The Week in Review: The Personal Ensign Was Racing at its Best

[Wandering Eyes]

It was the day of the GI Runhappy Travers S., and that’s a race that will always command the most attention on the most important day of the Saratoga meet. But the 48,213 fans who packed the stands Saturday saw what will be hard to top when it comes to the best race run this year, the GI Personal Ensign S. This was racing at its best, and something you so rarely see anymore. It was two terrific horses in Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) and Elate (Medaglia d’Oro) hooking up at the top of the stretch, going nostril-to-nostril for almost a quarter-mile and then having the race decided by an inch or so.

The win went to Midnight Bisou, but Elate did not deserve to lose. Showing tremendous fight, she showed not only her talent, but her courage.

Now six for six on the year with three Grade I wins, Midnight Bisou appears to have wrapped up the Eclipse Award for the older filly and mare division.

The other story line in the Personal Ensign was the betting. The linemaker had made Midnight Bisou 6-5 and Elate 7-5, which made perfect sense because Midnight Bisou had defeated Elate in their two prior meeting this year. Yet, the public went for Elate, making her 4-5 and Midnight Bisou 8-5. It might have been because the bettors lacked confidence in Midnight Bisou at a mile-and-an-eighth since she had never won beyond a mile-and-a-sixteenth before in her career.

As good as Midnight Bisou is, she may not be the best horse in training in her division. Remember Monomoy Girl (Tapizar)? She faced Midnight Bisou four times last year and crossed the wire in  front of her each time. The only victory Midnight Bisou gained over her rival came via a stewards’ disqualification in the GI Cotillion S. at Parx. Has Midnight Bisou gotten that much better or is Monomoy Girl that good? We may find out.

Needing more time than expected to come back from a case of colic, Monomoy Girl has not raced this year, but is nearing her first start. She had her third work this year Saturday, going four furlongs in :48.20 at Churchill Downs. Trainer Brad Cox has said he’d probably need five or six works to get her ready for her first race. If things continue to go well, and if Cox is not afraid to try his filly at the highest level after a long layoff, the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. at Keeneland Oct. 6 would fit his schedule. She could go from there to the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Elate vs. Monomoy Girl vs. Midnight Bisou in the Distaff? A lot would have to go right for that to happen, but if it does, it promises to be among the most memorable races anyone has seen in a long time.

Los Alamitos Deserves Better

On Thursday, the California Horse Racing Board approved a 2020 dates schedule that cut Los Alamitos out of the Los Angeles County fair meet dates in September that bridge the gap between the closing of Del Mar and a short meet at Santa Anita. Instead, those dates were given to Santa Anita.

Everyone knows that Los Alamitos is not Santa Anita or Del Mar. It has no turf course, the level of racing when compared to Santa Anita and Del Mar dips considerably when it is open and most of the top jockeys take the meet off or ride only in the stakes races. But it does serve a purpose. It allows trainers that struggle to win races at the major Southern California meets a chance to pick up a few checks and Los Alamitos officials have argued that it helps its Quarter Horse meet because the Thoroughbred bettors stay engaged with Los Alamitos more now than ever since it has a presence with both breeds.

But the real issue is that the California racing industry owes Los Alamitos after it came to its rescue following the closing of Hollywood Park and never should have thrown it under the bus.

It was felt that the Southern California circuit had to have a third track, even if it was one that ran only a relatively small amount of dates. Ed Allred, the chairman and owner of Los Alamitos, could have told the Thoroughbred industry he wasn’t interested, but he was willing to help. One of the primary issues was that, with Hollywood closed, the circuit desperately needed more stalls, so Allred put in approximately 800 additional stalls to house Thoroughbreds. He also expanded the track to a mile to make it a better fit for Thoroughbred racing. According to a  2014 Los Angeles Times article, Allred spent $5 million preparing the track for Thoroughbred racing.

“I have so many problems with what is proposed,” Allred testified before the CHRB. “It’s difficult to get it down to a minute or two. Seven years ago, we were approached about putting in a mile track, which we did in record time, about three months. Spent many millions of dollars on it. We were heroes, heroes for horse racing in all of California. We were glad to do that.”

He’s not wrong.

Obviously, more will be bet at Santa Anita than would be at Los Alamitos and the level of racing will be much better, but this is no way to treat a racetrack that came through for the sport when the sport needed its help.

John Sadler…Hall of Famer

For the second straight week, John Sadler won the Saturday feature at Del Mar. A week after taking the GI TVG Pacific Classic with Higher Power (Medaglia d’Oro), he won the GII Pat O’Brien H. with Catalina Cruiser (Union Rags). He’s now won 16 stakes on the year, 12 graded stakes and four Grade Is.

Starting off in 1978, he’s won 2,492 races during his career, including 165 graded stakes.

Sadler probably wasn’t a Hall of Famer until the Hronis Brothers came onto the scene and started providing him with the types of horses that are capable of winning at the highest level. But he was given a tremendous opportunity and he ran with it. When it comes to older male horses, right now there is no more dangerous trainer in the country.

Ironically, the number of races he now wins each year has dipped since his association with the Hronises began. He won just 59 races in 2018 after winning at least 100 each year from 2007 to 2013. But that’s because he is now dealing in quality and not quantity.

The other knock on Sadler had always been that he could not win in the Breeders’ Cup or whenever his horses left Southern California. His 1-for-45 Breeders’ Cup record still looks ugly on paper, but he got that monkey off his back last year when winning the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic with Accelerate (Lookin at Lucky). And if Accelerate had come along in any year other than one the included a Triple Crown winner, he would have been Horse of the Year.

Sadler has never been so much as been on the Hall of Fame ballot. The time has come.

Not Your Typical TV Analyst

You have to give Fox credit for using Jonathon Kinchen on its horse racing shows. This is not a person you’d normally see on TV. Even though in his mid-thirties, he’s rumpled, his hair rises from his scalp halfway to the sky, with the way he dresses, there is no shot he will ever appear on the cover of GQ. He appeared on the Travers show wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

When choosing on-air talent, television too often goes for style over substance. In some cases, that’s fine. But horse racing is a gambling game and too often the networks forget that. When it comes to handicapping, Kinchen’s credentials are hard to beat. A regular tournament player, he remains the only player in NHC history to have both of his entries qualify for The Final Table, and in 2015 he won the NHC Tour, a testing year-long series of NTRA-sanctioned events. Yet, he doesn’t come across as arrogant nor does he try to be the smartest guy in the room.

He couldn’t connect in the Travers, picking Tacitus (Tapit) and combining him in exactas with Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) and the wiseguy horse, Looking at Bikinis (Looking at Lucky). But he’ll have other chances to prove his acumen. There’s a place for features and fluff, but the Fox horse racing audience is still made up largely of horseplayers and Fox is giving them what they want–a guy who knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the betting game. They took a chance on someone who doesn’t fit the profile of a TV guy. Good for them.

 

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