Breakout Beyers: Even though late to the game, Donegal Forever has a future

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

Donegal Forever
June 17, 5th race Belmont, MdSpWt90k
Beyer: 89
1 1/16 miles 1:43.33 – 1st by 4 1/4 lengths
b. c. 3, Pioneerof the Nile – Flatter Up, by Flatter
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2021 – $170,000
Owner: Donegal Racing
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Breeder: Three Chimneys Farm

This colt didn’t even post an official work until April but got ready pretty quickly once he began drilling. The first stride of his racing career began well enough – then came an adventure. Donegal Forever took a significant stumble his second stride, Irad Ortiz Jr.’s left foot coming all the way out of his iron. Ortiz fished around for a couple seconds looking for his stirrup, found it quickly enough, and the colt had little trouble regaining focus and getting back into the race. Ortiz snugged Donegal Forever just behind the lead group of runners and the colt relaxed sweetly while still traveling along in the bridle, very handy. There still was no room at the three-eighths as Donegal Forever stayed patient, Ortiz going around a tiring rail runner to get into position at the five-sixteenths pole. A flagging outside rival failed to keep pace, which opened a spot for Donegal Forever at the quarter pole, and after changing leads just a half-beat later than ideal, he quickly opened a big lead and was geared down to the wire. You can see with this stride why the sire often gets a better turf horse than dirt horse, though the colt’s action taken as a whole comes together well enough. It is getting late enough in the year that debuting 3-year-olds should be treated with a fair amount of skepticism, but this colt traveled sweetly enough, won with such ease, and so easily overcame considerable early trouble that he’s well worth keeping an eye on.

Mischievous Angel
June 17, 1st race Belmont, MdSpWt90k
Beyer: 87
6 furlongs turf 1:08.74 – 1st by three-quarters
b. g. 3, Into Mischief – Sabrina’s Angel, by Scat Daddy
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling 2021 – $600,000
Owner: Peter Brant and Parkland Thoroughbreds
Trainer: Chad Brown
Breeder: Parkland Thoroughbreds

Won’t be much of a stallion career coming – this horse debuted as a gelding. His published workouts date all the way to May 2022 at Payson Park, so obviously there were challenges getting him to the races. Mischievous Angel is the first foal from a dam winless in two starts and a sister to Florida Derby winner Audible. There is not an awful lot of obvious turf in the pedigree, nor had the horse posted a turf workout, but grass, as Chad Brown had ascertained, worked just fine. Lacking early pace, Mischievous Angel dropped well behind the lead pack before moving up with alacrity past the three-furlong marker. A little late to change leads after turning for home, he nonetheless swooped and swallowed the quartet in front of him at the quarter pole and appeared to do so with ease. If we are to believe the clock, Mischievous Angel ran his fifth furlong in 10.90 seconds, which is really rocking even on a fast-playing, firm course, before finishing off in 11.65. Don’t see why he couldn’t go longer.

Second I D
June 9, 6th race Gulfstream, MdSpWt50K
Beyer: 90
6 1/2 furlongs 1:16.63 – 1st by 7 3/4 lengths
b. c. 3, Maclean’s Music – Cowboytakemeaway, by Street Cry
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2021 – $150,000
Owner: Gentry Farms
Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr.
Breeder: Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings

The dam was winless in one start but is a sister to Grade 1 winner Pauline’s Pearl and to multiple stakes-winning sprinter Union Jackson. There’s plenty more graded-stakes accomplishments just one generation further back in a strong pedigree. In his debut, Second I D broke sharply but was displaced on the lead, sitting second much of the trip through a modest pace. Easily the most impressive part of his race came from the quarter pole to the eighth pole, during which Second I D left his rivals gasping with a big burst of speed, the jockey gearing him down the final half-furlong in a sharp score. Pauline’s Pearl was an aberration, a horse bred to sprint who wanted to route, but the general shape of this immediate family – and the shape of this horse – leans toward short races.