Horse of the Week: Personal Ensign

Posted on by DerbyMateo

We usually pick a horse from the previous weekend to highlight as our Horse of the Week. We went back a little further this week, to 1988 to be exact. Long before Zenyatta came to the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in search of perfection, it was unbeaten Personal Ensign who provided as dramatic a finish to a horse race as you’ll ever see. And her impact on the Breeders’ Cup didn’t end there.

A product of the famed Ogden Phipps breeding program, Personal Ensign was dominant in a Maiden Special and the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park in the fall of 1986. She would have gone favored in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies but a fracture to her left hind pastern put those plans on ice and threatened to end her career.

The brave filly’s return to the races in September of 1987 helped put renowned equine surgeon Dr. Larry Bramlage on the map. She won her comeback, an allowance, along with the Rare Perfume Stakes (G2) and the Beldame Stakes (G1) over older mares. She didn’t even notice those five metal screws Dr. Bramlage had put in her pastern. With another Grade 1 secured, trainer Shug McGaughey elected to bypass a cross country trip to the 1987 Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park.

McGaughey’s patience was rewarded with a longer and more sensational 1988 campaign. She made her first start on May 15 in the Shuvee H. (G1) and won with her typical ease. Two more graded wins against females followed before a tilt against males in the Whitney H. (G1) at Saratoga. Only two dared face Personal Ensign that day, the tough gelding King’s Swan and the top sprinter/miler Gulch. An early afternoon monsoon turned the Saratoga strip into a lake and Personal Ensign seemed to struggle early on, a portent of things to come on Breeders’ Cup day. But she simply had more class than her male rivals and got to the wire first. Her record was now a perfect 10 for 10.

A filly named Winning Colors won the Kentucky Derby in 1988 and it was only a matter of time until she crossed paths with Personal Ensign. The showdown came in the one-mile Maskette Stakes (G1), now called the Go For Wand S. on September 10, 1988. In one of the greatest races nobody saw (attendance that day was under 10,000, no national TV) Personal Ensign and rider Randy Romero reeled in a loose-on-the-lead Winning Colors.

Personal Ensign added another Beldame win to her resume and brought a pristine 12 for 12 record into her final start, the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Winning Colors was there again too, along with Kentucky Oaks/Mother Goose/Coaching Club American Oaks winner Goodbye Halo.

The rains also came that Breeders’ Cup Saturday and Personal Ensign would have to conquer a sloppy track again to retire with a perfect record. I was at Saratoga the day Personal Ensign won the Whitney over that water-logged surface and I was half a country a way watching the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on TV. About half way through both races I said out loud:

“Uh oh.”

In both contests Personal Ensign just didn’t seem comfortable running over those soggy surfaces. But she was a champion and, watching the replays over a quarter of a century later, I almost get the sense she was using each stride early on to figure out how to navigate the slop. Each time her legs hit the soggy ground they gave her just a little more comfort and confidence. Or maybe she just couldn’t stand to see other horses in front of her. All I know is that it looked pretty hopeless at the top of the stretch in the Distaff. Winning Colors was rolling, Personal Ensign had put herself in the race but still had too much to do, still five lengths away. A gallant second or third on a track she hated would be her final salvo.

But no. She would dig deeper, stretch her stride to the limit, even if she felt like she was running on taffy. That that big gray Derby-winning filly is in front of me. And that’s not acceptable.

Personal Ensign got there first. I don’t know how. I still can’t tell who won when I watch that race but the photo tells the story: “Personal Ensign, you’re the first major runner to retire undefeated in 80 years.”

Personal Ensign was just as incredible in her second career and produced, among others, 1995 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner My Flag, who in turn is the dam of 2002 Juvenile Fillies heroine Storm Flag Flying. Not many other horses, male of female, have had a greater impact on racing’s Championship weekend. Or the thoroughbred breed for that matter.

Horse of the Week: Moonshine Mullin

Posted on by DerbyMateo

While rumors swirl over exactly where the Breeders’ Cup will be held after 2014, we know for sure that this fall the big event will be held at Santa Anita. And we also know that Moonhine Mullin has already earned a berth in the Classic field after his gutsy win in the Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) on Saturday night.

The modestly-bred Moonshine Mullin has run for $40,000 claiming tag year but was a runner with apparent promise earlier in his career. After breaking his maiden in his second start as a juvenile in November of 2010, he was runner-up in the Display Stakes in his next outing. During his sophomore campaign he was the winner of the Victoria Park Stakes by a nose over eventual Sovereign Award winner Alpha Bettor. His following start was a second place finish (at 37-1) to multiple Grade 1 winner Stay Thirsty in the Jim Dandy S. (G2) at Saratoga. For the next two-plus seasons, though, the bay horse could manage only a pair wins at the Allowance/Optional Claiming level.

Then the calendar turned to 2014 and Moonshine Mullin turned into a monster. 

On January 20 the Randy Morse-trainee placed third in an Optional Claimer at Oaklawn Park. He hasn’t lost since, winning an Optional Claimer next time (in which he was entered for a $40,000 tag), then a straight $80,000 claimer, then another Optional Claimer (no tag this time). Then came the stakes races. There were two Grade 1 winners and two more Classic-placed runners in the Alysheba Stakes (G2) on Kentucky Oaks Day but Moonshine Mullin beat them all. Those two Grade 1 winners, champion Will Take Charge and fellow Travers Stakes (G1) winner Golden Ticket, were back again for the Stephen Foster along with multiple Graded winners like Revolutionary and Departing. Moonshine Mullin again used his speed and grit under jockey Calvin Borel to repulse all challengers to get the money. His speed and courage are traits he likely inherited from his sire.

Moonshine Mullin is by Albert the Great, a son of 1994 Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin. A leading runner of his generation for the owner/trainer combination of Tracy Farmer and Nick Zito, Albert the Great won the 2000 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) and placed in six other Grade 1 events, including the Breeders Cup Classic (G1). After spending his early days at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky he now stands at Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania. While he’s averages but a single stakes winner in each of his first nine crops, Moonshine Mullin is Albert the Great’s third career Grade 1 winner after Wood Memorial winner Nobiz Like Shobiz and Donn Handicap/Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner Albertus Maximus. 

The Whitney Handicap (G1) is the next logical spot for any top handicap horse in the midwest and east coast. Moonshine Mullin has proven he belongs in a race like that and, more importantly, he’s proved he’s Breeders’ Cup-worthy.

(originally published on http://www.myfantasystable.com)

Derby is a Changin’

Posted on by DerbyMateo

I experienced of couple of moments this spring when I watched everything change. The first was at the Coachella music festivalin early April, the second at Churchill Downs on opening night, April 26.

At Churchill, I was sitting in a section of brand new grandstand at the top of the stretch as the sun began to set. The enormous new 4D ‘Big Board’ television on the backstretch had just been unveiled (watch here). From my vantage, I could see the whole infield, now lined with light poles and the newish Jockey Club suites towered above my right shoulder. Over the past decade the Churchill Downs property has undergone a steady metamorphosis (including a new Clubhouse section) and I had seen the changes at every stage. But once the virtual red curtain opened on that ridiculously big and crystal-clear new TV, that’s when it all clicked. Almost like watching a favorite video online that gets temporarily stuck and then fast forwards, my whole twenty-plus history at the storied track flashed before me. In that instant, I watched the Churchill Downs of the future be born.

Earlier in the month at Coachella, I stood in a somewhat sparse crowd of folks swaying to and fro as Arcade Fire closed out the festival on the main stage. I was wondering where the rest of the crowd was as just a few hours earlier a DJ named Calvin Harris had that same field packed with kids frantically dancing around. ‘Wow,’ I thought to myself “Arcade Fire (and bands like them) are over with the next generation.’

It’s not like these changes actually happened in the moments when they finally hit home to me. I never saw the ‘decadent and depraved’ Derby that Hunter S. Thompson wrote about in the 1970’s, but I used to see more than a few fights in the infield. In the ’90’s I used to see a bunch of girls throughout Derby Day get on guys shoulders and, after loud pleadings from the other men in the crowd, pull up or push down their shirts. I can’t remember the last time I saw a boob in the Kentucky Derby infield, much less two. That’s not to say that I condone brawling or boob-baring, but these actions were born of an attitude of reckless freedom and drunken abandon that isn’t acceptable in the real world. Derby became an escape from daily conformity for me and was exactly what I needed in my life in the early 1990’s. At the time Kentucky Derby was my only source.

Nowadays I have Derby and whatever music fests I attend. I haven’t seen many fights or much nudity at music festivals over the past decade but the freedom and happiness vibe and crowd energy is certainly there in spades. I guess I have to thank Derby for opening the door to this world. I’m not only accustomed to large crowds but crave and feed off the energy of tens of thousands of people who have left the outside world behind for a few hours or days of uninhibited fun.

Like I said, it’s been awhile since the Derby infield has been truly depraved but this year it seemed its gentrification became complete. I spent my 23rd Derby in the Churchill Downs infield last Saturday and can’t recall an infield scene so lacking in crazed energy. The giant frat party on the third turn was nowhere to be found. You could actually walk on the grass in that area, where in the past it was a major effort just to take a few steps. Only a year before, in the pouring rain, a throng danced at a nearby DJ stage and mud wrestled and acted like proper infielders. It was a shock to see the 2014 attendance figure announced as the second-hightest in Derby history. The infield certainly didn’t pull it’s weight. Only the middle of the infield, with the best view of the new TV seemed even remotely crowded this year.

Maybe, hopefully, 2014 is an anomaly. Maybe I just happened to be in the wrong parts of the infield at the wrong times. Or maybe this was the year that Derby really did change. Maybe that moment on opening night hit home because you can’t have the same Derby experience in a physical environment that has changed so radically.

Time will tell, just like time will tell if there will more than a handful of bands that play actual instruments at music festivals in 10 years time. I’ll let you know how it turns out.