Jewell finds realistic spot for Seas of Normandy
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Among the handful of Hastings refugees who now have stables on the Emerald Downs backstretch, Ian Jewell is the most familiar face, having gotten 19 starts at the Auburn, Wash., track under his belt last year.
Seas of Normandy, a now-6-year-old gelding, was perhaps the most prominent of Jewell’s entrants, running a distant ninth in Emerald’s biggest race, the $125,000 Longacres Mile. After following that up with another disappointing finish in a stakes back at Hastings, Seas of Normandy notched his fourth career win in a Sept. 27 allowance at Hastings.
Nine starts later, he’s still looking for the elusive fifth.
The good news is that Seas of Normandy has run competitively, finishing in the money in six of those nine losses, five of which came on the grass at Turf Paradise. Those turf starts were the first of his 33-race career.
“He didn’t mind the turf too much, but the track at Turf Paradise, he didn’t like that [dirt] track as much as I thought he would,” explained Jewell. “It was a little deeper. When I tried him on the grass, he gravitated to it pretty good. He’d come running down the lane but always came up short, so I’m happy to be back at Emerald. He really likes it here.”
He might like it here, but one thing Seas of Normandy won’t be doing is running in stakes this year.
“I think he’s right where he belongs,” Jewell said of the $20,000 claiming race that Seas of Normandy will compete in Friday night, the first nocturnal date of the Emerald meet. “The [Longacres] Mile didn’t develop like I thought it would. He broke terrible, so I kind of threw that out. I tried him in the stakes at Hastings, and he struggled with the small track. I think stakes are kind of a little out of his league. I think he’s well placed now.”
In assessing the five-horse field for race 4, that certainly seems to be the case, although Seas of Normandy will likely cede favoritism to Afjan and Background, first and second in a $10,000 starter allowance here May 10. Then there’s The Black Strat, a speedster who held his own against Seas of Normandy several times on the grass at Turf Paradise but has struggled on dirt.
On May 24, in his Emerald debut, The Black Strat finished fifth and last by 20 lengths after a bobbled start. Still, Jewell would not like to see another speed duel between Seas of Normandy, drawn in post 1, and The Black Strat in post 5.
“We went head to head on the turf, and he went ridiculous fractions and we finished fourth and fifth,” recalled Jewell of a one-mile race on Jan. 21 where the opening fractions were 21.66 seconds for the quarter-mile and 45.11 for the half. “I watched Black Strat’s last race and he didn’t break very well, but I do know he’s fast. I don’t want to go head to head with him. I’d rather sit off of him.”
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