The death of Maple Leaf Mel in front of the stands cast a pall over the entire sport on a weekend when the feelgood factor was notable only for its absence
If the race report becomes an obituary, you know it’s been a terrible day. It was a terrible day at Saratoga on Saturday, when the wrap-up of the G1 Test became a winding-sheet and the past-performance listings became a requiem.
What an extraordinary filly Maple Leaf Mel was: six starts, five wins that would certainly have been six, in front at every call of every race including the one that was to be her last. It’s a career reminiscent of the magnificent Ruffian, although everyone who has been to the track often enough will have their own personal memories of the time the very worst happened right in front of their eyes. The grief enveloping those closest to the horse involved is hardly bearable.
“I’m here. My crew is here. It’s not easy for them either,” said trainer Melanie Giddings, who of course had other horses to feed and care for on the day after.
“She just loved running and she loved being here at the track. That’s what she loved the most. She was never going to lose. It’s hard to say how talented she could have been the rest of her life. She was so fast.”
Vale Maple Leaf Mel. And, just as mournfully, valeSopran Basilea, who broke down while galloping out after the Glens Falls and was put down, valeEver Summer, who broke a leg during an allowance on Sunday and was euthanized. They did not get the column inches devoted to Maple Leaf Mel, their demise being less openly dramatic, but their owners, their trainers, their grooms felt exactly the same way as Giddings and her crew.
Sure, it happens often. And we know this, and we still keep climbing into the grandstands for races one through 12. We give ourselves sound reasons – accidents happen, they were doing what they enjoyed and were bred for, awful things occur everywhere every day – and all those reasons stand up beautifully until it happens right in front of us and the reasons no longer seem enough.
“If that happened to me and my filly, I don’t know what I would do. I would be distraught,” said trainer Brendan Walsh, whose filly Pretty Mischievous is in the record books as the winner of the Test.
“We all got into this because of our love for the horses. I’ve never seen the place so somber this morning or even after the races yesterday. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to pick up the pieces and put it all back together again.”
Sunday, the day after, was a beautiful sunny day at Saratoga. Birds sang. Future plans were made. The big-race winner was an unbeaten filly called Brightwork with the whole racing world ahead of her, with anything possible.
We may not feel like it but we have to go on, to move forward, even as we look back with blurry eyes. Thank you, Maple Leaf Mel. Thank you, Sopran Basilea, and thank you, Ever Summer. Thank you for the happier memories.
Good karma: Fernando Toro
On a horribly downbeat weekend almost surgically shorn of feel-good moments, the video of ace Chilean/Californian jockey Fernando Toro, 82, finding out that he was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame was balm to even the weariest heart.
Filmed by racing writer Jay Privman and aided and abetted by our very own Jay Hovdey, the footage was played during the HoF ceremony and brought the house down. The moment when Toro’s doubt gives way to realisation is solid gold.
Bad karma: Breeders’ Cup Classic
The result of the Whitney left the $6m showpiece at Santa Anita looking like one of those impenetrable Irish 25-runner handicaps, with racebooks going 9-1 the field.
The Classic will always be a classic, but it’s a middleweight free-for-all at the moment. Flightline could heave himself off his sultan’s bed, trot a couple of times around his paddock, board a train west and be 6-5 favorite before he’d crossed the Rockies.
The Whitney ruled out Cody’s Wish, who’s set for the Dirt Mile now, and thrust to prominence from almost nowhere White Abarrio, considerably on the improve since moving to the barn of Rick Dutrow, who has recently resumed operations after a ten-year suspension.
Is White Abarrio really the answer? Is Forte? What about Mage, Arcangelo, Geaux Rocket Ride, Ushba Tesoro, Smile Happy, Saudi Crown, Angel Of Empire, Taiba, Defunded? Paddington? Expect a full field on November 4, because this is anyone’s race.
One to watch: Weigh The Risks
Everything went wrong for this tall, gawky Mendelssohn filly on her debut in a mile-sixteenth maiden on the lawn; her Equibase chart reads like a Victorian melodrama: ‘getting away slow and conceding five lengths’, ‘went seven wide into upper stretch’, ‘had the crop of the rider of Ozara (the winner) flashed in front of her and finished with trepidation, getting rebuffed at the end’.
She was beaten only a neck. If Weigh The Risks doesn’t have PTSD after all that, she’s a next-time winner for sure.
Quotes of the week
“The Whitney was still a good race. But, you know, Cody’s Wish has been a winner before he ever was a racehorse for what he’d done for Cody.”
Kelly Dorman, father of teenager Cody, who has Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome and is famously best friends with the multiple G1 winner, tells the BloodHorse that life is not all about winning, but all about living.
“Sometimes horses aren’t made to be two-year-olds and they get their careers started later. If you’re patient, you’re often rewarded.”
Chad Brown, whose Program Trading didn’t make his debut until May 14 but is now a G1 winner following his battling victory in the Saratoga Derby.
“The sky is the limit with this filly. She blows me away every time. The goal is the Breeders’ Cup – we’re looking for that purple saddle towel.”
Trainer John Ortiz (no relation to the jockey brothers) waxing lyrical about juvenile filly Brightwork, who stayed unbeaten with a mighty five-length score in the G3 Adirondack.
Special relationship
We know all the gags, two nations separated by a common language, the 51st state, keep ‘em coming, but we didn’t know that the connection between the US and the UK stretched unto the meteorological.
Last Friday, torrential rain led to the cancellation of the last four races at Saratoga, including the G2 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, which has been rescheduled for Friday’s card. It was the first time Flat racing had been washed out at the Spa since July 2019.
In sympathy, or perhaps just because it’s what passes for summer in Britain, the last three races at the Glorious Goodwood festival on Saturday were also cancelled because of our old friend torrential rain. It was the first time races had been lost at the five-day panama-and-linen-suit extravaganza since before World War II.
Got your number
It’s a two-way tie at the top of the trainer standings, with Chad Brown and Linda Rice in lockstep with 18 winners apiece. Brown signed for five wins through the week, including the Saratoga Derby with Program Trading and the Glens Falls with McKulick, enough to level things up with Rice, who had led the table for the last two weeks. Todd Pletcher (13) is the only other in double figures.
On the jockey front, it’s as you were, as it’s been since day one. Irad Ortiz is loose on the lead with 31 wins, his wide superiority on the money list boosted by Whitney success aboard White Abarrio. Luis Saez and Jose Ortiz are tied for the place and show with 20 wins.
Forthcoming attractions
The weekend is not one of the busiest at the Spa, but the G1 Fourstardave on Saturday is always a highlight and a fine commemoration of one of Saratoga’s favorite sons. It features the rematch of last year’s winner Casa Creed and Annapolis, the first two from the G3 Kelso earlier in the meet. That’s backed up by the G2 Saratoga Special, full of two-year-old maiden winners ready to make the leap into the big league.
• Visit the NYRA Saratoga website
Saratoga Stretch Week 3: Everything you need to know about what happened at the Spa
Saratoga Stretch Week 2: Nest not for matching on belated seasonal debut
Saratoga Stretch Week 1: welcome back to Chad Brown’s town
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