2023 Eclipse Awards: Maple Leaf Mel

Maple Leaf Mel was a star who flashed too briefly, but who dazzled. The New York-bred filly was in front at every chart point of call in every race she finished, officially winning five races, including a pair of graded stakes in 2023, by a combined 20 1/4 lengths. Voters ensured she will retain a spot in Thoroughbred history by making her one of the finalists for the Eclipse Award as outstanding female sprinter of 2023.

Maple Leaf Mel, a Cross Traffic filly bred in the Empire State by Joe Fafone, was purchased by the August Dawn Farm of retired NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells as a juvenile, and placed in the barn of Jeremiah Englehart.

There, she developed a close bond with Canadian-born assistant trainer Melanie Giddings. The gray filly was named in honor of Giddings, who would often share photos and videos of the pair interacting or napping in the filly’s stall.

:: Full list of 2023 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Maple Leaf Mel started out against statebreds, winning her August 2022 debut at Saratoga by five lengths, and a little more than two weeks later, won the Seeking the Ante Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths. After a winter break, the filly picked up right where she left off with 7 3/4-length victory in the East View Stakes in March at Aqueduct.

The filly then stepped up to graded stakes company for the first time. Confidently handled by regular rider Joel Rosario, she posted a 1 1/2-length score in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness in May at Pimlico.

“This is special not just for me but there are a lot of other people as well,” Giddings said after that race. “They have a horse to look up to, in a sense, when she is winning.”

In the meantime, Giddings had opened her own stable and Parcells transferred the filly to her. Maple Leaf Mel gave Giddings her first graded win in the Grade 3 Victory Ride on July 8 at Belmont Park.

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Off that win, she targeted the Grade 1 Test Stakes on Aug. 5 at Saratoga. In an August interview with Daily Racing Form’s David Grening, Giddings recalled the moments before bringing the filly to the paddock.

“I went to put the bridle on her before we went over and she was nickering, she was so excited,” Giddings said. “This is what she loved to do.”

Maple Leaf Mel showed the way in the Test and led by 2 1/2 lengths in deep stretch over a field that included Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous and three other stakes winners. Tragedy struck just strides from the wire, as she sustained a catastrophic injury to her right front leg and had to be euthanized on the track. The following morning, trainer Brendan Walsh, whose Pretty Mischievous was declared the official winner, delivered the winner’s floral blanket to Maple Leaf Mel’s stall.

“She was never going to lose,” Giddings said. “It’s hard to say how talented she could have been the rest of her life. She was so fast.”

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