LATE BLOOMER ADDS CLASS TO EMPIRE CROP
Article taken from Racing Post by Tony Morris
There is generally little racing of note in America between the Breeders’ Cup and the Thanksgiving weekend, and in 2008 a whole month passes without a Grade 1 contest on the schedule.
But during this period there has been one performance of obvious quality by a versatile and progressive three-year-old filly who promises to be a contender for the highest honours in 2009.
That filly is Acoma, a daughter of EMPIRE MAKER who races for breeders Helen Alexander and her mother Helen Groves, and who improved her record to five wins out of eight with her easy victory in the Grade 2 Mrs Revere Stakes on the Churchill Downs turf course earlier this month. The Breeders’ Cup was never on her agenda this year, but it could be next year, when trainer David Carroll plans to focus on Grade 1 targets.
Acoma was a May foal and immature at two, when she took a long time to overcome an aversion to the starting gate. Carroll was patient with her, delaying her debut until this spring at the Fair Grounds, where she finished third. She broke her maiden next time over the Keeneland Polytrack, collected an allowance win on the Churchill dirt, and by the end of May she had a Grade 3 victory in the Dogwood Stakes at the same venue to her credit.
The filly was asked a big question on her next start, at Grade 1 level in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park, and it came as no great surprise that she was not yet up to such a task, finishing far behind Music Note. She then ran a creditable second to the much more experienced Maren’s Meadow in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks, again on dirt, before a return to familiar territory in Kentucky, where she clearly thrived in training.
On Keeneland’s firm turf last month she notched her second Grade 3 triumph in the Valley View Stakes, recovering from a hefty bump soon after the start and coming with a strong run to assert her superiority close home. She was more impressive, still in that latest start at Churchill, again on grass, finding a telling change of gear in the straight to win as she liked by a length and a quarter.
So Acoma’s current record shows five wins from as many starts in her native Kentucky, and three defeats from as many trips out of the State. Her connections are well aware that to date she has not settled well when away from home, but they are hoping that as she matures she will overcome that problem just as she got over her fear of the starting gate.
She will be spending the winter where she was raised, on Helen Alexander’s Middlebrook Farm near Lexington, and her presence there will be a constant delight to her co-breeder, who describes her as: “Just beautiful – she’s got it all.” When she sends Acoma back to Carroll’s barn in the new year, she can look forward to a campaign which offers plenty of options, because the trainer is happy to run the filly at the top level over whatever footing.
“If she’s training great, she’s going to run great, regardless of the surface,” says Carroll, who is entitled to feel confident about a filly who has already demonstrated her capacity to excel on dirt, grass and synthetic.
Acoma comes from the first crop of EMPIRE MAKER, the regally bred son of Unbridled and Toussaud who ran only eight times and won four – remarkably a maiden and three Grade 1s, including a Classic.
Earmarked for stardom by many after his third in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes on the second of his only two outings as a juvenile, he won the Florida Derby by more than nine lengths (a record for the race), and after a follow-up victory over Funny Cide in the Wood Memorial he started a hot favourite for the Kentucky Derby.
Whether he was inconvenienced by the bruised foot which he had incurred earlier in the week, EMPIRE MAKER was not at his best at Churchill Downs. Jerry Bailey had him handily placed to challenge on the turn for home, but he lacked his expected finishing kick and wound up second, under two lengths behind Funny Cide.
The real EMPIRE MAKER turned up for the Belmont Stakes, his next start, and there he crushed Funny Cide’s Triple Crown ambitions, leaving that gelding five lengths in arrears in third. As neither won again that season, and nothing better came along, EMPIRE MAKER was the logical choice as champion three-year-old, but the voters perversely gave Funny Cide the award.
Date: 27 November 2008