Horse Racing: Majesticperfection wins grade I A.G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga
Handicappers like to think of themselves as nothing less than the oracles of old. Punters like that idea too because then they can rely on these ‘oracles’ or at least they think they can. The truth is that Handicappers aren’t throwing darts in the dark but the room isn’t clearly lit either and the dart board has a funny way of moving around just as the dart is thrown.
Then there are races like Sunday’s $250,000 grade I Alfred G. Vanderbilt stakes and just like that the faith of the bettors is restored in their Oracles. The Vanderbilt stakes was one of those races where everyone had the right ideas about the outcome. The favourite won the race, second place went to the horse with the next best odds and so on and so forth.
The favourite for the race was Pauda Stables’ up and coming big name, figuratively and literally, ‘Majesticperfection’. This was the fifth straight win for the horse and he took it dominatingly, as he has always done. It has become the modus operandi for Majesticperfection, power into the lead, keep the lead and win by a formidable lead. At Saratoga again he followed his winning 3 step victory program and there was nothing anyone could do about it. The race finished with second place ‘Big Drama’ 2 ¾ lengths behind the winner.
Jockey Bridgmohan was thoroughly impressed by Majesticperfection’s - perfection. “He's a nice horse and a very fun ride,” he said. “He broke really smart and sharp, and he really made my job a lot easier”. Bridgmohan added that horse was quick and professional. Once the horse got into the lead and settled, he was very comfortable and delivered good fractions. He said that he knew that Majesticperfection was ‘the real deal’ and that he had known as much since the first time he rode the horse.
His trainer Asmussen was equally pleased with Majesticperfection’s run on Sunday. “We could all read how well he'd run in the other spots, but for him to bring it up against this level of competition, it puts him exactly where we want him to be”.
There were those who wouldn’t readily acknowledge Majesticperfection’s place among this year’s horse racing stars because in their opinion the horse had never faced a challenging enough field. The Venderbilt stakes should satisfy a few of the naysayers. Majesticperfection has finished first in five of his six career starts finishing 3rd place in his only less than perfect race but his earning still stood at less than $170,000 before the Vanderbilt stakes. His opponents in the race were three millionaires, ‘Big Drama,’ ‘Bribon’, and ‘Gayego’.
Right out of the gates there was trouble for Big Drama. The horse bumped into another but recovered rather quickly and resumed his determined yet fruitless pursuit of the race leader under urging from Jockey Eibar Coa. Majesticperfection was just faster.
“I was very happy with the way he tried”, Eibar said after the race. He said that there were two tasks that he had to perform simultaneously. One was to chase Majesticperfection and the other, to keep his pursuers at bay. “So, I was proud of him, that he held on for second. That's what I was asking him to do today; I knew in the stretch he wasn't going to win the race. But again, he tried hard for us today”, Coa said.
In one of his five previous runs, Steve Asmussen trained Majesticperfection, decided to set the race record while he crushed his opponents on the track. On Sunday again he almost broke the record. The hose ran 6 ½ furlongs in 1:08.63 just shy of the 1:08 record set in 1972 and unbroken since.
While his trainer didn’t offer a definitive word on Majesticperfection’s next start but he did say that they were entertaining the idea of pointing him to the grade I Vosburgh at Belmont and the Breeders Cup at Churchill Downs.
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