Maxfield bids to start new streak in Alysheba

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Maxfield lost. Big whoop.

“They all get beat eventually, or the vast majority do,” trainer Brendan Walsh said of Maxfield finishing third in early March in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, marking the first defeat for the star colt following five straight victories to open his career. “That’s done, and now we’re looking forward to this next race.”

Maxfield will be looking to start a new winning streak as the 4-5 morning-line favorite Friday in the 18th running of the Grade 2, $400,000 Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs. Five other older horses will oppose the Godolphin homebred in the 1 1/16-mile Alysheba, which goes as race 6 (post, 1:26 p.m. Eastern) as the first of six straight graded stakes, capped by the Kentucky Oaks, on a 13-race Derby Eve card.

In less than 20 months, Maxfield has packed a lot of eventfulness into his six-race career. Displaying a terrific late kick from the very beginning, he won a one-mile maiden race at Churchill in September 2019, then the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland three weeks later. The Street Sense colt was one of the program favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita the following month but was scratched with a minor injury, after which Walsh found himself on a tight schedule to make the 2020 Kentucky Derby – but that was before the pandemic forced the Derby to be postponed from May to September.

Maxfield then won his 3-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill, an ideal first step toward the rescheduled Derby. But then he suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture of his right front cannon bone in a June 10 workout at Keeneland, rendering even a delayed Derby unfeasible.

Surgery and the subsequent recovery went perfectly. Maxfield resurfaced in New Orleans over the winter, winning the Tenacious and Grade 3 Mineshaft with flair while upping his record to 5 for 5 and stamping himself as one of the top older runners on the continent.

Then came the Big Cap. Sent away the 11-10 favorite, Maxfield looped into contention with about a half-mile to go in the 1 1/4-mile race, only to flatten out to finish third, beaten two lengths by the onrushing Idol without an apparent excuse.

Regrouped initially in Florida, then at Keeneland, and now at Churchill, Maxfield turns back in distance following four timed works in the interim.

“I couldn’t be happier with how he’s done,” Walsh said. “He’s doing great in his training, and his works have been terrific. We’re going in with confidence.”

Walsh said the Grade 2 Stephen Foster on June 26, closing day of the 38-day Churchill spring meet, would be a logical next race for Maxfield, “but let’s see how Friday goes first,” he said.

Maxfield is part of a huge weekend for Godolphin, the worldwide powerhouse stable being represented Saturday in the Kentucky Derby by Essential Quality, the morning-line favorite.

Jose Ortiz, who rode Maxfield in his first three starts before Florent Geroux rode him in his next three, has the mount back for the Alysheba. They’ll break from post 6 in a race noticeably lacking in early speed, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Maxfield a bit closer to the pace than in some prior races. His win in the Dec. 19 Tenacious, unlike all his others, came when he sat just off the front-runner from the start.

“We’ll let Jose see how the race shapes up,” Walsh said.

If Maxfield is to somehow be upset, the perpetrator could be Roadster (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.), the 2019 Santa Anita Derby winner making just his second start in 14 months for Bob Bafffert, or Attachment Rate (post 3, Joe Talamo), a 2020 Kentucky Derby also-ran whose two-back triumph for Dale Romans on the Feb. 27 Fountain of Youth undercard at Gulfstream Park was a thing of brilliance.

“Maxfield is probably going to have to stub his toe, but if he does, we could be right there,” Romans said.

Rounding out the cast are Visitant, Sonneman, and Chess Chief.

The Alysheba is named for the 1987 Kentucky Derby and 1988 BC Classic winner who was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1993. It’s the leadoff event in the 20-cent Derby City pick six (races 6-11), a jackpot wager ending with the Oaks.