Breakout Beyers: Everything came together for Lemon Muffin in Honeybee

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

Lemon Muffin
Feb. 24, 9th race Oaklawn, G3 Honeybee
Beyer: 84
1 1/16 miles 1:45.60 – 1st by 3 1/2 lengths
gr.f.3, Collected – Pelt, by Canadian Frontier
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2022 – $20,000; OBS spring 2-year-old 2023 – $140,000
Owner: Aaron Sones
Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas
Breeder: Mr. & Mrs. Theodore R. Kuster & Collected Syndicate

Lemon Muffin came into the Honeybee Stakes a five-race maiden and at 28-1 was seventh choice in a 10-runner field, but while favored West Omaha didn’t fire, there was nothing fraudulent about Lemon Muffin’s victory. The filly was racing for the second time in blinkers while making her first start beyond a sprint distance, and everything came together for her and jockey Keith Asmussen. Lemon Muffin broke a touch flat-footed and raced from sixth in the early going, just outside West Omaha around the first turn. Down the backstretch, Lemon Muffin traveled beautifully, keenly in the bridle but also not too keen, and when West Omaha began struggling a bit before the half-mile pole, Lemon Muffin was going forward. She bid boldly while a few paths wide into the stretch and came in as she passed the last horse in front of her, Tapit Jenallie, but whatever trouble she caused the eventual runner-up, Tapit Jenallie was not beating Lemon Muffin on this day. The winner quickly opened daylight after making the front. Geared down to the wire, Lemon Muffin looked, out of the blue, like a Kentucky Oaks filly.

Corporate Power
Feb. 24, 4th race Gulfstream, MdSpWt70k
Beyer: 84
1 1/8 miles 1:51.08 – 1st by a neck
b.c.3, Curlin – Road to Victory, by Quality Road
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: Keeneland September yearling 2022 – $925,000
Owner: Courtlandt Farm
Trainer: Shug McGaughey
Breeder: Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings

Corporate Power and the horse he beat here by a neck, Batten Down, were the first two running back out of Speak Easy’s triple-digit Beyer maiden win on Jan. 27, flattering Speak Easy and the horse who was second in the race, Victory Avenue, both possible runners in the Fountain of Youth this weekend. Batten Down made a comfortable lead here, albeit on a decent pace, and just wasn’t able to fend off Corporate Power in the final 10 strides, with Sturdy, making his first start since October and with form lines including Locked and Domestic Product, another length back in third. The bunched finish among the top three might hint this race wasn’t especially strong, but it was more than 13 lengths back to the fourth horse. Corporate Power, the second foal to race from a dam who peaked at 2 with a win in the 2017 Grade 2 Golden Rod, was softly bumped at the start, then stalked the pace under Javier Castellano, who’d ridden the colt to his fourth-place debut finish and here kept him wide and out of kickback. Corporate Power might have wanted to be even wider. Castellano flagged him right-handed down the backstretch while leaning left in the saddle to hold him in, but Corporate Power made steady progress around the turn and at the five-sixteenths pole appeared to have Batten Down in his sights. Instead, he went flat at the quarter pole, two pops of the crop only causing the colt to lug in and race greenly. But when Sturdy came up to the colt’s outside, and Castellano went to hand-riding, Corporate Power rallied gamely between horses and clearly was going best at the wire. Things to learn, but more levels to hit.

Set
Feb. 24, 12th race Gulfstream, MdSpWt70k
Beyer: 87
7 1/2 furlongs turf 1:27.11 – 1st by 5 3/4 lengths
ch.c.3, Oscar Performance – Three Am Tour, by Strategic Prince
Noteworthy siblings: None
Auctions: OBS spring 2-year-old 2023 – $150,000
Owner: Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gary Barber
Trainer: Mark Casse
Breeder: Blue Chip Bloodstock

While there might not have been any future stars among his 11 rivals, Set blew their doors off in this flashy career debut, leading from just after the start. Set did that thing that always seems noteworthy in a front-running maiden winner: running fastest through the early stages, but also finishing fastest. The second-best 1 1/2-furlong come-home time was .31 of a second slower than Set’s, and most of the others finished considerably slower than that. That Set would sprint home came as no surprise to anyone attending to his comportment during the race. Set, despite making his first start going long, relaxed enough under a rating hold while running with his ears pricked straight up. Set down in upper stretch, he immediately put forth a strong burst, and while the rider went to the stick, he need not have. Set put this race to bed at the eighth pole. A New York-bred, Set is the fourth foal to race from an Irish-bred mare who was campaigned like a seven-furlong horse (to no great effect) and eventually was shortened up to 5 1/2 furlongs after being sent to trainer Wesley Ward in America. Set has the body type of a sprinter-miler, and while Casse went straight to a two-turn contest with the colt, he might not want much more than one mile.