Record-Holder Maker Holds Strong Hand in $125,000 Tiara
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – AJ Suited Racing Stable’s Dontblamerocket, unbeaten in two starts since changing hands in late spring, makes his stakes debut seeking to extend his streak in Saturday’s $125,000 Claiming Crown Emerald at Gulfstream Park.
The Emerald for 3-year-olds and up and $125,000 Tiara for fillies and mares 3 and older, both at 1 1/16 miles on the turf for horses that have started for a claiming price of $25,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2018, are among nine stakes that help comprise the $1.11 million Claiming Crown.
This marks the eighth straight year in South Florida and 21st overall for the Claiming Crown, created in 1999 to honor the blue-collar horses that are the foundation of the racing industry nationwide. Total handle for the Claiming Crown has surpassed $10 million each of the past five years, topped by a record $13.612 million in 2018.
First race post time for Saturday’s 11-race program is 11:50 a.m.
Dontblamerocket is a gelded 5-year-old son of 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Blame who was claimed by trainer Norm Casse for $50,000 out of a third-place finish May 24 in Kentucky at the Emerald distance. He has never raced at Gulfstream, and has finished in the top three in 11 of 13 lifetime starts with six wins.
“He’s just one of those types of horses that we really like. He always shows up and he always run his race,” Casse said. “He’s always ultra-competitive. We’ve been really lucky because we’ve been able to find some really good spots for him and we’ve spaced his races out accordingly. He’s just rewarded us with the confidence that we’ve put into him.”
Casse gave Dontblamerocket time before bringing him back in a 1 1/8-mile starter Aug. 11 at Saratoga, where he prevailed by 2 ¾ lengths after an inside trip. In his most recent effort Sept. 8 at Kentucky Downs, he found himself well back in a tight pack and made a winning move on the outside to get up by a half-length. Favored in both races, he retains the services of Julien Leparoux off his most recent win.
“I think the thing that you can’t measure in a horse is their heart. He certainly shows great tenacity every time he runs,” Casse said. “The Kentucky Downs race was funny because it’s a very different turf course; it’s a very different circumstance altogether. I think he spent half the race trying to figure out what was going on. He just won because of his attitude and the way he always brings his A-game. I think he ran really well that day and we’re very excited to have an opportunity to win a Claiming Crown race.”
By design, Dontblamerocket has had plenty of time to acclimate to his surroundings, breezing twice over the turf at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, since Thanksgiving.
“We shipped him down early. He’s been there for probably about three weeks at our barn in Palm Meadows,” Casse said. “Basically after he won the prep race at Kentucky Downs we shut him down for a little bit with the idea that we’d bring him in to Gulfstream as a fresh horse.”
Another horse entering the Emerald on a roll is Noda Brothers’ Tusk, a winner of his last three starts. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. claimed the 6-year-old Tapit gelding out of his most recent race, a 1 ¼-length triumph Oct. 20 on the Belmont Park turf.
Tusk showed grit to match his talent in each of the two previous races, both at Delaware Park, going 7 ½ furlongs and about one mile, for previous trainer Jorge Navarro, winning by a half-length and a nose. Overall, he owns a record of 7-7-5 with $369,297 in purse earnings from 35 starts.
“He’s training well. He’s won three in a row,” Joseph said. “We claimed him at the right time. He’s in really good form and we’re excited to see him run.”
Driven by Thunder, winner of the 1 1/16-mile James Kyle Stakes Sept. 6 at Gulfstream and sixth in last year’s Emerald; 2017 Better Talk Now Stakes winner Heiroglyphics; 16-time career winner Spring Up; Mike Maker-trained stablemates Apreciado and Patriot Drive; and Max K.O., Fifth Title, And Won, King of Spades and Muggsamatic complete the field.
Record-Holder Maker Holds Strong Hand in $125,000 Tiara
Mike Maker, the Claiming Crown’s all-time leading trainer with 17 victories, entered the trio of Arabella Bella, Codrington and Pugilist in an attempt to extend his record in the $125,000 Tiara.
Maker won his first Claiming Crown races with a hat trick in 2007 and has won at least one race in nine of the 11 subsequent editions including a career-best four races in 2012, the event’s first year at Gulfstream.
Three of Maker’s wins have come in the Tiara – Star Silhouette in 2012, St. Borealis in 2014 and Peru last year. Three Diamonds Farm’s 4-year-old filly Arabella Bella, claimed for $40,000 in May, has won one of five starts for Maker – a one-mile, 70-yard starter race Sept. 8 at Kentucky Downs. In her last race, the daughter of Skipshot set the pace on the inside into the stretch but tired to sixth, beaten two lengths, in an optional claiming allowance going one mile Nov. 15 at Aqueduct.
Jordan Wycoff’s Codrington has run second in each of her three starts since joining Maker this summer. The 4-year-old filly rallied to edge favored Curluck by a head for the place Sept. 15 at Belmont Park, returning in four weeks to be a nose ahead of third-place finisher Summer Squeeze in a 1 1/16-mile starter allowance. Codrington rallied from far back to come up a neck short of winner Magic Fairy in a six-furlong turf sprint Nov. 17 at Aqueduct.
Paradise Farms Corp.’s Pugilist will be racing first time for Maker after being claimed for $25,000 out of a fifth-place finish as the favorite sprinting six furlongs on the Aqueduct turf Nov. 15. The 4-year-old filly was also favored when she ran third in a one-mile starter allowance over Laurel Park’s world-class turf course Oct. 12. This spring, Pugilist won back-to-back races before running sixth in the Big Dreyfus Stakes June 16 at Laurel.
Codrington and Pugilist are the first two also-eligibles in an overflow field of 16 entered for the Tiara. Arabella Bella will break from Post 1.
Black Chevron Racing Stable’s Raki is three-for-nine lifetime at Gulfstream, winning the 7 ½-furlong Miss Gracie Stakes in her most recent try over the turf course Sept. 14. She made a bid on the inside before flattening out to be fifth in the one-mile Cellars Shiraz Stakes Nov. 2 at Gulfstream Park West.
Robert Amendola’s Una Luna has finished second in her last four starts after notching back-to-back wins going a mile on the Gulfstream turf this spring and summer. The 4-year-old filly ran behind Tiara contender Lady Alida in the Sept. 7 In the Breeze Stakes and Picara in the Filly & Mare Turf Preview Nov. 9 at Gulfstream West.
Rounding out the field are Amazing Audrey; Bienville Street, placed in a pair of Gulfstream turf stakes this fall; Vip Nation, Bareeqa, Diamond Play, Drinks On Me, Passion Plus and Lucky Long. Britesideoftheroad and Trieste are the last two also-eligibles.