Maple Leaf Mel's debut turns out to be well worth watching
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The owner, Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells, was sick. The trainer, Jeremiah Englehart, was at Citi Field with friends and family watching the Mets. Their horse Maple Leaf Mel made them miss not being at Saratoga.
Maple Leaf Mel made quite the debut Wednesday at Saratoga, cruising to a front-running five-length victory under Joel Rosario. The 2-year-old New York-bred daughter of Cross Traffic ran six furlongs in 1:11.48 and earned an 81 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I was fairly confident that she would run well,” Englehart said Thursday morning. “It’s always nice to see them perform that way. There’s a lot of them that perform that way in the morning and they don’t show up that way in the afternoon. But she just gave you the impression that she wants to race.”
Englehart said he watched the race as he wandered around Citi Field, preferring to watch the race by himself. Englehart said the trip with family and friends to attend Wednesday’s Mets game was planned months ago. Englehart said his children had never been to a Major League Baseball game.
The filly was named after Melanie Giddings, Englehart’s assistant, who is a native of Coburg, Ontario.
Giddings said she doesn’t follow sports aside from horseracing, so she didn’t know Parcells as a two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach with the Giants and a Hall of Famer until he started coming around the barn.
“He’s just a down-to-earth, cool guy,” Giddings said. “It’s neat to have someone who so many people idolize name a horse after you. I will say the weirdest part was walking over and hearing people on the outside [rail] saying, ‘Oh my God, Mel is beautiful’ and they’re talking about the horse.”
Giddings is a cancer survivor, and though she no longer exercises horses, she ponies them to the track almost every set all morning long.
“Mel is such a big part of our operation here and I thought it was a pretty good way to honor her,” Englehart said.
Englehart said he will consider wheeling Maple Leaf Mel back in 16 days in the $200,000 Seeking the Ante Stakes for New York-bred juvenile fillies here on Aug. 26.