Horse racing's 3YO division seeks leader

Concerning horse racing, does any male 3-year-old want to say, like Frank Sinatra about New York, that's he's A-number one, top of the list?

With an important race this weekend and the Breeders' Cup less than two months off, it's time for someone to take control of this division. But the news this week hasn't been good.

First came the report from California that juvenile champion Game Winner is done for the year, with no chance of joining Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed and American Pharoah as Eclipse Award winners at 2 and 3. The Candy Ride colt went wrong with a virus he contracted in early August.

Then came the announcement Tuesday that Maximum Security, the only member of his generation to cross the finish line first in three Grade 1 races, will miss Saturday's Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby. Someone else raced Peaks and Valleys, but Gary and Mary West, owners of both Game Winner and Maximum Security, should have.

The first Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified on race day, Maximum Security still boasts important victories in the Haskell Invitational and Florida Derby. Missing the Travers after winning the Haskell, trainer Jason Servis pointed to the Pennsylvania Derby as a prep for the Breeders' Cup.

A "severe, acute bout of colic" did not require surgery, said the New Jersey doctor who treated the colt, and should pose "zero long-term ramifications" to his racing career. Even so, it complicates matters for the New Year's Day colt making the Grade 1 $6 million BC Classic in November at California's Santa Anita Park.

Servis [whose brother, John, trained Smarty Jones] said he was called to his barn at New Jersey's Monmouth Park after the colt worked on Monday: "He was doing great. But as soon as I saw him I could tell he was in trouble. ... There's nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it. It's one of those things that just happens. It's unfortunate and the timing is terrible but that's horse racing."

With his best effort, Maximum Security is the class of the bunch and may win the Eclipse despite his Kentucky Derby DQ. There's not an Alydar around, a horse that surely would be a champion if he had been born in a different year than, say, Affirmed.

For one reason or another, Game Winner has been unable to duplicate his success as a 2-year-old. First, the Candy Ride colt did not start at 3 until March, his return delayed when Santa Anita postponed a prep over concerns about track safety. Shipped east, Game Winner suffered his first career defeat at Oaklawn Park by a nose to Omaha Beach in the Grade 2 Rebel, which was split into two divisions. He then was outkicked by a stablemate [Roadster] in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and placed fifth in the Kentucky Derby. His only win at 3 is against lesser lights in a Grade 3 race at Los Alamitos.

Trainer Bob Baffert "wanted to give him a break after that virus," said Ben Glass, racing manager for the Wests. "He told us with good horses like that, he's run them back and thought they were well and they weren't. He wants to make sure everything's right with this horse and give him time."

A Baffert trainee with an Oaklawn connection still could win the Eclipse. Remember Improbable?

Runner-up to Long Range Toddy in the second division of the Rebel and to Omaha Beach in the Arkansas Derby, the City Zip colt comes off a romping victory in an ungraded Del Mar stake. With Mike Smith up, Improbable looms the Pennsylvania Derby favorite going nine furlongs.

"This colt is a bit of head case, which cost him a better finish in the Preakness Stakes," said Mike Shutty, handicapper for Louisville-based Horse Racing Nation. "Baffert wisely backed off this colt and worked with him, putting blinkers back on for his return."

Quick takes on the other Pennsylvania Derby starters:

* Mr. Money has won four consecutive graded stakes for trainer Bret Calhoun but needs a Grade 1 victory to be considered an Eclipse candidate.

* War of Will looked good winning the Preakness but had traffic problems galore when seventh [through DQ] in the Kentucky Derby and ninth in the Belmont. He then faded to fifth after setting the pace in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga. The War Front colt needs a big Pennsylvania Derby to stay in the Eclipse discussion.

* Spun to Run won the local prep, named after Smarty Jones. Sometimes that means something, and sometimes it does not.

* Math Wizard, fourth in the inaugural Oaklawn Invitational, has been claimed three times. And what is eight-race maiden Shanghai Superfly doing in here?

I no longer vote on the Eclipse Awards and only hope a clear-cut leader emerges in the division. Like the man in the Motel 6 commercial says, we'll keep a light in the window.

Sports on 09/19/2019

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