LAOBAN – gate to wire on the lead in the Jim Dandy – NYRA PHOTO
It was a day of longshots at Woodbine and later, some of the biggest names in the equine set in the US also were upset.
LOABAN’s win in the Jim Dandy (one of the biggest upsetters in racing history by the way!) would not have been a total surprise to players of pace since the son of the incredible young sire UNCLE MO was absolutely the lone speed in the race. The Belmont 1-2 finishers were cutting back in distance and were not going to be showing speed and Mohayman, off the layoff as well, had questions about his form overall.
LAOBAN, while a maiden, had been racing in stakes events against some of the top 3yos. His Jim Dandy win earned him a 101 Beyer Figure.
His name means “boss” in Mandarin.
Read more below:
“I don’t dance, my partner and I, we don’t dance to elevator music. We dance to zydeco. Who wants to run a maiden? Who (doesn’t) break his maiden? Graded stakes, multiple graded stakes place. I can break his maiden anytime I want.
That cliché about, ‘oh, build the horse’s confidence, that’s a bunch of bologna. That’s b-s. That’s never been the case. I had horses get beat a gazillion less, two, three times and come back and win for fun.” – ERIC GUILLOT, trainer, LAOBAN
NYRA STORY – by Dave Litfin
Burnishing the “Graveyard of Favorites” lore, Laoban went to the front at the start and never looked back en route to a shocking 27-1 upset of Saturday’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy at historic Saratoga Race Course before a crowd of 38,376.
Laoban was expected to set the pace in the $600,000 race – named for the horse who beat Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox in the 1930 Travers at 100-1 – but it was expected he would eventually be set upon by the more accomplished members of the field and give up the ghost. Laoban had, after all, squandered leads in the Grade 3 Gotham, Grade 1 Blue Grass and Grade 3 Dwyer already, and he was arguably facing his worthiest opponents to date in Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Creator, Belmont runner-up Destin, Belmont fourth-place finisher Governor Malibu, and four-time Grade 2 winner Mohaymen.
But nobody could get to Laoban, and the Uncle Mo colt persevered to garner his first career victory while dashing the hopes of many who played the day’s Pick 6 with a $502,797 carryover. Mohaymen, the 7-5 favorite, stumbled badly out of the gate, while Laoban broke without incident and was off to the races under Jose Ortiz through fractions of 24.56, 49.07 and 1:12.46 seconds.
Destin and Governor Malibu chased throughout and loomed menacingly in the stretch, but Laoban held firm to prove best by 1 ¼ lengths, as Governor Malibu edged Destin by a neck for second. It was another 4 ¼ lengths back to Mohaymen.
Race Me Home and Creator completed the order of finish in what is considered the key local prep for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes on August 27.
Laoban, trained by Eric Guillot, was notching his first career victory after seven defeats, the most recent a fifth-place finish in the Dwyer three weeks earlier. He ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.39 seconds and paid $56.00 to win as the rank outsider.
“The trainer had a lot of faith in the horse,” said Ortiz. “I’d never previously ridden the horse, but he broke great and they let me go easy enough. He was relaxed, pulling me a little bit with his ears prickling and when I asked him to go by the quarter-pole he really took off.”
Laoban unseated Ortiz while returning to be unsaddled and was briefly loose, but apprehended safely at the finish line as a chagrined Ortiz jogged back to remount. “We were coming into the turn on the gallop out, and when he switched to the right lead he stumbled and I came off. I’m okay though.”
Perhaps the least surprised person in the building was Guillot.
“I’ve always known the horse had talent, from Day 1,” explained the irrepressible Guillot. “And he was very, very physically immature. He’s a monster, he’s 17.1 hands. I’ve been shipping him across the country the last six, seven races, and when he got to the Preakness, he really didn’t like the mud, he stumbled in the gate, and didn’t like it in his face. I freshened him up, but he was too fresh for the Dwyer. I thought, ‘All the speed’s across town tomorrow, in the Haskell.
LEXIE LOU DOES WHAT SHE HAS TO DO
Toronto Ont.July 30, 2016.Woodbine Racetrack.Jockey Patrick Husbands guides Lexie Lou to victory in the $125,000 dollar Victoriana Stakes over the E.P.Taylor Turf Course.Lexie Lou is owned by Gary Barber and trained by Mark Casse. michael burns photo
For a moment it may have looked like Charle’s Fipke’s Internal Bourbon was going to continue on the parade of longshots that came in at Woodbine on Saturday. The Roger Attfield trainee got up to the flank of champion LEXIE LOU in the Ontario sired event VICTORIANA STAKES and Lexie’s jock Patrick Husbands had to shake the lines at his gal a couple of times. As if somewhat perturbed by the fact that she didn’t think she herself was in danger of losing, Lexie Lou zipped away from her hard trying rival and won as the 1 to 5 favourite.
Her time of 1:41.05 was good for an 89 Beyer Speed Figure according to DRF.
It was the 3rd stakes win this year for LEXIE LOU who is now atop the list for HORSE OF THE YEAR in Canada once again, She was named the country’s best in 2014.
Mark Casse trains the mare for Gary Barber. She was entered in a breeding sale last fall but withdrawn and it will be interesting to see if she will be up for sale again this fall.
Lexie Lou’s win earned the highest Beyer Figure of the day on an otherwise soft card of racing with many low level claiming events.
Owner/trainer and breeder AUSTIN HINDS won his first race of the meeting as DANCIN CASSIE won her maiden at 17 to 1 in a $12,500 maiden claiming. She is a filly by Where’s the Ring.
Trainer ROBERT GERL won 2 races, doubling his winning total of the year: QUICKLIME, at the age of 8, won at 30 to 1 in race 1 under Steve Bahen and later GROM and Patrick Husbands won as an overlay at 8 to 1 in race 9. Grom ran a 79 Beyer Figure, the co-2nd highest of the day with THAT’S A STRETCH, an Exhi 3yo who was making his grass debut in race 5 winning a 6 furlong turf dash in 1:08.88.
The Tapeta track was on the slow side yesterday and if a horse was more than 3 lengths back at any time, it was tough to gain ground.
More notes – LUIS CONTRERAS has been given a 3-day suspension for coming in with his mount REGAL MARK in the 1st race Wed night and crowding Salsa Bay and jockey Gerry Olguin. Contreras had been given 20 days before that for an incident last Sunday which he has appealed.
– THAT’S A STRETCH (Exhi – Victoria Princess) has a half sibling in the Sept. 1 yearling sale by Pool Play, Hip 146.
BEHOLDER’S WINNING STREAK ENDS
TWINSPIRES – BY JENNIFER CALDWELL
It was tight, very tight, in the stretch run of Saturday’s $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) at Del Mar but, in the end, Stellar Wind finally got the best of fellow champion Beholder to give trainer John Sadler a very nice 60th birthday present.
The duo met up in the Vanity Mile (G1) last out on June 4 at Santa Anita Park, and on that occasion, which was Stellar Wind’s seasonal bow, Beholder easily pulled away to score under a hand ride.
Not so this time around, as Stellar Wind kept pressure on the multi-millionaire throughout the 1 1/16-mile Hirsch.
Beholder bounded to the front when the gates opened but Stellar Wind was fast on her hooves, latching onto the six-year-old mare’s flank in the run-up to the backstretch. The Dream settled into a stalking spot just in behind Beholder on the inside.
Not much changed through the opening half-mile in :23.63 and :47.38, with the two champions leading the way into the final bend. They began distancing themselves from the rest of the field and Stellar Wind inched forward to be running in tandem with Beholder by the time they hit the lane.
Jockey Victor Espinoza never quit on Stellar Wind, continuing to urge her on the entire length of the stretch. The four-year-old filly grabbed a short lead only to have her rival come back on the inside. They continued battling all the way to the wire where, finally, Stellar Wind managed to gain a clear advantage just in time to cross under the line.
The final margin separating the two was a half-length, and Stellar Wind stopped the clock in 1:41.24 to return $11 as the 9-2 second choice to Beholder’s 1-10 favoritism. It was 9 3/4 lengths back to Divina Comedia in third, another 11 1/4 lengths to Off the Road in fourth and one length to The Dream, who brought up the rear.
Stellar Wind is now 6-2-1 from 10 career starts and has earned $1,173,200 lifetime. The Curlin filly began her career with trainer Donald Barr before being purchased privately by Hronis Racing LLC and turned over to John Sadler after breaking her maiden in her second start by 8 3/4 lengths at Laurel Park.
