GREAT WEEKEND FOR JUDDMONTE
Juddmonte Farms had an excellent weekend over August 17 – 18. On
August 17, Juddmonte won both the Gr.1 Arlington Million with Beat
Hollow and the Gr.1 Secretariat with Chiselling. On August 18,
Juddmonte won the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville.
In the most competitive race in the Arlington Million’s 20-year
history, North America’s top-ranked grass horse, Beat Hollow, won a
six-horse fight to the finish Saturday.
Just a length separated the first six horses in the nine-horse
race. But jockey Jerry Bailey’s calculating ride enabled Beat
Hollow to edge his nemesis, Sarafan, by a head at Arlington Park.
Bailey said he also knew that front-running Forbidden Apple had
been allowed to run a very slow pace. ‘Beat Hollow is a very, very
willing horse,’ he said. ‘He wanted to go get Forbidden Apple, but
he was relaxed enough to allow me to be patient.’
Beat Hollow is a 5-year-old son of England’s leading sire,
Sadler’s Wells. He began his racing career in Europe, where he won
three of his four races and finished third as the 3.50 favorite in
the Epsom Derby. Since moving to America this year, he has gone to
the winner’s circle four times in six starts and placed behind
Sarafan twice.
Frankel said that his champ’s next start might not come until
the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Mile on Arlington’s grass course in 10
weeks.
Later on that same card, Chiselling continued his family’s
top-class racing tradition Saturday, displaying the Toussaud
family’s trademark acceleration to win the $400,000 Grade 1
Secretariat Stakes by a nose at Arlington Park.
The 3-year-old’s heritage suggested as much. A son of Woodman,
he is a half-brother to Grade 1 winners Chester House, who won the
2000 Arlington Million, and Honest Lady, who won the Gr.1 Santa
Monica Handicap and finished second by a head in the Gr.1 Breeders’
Cup Sprint to Champion Kona Gold. Chester House stands at Juddmonte
Farms in Kentucky.
Chiselling was undeterred by the jump in class and an added
7-pound impost after his stakes debut win under 114 pounds in the
Grade III Lexington on July 14 at Belmont Park.
Chiselling made a torrid run to deal Jazz Beat a heart-breaking
nose defeat Saturday in the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes, allowing
Juddmonte Farms and Bobby Frankel to become the first owner and
trainer to win two races the same year in the International
Festival of Racing at Arlington Park.
Chiselling, bred and owned by Juddmonte Farms, was last of the
seven 3-year-olds for the first six furlongs of the 1 1/4 –mile
Secretariat before jockey Kent Desormeaux began asking the colt for
his best. Chiselling responded by picking off horses late in the
turn, and by the time the field straightened for home, it became
apparent that Chiselling was the only horse with a chance of
catching Jazz Beat, the Irish invader who had drawn off to a
sizable lead.
‘He was just cantering until I encouraged him to pick up the
pace,’ said Desormeaux. ‘When I did, he just exploded. I might have
left him with a little too much to do, but it turned out to be just
right.’
Chiselling returned $9.20 as second choice in a field of seven
3-year-olds and was timed in 2:04.16.
Chiselling’s next race is undecided. The Frankel camp did indicate,
however, that the horse would soon be shipped to Saratoga to join
Frankel there. Rider Kent Desormeaux said that a start in the 1
½-mile John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf at Arlington Park on Oct. 26
was not beyond the realm of possibility. ‘If he stays at his
current rate of improvement, and given how he loves to go long, I
can’t sit here and tell you he doesn’t deserve a shot in that
race.’”
On August 18th, Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Banks
Hill defeated males in the Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois (Fr-G1).
The four-year-old Danehill filly won an Eclipse Award as
champion grass mare in 2001 based on her performance in one North
American start, the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1), in
which she won by 5 ½ lengths. She began her 2002 campaign with a
third-place finish in both the Prix d’Ispahan (Fr-G1) at Longchamp
and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Eng-G1) at Ascot.
Trained by Andre Fabre and ridden by Olivier Peslier, Banks Hill
took the lead in the Jacques le Marois with 1 ½ furlongs to go and
won by 1-½ lengths ahead of Domedriver in 1:35.
‘Banks Hill has really blossomed in the last two months,’ said
Teddy Beckett, Juddmonte Farms racing manager. ‘We have been lucky
at Arlington Park, and the plan for Banks Hill is to go there to
win another Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. We do not know yet
where she’s to go now.’”
Date:
09 September 2002