The Appleton
1 Mile Inner Turf Stake Purse $150.000 Open 4 Year Olds And Up.
1st The Mad King John Henry Ortiz J L 1:32.57
Well, there is a lot to unwrap in this race with the Oritz sisters riding a one two, an eight-year-old veteran of the free track bringing a smile to the faces of the faithful and yet another dead heat in a day’s racing that would see record numbers. Let’s start with the star of this race the eight-year-old veteran of 61 races recording his 29th win. Way back in 2022 this horse was building a decent record with a stakes win and plenty of notable efforts in good races. In 2023 however the trainer decided that winning races was more important than black type notoriety and took him round the country mopping up lower-level races until eventually he found his way to the free track. He won 7 of his 8 free track starts when John Henry spotted him and claimed him for $25.000. Now we have seen a few come from the free track to win stakes races but as a seven, nearly eight-year-old at the time this was quite the gamble by the trainer. Well three races into their tenure they have not netted two wins and this competitive stake race and who is to say it will stop here. Stalking a solid pace today he just had too much firepower for the rest and won by a game half length. I will have to start looking up win records if I write about this one again this year.
2nd Full On Express Alabarda Stable Ortiz I Jr 1:32.67
Whilst the congratulations in this race were with the deserved winner it must be said that this four-year-old certainly deserves some accolades too. Considering all but one of his races were at either BTP or TUP and he was only starting for the ninth time this was a lifetime best effort and one that put him in a few black books. He is clearly that late maturing type and also clearly quickly moving up his improvement curve and I can see a bright future for him as he ran on really well and was certainly closing in on a the winner.
3rd= Anna Anna Anna Maxmillion Farm Rodriguez A R 1:32.77
A dead heat for third may seem like a good result but rather than being celebrated by some sort of gain both the dead heaters saw their efforts rewarded with a zero financial return. In many ways that is probably one of the most frustrating things we see with these dead heats apart from the visuals, the prize fund is so tight that a good result in a competitive race can see the same return as finishing last in a free track race. Anyway, enough about the game’s problems and onto this one who once again ran a decent race without fulfilling the potential we see in his home gallops. At five he may be running out of time but as we saw with the winner there is always hope.
3rd= Kidding High Voltage Lopez P 1:32.77
The other eight-year-old in the race stalked the lead but couldn’t get his old legs to go any quicker down the stretch and had to settle for a share of third. It was another sound effort, and his consistency must be applauded but it’s been a while now since he won .
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded
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