Horse Racing: Maybesomaybenot takes surprise win in Sanford; Bail Out the Cat, Blue Right By, Lou Brissie Falter
If you bet on the favourites for Sanford Stakes on Sunday, you lost. The $150,000 grade II event was a day of upsets. The favourite was Bail Out the Cat, paying $1.95 for a dollar. Following him were Blue Right By and Lou Brissie, paying $2.60 for a dollar. Then there was Chipshot, paying $4.50 for a dollar. The four made the favourites for Sanford; the odds that not one of the four would land at least one of the top spots were almost nonexistent, but that’s exactly what happened.
The day belonged to unexpected winner Maybesomaybenot. The odds were stacked high against him in the 8 horse field. The odds were worse only for Another Silver Oak who paid $11.80 compared to Maybesomaybenot’s $9.60. So when the two least favourite horses took the first and third spots on Sunday’s race, there was either extreme disappointment or uninhibited jubilation, depending on what bet a person placed.
The name might not be reassuring, but Maybesomaybenot’s pace on Sunday was nothing but ‘definitely so.’ Right out of the gate he raced ahead into the lead and kept the pace. Hugging the rail, Maybesomaybenot led the field till the finish, winning by a length and a half. Second place went to Nacho Saint, who paid $6.60 for a dollar and was the fourth least favourite to win. Another Silver Oak finished third. Some relief for handicappers came when Lou Brissie took fourth place in a race that seemed to have a grudge against the odds.
Bail Out the Cat could have won the Sanford Stakes, but a far from ideal start at the gate took down all hopes of a win for the horse and the jockey. The horse finished 6th. “It was bad luck for us,” jockey Alan Garcia said, adding that Bail Out the Cat was ‘acting up’ inside the gates and didn’t get out when the gates were flung open. Blue Right By, sharing the favourable odds of 2.60 with Lou Brissie, finished even worse at 7th place.
For Carolyn and Arthellor Scisney, victory for Maybesomaybenot is important in more ways than one. There is the obvious satisfaction in having your horse win against the odds and the payoff is good too, but for the husband and wife pair, the race was more personal. Their daughter-in-law, Karen, was given a 25% share in Maybesomaybenot as she fights off serious illnesses. Karen is afflicted with Lupus, and last Monday she had bypass surgery.
Arthellor hoped that Sunday’s win would uplift Karen’s spirits. “If the Lord does nothing else for me, I’ll be all right,” he said. He said that he and his wife, who have been horse owners for 40 years, had worked hard all their lives and Sunday was a joyous and momentous occasion for them. He said that he wouldn’t sell the horse even for $400,000. “This is for my daughter-in-law.”
Trainer Mike Maker said that the owners were the nicest couple anyone would ever want to meet. Maybesomaybenot was the only horse under Mike’s wing that belonged to the Scisneys. They had other horses stabled over the years, but none of them measured up to Maybesomaybenot.
With Julien Leparoux aboard, trainer Mike’s entrant finished the race in 1:10:97, hardly half a second slower than Afleet Alex’s record-setting pace in 2004. Half way through, he fought off Another Silver Oak while Nacho Saint kept up the pressure but couldn’t get closer than a length and half. Nacho Saint earned $30,000 at Sanford, Another Silver Oak took $15,000 and the winner took $90,000 in prize money.
In total, Maybesomaybenot has earned $125,700 so far, but is looking set for greater things. At least jockey Julien Leparoux believes so. “We meant to go in front,” Julien said. “He was in front pretty easy and he's still a little green. He kind of looked around in the stretch, but he did it pretty well. He did it like a nice horse, so hopefully he can go forward from today."
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