Summer racing off and running at Spa, Del Mar
Performances of Lady Eli, Arrogate made for memorable opening weekends
The stakes schedules at Del Mar and Saratoga aren’t generally considered to be front-loaded — that is, to have the most significant races run early in the meet. Given what took place over the weekend in the San Diego Handicap and Diana Handicap, however, this year may turn out to be a different story.
Naturally, the first response to Arrogate’s mindblowing loss in the San Diego was, “What the hell?” Prominent horses have gone down at low odds before — notably Secretariat in the 1973 Whitney and Woodward — but they very rarely finish out of the money at 1-20. An aura of invincibility had built up around Arrogate to the point where any defeat was bound to cause a shudder in people’s basic assumptions about how the world worked.
One imagines the result even having an effect on Del Mar’s pari-mutuel system, as if someone had dumped a load of spaghetti into the works, causing them to spit out numbers the programming at first rejected as not being possible. And yet there they were. Accelerate and Donworth did in fact run one-two, paying $434.60 on a $2 exacta wager. And a $2
place ticket on Donworth was indeed worth a record $119.40.
Maybe something was amiss with Arrogate physically. If so, it hasn’t been revealed yet. Maybe the four months away from the races was a month or two too long. Or maybe, as happens to virtually every other racehorse, he just didn’t have it that day.
Whatever the explanation, it’s pretty certain Arrogate won’t go off at 1-20 in his next race, which hopefully will be the Pacific Classic on Aug. 19. Don’t be shocked, though, if he runs like a 1-20 shot anyway.
THE DIANA
The Diana had a much more predictable result, as Lady Eli headed the lightly raced Quidura after a rousing stretch duel to notch her ninth win in 12 career starts, nearly all of them at the sport’s highest level. Her three losses, all seconds, totaled approximately a length.
The five-year-old mare has been involved in tight finishes in all six of her outings during the second, post-laminitis phase of her career. During the first phase, as a two- and three-year-old, Lady Eli showed she could run away from horses. At four and five, she has shown the ability to prevail in tight, late going. Trainer Chad Brown said in comments after the race that he believed his mare would be undefeated had she seen the horses coming in her three narrow defeats.
Brown also said that, all things considered — including the eight pounds Lady Eli was giving Quidura, the steward’s inquiry, a wide trip, and the fact that she broke through the gate prior to the start — he believed the Diana was Lady Eli’s finest performance. He also called her “one of the all-time greats.”
The praise lavished on Lady Eli by Brown could only have come from someone who had witnessed her recovery from a near-fatal illness, and then been there when she reclaimed her place as a world-class racehorse. May she stay in that place a good while.
Jeff Scott writes about horse racing Tuesday in The Saratogian. He may be reached at utahpine1@aol.com