Crosby Stakes (Grade 1) (BC)- $400.000 Purse
DMR- For Three Year Olds and Upward
Six Furlongs on the Dirt
July 29, 2023

An entertaining day at DMR was highlighted by the running of the Crosby Stakes on Saturday, a race that would send a horse directly to the BC Sprint just as long as their trainer wanted them there. It was a race that featured the usual favorites of the betting public, as well as some decent prices along the way. Then, there were a couple horses in the field that hardly got any action at all. One of them was Retaliate, a Fractious- trained gelding that was coming off a two-length win at the $175.000 Maxfield at CD earlier this month, but that was not appealing to many, and the horse went off at odds of 127/1. For the record, we can’t even say that he was the only horse with triple digit odds, though he was the longest shot on the board. The odds would not matter, and Retaliate would get the job done, making his few supporters very happy people as he edged out 21/1 longshot Tiz Trippi at the wire. It goes without saying, then, that there were some huge payouts on this one! We did not have Retaliate as one of our picks, and it should at least be mentioned somewhere that he did have a five-pound weight allowance over the rest of the field due to being the race’s lone three-year-old. For Fractious, it is his first win in the race, and it is the second for jockey M Franco. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:08.67, which is approximately a median winning time of the race, overall. Let’s take a look at it!

(1/4 Mile- :21.94)- Demon isn’t messing around at the start, jumping out to the lead for Wood Duck Stables and setting a pretty quick opening fraction. His lead is a length and a half over a group of four stalkers behind him. In the third lane, Chemical Burn, trained by Mb Stables, gets credit for being a nose ahead of the others. Included with this group is our beloved longshot from Fractious, Retaliate. The race’s eventual winner certainly looks comfortable while riding the rail in the early going. To his outside is a horse that he will be seeing a lot of in this race, Rock Creek’s Tiz Trippi, and on the outside, we have another Fractious horse in the form of Plan To Wheel. Right behind them is another group of four, with Surprise Authority (Spankys Barn) and On Schedule (Mb Stables) being a half-length ahead of post time favorite Dancing Rattler (Martyparty) and Iron Mine (Fractious). Next is Rudy Is With Me (Mb Stables), and trailing are Stormy Liberal (Big Guns Stables) and First Fleet (High Voltage).

(1/2 Mile- :44.82, Top of Stretch, 1.5FTo Go)- Demon continues to show the way, looking good down the backstretch and holding his advantage while rounding the turn. Those that had been stalking him had not made up that much ground yet, so there was still plenty of hope that Demon would be able to hang on amongst his supporters. Behind him, his biggest challengers looked to be both Retaliate and Tiz Trippi, but surely those two have high prices for a reason and would not be the top threats, right? Plan To Wheel, himself about a 28/1 longshot, was looking good on the outside, while 17/1 shot Chemical Burn tried to keep touch. In the middle of the pack, we were still looking for the likes of Dancing Rattler, Surprise Authority and Iron Mine to make their run, and those further back had a lot more work to do and needed to get moving now if they had something left.

(Finish- 1:08.67)- Demon is doing his best, but soon in the stretch, he was looking vulnerable as Retaliate stayed on his inside and Tiz Trippi moved to his outside, and they each looked like they would go by on each side simultaneously. Plan To Wheel was very much in the picture on the outside, and Chemical Burn slightly began to lose touch. Dancing Rattler was inching closer, and if Demon was the only one that he had to pass, then maybe we could get excited about him, but those longshots looked to be too much for him at this point. Getting closer to the wire, it was clearly going to come down to Retaliate and Tiz Trippi, and they would hit the line together, along with the Plan To Wheel, who admirably ran well on the outside. The photo finish would reveal that Retaliate beat Tiz Trippi by a nose, and that one did similar to Plan To Wheel. Light up that toteboard! Dancing Rattler settles for fourth, narrowly over Demon for the fourth-place spoils. Rounding it out, we have Chemical Burn, Surprise Authority, Rudy Is With Me, On Schedule, First Fleet, Iron Mine, Stormy Liberal. With the win, Retaliate will be heading to the BC Sprint, which is a six furlong race despite what was previously reported in the preview!

About The Winner- Retaliate, trained by Fractious and ridden to victory by M Franco, is a three-year-old gelding by Just Missed and is out of Vandella. He was bred in Florida by Second Chance Farms as a third quarter two-year-old and was acquired by Fractious in January with a $20.000 claim. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his fourth in nine starts, his second stake win, and first graded win. His career earnings are now $409.380.

Track: Fast
Time: :21⁴  :44⁴  :56³  1:08³

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 1 – 3 Paid 3,679.80
$1 Trifecta: 1 – 3 – 12 Paid 1,595.50

Scratched: Pau

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES