Suffolk Downs standout Mrs. Bean retires

EAST BOSTON, Mass. – The celebration in the winner’s circle Wednesday for Mrs. Bean, the only horse with a perfect record at Suffolk Downs this year, turned out to be her retirement party.

“Unfortunately, after the race, she came back sore, so she’s going to be retired,” said John Assimakopolous, who runs trainer David Jacobson’s 13-horse stable here. “At the first sign of anything that would ever hurt her, we were sure that right away, that would be it. We’re not going to take any chances with her. Now we’ll be good to her because she’s been good to us.”

“Good” is an understatement. Mrs. Bean, a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Spring At Last, is the quintessential horse-for-course, winning all five of her races here. She graduated in impressive fashion in a maiden special weight in her second start for trainer Christophe Clement in August 2012, and after Jacobson claimed her for $20,000 at Aqueduct in December and sent her back to Boston, she rattled off four straight victories during the current meet.

The margin of victory in her gate-to-wire swan song Wednesday under veteran rider Taylor Hole was 7 3/4 lengths.

“It’s all positive with her,” said Assimakopolous. “She has the heart of a lion. Taylor said he hasn’t been on many like her. She’s push-button. She’s got so many gears that as soon as they get close, she just pulls away. She’s all racehorse. She’s one of the rare and special ones where you know that every time you tack her up, the other horses are all going have to really run to beat her. That’s the kind of confidence we had in her from Day 1.”

Mrs. Bean, who retires with a record of five wins and one second from 10 starts and $53,570 in earnings, will join the herd at Old Friends Cabin Creek in New York.

“From there, I think she’s going to be a broodmare, which I hope because she’ll produce one heck of a runner if the foal has half of her heart,” Assimakopolous said.

Assimakopoulos grew up at the barn of his father, Charlie, an owner, trainer, and breeder who raced under the nom de course Yasou Stable and is enshrined in the New England Turf Writers Hall of Fame. John runs the family business now.

“We got out of the breeding business, and we’re down to only five horses in the barn, but they are all doing pretty good,” he said. “We have a nice 2-year-old named Fond of Sarah. She’s out of Fond Dance, who we owned, trained, and bred, and she was a running machine. This filly is our final homebred, and I think she’s special.”

Restless Rebel seeks first win

A rider change to Dyn Panell, who sports the highest winning percentage (26) among those in the local colony, may help Restless Rebel pick up her first career win when eight 3-year-old Massachusetts-bred fillies travel six furlongs in the $25,000 Louise Kimball Stakes on Saturday.

Sultan’s Princess, also hoping to graduate, figures to go postward as the favorite by virtue of her second-place showing in a $17,000 maiden special weight Aug. 4, when a tiring Restless Rebel was another two lengths behind.