Today we joined our friend Patsy and her daughter Lisa at Belmont. We met them in the paddock before the running of an overnight stakes race with six entrants, two of which were hers… Meriwether Jessica (MJ) and Myakka. You may remember that MJ is the snuggle bunny, more like a dog than an ornery race horse.
Myakka was supposed to go to the lead but she didn’t. She got stuck on the outside either because she didn’t have enough speed today or because the jockey tried to hold her back. MJ was in behind the three leaders, including Myakka. They were running on the inner turf (grass) course on a beautiful day. MJ was doing just what she was supposed to do… stalk the pace setter. When they turned into the stretch, her rider, Eibar Coa, started to look for some racing room. At first, he couldn’t find any. Rather than taking her wide, he elected to save ground staying towards the inside. We were getting very nervous because it looked like his strategy was going to backfire.
Then, he saw some racing room to the outside of the pace setter, but as he tried to steer MJ in this direction, other horses were taking away the clear path. Then Eibar saw a hole between the leader, Lost Without You, and the rail. He went for it. As he started through the open path, Johnny Velasquez (Yes, the same Johnny Velasquez who piloted Ahvee’s Destiny to victory last month in Saratoga), dove in to the rail and cut off MJ. Eibvar had to check the horse quickly, taking back and losing ground. All seemed lost… until Eibar got MJ going again to the outside of Lost Without You. MJ was narrowing the lead with every stride… a length separated them… a half length… a head, and then it was over. The line came too fast for MJ and she came in second by a head.
We were depressed and angry. After all, hadn’t the other horse interfered with us? Then the tote board flashed, INQUIRY! The stewards were going to review the tapes. Expectations grew. However, when we saw Eibar heading for the paddock area and the other horse took a Winner’s Circle photo with her “connections” (owners, trainer, grooms, etc), we were afraid that it was all over for us. Then the tote board stopped flashing and the numbers of the top two finishers were reversed. MJ was declared the winner!
OK, so it would have been sweeter, if she had won outright and we got to take a Winner’s Circle photo. But she won, Patsy and Lisa won, Linda won and even we won (I bet on MJ). We had a champagne celebration and a fun dinner. Hooray.
During dinner, we were musing on Ahvee’s Destiny’s next assignment. She’s entered in $55K Stakes race in Delaware for Saturday. While it’s good competition (including her half-sister, Lady Rizzi, who set a new track record in her last race in Saratoga), the alternate is an even tougher race in Philadelphia on Sept 27 for $200K, that I mentioned in earlier missives. It looks like we’ll give her a chance to try for the big money, even though she could easily run out of the money because of the quality of the competition. There aren’t too many big purse races at 5 furlong distances and we know Ahvee has a big heart. If she gets a great trip, maybe she can pull it off. Go AHVEE’S DESTINY!
Off to Las Vegas in the morning. Hope to update you soon.
PS We found another snuggle bunny at Linda’s stable. She’s named, Dicey DJ. Rhoda went to visit another friend’s horse, Jess Not Jesse. She found him remarkably quiet… until he nipped her. She got a pretty good bruise right through her leather jacket, which seems undamaged. Rhoda doesn’t hold a grudge but I’m sure she’ll be a little more wary next time.
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