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Racing Archive

Belmont Day Notes

Big Brown at Three Chimneys in May 2012.

Looking back, it’s easy to see Big Brown’s loss in the 2008 Belmont Stakes as the point where the unraveling of IEAH began, and to marvel at how closely that outfit’s rise and fall paralleled the global subprime bubble and 2008 financial collapse, from slick talk and shady deals to ruin. Michael Iavarone and company boasted that they were bringing Wall Street to the racetrack, and in the worst way, they succeeded — all that’s left now of their ambitions, as Ryan Goldberg reports in his detailed, must-read story on Deadspin, is an empty equine hospital and a decrepit sign honoring Big Brown outside what was trainer Rick Dutrow’s Aqueduct barn. The horse, at least, is living the high life of a stud at Three Chimneys Farm, which has “all the charm of a quaint, leafy village, but with the perks of an executive suite” (via).

Turning to happier Belmont memories, what a remarkable moment:

We asked Chenery and Turcotte to watch the 1973 Belmont together. As the video played, as Chick Anderson’s legendary race call began, as the pair saw the timeless race unfold again, with Secretariat shooting up a gap near the rail, Turcotte told his former owner that he could feel the big horse’s heartbeat during the race, that he could feel the horse’s rhythmic breathing through his legs.

Hello Race Fans picks for Belmont day are up. Good luck, everyone!

Posted in Racing on June 8, 2013 / Tagged Belmont Park, Belmont Stakes, Big Brown, Breeding Farms, IEAH, Secretariat, Triple Crown

Still Hot Stuff

If a horse ever looked the part of champion, it was the gorgeous Mr. Hot Stuff. Unfortunately, looks and ability weren’t coupled in the full brother to Colonel John, who never won more than his maiden in 18 chances on the racetrack. He’s doing better in his second career as a steeplechaser, reports Joe Clancy:

Much like his flat career, Mr. Hot Stuff started slowly … but got it together for back-to-back wins in May and June. Then he missed 2012 with a tendon injury and returned in 2013, as a 7-year-old, to win the $75,000 Marcellus Frost Stakes for novices at Nashville last month.

He starts on Saturday in the David L. Ferguson Memorial Hurdle Stakes, four years after he finished eighth in the 2009 Belmont Stakes.

Susan Salk has another story of an OTTB who’s learned to love the jumps: “Once he started to know his job, he started to think he was Superman.”

6/9/13 Update: Mr. Hot Stuff finished fourth in the Ferguson (PDF).

Posted in Racing on June 7, 2013 / Tagged Belmont Stakes, Jumps, Mr. Hot Stuff, OTTBs, Second Careers, Steeplechase

Aspire to Win, Girls!

Unlimited Budget is among the 14 contenders entered in the Belmont Stakes. Someone should read “Lean In” to the filly before Saturday, apparently:

“It takes a special filly [to win a Triple Crown race], one that is willing to stare down the boys and say, ‘No, this one is mine,’ ” said Dr. Mary Scollay, the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. “It’s so much about personalities and intimidation when these horses match up. I think it’s the same reason women don’t have as much, and the same kind of success, as men in the workplace.”

Three fillies have won the Belmont, out of 22 starters. That’s not such a bad record — only 141 colts or geldings have won, out of more than 1200.

Rosie Napravnik has the mount on Unlimited Budget, which makes her the first female jockey to ride in all three Triple Crown races in the same year. That’s wonderful, if also a reminder of the progress still to be made, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Julie Krone’s history-making Belmont win.

Meanwhile, at Suffolk Downs —

Elusive Son (inside) outfinishes Step Brother in the first turf race of the meet.

Tammi Piermarini, the leading rider at Suffolk for the past three years, tops the jockey standings again after three days of racing, with five wins from 19 starts. Gary Wales and Andria Terrill are tied for second with four wins apiece. Piermarini’s first win of the meet came in race two on opening day with Broadway Hat, shipping in for trainer David Jacobson. The once-pricey auction purchase obviously found his level, taking the maiden $5K by four lengths. Trainer Ambrose Pascucci made the claim, the only one so far this summer.

Piermarini’s second win came in race six on the same day with Elusive Son, whose thrilling by-a-neck victory over Step Brother withstood a stewards’ inquiry into a little stretch bumping. The first of her two wins on Wednesday’s card offered a different kind of thrill — Mister Dixie, a 5-year-old gelding making his first start since July 2012, won race two by 12 1/2 lengths in :57 3/5, a tick off Rene Depot’s 1972 :57 2/5 track record for five furlongs.

Another rider, Jordano Tunon, scored the biggest upset of the meet yet when he won race six on Wednesday with Lapantalones Fance, the longest shot in a field of 10, paying $87.20 to win. While that might have been the highest win price of the week, it wasn’t the first time since Saturday that exotic payouts have been high enough to trigger the new, onerous 5% tax on winning bets paying over $600 instituted by a 2011 change in Massachusetts law (and affecting only Massachusetts residents). “[T]his is a dealbreaker for Mass. horseplayers,” tweeted one. Per a notice in the Suffolk program, track management is working on a fix. Get in touch to support their effort.

6/7/13 Addendum: Jay Hovdey on the 1993 Belmont Stakes: “It has been 20 years since Colonial Affair emerged from the gloom of a rainy New York afternoon to carry Julie Krone and the colors of Centennial Farms to victory in the 125th running of the Belmont …”

Posted in Racing on June 6, 2013 / Tagged Belmont Stakes, Distaffers, Jockeys, Suffolk Downs, Triple Crown, Women in Racing