Watchmaker: Battle for 3-year-old filly title far from over

In recent versions of the Watchmaker Watch, my weekly divisional rankings for DRF, my comment for Monomoy Girl atop the 3-year-old filly division has read, “Close to clinching this title if she hasn’t already.”

Well, it looks like I jumped the gun a bit there, and I will be changing that comment first thing Monday morning.

Even though Monomoy Girl’s run of Grade 1 victories in the Ashland, Kentucky Oaks, and Acorn Stakes would be enough in many years to clinch the 3-year-old filly Eclipse Award, and even though Monomoy Girl is still the leader of her division by a significant margin and remains a very likely recipient of year-end honors, it would be a good idea to wait just a bit before engraving Monomoy Girl’s name on any Eclipse hardware. It turns out this division isn’t completely over. Not yet. Not after the way Midnight Bisou and Wonder Gadot won on Saturday.

Midnight Bisou, in her first start since being moved to the Steve Asmussen barn for an Eastern campaign the second half of the year, could not have been more impressive in winning the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park, crushing Road to Victory, the only filly to have ever beaten Monomoy Girl and who was 3 for 3 going in, by six very large lengths.

Wonder Gadot, who had developed an extremely costly hanging habit this year, losing four straight stakes she might have won had she not been so camera shy, made her first start in blinkers against 14 males and one other filly in the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine. Blinkers are meant to make a horse focus, and, man, did they have the quintessential effect on Wonder Gadot, putting her mind on running instead of finding someone to hang to, and she won off by more than five lengths in by far the best performance of her career.

In one sense, these very big scores were flattering to Monomoy Girl as both Midnight Bisou and Wonder Gadot lost to her in the Kentucky Oaks, by far the most important race in the 3-year-old filly division. But in another way, these big wins put Midnight Bisou and Wonder Gadot back in the title discussion because as critical as the Kentucky Oaks is, their losses in it were not without extenuating circumstances.

Midnight Bisou, who won the Santa Ynez, Santa Ysabel, and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks this year prior to the Kentucky Oaks in the same dominant manner she won the Mother Goose, was simply much too far back early in the Kentucky Oaks. She was never going to win that race from 11th. The Oaks just never set up favorably for her, and it was only on her class that she was able to finish third. In any case, and in light of Saturday’s results, it makes you wonder what a Monomoy Girl-Midnight Bisou matchup could be like when they both have their best shot at winning.

As for Wonder Gadot, her situation vis a vis a divisional title is somewhat different because she was 0 for 6 this year before she ran away with the Queen’s Plate. And when she finished third in the Rachel Alexandra early this year, she was clearly not in the same league with Monomoy Girl, who was about 15 miles the best that day.

However, Wonder Gadot was beaten only a half-length by Monomoy Girl when second in the Kentucky Oaks, and the way I saw that race, I thought Wonder Gadot absolutely had the measure of Monomoy Girl in the stretch, only to hang and idle once she drew even for the lead – again. But now, with blinkers, Wonder Gadot might not be nearly as inclined to give races away like she did in the Fair Grounds Oaks, Fantasy, Woodbine Oaks, and, most importantly on a number of levels, the Kentucky Oaks.

Last year, Abel Tasman was absolutely toyed with by Unique Bella in the Santa Ysabel, and she lost the Santa Anita Oaks by almost 12 lengths to Paradise Woods, yet was still able to compile a campaign that made her the obvious and satisfying champion 3-year-old filly. No two seasons are the same, and Monomoy Girl will still be extremely difficult to overtake. But the lesson here is that there is still time for Wonder Gadot, and especially Midnight Bisou, to instill some real suspense in this 3-year-old filly division.

• Speaking of fillies, the 2-year-old filly Restless Rider was positively monstrous in winning Saturday’s Debutante Stakes at Churchill. Restless Rider, a filly by Distorted Humor who romped in her only other start, also at Churchill, was in close striking position early, only to have to be sharply taken up behind a stricken rival early on the far turn. She fell back so sharply and lost so much ground that it looked like she was most certainly out of contention. But then, Restless Rider rallied and swooped to the lead into the stretch and drew off to win by more than 11 lengths.

Now, I think it’s best to be reserved when it comes to early-season 2-year-olds, and the chances are very good that the Debutante field Restless Rider obliterated despite major trouble lacked much in the way of quality. Then again, despite her horrendous trip, Restless Rider completed six furlongs in 1:10.62, more than two full seconds faster than the 1:12.77 that 2-year-old males went in the Bashford Manor Stakes later on the card.

Restless Rider might be worth getting excited about.

• Chad Brown on Saturday sent out the one-two finishers in Monmouth’s Grade 1 United Nations, the one-two finishers in the Dance Smartly at Woodbine, and the one-three finishers in the Eatontown back at Monmouth, all on turf. And that not a single horseplayer in North America was likely surprised at this turn of events only speaks to the high standards Brown has established for himself.

It is in that context that it should be noted that Brown’s U.N. winner, Funtastic, was 23-1. Brown’s horses in turf races of any kind infrequently go off and rarely win at prices like that because his great success leads to inordinate parimutuel support. Funtastic had respectable form going into Saturday, having finished third or better in six of his last seven starts, winning twice at the initial allowance levels. But he had never before competed in a graded stakes of any sort and seemed seriously overmatched. In fact, if almost any other trainer had his name attached to Funtastic, his odds might have been 10 to 15 points higher.

United Nations favorite Money Multiplier rallied only mildly to finish second, and no one else ran as much as a jump, which is as good an explanation as any as to why Funtastic went coast to coast. In the meantime, our male turf division remains in a state of disarray.

Europe, are you listening?