Though a Triple Crown winner has left the stage, horse racing's 3-year-old division is hardly bereft of name performers.
For one thing, with his main rival out of the way, the reigning male juvenile champion is around to impose his will after a summer freshening.
After chasing Justify in the first two spring classics, Good Magic is poised for a strong second half of the season if Sunday's Haskell Invitational is an accurate barometer. Mating two Oaklawn Park stakes winners, the Curlin colt produced by Hard Spun mare Glinda the Good breezed to a three-length victory at Monmouth Park for the second Grade 1 score of his career.
With Justify off into retirement after a 6-0 career that made him the sport's 13th Triple Crown winner, further nominations for Horse of the Year and male 3-year-old championship would appear moot. Yet, after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby and hooking Justify early when fourth in the Preakness, a rested Good Magic has trainer Chad Brown eager for some major late-summer and fall races.
Next up, Brown said, is the Grade 1 $1.25 million Travers Aug. 25 at Saratoga. The Haskell win gives Good Magic an automatic berth in the Grade 1 $6 million Breeders' Cup Classic Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs. Both races are a mile and a quarter, Curlin winning the 2007 Classic at Monmouth in his first of two seasons as Horse of the Year.
"He's like his father. He's made of steel," Brown said after Good Magic won the Haskell at nine furlongs in his first start since May 19.
American Pharoah, the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, won the Haskell and the Breeders' Cup Classic in 2015.
Oaklawn winner Bravazo finished second in the Haskell, the Awesome Again colt's first start since the Belmont Stakes June 9. Second also in the Preakness, the Wayne Lukas-trained Bravazo is the only horse other than Justify to race in all three legs of the 2018 Triple Crown.
Saratoga's major Travers prep, the Grade 2 $600,000 Jim Dandy, had an Oaklawn feel with two-time local winner Tenfold getting up by three quarters of a length Saturday at nine furlongs.
Another Curlin colt, this one trained by Steve Asmussen, Tenfold made things difficult for himself when he ducked out twice in the stretch. Pacesetter Flameaway regained the lead inside the sixteenth pole before Ricardo Santana Jr. got Tenfold's attention and lunged the colt to the wire.
"Ricardo said when he moved away from (Flameaway), he got a view of the screen in the infield and he couldn't get him to quit looking at it," Asmussen explained. "I watched it from down the stretch a bit because he has lost concentration (in the past). Ironically, he has jumped back to his left lead, and laid in, in his previous races. It's obviously concerning.
"I'm glad he still won the race. But we all know he can do better, and we have work to do."
Unraced as a 2-year-old, Tenfold regressed slightly, Asmussen said, when fifth in Oaklawn's Grade 1 Arkansas Derby April 14. Challenging Justify twice, Tenfold ran third in the Preakness and fifth in the Belmont.
"This is the type of horse we thought we'd have for the Belmont," Asmussen said. "He was away cleanly today. He's got a big rhythm. He's a horse who is capable of being fast. That's how he's most effective."
In a Travers twist, trainer Mark Casse said he is pointing filly Wonder Gadot to the Midsummer Derby, which no female runner has captured since Lady Rotha in 1915. Wonder Gadot has an Oaklawn connection, placing second to Sassy Sienna in the Grade 3 Fantasy April 13.
Casse said the weekend prep races didn't affect his decision to run Wonder Gadot against males, owner Gary Barber's Medaglia d'Oro filly stepping outside her division for Canadian victories in the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales. The Travers, said Casse, might give Wonder Gadot a better chance to overtake multiple Grade 1 winner Monomoy Girl for the U.S. 3-year-old filly championship. Monomoy Girl, who like Sassy Sienna is trained by Brad Cox, is pointing to the Grade 1 Alabama Aug. 18 at Saratoga.
"We actually made the decision about three to four hours (before the Jim Dandy), by Gary mostly," Casse said. "We were going around and we both said, 'Hey, let's give it a try.' It gives us an extra week, and we've done this before."
The Casse-trained Lexie Lou, a Canadian Horse of the Year, ran second to two-time American Horse of the Year California Chrome in the 2014 Grade 1 Hollywood Derby. "So I think it's good. I think it's good for racing, actually," said Casse, who trained American juvenile champion Classic Empire, the 2017 Arkansas Derby winner.
A pair of 4-year-old fillies seen at Oaklawn this year won graded stakes Sunday, Farrell by a neck in the Grade 3 $200,000 Shuvee at Saratoga and champion Unique Bella by a half-length in the Grade 1 $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar.
Farrell, by Medaglia d'Oro, won for the first time since January's Pippin at Oaklawn. Channing Hill rode the Shuvee winner for trainer Wayne Catalano, the jockey's father-in-law.
Unique Bella won the Hirsch despite losing a shoe, jockey Mike Smith never going to the whip and saying "this wasn't her best race, but it was OK." The Tapit filly, a three-time Grade 1 winner for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, placed second to Unbridled Mo in Oaklawn's Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap April 13 after a gate incident.
Sports on 08/01/2018