Breakout Beyers: Arthur’s Ride shows promise tipped last summer at Spa

Each week in this space, the top Beyer performances by maiden winners will be featured and analyzed. Click here for a complete archive.

Arthur’s Ride

Feb. 11, 10th race Gulfstream, MdSpWt80k
Beyer: 89
1 mile 1:36.28 – 1st by 1 1/2 lengths
gr. c. 3, Tapit – Points of Grace, by Point Given
Noteworthy siblings: Victory to Victory (Exchange Rate, foaled 2014) – Grade 1 winner; Alittleloveandluck (Arrogate, foaled 2019) – stakes winner, $182k earnings; Double Blessed (Treasure Beach, foaled 2018) – multiple stakes placed
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2021 – $250,000
Owner: Carl Glassman and Cathi Glassman
Trainer: Bill Mott
Breeder: Helen Barbazon, Joseph Barbazon, Tapit Syndicate

Off since September but with a bunch of fast Payson works for Bill Mott, Arthur’s Ride fulfilled the promise he showed in a pair of 2-year-old starts last summer at Saratoga with a sharp maiden win. It’s not too late for this colt to get into the Triple Crown mix; he could be that kind of horse. In his debut, Arthur’s Ride showed speed but was no match late finishing second to the vastly talented Disarm. Second out, he tracked the leader, took over in upper stretch, but was run down by Instant Coffee, who already is firmly on the Kentucky Derby trail. In this start, Arthur’s Ride showed some speed from an inside draw, the rider having little choice but to go on with things when stuck down by the rail and just behind a rival after a furlong had been run. Arthur’s Ride came through to lead, took pressure from two short-priced horses to his outside while going a fast half-mile, shrugged off the pace-presser in upper stretch, then had something left to turn back Dreamlike, a Todd Pletcher firster who was coming hard at the sixteenth pole. Arthur’s Ride rebroke twice and still galloped out with good energy going a one-turn mile, and he’s very much bred to be even better around two turns.

Skinner

Feb. 12, 6th race Santa Anita, MdSpWt68k
Beyer: 95
1 mile 1:36.78 – 1st by 3 1/4 lengths
b. c. 3, Curlin – Winding Way, by Malibu Moon
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2021 – $40,000; OBS spring 2yo 2022 – $510,000
Owner: C R K Stable
Trainer: John Shirreffs
Breeder: Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings

Skinner was a pinhook home run, selling for roughly 13 times more at a 2-year-old breeze-up auction than he had as a yearling. He ran all right short-sprinting in his career debut, looking like a horse who would need more ground. Connections must really have thought highly of him, throwing Skinner into the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and then the Grade 1 American Pharoah before he had won. That didn’t go so well, but this comeback start, back in the maiden ranks and with Skinner racing for the first time on Lasix, showed off the colt’s talent. Not especially fast into stride, Skinner settled mid-pack under Victor Espinoza, who made his move about three paths wide around the far turn, Skinner steadily gained from the three-furlong marker to the head of the homestretch. Coming outside the leaders, Skinner looked like a winner before the eighth pole and was ridden confidently by Espinoza, the colt pricking his ears as he took the lead and strode very nicely to the wire. The dam was a graded stakes-class sprinter, and all the broodmare sires say sprint, but Curlin lends stamina and Skinner already has shown he can handle a middle distance. The 95 Beyer suggests he also can handle a step up in competition.

Toxic Gray

Feb. 11, 6th race Aqueduct, MdSpWt80k
Beyer: 91
6 furlongs 1:12.54 – 1st by a neck
gr. c. 3, Verrazano – Reggae Song, by Speightstown
Auctions: OBS yearling sale 2021 – $13,000; OBS 2yo and horses of racing age 2022 – $45,000 (RNA)
Owner: Christopher Borducci, George Raymond, David Berley
Trainer: Michael Miceli
Breeder: Carolyn Vogel

Kudos to whomever discovered this colt and engineered his private purchase out of a second-place finish in a Dec. 30 Tampa Bay maiden-claimer, his career debut. This was impressive. The margin of victory was narrow, the raw time slow, but don’t let that lead you astray: The Aqueduct racing surface was even duller than usual and a neck behind Toxic Gray came Everso Mischievous. This was a Brad Cox-trained first-time starter who must’ve been working lights-out, since he went off at 7-10 in a nine-horse field. At the wire, it was 12 1/2 lengths back to the rest of the pack as Toxic Gray and Everso Mischievous hooked up at the quarter pole and dueled to the finish. Everso Mischievous lost ground stalking the pace three or four paths off the rail, but Toxic Gray, coming from farther behind than that, raced even wider going four to five wide around the entire turn. The rail might well have been dead, but the ground loss was considerable. The dam was a turf sprinter-miler who failed to win in nine starts, and while it’s fair to wonder if this is a route prospect, the sire also adds a dose of grass, should that ever become an option.

Shes Lookin Lucky

Feb. 9, 7th race Fair Grounds, MdSpWt50k
Beyer: 88
1 mile 70 yards 1:43.38 – 1st by 13 3/4 lengths
b. f. 3, Lookin At Lucky – Worldly Heiress, by Wildcat Heir
Owner: Richard Dunn
Trainer: Matt Shirer
Breeder: Richard Dunn

Following a trainer change, the filly was making her third start, and the first two looked nothing like this. We’ll have to take the performance with a grain of salt since Shes Lookin Lucky got a perfect pressing trip in a race rained off turf and lacking strong opposition, but she won off by a mile, ran pretty fast, and the Beyer stacks up well in this division. Shes Lookin Lucky traveled strongly and in the bridle down the backstretch while tracking the leader, easily wrested control before the three-eighths pole, came cruising into the homestretch, and finished with a lot of zip while under only moderate encouragement.