Mike
Philanthropist – Uproar, by Hail the Ruckus
(Purchased for 325,000 Canadian dollars by John LeBlanc as agent at the 2014 CTHS-Ontario select yearling sale)
Mike, who was entered to run in an allowance Saturday at Woodbine, would be making his stakes debut in the Queen’s Plate should he punch his ticket with an impressive performance. But one glance down his page reveals some familiar names that certainly make him a classics contender on paper.
A classic race for males was started in England in 1780 to help breeders develop the emerging Thoroughbred, a cross of several breeds including Arabians, by testing the best 3-year-old colts at 1 1/2 miles in the Epsom Derby. The goal was to help find progenitors who could pass along the traits of speed and stamina necessary to improve the breed. That’s why the Epsom Derby to this day is restricted to entire colts and fillies. Geldings need not apply.
The 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes will be the longest any of the 13 entries in the field will have ever raced in competition, and few, if any, will run at the distance again once they cross the finish on Saturday.
As previous renewals have shown, the quarter-mile difference between the Belmont and the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby can lead to a different horse entering the winner’s circle.
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah’s days on the racetrack are now a memory growing ever more distant. The champion retired at the end of his smashing 2015 campaign and is now nearing the completion of his first season at stud at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky. But part of the beauty of the Thoroughbred industry is that it never stops moving on, and a number of American Pharoah’s close relatives are preparing to one day make their own names in racing.
Spendthrift Farm freshman sire Dominus was represented by his first winner from his first starter when the juvenile filly P Boo made all the pace to win a $28,000 maiden special weight race for Louisiana-breds at Evangeline Downs by 4 1/4 lengths today. She completed the race in :53.24.
P Boo, owned and trained by Jerry Delhomme, was bred in Louisiana by Spendthrift Farm.
Dominus, a son of Smart Strike out of Cuando, by Lord At War, was bred by Edward P. Evans and campaigned by George Bolton, Stonestreet Stable, and Spendthrift Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher.
Paul Reddam will not be at Belmont Park on Saturday with his Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, who was knocked out of the final leg of the Triple Crown after running a minor temperature following his runner-up effort in the Preakness Stakes. But the prominent owner’s purple and white silks are still vying to appear in the Belmont winner’s circle, as he will send out homebred Mrazek in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters on the undercard.
The Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap has a history of being a stallion-making race, as it showcases the brilliance so desired in the American market. That history is why Frosted, most recently seen finishing fifth in the Dubai World Cup in March, will step outside of his comfort zone for Saturday’s edition of the prestigious event, cutting back in distance as he returns to the races.
Forever Unbridled and Forever d’Oro will get wildly different receptions from horseplayers on Saturday at Belmont Park. Forever Unbridled is a Grade 1 winner who is part of a star-studded field in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes. Forever d’Oro is a recent maiden winner and will be a longshot in a Belmont Stakes topped by heavy favorite Exaggerator.
But the two both run for owner and breeder Charles Fipke and trainer Dallas Stewart, and both are out of the duo’s Kentucky Oaks winner and outstanding broodmare, Lemons Forever.
Elliott Walden knows what it takes to win the Belmont Stakes. During his training days, the WinStar Farm president and chief executive saddled Victory Gallop to win the 1998 Belmont Stakes. Victory Gallop ran down Triple Crown hopeful Real Quiet by a nose in one of the most dramatic finishes in the classic’s history.
Delay of Game, a Grade 3 winner and resident of Old Friends Equine Retirement in Georgetown, Ky., was euthanized Monday evening due to the infirmities of old age. He was 23.
The gelded son of Summer Squall had also suffered from equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, known as EPM, a neurological disease.
Bred in Kentucky by Marcia Gumberg, Delay of Game was purchased by owner John Peace for $80,000 out of the 1994 Keeneland September yearling sale an put into training with Patrick Enright, for whom the gelding won his debut start at Delaware Park by 8 ½ lengths.
