Bet down to heavy favoritism, Tom's Magic easily takes Tale of the Cat

Tom’s Magic, a 3-year-old colt trained by Michael Stidham, was bet like a superstar and lived up to the billing in the $100,000 Tale of the Cat Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday. The precocious runner took full advantage of a shortened turf field to earn his second stakes victory in five starts.

“The horse has always shown a ton of talent in the morning and in the afternoon,” Stidham said. “We looked at this race and thought that he could get a good stalking position. He’s got a nice turn of foot when you ask him, and it went just as we planned.”

Three turf runners, including 3-1 morning-line favorite Uncatalyzed, were scratched from the Tale of the Cat, and in the remaining field of seven 3-year-olds, several runners seemed likely to vie for favoritism. It didn’t turn out to be that close, however, and Stidham was somewhat surprised when Tom’s Magic went off at 3-5 and paid $3.40 to win.

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The Tale of the Cat winner last ran in the Grade 3 Transylvania at Keeneland in April, where he struggled over softer turf and finished well behind in ninth. Stidham gave him time off after that race, and though the layoff dragged on because of poor weather, it clearly didn’t cost him much on Saturday.

“We had entered him in the Penn Mile and that thing got canceled, and then we had him entered at Saratoga and that got taken off the grass,” Stidham said. “It’s just been a little bit frustrating figuring out when and where we were going to run him, and then we finally landed on this race.”

Breaking from the rail at Monmouth, Tom’s Magic settled into an early stalking position on the rail, tucked behind dueling longshots Cool Intentions and Quizler through soft early fractions. The top pair ran close together through a half-mile in 49.07.

All seven runners were clearly gearing up for a sprint home, but when the contenders began stirring from the back of the pack, no one came close to outkicking Tom’s Magic. Jockey Axel Concepcion angled him off the rail to circle the early leaders and easily took charge in the stretch.

Outrunner, a colt making his stakes debut for Jorge Duarte Jr., closed fast from sixth to finish as the runner-up, while Soleil Volant, a hard-knocking gelding trained by Graham Motion, hung in the stretch and had to settle for third. Neither runner truly challenged Tom’s Magic, however, as the colt flew home to win by 1 1/2 lengths, completing the 1 1/16-mile race in 1:42.68.

Stidham described it as a blessing to get back on a firm turf course, which Tom’s Magic has clearly preferred early in his career. His maiden victory and winning stakes debut in the $100,000 Black Gold were both on dry turf at Fair Grounds, and the Monmouth victory cements those conditions as a clear priority for the connections going forward.

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