Second Chances: Standup

[Wandering Eyes]

In this continuing series, TDN’s Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. In this edition, Standup (Into Mischief), a flashy second on debut sprinting on the Gulfstream lawn last week, is highlighted. Previous runners featured in this column include: MGISW and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Paradise Woods (Union Rags), GSW Backyard Heaven (Tizway) and MSW and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Gidu (Ire) (Frankel {GB}).

Clocking his final eighth in a scorching :11.18, Standup (c, 3, Into Mischief–Well, by Well Decorated) stamped himself as one to watch with a visually impressive debut second sprinting five furlongs on the grass at Gulfstream Park Jan. 17 (video).

Off at odds of 4-1 sporting a worktab that included a four-furlong bullet in :48 (1/6) on the lawn at Todd Pletcher’s Palm Beach Downs base Dec. 23, the gray was outsprinted in ninth through an opening quarter in :21.35. He took the overland route beneath Javier Castellano while still well out of it on the turn for home and came flying like a wild horse down the center of the course in the stretch to finish within 3/4 of a length of the winner.

“For him to produce the type of wicked flourish he did from the quarter-pole to the wire was something you rarely see on that course, especially for a first-time starter,” Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners President Aron Wellman said of the $280,000 OBS March purchase, who is campaigned in partnership with Mike Repole.

Bred in Kentucky by Joanne R. Mummert and John C. Barrett Jr., Standup is a half-brother to the talented sprinter Kobe’s Back (Flatter), MGSW & MGISP, $1,116,595; and Well Spelled (Spellbinder), GSW, $364,160. Failing to meet his reserve when the bidding stalled at $190,000 at Keeneland September, Standup brought $270,000 from Cary Frommer at the Fasig-Tipton October Yearling Sale. He breezed an eighth in :10 1/5 from Frommer’s OBS March consignment.

“We initially thought he’d be a precocious 2-year-old cut out for Saratoga, but he proved to be a bit too immature during the summer, so we peeled back and gave him some time to grow up,” Wellman said. “When he came back to Todd in the fall, we were actually pretty concerned because he wasn’t showing us much at all on the dirt. Fortunately, we had the luxury of breezing him on the turf at Palm Beach Downs and he took a massive step forward.”

As for what may be next, Wellman said, “We always envisioned him to be a pure sprinter. We have no intention of stretching him out at this stage, and while our hands are tied most likely with just five-furlong grass dashes at Gulfstream for the time being, we envision him relishing the one-turn sprints and elongated sprints at Belmont in the spring. Hopefully, he can execute at the next level in due time.”

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