The Hopeful (Grade 1)- $300.000 Purse
SAR- For Two Year Olds
Seven Furlongs on the Dirt
September 6, 2021

Mb Stables has another good one! Every year, Mb Stables seems to have a collection of promising two year olds with one of them really capturing a large part of the attention. Right now, that honor goes to Hilarity, a colt by Fire N Fury that is now a perfect 4-for-4 in his career. Those aren’t soft wins, either, as after his maiden, he ended up winning the Bashford Manor, the SAR Special, and now the Grade 1 Hopeful. Whether or not he is going to want to keep stretching out is a story for later, but right now, he is getting the job done in an impressive manner! It’s win number five for Mb Stables in the Hopeful. His prior winners were Just A Chance (2014), Grandeur (2015), Centerpiece (2017), and Sail Away (2019, in a dead heat). Jockey J R Velazquez is a two time Hopeful winner, and he also rode Sail Away in 2019. The time of the race on the track listed as good was 1:23.04. Let’s take a look!

(¼ Mile- :22.94)- Four horses break well out of the gate, and the quickest of those would be the one win the fourth lane, as fittingly a horse named Uranus would do his work along the outside. The Smokey Stover entry would lead TwinTowersRacing’s Proud Bo by a length. Running third on the rail would be Jive Inc’s Hand Cannon (who I apologize for calling Head Cannon in the preview), and to his outside was Tiratzo’s Disciplinary. After them, Orange Chicken led the next group, for Arindel, while having the race’s eventual top two finishers to his inside. Hilarity would hold the rail for Mb Stables, and Come To Poppa ran right to his outside for South Shore Stables. It’s another length to Croton Road (Fractious), then Dumb Luck (D J C Racing Stables), with Statuesque (Mb Stables) at the back.

(¼ Mile- :46.24)- Down the backstretch and into the turn, we don’t see a whole lot in the way of changes. Uranus is still in the lead, and he adds a little bit of daylight between him and the rest of the field. Proud Bo is still second and is ahead of Hand Cannon by a length. Disciplinary starts to fall into the clutches of Orange Chicken, who hoped to pass along his outside. Meanwhile, in the middle of the field, both Hilarity and Come To Poppa still raced together, and still about four lengths to the leader. They would remain unhurried, perhaps confident that the leaders could not hold on to this pace on the good surface. It was a length and a half back to the three trailers.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- In the prior race, Smokey Stover watched Fuji dominate in the stretch in the Baruch Handicap. Now, with Uranus in front, he would love to see his entry again pull away from the field. He was still looking good, and adding to his lead, which was now two lengths. Proud Bo began to lose ground and Hand Cannon was not making any progress on the leader. Neither Disciplinary nor Orange Chicken were making a push to the front, either. However, further back, a nice hole was available for Hilarity to the outside of Hand Cannon, and he took advantage of it, moving into the third position. Come To Poppa did not have it quite so easy, but once he moved over a lane, he also had a nothing in his way to make his own charge. This cost him about half a length to Hilarity, though. Croton Road, Dumb Luck, and Statuesque are still at the back.

(Finish- 1:23.04)- Uranus looked good for a while in the stretch, but in the final furlong, Hilarity gets closer and closer and eventually pounces to make the pass for the lead. Come To Poppa, meanwhile, did not make the same kind of push early on as Hilarity would and I had to double check to make sure I was watching the right eventual second place finisher for a moment. In the final stages of the stretch run, he gets moving, but it was far too late too catch Hilarity now. Hilarity was two lengths in front of him at this point as he moved to the front. Come To Poppa closed into that gap to be second, a length ahead of Uranus, who struggled late. Croton Road was a late runner to be fourth, but never a threat to the top three. Rounding it out, it’s Proud Bo, Orange Chicken, Hand Cannon, Disciplinary, Dumb Luck, and Statuesque.

About The Winner- Hilarity, trained by Mb Stables and ridden to victory by J R Velazquez, is a two year old colt by Fire N Fury and is out of Laugher. He was bred in New York as a yearling by Mb Stables, the only trainer for which he has ever known. Congratulations to the connections! He is 4-for-4 in his career with three graded wins, and his career earnings are now $417.000.

Track: Good
Time: :22⁴  :46¹  1:10²  1:23

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 2 – 3 Paid 74.90
$1 Trifecta: 2 – 3 – 10 Paid 1,617.50

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES