McKulick's Belmont Oaks triumph special for Brown

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown always felt McKulick was “born to run” 1 1/4 miles. That she proved Brown right on Saturday, winning the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Oaks, was special on multiple counts.

McKulick is a daughter of the champion horse Frankel, who was named in honor of Bobby Frankel, the Hall of Fame trainer for whom Brown worked for several years before going out on his own. Saturday would have been Frankel’s 81st birthday. Frankel died in 2009.

“The irony and the importance of it being on his birthday just means everything to me personally,” said Brown, who named McKulick in honor of Mary McKulick, Brown’s first employee when he left Frankel. Mary McKulick died in 2020.

McKulick won the Belmont Oaks after receiving a terrific ground-saving trip from Irad Ortiz Jr., who used his rail draw to his advantage. McKulick was 5 1/2 lengths off the pace set by Cairo Memories, ridden by Mike Smith. With the track timer not working because it was set for the incorrect rail settings, the race was hand-timed, with the quarter being run in 23.42 seconds and the half in 48.64.

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With The Moonlight, who under Frankie Dettori stalked Cairo Memories from second, made the lead at the quarter pole. Once With The Moonlight finally put Cairo Memories away, McKulick, who had swung into the clear turning for home, was the next challenge. McKulick overtook With The Moonlight at the sixteenth pole and edged clear to win by 1 3/4 lengths.

With The Moonlight held off Consumer Spending by a head for second as Brown sent out the first- and third-place finishers. Concert Hall, the Aidan O’Brien-trained filly and 5-2 Oaks favorite, finished fourth. She was followed, in order, by Cairo Memories, Hot Queen, Know Thyself, New Year’s Eve, Haughty, and Agartha. Brown also trained Haughty.

McKulick, owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables, covered the 1 1/4 miles in a hand-timed 1:59.62 and returned $12.80 as the third choice.

“She’s special, she finally got enough room to fully utilize that closing kick that she has,” said Brown, who won his fourth Belmont Oaks, sixth if you count two runnings of the Garden City, which this race was previously called. “Irad rode a beautiful race; he was lined up behind Haughty down the backside, which I thought was a good decision by him. Haughty at least took him into the stretch where he could take it from there.”

Ortiz said he got a great trip, sitting behind Haughty and Agartha, whom he followed before tipping wide.

“She put me in a good position behind two live horses, I bide my time, stay there, save some ground, at the three-eighths pole I asked her a bit and she started moving really nice,” Ortiz said.

Dettori said he got the trip he was looking for on With The Moonlight, sitting just off of Cairo Memories behind reasonable fractions.

“We went slow, tried to stretch out at the three-eighths, but one came out of the pack that was better than me,” Dettori said.

Brown said third-place finisher Consumer Spending got bottled up in traffic or he felt she might have finished second.

“There wasn’t an opportunity in the stretch to put her out where she likes to be,” Brown said. “She was probably second-best in the race.”

Haughty, Brown’s third runner, will be shortened up in distance.

“Haughty didn’t stay the mile and a quarter,” Brown said. “I felt confident she would, I was not correct about that and she’s going to get a cutback in distance. We’re still very high on her.”