Haskell Invitational (Grade 1)

WHO is the best three-year-old in America? After last Saturday’s Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park, we are no clearer as another colt joined the winners of the three Triple Crown races to stake a legitimate claim.

West coast trainer Richard Mandella won the Haskell back in 2000 and combined with Mike Smith to see 12/1 shot Geaux Rocket Ride see off the Kentucky Derby winner Mage.

Geaux Rocket Ride put his name in the picture by taking charge in the final furlong before powering to a length and three-quarters victory from Mage and Arabian Knight. The Candy Ride colt earned a 100 Beyer Speed figure. Mage had earned a 105 figure in the Derby.

Connections offered excuses for the two beaten place getters, in that each had been absent for a while and may have needed the runs.

The winner could still be a very good unexposed colt, this only his fourth race. After missing the Santa Anita Derby and the Triple Crown due to a fever, Geaux Rocket Ride had just one prep race win at Santa Anita in early June.

The Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga on August 26th could be the three-year-old showdown but Mandella said Geaux Rocket Ride would head back to California.

“I don’t like the idea of bringing him here, bringing him back to California, and coming back for the Travers. We pushed him to this point and we don’t want to keep pushing,” he said.

The Travers is likely for Mage as his connections thought him to be 85% ready for the Haskell after a two-month layoff since a third in the Preakness Stakes in mid-May.

Over the moon

“We’re over the moon,” co-owner Ramiro Restrepo said. “Sometimes you get a win without winning and that’s the feeling today. We tried to be transparent about his conditioning and they had too much horse for us. Hats off to Mr. Mandella.”

The perhaps surprising Haskell favourite was Bob Baffert’s Arabian Knight. The son of Uncle Mo had not raced since taking the January 28th Southwest Stakes, and this was just his third ever run.

He sat just off longshot Awesome Strong before moving to the front on the backstretch after a half-mile in 47.11secs.

Mike Smith and Geaux Rocket Ride were never far away on the backstretch having been moved wider from his one rails draw by Smith.

They launched a three-wide run on the final turn and Geaux Rocket Ride powered past a tiring Arabian Knight entering the stretch. He then responded and pulled clear when Mage drew alongside him to complete the nine furlongs a dominant winner in 1m 49.52secs, a time .47 faster than the Grade 1 winner Proxy ran over the distance in the Monmouth Cup earlier on the card.

“He’s only going to get better. We saw that today. This was the deepest Haskell field I have seen in a long time. For him to perform like that is a credit to Mr. Mandella and his whole team. Of course, Geaux Rocket Ride deserves all the credit, too,” Smith said afterwards.

Twenty-three years on from his 2000 success and without a runner since, Mandella was delighted to be back taking home the $600,000 winner’s prize.

“I’m 72 and I thought I am not going to let this get away from me. I’m going to go again.”

On Arabian Knight, Bob Baffert’s assistant trainer Jim Barnes said: “It’s quite possible the long layoff caught up. He was just third best today.”

Jim Bernhard bought the winning son of Candy Ride, out of a Uncle Mo mare, for $300,000 as a birthday present for his wife Dana at Fasig Tipton in July 2021, and he later bought Pin Oak Stud in whose name the horse runs.

A crowd of 35,286 created a Haskell Day all-sources record handle of $21,359,580 on New Jersey’s biggest day.

United Nations Stakes (Grade 1)

AMERICAN turf races are near impossible to predict in recent seasons and there was a surprise winner in the United Nations Stakes when Therapist came with a wide late run to head favourite Catnip and win his first Grade 1 at the age of eight and on his 42nd start.

The blinkered gelding was running in the familiar yellow colours of New York real estate mogul Michael Dubb, who had claimed the consistent runner on the northeast racing circuit for the past six years at the beginning of the season. He is by Freud, the full-brother to Giant’s Causeway.

“I actually tried to claim him for ($25,000 in a December 30th allowance optional claimer at Gulfstream) but I was outshook. When he was put back in for ($50,000) I didn’t care. I knew he was worth that and quite a bit more,” he was quoted by Blood-Horse.

Catnip stalked So High through a 24.76 first quarter to a mile in 1m14.26secs before talking it up. A length clear of the field down the straight, Catnip appeared poised for the Grade 1 triumph before Therapist finished the best from the other fancied runner Red Knight making late headway for third.

“It’s amazing that he won a Grade 1 race at eight years old. He’s just a professional horse,” jockey Castellano said of the winner.

Coaching Club American Oaks

(Grade 1)

GODOLPHIN’s Wet Paint put herself back among the top three-year-old fillies when proving a resolute winner of the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, Saratoga’s weekend feature.

The daughter of Blame out of Sky Painter took the nine-furlong race by a neck over Sacred Wish.

“When we turned for home, the filly on the lead looked like she had something left, and she did,” Cox said.

“She fought on hard, and our filly just had her momentum going forward down the lane and it worked out well. I am so proud of her effort and how she came out of it.”

Walsh

The filly has won four of six starts this year, all of them with a late run, is in competition for best three-year-old filly with the Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous, also owned by Godolphin, and trained by Brendan Walsh.

Pretty Mischievous is reportedly headed to Saratoga’s Grade 1 Test Stakes at seven furlongs on August 5th with Wet Paint likely to be pointed to the $600,000 Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on August 19th.

Saratoga Sunday

THE filly Nest recorded one of her big three-year-old wins on this weekend last year when she won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and she made her four-year-old debut back at the Spa last Sunday, showing she had lost none of her sparkle.

“Five million in earnings between these two daughters of Curlin,” the commentator called as she sped clear of the multiple Grade 1 winner Clairiere in the Grade 2 Shuvee Stakes to go away to a two-and-a-quarter-length win. Nest just had too much speed for the late running five-year-old off a slower early pace in the four-horse contest.

Nest won five of eight last year, including two Grade 1 romps at the Spa, (the Coaching Club American Oaks by 12 and a quarter lengths and the Alabama Stakes by four and a quarter lengths) but had been off for eight months since the Breeders’ Cup and had a lung infection in the spring.

Part owner Mike Repole was understandably delighted, saying. “Our goal is the end of the year. This was the one she had to get right. She had to get ready. For her to win like this...they could have gone around two more times and Clairiere was not going to catch her.”

The Grade 1 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga in August could be here next race and there was talk of taking on colts in the $1 million Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup September 2nd at Saratoga. She was second to Mo Donegal against the colts in the Belmont Stakes last season.