Posts Tagged ‘genuine risk’

By Ray Paulick
Eclipse Award voters can be unpredictable when it comes to the outstanding owner category. Since there is no definition for the awards, voters can choose between owners whose stables were deep in talent, winning major races throughout the year; those who piled up wins and purses in lower level races with massive operations; or endearing owners with one big horse.

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Klein in the 1980s, Allen Paulson in the 1990s, and Juddmonte Farms in the current decade represent the stables that competed at the top level with multiple stakes horses. Dan Lasater in the 1970s, John Franks in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and Richard Englander and Mike Gill since 2000 were voted Eclipse Awards by winning a bundle of money and races. Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Firestone (Genuine Risk, 1980), Dotsam Stable (John Henry, 1981), Francis Genter (Unbridled, 1990), Carolyn Hine (Skip Away, 1997), and Lael Stables (Barbaro, 2006) picked up Eclipse Awards as outstanding owner by virtue of one big horse.

The finalists for outstanding owner of 2009 represent two of those three types of stables. Godolphin and Juddmonte were among the leaders in American Graded Stakes victories, while Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss raced Horse of the Year finalist Zenyatta (they also campaigned a Grade 2 and Grade 3 winner).

It’s interesting that the Mosses were finalists as the owners of Zenyatta, but not making the top three in balloting was Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stable, which owns Zenyatta’s chief rival in Horse of the Year voting, Rachel Alexandra, in partnership with Harold McCormick.

Does that suggest Zenyatta is favored to win Horse of the Year over Rachel Alexandra? I don’t think so. In my opinion, the Mosses are more popular among voters than Jackson, who thumbed his nose at the Breeders’ Cup because it was run on a synthetic track at Santa Anita Park. Zenyatta not only ran in the Breeders’ Cup (admittedly it was at her home track), but took on colts in the Classic and became the first filly or mare to win that race. Earlier in the year, however, Jackson took some calculated risks with his star 3-year-old filly, running her against colts on three occasions, including the Woodward against older horses in her eighth and final start of the year.

Voters failed to make Jackson a finalist in 2007 or 2008, either, when Curlin was voted Horse of the Year. Do I see a trend here?
 
Interestingly, Dolphus Morrison, the breeder of Rachel Alexandra, is a finalist in the outstanding breeder category (along with Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs and Juddmonte Farms), despite her being the only American Graded Stakes winner of 2009 that he bred.

I make Rachel Alexandra a slight favorite to win Horse of the Year over Zenyatta.

Based on numbers, Godolphin should be favored to win the outstanding owner Eclipse. Sheikh Mohammed has won one previous outstanding owner award in 2006, sharing it with Lael Stables after they each received 110 votes.

Of course, I would have made IEAH the favorite to win the 2008 outstanding owner Eclipse Award, but Stronach Stable won by a single vote even though IEAH far outpaced Stronach in American Graded Stakes wins.

Godolphin was represented by nine American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, including six Grade 1 winners. Juddmonte had four American Graded Stakes winners, three of which won Grade 1 events. Juddmonte far outpaced Godolphin by money won ($6,525,818 to $3,768,896), finishing second in the money standings behind Mike Gill, who operates a large claiming stable. Juddmonte had 116 starters in 2009 compared with 67 for Godolphin. Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable earned $4,977,513 in purses from 343 starts, so the combination of Godolphin and Darley won $8.7 million.

There is a scenario for the Mosses to win as outstanding owner. Perhaps the voters who cast their ballot for the owner who had the best year winning big races will be divided between Godolphin and Juddmonte. Those who in the past have supported the owners of one big horse may align themselves behind the Mosses.

Stranger things have happened.

By Ray Paulick

In the winter and spring of 1980, as a relatively new racing fan living in Southern California I was confident that I had discovered the certain winner of that year’s Kentucky Derby: a colt named Rumbo, who had a few mental quirks but possessed a powerful stretch run.

Rumbo finished second in the Santa Anita Derby and Hollywood Derbies, but I was convinced the extra furlong of the Kentucky Derby would be all this colt would need to get the job done and confirm my brilliance as a handicapper. Besides, Codex, the winner of the two Derbies in Southern California who was trained by a new hotshot from the Quarter horse world named D. Wayne Lukas, wouldn’t be in the starting gate at Churchill Downs come the first Saturday in May. His connections didn’t think to nominate him to the Derby, and there were no supplemental entries to the race back then.

The field for that year’s Run for the Roses didn’t seem particularly strong, especially in comparison to the decade that had just ended, one that produced Triple Crown winners Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed, along with Spectacular Bid, who in my opinion should have won the Triple Crown in 1979.

Rockhill Native was the tepid Derby favorite and reigning 2-year-old champion, but just didn’t strike me as a real Derby horse. Besides, he was a gelding, and no gelding had won America’s great horserace since Clyde Van Dusen in 1929. Second choice was Plugged Nickle, winner of the Florida Derby and Wood Memorial. It just didn’t seem right to me that a horse with that name (and misspelled at that) could join the ranks of Kentucky Derby winners.

In fact, the biggest threat I saw to Rumbo was another California colt, but this one had a girl’s name, Jaklin Klugman, the sorta namesake of actor Jack Klugman.

Oh, yes, there was a real filly in that race, too, Genuine Risk, but I hardly gave her a second thought. Fillies couldn’t win the Derby. That hadn’t happened since Regret in 1915, and no filly had even tried to beat the boys since Silver Spoon finished fifth to Tomy Lee in 1959. The image of the tragic injury to the great filly Ruffian in her match race only a few years earlier against Derby winner Foolish Pleasure was still fresh in my mind. Trainer LeRoy Jolley had already tried Genuine Risk against colts, finishing third to Plugged Nickle and Colonel Moran in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct in New York. Though it was her first career defeat after six consecutive wins, I couldn’t see Genuine Risk improving off that effort.

Besides, I was certain she’d be helpless against the mighty Rumbo down the long stretch of Churchill Downs.

That wasn’t the first time I was wrong about a horse race, and it certainly wasn’t (nor will be) the last.

Rumbo, under Laffit Pincay Jr., dropped back to trail the 13-horse field, just as I expected him to do, but he came with a strong rally around the final turn. He flew by the dueling pace-setters, Rockhill Native and Plugged Nickle and caught Jaklin Klugman inside the furlong pole. But there was nothing he could do about the filly. Jacinto Vasquez deftly guided her through early traffic, moved to the lead before reaching the top of the stretch, then easily held off Rumbo to win by a length as a 13-1 long shot.

 My only consolation to being wrong was that it took an historic achievement to beat me. But my appreciation for Genuine Risk was just beginning.

Two weeks later, in the Preakness Stakes at Baltimore, Genuine Risk proved that her Derby win was no fluke. Codex, benefitting from his owner’s forgetfulness to nominate him to the first leg of the Triple Crown, was a fresh horse. On his back that day was Angel Cordero Jr., a sometimes controversial jockey who could have written a book about the tactics of race riding. The duo got the jump on Genuine Risk, stalking the early leaders and taking command on the turn for home, just as Vasquez had done on the filly in the Derby.

But as Genuine Risk launched her move on the turn for home, Cordero peeked back over his right shoulder and saw the filly coming. He allowed Codex to drift far off the rail and almost directly into the path of Genuine Risk, then flashed the whip in his right hand as the two horses brushed together at the top of the stretch. It was a move clearly intended to intimidate the filly, and it worked. Vasquez later said Cordero hit Genuine Risk in the head with his whip and did it on purpose.

Codex went on to win by 4 ¾ lengths, with Genuine Risk second. A claim of foul was dismissed by track stewards, as was an appeal to the Maryland Racing Commission by Bert and Diana Firestone, the owners of Genuine Risk. Many fans of the filly felt cheated.

Flash ahead to 2008 and ask yourself, how many owners today would persevere and run a Kentucky Derby-winning filly in the Belmont Stakes after two hard races at Churchill Downs and Pimlico, one who had no hope of becoming a Triple Crown winner? It’s hard to imagine anyone would be that sporting. The Firestones were.

But Genuine Risk was no ordinary filly. She ran back three weeks later in the Belmont in a rematch against Codex, who was made the 8-5 favorite. Rumbo, who had skipped the Preakness, was there, too, as the second choice in the betting. The fans had virtually given up on Genuine Risk, who was sent off at odds of 9-1.

Genuine Risk ran gamely over the mile and a half of the Belmont, battling Rockhill Native much of the way over a muddy racetrack. She put that foe away at the top of the stretch, but couldn’t hold off Temperence Hill, a 53-1 outsider who hadn’t contested either of the two prior Triple Crown events and was the only horse in the field wearing mud calks. Codex and Rumbo were non-factors. Genuine Risk finished a gallant second, securing her place as the greatest filly ever to compete in all three Triple Crown races.

This Kentucky-bred filly by Exclusive Native out of the Gallant Man mare Virtuous wasn’t finished yet. After a short break, she came back to narrowly lose the Maskette to Bold ‘n Determined,  then won the Ruffian Handicap by a nose over Misty Gallore and It’s in the Air. It was a great year for fillies, one that also included Davona Dale and Love Sign.

But none was greater than Genuine Risk, who was made that year’s 3-year-old champion and was a first-ballot inductee in the Hall of Fame.

Genuine Risk never duplicated her racing performances as a broodmare before her death this week at the age of 31. Her fertility difficulties were a frustration to all. The expectations placed on great fillies by the public somehow don’t seem fair anyways.

Genuine Risk did more than enough in that five-week stretch in the spring of 1980 to secure her place in history.

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Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report

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