Mid-Atlantic horses clean up at Belmont Stakes Festival

Driven by the upset stakes victories of Laurel Park-based trainers Cal Lynch and Tim Keefe, Mid-Atlantic horses scored an amazing six victories during the three-day Belmont Stakes Festival.

With the exception of the top sprinter Imperial Hint, who paid $5.40 as the favorite while winning the Grade 2 True North by a neck for Parx-based Luis Carvajal Jr., the others all paid handsomely, with their prices ranging from $18.60 to $54.50.

Two of the winners came from the nationally respected Fair Hill stable of Graham Motion, who won a blanket finish in the Grade 1 Manhattan with Spring Quality ($38) and a 1 3/8-mile turf maiden race with Captain Hardship ($18.60).

Motion also just missed winning the $150,000 Easy Goer with Rugbyman, a massive son of Tapit and Grade 1 Acorn winner Zaftig who raced greenly in the stretch with his head cocked toward the grandstand. He’s a horse to file away and keep an eye on moving forward.

Trainer Mike Dini, who is based at Monmouth Park, scored the first Mid-Atlantic victory of the festival on Thursday with Bird’s Eye View, who paid $54.50 in a first-level optional-claiming race with a $90,000 purse. Bird’s Eye View had been disqualified from a first-level allowance win at Keeneland in his prior start.

But the most striking wins of the festival belonged to the bargain basement yearling purchases of Lynch and Keefe, who took down the $150,000 Tremont on Friday with Our Braintrust ($23.40) and the Grade 2, $400,000 Woody Stephens on Saturday with Still Having Fun ($28).

Lynch purchased Our Braintrust privately for $25,000 after the Maryland-bred son of the New York stallion Freud failed to meet his reserve at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearlings sale at Timonium last October. Keefe bought Still Having Fun out of the same sale in 2016 for $12,000.

Our Braintrust came into the Tremont, a 5 1/2-furlong sprint for 2-year-olds, off a three-quarter-length debut victory going 4 1/2 furlongs at Laurel. He was disregarded as the sixth betting choice in the seven-horse field, but his stamina served him well after the pacesetting filly Mae Never No weakened after holding a 2 1/2-length lead passing the furlong pole.

In third position early along the inner rail, Our Braintrust kept grinding away and took the lead inside Mae Never No in the final sixteenth. He held off rallying Sombeyay by three-quarters of a length.

“When he won going 4 1/2, I was delighted because with him it’s going to be the further the better,” Lynch said. “I can’t wait to get him going long on the turf. He can rate. He can go through a hole. He can do a lot of things.”

Lynch owns Our Braintrust with Bo Smith, who has been a client for more than 20 years.

Our Braintrust was the first of three consecutive weekend winners for Lynch. On Saturday, he sent out Dancingwithpaynter at Laurel to win a maiden race at 1 1/16 miles on turf. On Sunday, the 2-year-old filly Congrats Gal won her debut by 6 1/4 lengths at Laurel. Both are owned by Charlie Biggs.

Like Our Braintrust, Congrats Gal looks to have a bright future.

“Babies are the lifeblood of the game,” Lynch said. “I told Charlie before the race, ‘She’s exceptionally fast, I’m just not sure I have her fit enough. Whatever she does today, she’s going to improve.’”

Keefe, the president of the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, bought Still Having Fun on behalf of Jim Scott’s Terp Racing. Following Still Having Fun’s debut victory at Laurel last November, Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel bought into him.

Still Having Fun went on to win the Frank Whitely Jr. and Miracle Wood at Laurel. After two attempts to stretch him out around two turns failed to yield a win, Keefe cut him back to six furlongs in the $200,000 Chick Lang at Pimlico and he rallied to finish second to the ultra-quick 3-year-old sprinter Mitole.

Still Having Fun came from 10th off blazing fractions of 21.46 and 43.68 to win the Woody Stephens by 1 1/4 lengths.

Keefe has developed some nice horses over the years, including Eighttofasttocatch, a 17-time winner of more than $1 million from 2008 to 2014, and Celtic Innis, a nine-time winner of $648,000 from 2004 to 2010. But the Woody Stephens was his first graded victory.

Keefe said he would discuss Still Having Fun’s future with his owners before deciding on a next race.

“Saratoga might be something we’d consider,” Keefe said. “He’s run pretty hard consistently since January. I’ll see what Adam has in mind. He’s a real numbers guy and he’ll help determine what a good next spot will be.”

The 3-year-old sprint stakes at Saratoga are the Grade 3, $200,000 Amsterdam at 6 1/2 furlongs on July 28 and the Grade 1, $500,000 Allen Jerkens Memorial at seven furlongs Aug. 25.