Maxfield makes it look easy in Stephen Foster
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Curlin won the Stephen Foster as a heavy favorite on his way to a Horse of the Year title in 2008. So did Gun Runner in 2017.
So, after Maxfield put forth another scintillating performance Saturday in winning the Stephen Foster, it wasn’t difficult to see where this might be headed.
Confidently ridden by Jose Ortiz, Maxfield powered to his seventh victory in eight career starts in the 40th running of the Grade 2, $600,000 Stephen Foster, the highlight of an eventful closing-day card of the Churchill Downs spring meet. Maxfield returned $2.80, the lowest mutuel in this race since Gun Runner paid $3 four years ago and equaling what Curlin returned 13 years ago.
“Like we said at the start of this year, we wanted to get a good string of races in him,” said Brendan Walsh, who trains Maxfield for Godolphin. “I think it’s starting to happen.”
A well-settled sixth of nine through the first five furlongs of the 1 1/8-mile Foster, Maxfield suddenly became energized when passing four opponents on the turn and loping up alongside front-running Sprawl at the top of the stretch. From there, it was sheer dominance, as Maxfield pulled clear with minimal urging from Ortiz to prevail by 3 1/4 lengths over Warrior’s Charge, finishing in 1:48.53 over a fast track.
“I just stayed out of his way,” said Ortiz, the New York-based jockey who earlier in the day won the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in similarly easy fashion aboard odds-on Letruska.
“When we hit the half-mile pole, I let him catch up his stride, and he does it nicely. I gain more ground putting him in the clear and letting him use his stride than go inside and try to be a hero. He’s the best horse and I rode him like the best.”
Maxfield earned the Win and You’re In berth that was at stake toward the Breeders’ Cup Classic and joins two more standouts from the Godolphin powerhouse, Mystic Guide and Essential Quality, as major candidates for that Nov. 6 race at Del Mar.
Maxfield, a homebred 4-year-old colt by Street Sense, has overcome a couple of stoppages earlier in his career to emerge as one of the top older horses on the continent. He was scratched from the BC Juvenile in November 2019 with a minor ankle injury and missed most of his 3-year-old season with a condylar fracture of his right front leg last June.
But surgery and his subsequent rehab were an unqualified success. Maxfield returned in December with back-to-back stakes wins at Fair Grounds, then was dealt his only defeat to date when finishing third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March. He then rebounded by dominating the April 30 Alysheba at Churchill with Ortiz up.
“He’s taught us not to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Walsh said after the Foster. “Hopefully he’ll come out of this good and we’ll look forward to the next one. But it is happening. We have plans in our minds, but we’re not going to start disclosing them just yet and tempt fate.”
Warrior’s Charge, the 7-1 second choice, ran a big race after being shuffled back at the start. More normally a front-runner, he followed in Maxfield’s path when rallying from midpack at the top of the stretch to finish two lengths ahead of Sprawl in second. Then came South Bend, Chess Chief, Empty Tomb, Necker Island, Visitant, and Silver Dust, the last of whom was rank in the gate prior to the break.
The $2 exacta (8-6) paid $13.40, the $1 trifecta (8-6-4) returned $43.70, and the 10-cent superfecta (8-6-4-7) was worth $33.33.
Gaffalione, Cox lead meet
The 38-day spring meet ended with Tyler Gaffalione easily the leading jockey and Brad Cox the top trainer. Gaffalione rode 47 winners, 16 more than Ricardo Santana Jr., while Cox edged away from a tight pack over the last two days to take the training title with 21 wins. Juddmonte Farms and Three Diamonds tied for leading owner with six wins each.
With the meet ending, all wagering pools were subject to mandatory payouts Saturday, most notably the Derby City 6 (races 7-12), which returned $1,321.90 for every winning 20-cent ticket.
Ellis Park in western Kentucky starts its summer meet Sunday.