the weekends graded dirt stakes from being even shorter fields. This filly is a legit stakes performer, though in her two races against Malathaat she has been well beaten in both. Perhaps she will wind up leading this small but select field down the backstretch but either way she will have to run a huge one to hold off the top two.
Malathaat - This filly is sort of the 4 year old version of Nest in many ways beyond having a common sire in the great Curlin. She is a distance type, the 9 furlongs are in her wheelhouse though unlike Nest, she was upset in last years CCA Oaks. She ALWAYS fires, never been off the board in 10 starts and just missed in the Phipps in her latest. Despite her gaudy record, Pletcher is adding blinkers in which she has been visibly working better in the mornings with. Perhaps she will show greater tactical speed in them which might be the key to this short field, paceless event. I’d imagine she will be favored to turn the tables against her rival in post four today in the sauna called Saratoga.
Clairiere - if ever a filly deserved a rabbit as an entry mate it’s this Curlin filly who is a confirmed one run closer. She finally got the best of last year’s champion three year old filly, Malathaat, in the Phipps last out when the pace in front of her was solid unlike what figures to be a soft one today. Rosario really doesn’t have much choice but to sit last and hope he can muster enough late speed to get past the other Curlin filly in the lane. The one time she was asked to get involved earlier in the race was last years CCA Oaks, the only race she was going the wrong way at the end.
🤔 Why is the Shuvee (click here to read about the great mare) such a small purse (the Molly Pitcher at MTH yesterday was double the purse at 400k) for such an important race? We are heading into some small field graded stakes waters the next few weeks, at some point we will expand on changes that could help stem that short field tide.
An interesting history of the Shuvee and the filly it’s named for