Another Big Saturday at Belmont Park

[TJ]

With three GR I's in a row in races 8-10. The first The Jamaica, for 3YO's going 1 1/8th miles on the turf. The next two are for the 2YO's, The Frizette for fillies going 1 mile with Sweet Reason, Stopchargingmaria renewing their rivalry, while Artemis Agrotera attemps to prove she belongs. Top it off with The One Mile Champagne bringing together a very good group of colts including Strong Mandate, Honor Code, Havana, Grand Arrival and Ride on Curlin. PP's are listed below the race entries. TJ

8th Race. Approx Post 4:40PM HANDICAP STAKE
THE JAMAICA (Grade I)
Grade I - $500,000
Purse $500,000 (Up to $55,000 NYSBFOA) One Mile And One Eighth (Inner Turf)
A HANDICAP FOR THREE YEAR OLDS.
1 War Dancer(L) Dk B/ Br.c.3 120 Alvarado, J Diamond M Stable McPeek, Kenneth
2 Mills(L) Dk B/ Br.g.3 115 Ortiz, Jr., I Young, J Tagg, Barclay
3 Balance the Books(L) B.c.3 118 Ortiz, J Klaravich Stables Brown, Chad
4a Admiral Kitten(L) B.c.3 121 Napravnik, R Ramsey, K L & S K Maker, Michael
5 Jack Milton(L) Dk B/ Br.c.3 120 Lezcano, J Barber, G Pletcher, Todd
6 Five Iron(L) Ch.c.3 119 Saez, L Allor, F Lynch, Brian
7 Stormy Len(L) Dk B/ Br.c.3 119 Solis, A Shanley, M Donk, David
8 Joha(L) Dk B/ Br.c.3 116 DeCarlo, C Wacker, W Albertrani, Thomas
9 Michael With Us(L) B.c.3 116 Prado, E Kenwood Racing DiMauro, Stephen
10 Global Asset(L) B.g.3 113 Santiago, V Two Rivers Racing Stable LLC Gonzalez, Claudio
11a Get in Line(L) B.c.3 114 Cohen, D Ramsey, K L & S K Maker, Michael
12 Up With the Birds(L) B.c.3 120 Velasquez, C Sam-Son Farm Pierce, Malcolm
13 Notacatbutallama(L) B.c.3 120 Castellano, J Repole Stable Pletcher, Todd
http://www.brisnet.com/php/bw_pdf_viewe ... m3=1062864

9th Race. (C9) Approx Post 5:14PM STAKES
THE FRIZETTE (Grade I)
"Win and You're In Breeders' Cup Juvenilve Fillies Division"
Purse $500,000 (Up to $55,000 NYSBFOA) One Mile
FOR FILLIES TWO YEARS OLD.
1 Sweet Reason(L) B.f.2 120 Solis, A Treadway Racing Stable Gyarmati, Leah
2 Artemis Agrotera(L) B.f.2 120 Lezcano, J Broman Sr., C & M Hushion, Michael
3 Tea Time B.f.2 120 Saez, L Kelly, J Matz, Michael
4 Stopchargingmaria(L) Dk B/ Br.f.2 120 Castellano, J Repole Stable Pletcher, Todd
5 Ria Antonia(L) B.f.2 120 Spieth, S Loooch Racing Stables Englehart, Jeremiah
6 Divided Attention Dk B/ Br.f.2 120 Ortiz, Jr., I Darley Stable McLaughlin, Kiaran
7 Recepta Dk B/ Br.f.2 120 Alvarado, J Phillips Racing Partnership Toner, James
http://www.brisnet.com/php/bw_pdf_viewe ... m3=1195722

10th Race. (C10) Approx Post 5:46PM STAKES
THE FOXWOODS CHAMPAGNE (Grade I)
"Win and You're In Breeders' Cup Juvenile Division"
Purse $500,000 (Up to $55,000 NYSBFOA) One Mile
FOR TWO YEAR OLDS.
1 Casiguapo(L) Ch.c.2 122 Saez, L All American Horses Morales, Mario
2 Ride On Curlin(L) B.c.2 122 Solis, A Dougherty, D Gowan, William
3 Havana(L) Gr/ro.c.2 122 Ortiz, Jr., I Magnier, Mrs. J Pletcher, Todd
4 Debt Ceiling(L) Dk B/ Br.c.2 122 Alvarado, J O'Donohue, T Robb, John
5 Honor Code(L) Dk B/ Br.c.2 122 Castellano, J Lane's End Racing McGaughey III, Claude
6 Long On Value(L) B.c.2 122 Lezcano, J Wachtel Stable Mott, William
7 Strong Mandate(L) B.c.2 122 Ortiz, J Baker, R Lukas, D. Wayne
8 Grand Arrival(L) B.c.2 122 Napravnik, R Pell, R Zito, Nicholas
9 Intense Holiday(L) Dk B/ Br.c.2 122 DeCarlo, C Starlight Racing Pletcher, Todd
http://www.brisnet.com/php/bw_pdf_viewe ... m3=1328580

[TJ]

The bad luck continued today for the favorites. Strong Mandate was up the track...Havana held off the charge of Honor Code to win by a nostril and Ride on Curlin impressed hanging tough for third. The filly Sweet Reason veered in badly at the start and her rally came up short, Artemis Agrotera won it showing she belonged and Stopchargingmaria was third. TJ

[Cree]

Yep, a bit of a disappointment for the 2 best 2-year-olds (Honor Code and Sweet Reason). I think they both deserve to be favourites for the Breeders Cup races.
On a happy note, I thought the Jamaica was a good race, and think Up With The Birds will be HOY in Canada. That horse is a tough little cookie.

[TJ]

Yep, a bit of a disappointment for the 2 best 2-year-olds (Honor Code and Sweet Reason). I think they both deserve to be favourites for the Breeders Cup races.
On a happy note, I thought the Jamaica was a good race, and think Up With The Birds will be HOY in Canada. That horse is a tough little cookie.

Hi Cree,
I agree the Jamaica winner is really a nice horse. I'm hoping Honor Code doesn't go to the BC Juvenile....I think his chances in the Derby will improve. I'd like to see him run in the Remsen, then take the same route as ORB did via Florida. He once again had a very strong rally and lost much more ground (when he went 8 wide at the top of the lane) then the neck he was beaten. TJ
Here's his race: http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?tra ... ountry=USA
And her race:>) http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?tra ... ountry=USA
The Jamaica: http://www1.drf.com/displayVideo.do?tra ... ountry=USA

[Joltman]

In the Jamaica, Mills was under a hammerlock for much of the going, and still there on the rail at the end.

jm

[diomed]

Honor Code was a monster running 2nd today. How wide did he go? 8?
I cannot wait to see him go longer. Shug is the trainer and that is a good thing.

[Cree]

I agree. He'd be best to not run in the BC. I still think he is the best 2-year-old colt out there.
I expected more from Strong Mandate.

[FOS]

hi TJ

Strong Mandate was up the track...

I was not surprised he didn't impress.

Havana held off the charge of Honor Code to win by a nostril

Honor Code finished nicely, but eight wide turning for home made it very difficult. He certainly isn't a handy horse, but will likely love two sweeping turns more so than the one turn mile at Belmont. He looks/acts (to my way of thinking anyway) like he needs beyond a mile (maybe well beyond a mile) to take full advantage of his style/action. I'm not so sure he couldn't handle a mile and a quarter right now .

...and Ride on Curlin impressed hanging tough for third. TJ

Ride On Curlin looks/acts like he has the potential to be special. He's a colt with plenty of speed (I've seen him before), but I'm not so sure his trainer/rider were on the same page. Waaaaaaaay back, then seven wide; that's asking a whole lot of any horse, much less a shipped-in 2-year-old colt in a Grade 1. Despite all that, I'm more than confident that Ride On Curlin has lots of talent/tenacity/versatility, and the colt's best is yet to be seen.

I believe that Ride On Curlin can handle the deep end of the pool (ala Belmont Park/major venues), but I'm unsure/don't know about the colt's trainer William Gowan. I hope he's up to the challenge/task.

As for jockey Alex Solis, ever since his career/life changing accident some years ago, and subsequently getting comfortable/confident riding again, he seems to take the overland route more often than trying to save ground. Oh well, such is horseracing, such is race riding.

Respeectfully

[steward]

Sitting around over the weekend with absolutely nothing else to do, I decided to find out why the Frizette was named so. Frankly, I don't understand why. As a 2yo filly, she was solid but not spectacular. From what I can tell, she was culled out of Keene's stable, sold, and raced as a "useful" (at best) runner as a 3y.o. Twenty-eight races in 1908, to be exact.

In her pedigree on this site, it mentions becoming a foundation dam. But were her descendants that super-duper to qualify for a stakes race many decades after?

One (barely significant) footnote: there are 37 verifiable races for Frizette, and not 36 as contained in her summary. (I checked it race by race.) The DRF arrived at that number, too. The Dec 14, 1907 issue listed her stats as 9-4-1-3 $9095 for that year, and the Sept 30 1908 DRF had 28-8-7-6 for the subsequent season, which, if all true, modifies her overall line a tad.

[Patuxet]

steward writes of Frizette: "In her pedigree on this site, it mentions becoming a foundation dam. But were her descendants that super-duper to qualify for a stakes race many decades after?"

The answer can be found in John Sparkman's epochal compendium "Foundation Mares", Chapter 29 of which he titled "Fabulous Frizette".

These three quotes from the book suggest the substance of Sparkman's argument.

"Frizette became perhaps the most important foundation mare in the history of French racing."

"If sheer, blazing speed is the hallmark of the Thoroughbred -- and it is -- then the female line descending from the great sprinter Myrtlewood, Frizette's granddaughter, has preserved that trait better than almost any other family in the American Stud Book."

"Two of the three most important sire lines of the 21st century, Mr. Prospector and Seattle Slew, descend in tail-female from Myrtlewood..."

[steward]

How forward-looking the creators of the Frizette Stakes were in 1945. Wow.

[TJ]

In her pedigree on this site, it mentions becoming a foundation dam. But were her descendants that super-duper to qualify for a stakes race many decades after?

How forward-looking the creators of the Frizette Stakes were in 1945. Wow.

Not really forward-looking....her produce record was well established by 1945. Even though her first foal was a classic winner for her owner Marcel Boussac, he opted to send her to slaughter in 1929, rather then pension her, after going barren two years in a row. TJ
......"From fourteen named foals, Frizette became the dam of eight winners, five of which captured stakes. Boussac campaigned four winners of the Prix du Jockey Club who were directly descended from Frizette in the female line, as well as three winners of the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, two winners of the Prix de Diane, one winner of the Irish Oaks, and two French two-year-old champions. It was not for her record as a racetrack performer that Frizette was honored with a Grade I race for juvenile fillies run every autumn at Belmont Park, but rather for her exemplary status as one of the most influential foundation mares of the twentieth century"....-- Liz Martiniak

[steward]

Thank you very much for the information. However, it did not really satisfy the bases for my original puzzlement. I did not really state them, but in essence they boiled down to 1. why an American stakes race for a French family. 2. why not honor a host of earlier and brilliant 2 yo filly RACERS instead. 3. why exactly in 1945, and not earlier when her actual offspring were on the track; or even when Myrtlewood arrived?

So I went to the DRF. (Only a tiny fraction of that era's issues are online but I found answers anyway.) First of all, there was an earlier "Frizette" race at Jamaica track. It was a lesser event, and it seemed to be more in line with the habits of naming American horse races, her relevance, and the actual accomplishments of Frizette to that time, 1943. It was for 3 yo fillies from Class C. OK, I buy that. A literal footnote at the bottom of this page, as to be expected:

http://athena.uky.edu/cgi/t/text/pagevi ... assterms=1

Now remember, this was the situation that existed, even though distant descendants Miss Dogwood and Vagrancy had already been on the scene for awhile.

But then it seems as if DRF opinionmeister Charles Hatton took over and began to tout the "family" in his columns, right around 1945. (Look for them with the search function in the archives) And, like for many newlyfound phenoms or past characters, the star of Frizette took off with better publicity. A new and more important race was constituted as a result, the rest is history, and my questions are now answered.

[TJ]

Thank you very much for the information. However, it did not really satisfy the bases for my original puzzlement. I did not really state them, but in essence they boiled down to 1. why an American stakes race for a French family. 2. why not honor a host of earlier and brilliant 2 yo filly RACERS instead. 3. why exactly in 1945, and not earlier when her actual offspring were on the track; or even when Myrtlewood arrived?

So I went to the DRF. (Only a tiny fraction of that era's issues are online but I found answers anyway.) First of all, there was an earlier "Frizette" race at Jamaica track. It was a lesser event, and it seemed to be more in line with the habits of naming American horse races, her relevance, and the actual accomplishments of Frizette to that time, 1943. It was for 3 yo fillies from Class C. OK, I buy that. A literal footnote at the bottom of this page, as to be expected:

http://athena.uky.edu/cgi/t/text/pagevi ... assterms=1

Now remember, this was the situation that existed, even though distant descendants Miss Dogwood and Vagrancy had already been on the scene for awhile.

But then it seems as if DRF opinionmeister Charles Hatton took over and began to tout the "family" in his columns, right around 1945. (Look for them with the search function in the archives) And, like for many newlyfound phenoms or past characters, the star of Frizette took off with better publicity. A new and more important race was constituted as a result, the rest is history, and my questions are now answered.

Hi Steward,
My take on the three question you posed: Although much of Frizette's success came in France, I would consider that Frizette was bred in Kentucky by Keene, who sold his property at a much reduced price, to develop Keeneland. On the first opening day of Keeneland in 1936, Myrtlewood beat the boys in the Keen Handicap....it was a nine day meet and the Kentucky bred Myrtlewood (out of Frizette's French bred daughter, Frizeur, who was imported to this country by Brownell Combs) raced 3 times total winning each time. I would think the naming of the Frizette was as much a tribute to Keene, as it was to Frizette's influence as a foundation mare which certainly spilled into America. The timetable of the inaugural running of the Frizette in 1945, could have been influenced by Keene's passing in 1943. Thereby honoring Keene's influence in the breeding and racing industry, as well as honoring Frizette's stamp on the breed here and abroad. TJ

[steward]

Thank you, TJ, for your reply.

In my research, I found that Keene first sold Frizette in early 1908 to Wernberg, who in turn sold her (later that year, iirc) to Hermann Duryea; who took her to France. I'm not sure how that meshed with Keene and his development for Keeneland. BTW, Frizette did not go for that much.

One must remember that the controlling factor at that time was the rapid banishment of horse racing in the United States, including the threat to it in the richer Eastern bastions. The best horses were headed overseas, and stables were liquidating the others in order to get something/anything for their investments. Bona fide stars like Sir Martin, Tanya, etc. went directly to France or England. Otoh, horses much lower in the pecking order like Frizette were put on the domestic marketplace for budget buying.

As I stated in my previous post, the catalyst for the public interest about Frizette in ~1945 was Charles Hatton, rather than a sudden realization that Frizette had had a breeding impact. That had been known and considered for quite awhile, and had only developed minimal official recognition. Hatton seems to have revived and raised awareness, even though by that time it was her great grandkids who were doing the heavy lifting. Which, in the tradition of the sport, was an odd way to get a stakes race named after an otherwise ordinary runner.