Goose Bumps by Evan Hammonds

aspradling — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:53:00 GMT

(Originally published in the May 26, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

By Evan Hammonds - @BlackCat30 on Twitter

The May 19 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) was a special moment in our sport—an “Instant Classic.” If watching I’ll Have Another reel in Bodemeister in the Pimlico stretch during the second jewel of the Triple Crown didn’t stir the soul, perhaps you’re in the wrong business.

Watching from the winner’s circle at Old Hilltop, we only have two words to describe the stretch run: goose bumps.
While it’s only been two races, I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister have developed quite a rivalry—one that hopefully can draw a new generation to the sport. After the 11⁄4-mile Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and the 13⁄16 miles of the Preakness, the two have been separated by a mere 13⁄4 lengths, and the 83/4 lengths back to Preakness third-place finisher Creative Cause shows these two are clearly on a different level from the rest of the pack…and the pack is considered a good, consistent crop of 3-year-olds.

After hitting the line together in the Preakness, can I’ll Have Another and Bodemeister begin to be mentioned in the same breath as Affirmed and Alydar, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer? Perhaps not quite yet, but give it time to percolate.

Co-owner Ahmed Zayat and trainer Bob Baffert will pass the June 9 Belmont Stakes (gr. I) with Bodemeister, who is clearly a freak up to nine furlongs. However, the pair hopefully will have plenty of other chances down the road to mix it up again, but for now let’s enjoy the ride to New York.

It’s unlikely the Maryland Jockey Club could have even imagined the ride they would get Preakness weekend. Splendid weather brought out a record crowd to watch a competitive card full of good races and an infield full of good musical choices, including headliners Wiz Khalifa and Maroon 5.

Few figured that would be the case a few years ago when MJC chief Tom Chuckas Jr. made a bold move—and the right one—to change the culture of the infield crowd at Pimlico. The ability to bring in unlimited amounts of alcohol and the frat party atmosphere of the event was a recipe for disaster, and Chuckas had the foresight and courage to pull the tap from the keg. The hope was that short-term pain—attendance fell 30% from 2008 to 2009 in its first year—would lead to long-term gain. With a savvy marketing program and bringing in top-line concert draws, they have reinvented the event for the better. The area around the bandstand for Maroon 5 was packed, the MJC had a record crowd, and the ontrack handle was among the best ever.

This year’s event was the success it was because of three things: the weather, an appealing headliner in the infield, and trainer Doug O’Neill’s going out of his way to become one of Maryland’s own during Preakness week.

Not only did O’Neill bring I’ll Have Another to Pimlico early—he arrived the Tuesday after the Derby, the earliest arrival of a Derby winner for as long as we can remember—but the trainer came, too. On May 12, a full seven days before the Preakness, O’Neill and his team ran in the Preakness 5K with stable pony and star Lava Man leading the runners around the track. The following day, O’Neill attended the Baltimore Ravens rookie mini-camp and had lunch with head coach John Harbaugh. On May 14 he not only visited the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center but also threw out the first pitch at the Baltimore Orioles—New York Yankees baseball game. The following day he visited the Boys & Girls Club near Pimlico.

Owner J. Paul Reddam and his wife, Zillah, made themselves accessible to the media. O’Neill also danced every dance with the MJC at their ontrack events and around town.

Oh, yeah, O’Neill also had time to watch his Preakness runner gallop in the morning and to train some other horses from the stakes barn. He also found the time to come to
 the press box with jockey Mario Gutierrez and horseman Ciaran Dunne the day before the Preakness to watch videos of previous Preakness races to plot strategy.

Making himself accessible goes a long way in increasing awareness in the sport at the local level, and there was a payoff May 19. O’Neill’s past record brings plenty of baggage, but he hasn’t ducked the question and he’s gone out of his way to promote the sport nationally and at the grassroots level.

With a sweep of the Triple Crown hanging in the balance in the coming three weeks, racing has an opportunity.

And the connections of I’ll Have Another seem uniquely suited to help the sport take full advantage of it.

Special Return - by Evan Hammonds

aspradling — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:53:00 GMT

(Originally published in the May 19, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

By Evan Hammonds

An off-again, on-again love affair between the Maryland Jockey Club and its signature race for the handicap division, the Pimlico Special, has played out just north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for a half century now. The latest rebirth of the 13⁄16-mile Special will take place in living color May 18, the day before the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), racing’s second leg of the Triple Crown.

The Special, once a $500,000 top-tiered event, was last contested in 2008—the day before Big Brown wore the blanket of Black-Eyed Susans—so it has lost its grade I status for this year’s trip aboard the merry-go-round. With a broad stroke of equal parts brilliance and marketing savvy, the MJC has repackaged the former William Donald Schaefer Handicap (gr. III) as the Pimlico Special and kick-started the purse from $100,000 to $300,000.

The race returns to its rightful slot on the racing calendar for the handicap division, falling after Santa Anita’s Big ’Cap (gr. I) and the Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II) and before Churchill Downs’ Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) and the New York Racing Association’s summer heavy-hitters.

The Pimlico Special was special in racing’s golden era when horses such as Seabiscuit, Challedon, Whirlaway, and Citation stomped on the terra at Old Hilltop. The grainy newsreel footage of yesteryear continues to fade, as does the black-and-white contrasted images hanging on the wall. Its storied run came to an end after Vertex’ score in 1958, and for 30 years the starting gates remained closed on the Special.

Those days, like duotone images that first turn yellow, then light brown, are gone forever. Time has been allowed to get loose on the lead, but the race has seen some good times after it returned more than a generation ago.

The race made a glorious comeback in 1988, bringing together four from the great 3-year-old crop of 1987 to fill out the superfecta in Bet Twice, Lost Code, Cryptoclearance, and Alysheba, with local hero Little Bold John running fifth. From then to its one-year vacancy in 2002, the Special served as a May springboard to three Horse of the Year titles with wins by Criminal Type (1990), Cigar (’95), Skip Away (’98), and an additional older male Eclipse Award won by Blushing John (’89).

Include took the Special in 2001 before the race took a break. The importance of the victory wasn’t lost on Brereton Jones, who would later buy the horse to stand at his Airdrie Stud near Midway, Ky.

“Anytime you win a grade I around two turns and do it impressively, it’s helpful for a stallion’s career,” he said. “His win was important to me as to Include’s potential.”

While contested five times in a six-year span (2003-08), the race has proved to be a star machine and a Central Kentucky stallion-maker.
William Farish’s homebred Mineshaft was a 4-year-old on the upswing when he earned the first grade I victory of his career in the slop at Pimlico in the 2003 Special. Three other grade I wins would follow, as would an Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year and a career at stud at Farish’s Lane’s End Farm.

Two years later Pete Willmott’s Eddington would snag his lone grade I victory in the Special, securing a slot on the stallion roster at Claiborne Farm.

“It is a great race with a lot of history,” Willmott said. “It was terribly important to win that race. He had won on the grass and won some nice races, but that was a big step for him.”

In 2006 a horse from Argentina, via Uruguay, via Dubai that went by the name Invasor, was a 6-1 chance in a five-horse field. His 11⁄4-length win over 4-5 Wanderin Boy was the start of an unbeaten run to the Horse of the Year title culminating with a victory over Bernardini in the Breeders’ Cup Classic – Powered by Dodge (gr. I). He now stands at Shadwell Farm.

“It’s an important race, and it was important for Invasor,” said his trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. “It’s good timing for horses to go two turns instead of the one-turn Met Mile (gr. I). It went quiet for a while, but maybe it’s time for it to come on again. It’s nice to see the Pimlico Special back up and running.”

In its last incarnation, Ro Parra’s Student Council bounded away in the 2008 Maryland Lottery Pimlico Special and into the stud barn at Parra’s Millennium Farm.

Here’s to the start of a new run.

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Goose Bumps by Evan Hammonds

Special Return - by Evan Hammonds