Embarrassing gives Block record-setting victory
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Kool Kate lost her cool as Embarrassing drove through heavy rain to give trainer Chris Block a record-setting victory when she captured the $75,000 Mike Spellman Memorial Handicap by about 3 ½ lengths late Saturday afternoon at Arlington.
Block, a longtime fixture on the Illinois circuit, won his 45th stakes race at Arlington, more than any other trainer. He did it with a 4-year-old filly entirely the product of his family’s racing and breeding operation, Team Block. Embarrassing is by Fort Prado, bred and campaigned by the Blocks and trained by Chris, and out of Rally Catcher, another Block-trained homebred.
“It’s very humbling. I couldn’t have done it without this guy here on my right,” Block said, pointing to his father, Dave. “We breed to race here in Illinois, and it’s pretty special that it came with a homebred.”
Kool Kate, invading from Indiana Grand for trainer Tony Granitz, had the best recent form in the Spellman and was the co-starting high weight at 117 pounds, but Kool Kate got very rank early in the race under Jose Valdivia, stuck herself three wide down the backstretch and into the far turn, and after her unnecessary early exertions had little response when Embarrassing came calling a furlong out.
:: Get PPs, Clocker Reports, picks, and more from DRF's Saratoga/Del Mar One-Stop Shop
Under Jose Lopez, Embarrassing broke alertly and settled into a comfortable stride racing from fourth while saving ground behind the leaders. Embarrassing won for the first time in three starts this year after ending her 2018 campaign with a pair of wins. She paid $18.40 and ran 1 1/16 miles over a yielding turf course in 1:46.33. After a brutally hot afternoon, heavy storms rolled through the area shortly before the Spellman and rain pelted the Spellman runners.
“We were looking at this race over the winter,” Block said. “It just took a couple starts to get her back. She was real aggressive last time, but today I felt good going into the far turn.”
And even better at the finish.
Memory Bank wins off the turf
Memory Bank scoured the deep fissures of his brain Saturday at Arlington and remembered how to win a race.
Second or third in six of his last seven starts, Memory Bank cashed for the winner’s share of the $75,000 Black Tie Affair Handicap purse when tallying by about 2 ½ lengths over longshot Hannity.
After strong storms with heavy rain hit Arlington before the seventh race, the Black Tie Affair, race 8, was switched to Polytrack. Cammack and Don’task Don’ttell were scratched after the late surface switch.
Memory Bank had finished third to two of Saturday’s rivals, Blue Sky Kowboy and Chief Oakie Dokie, in a recent allowance race over Arlington Polytrack but easily disposed of those horses and everyone else in the Black Tie Affair. Mitchell Murrill, winning his first Arlington stakes race, kept Memory Bank close to pacesetting Christian C down the backstretch, attacked the leader at the three-furlong pole and pushed clear through the homestretch to win comfortably. Hannity, the longest price at 19-1, rallied steadily to get second over Christian C.
Memory Bank, who carried 118 pounds, two fewer than starting highweight Blue Sky Kowboy, ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.57 and paid $6.60.
Mike Stidham trains Memory Bank for the Dare to Dream Stable. Memory Bank is a gelded 5-year-old son of Misremembered and the With Approval mare Shingwedzi.