RECAP OF THE 2009 ARLINGTON MILLION

In this year of American racing superstars, Gio Ponti  forced his way into the exclusive group picture Aug. 8 by storming to the front turning for home, then holding off two stout late challenges to win the Arlington Million (G1T) for his fourth straight grade I turf triumph.

While lacking the brilliance of Rachel Alexandra or the perfection of Zenyatta, the 4-year-old son of Tale of the Cat , out of the Alydar mare Chipeta Springs, is becoming as dominant in the male turf division as the two distaffers are in theirs. Gio Ponti defeated the best field assembled so far for a U.S. grass race this season, including the ultra-versatile Einstein and the freakishly fast Presious Passion, who eventually finished fifth and last, respectively, in the eight-horse field. Neither of them seemed to care for a turf course labeled "good" by Equibase but listed as "yielding" all day on the tote board.

In conjunction with Tom Hall's Look Back feature in BloodHorse Daily, BloodHorse.com each Thursday will present historic race stories from the pages of the magazine. 

This week is a recap of the 2009 Arlington Million (G1T) at Arlington International Racecourse won by Gio Ponti and it includes recaps of the other top graded stakes on the Aug. 8 card. The recap appeared in the Aug. 15, 2009 edition of BloodHorse.
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Gio Ponti made it a clean sweep for American-based runners in the three grade I turf events that make up Arlington International Racecourse's one-day International Festival of Racing. Jockey Kent Desormeaux turned in carbon-copy tactical gems to win the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes aboard Take the Points and the $750,000 Beverly D. Stakes with Dynaforce.

In the Million, Gio Ponti did not enjoy the best of trips. "When we came out of the gate and he stumbled a little bit, I thought I was going to lose my chances," said Ramon Dominguez, the pilot for three of Gio Ponti's four grade I wins. "Usually, I let him put himself where he wants, but if he'd wanted to be laying a little closer today, that would have been good. He made a bold move around the turn. Once he got in the lane and he didn't have a target, he came back to me a little bit."

Gio Ponti's four-length lead after a mile diminished to 1 1/4 lengths at the wire, with Just as Well prevailing by a head to finish second over fellow closer Stotsfold, the most lightly regarded of three European invaders. Although Presious Passion set fast fractions (:23.98, :48.44), the final time of 2:04.19 for the 1 1/4 miles was the fifth-slowest of the 27 Millions. That was consistent with Dynaforce's time of 1:58.29 for 1 3/16 miles, the third-slowest of 19 Beverly D.'s at the distance, and Take the Points' 2:05.41, the second-slowest of the 22 Secretariats run at 10 furlongs on the turf.

Presious Passion, who opened up a 20-length lead in the United Nations (G1T), then held on to win by two lengths going 11 furlongs, had shown such a preference for firmer ground that trainer Mary Hartmann spoke of scratching the gelding if it rained. The soft going proved to be his undoing in the Million. "The horse didn't like the soft track today," jockey Elvis Trujillo said. "Around the three-eighths I asked him a little bit, but he stayed in the same stride and then stopped."

Jockey Julien Leparoux would not blame the course for his mount Einstein's uncharacteristically poor showing, noting, "He's run on this kind of turf before and won. He has never run this bad for me before."

Einstein's poor effort hurt Just as Well's chances, said jockey E.T. Baird, who explained, "The hole was disappearing so I had to come out and move around Einstein."

Kentucky Downs
Just as Well's owner/trainer Jonathan Sheppard said Einstein's weakening may have broken his horse's stride.

"I'm not saying he would have won, but he would have made it closer." 

However, Sheppard beamed with pride over the performance of Just as Well, a 6-year-old son of A.P. Indy, who was sidelined for 23 months early in his career and was given to Sheppard by breeder George Strawbridge of Augustin Stable. "This is a dream come true," Sheppard said. "We didn't even know if he was going to make it back to the races at all."'

Winning owner Shane Ryan, the son of the late Irish businessman Tony Ryan, who bred Gio Ponti at his Castleton Lyons Farm near Lexington, was equally giddy, exclaiming, "Unreal! He's a true professional, like his trainer, Christophe (Clement). It only gets better."

Ryan expressed relief he failed to sell Gio Ponti as a yearling and again as a 2-year-old, stating, "We have the mare at home, and it's important that we support our own stock."

With his $588,000 payday from the Million, Gio Ponti has earned $2,133,800 with nine wins in 14 starts.

Taylor Made Sales
"He enjoys his racing very much and seems only to be getting better," Ryan said. "He has to, to keep up with a filly called Rachel Alexandra. I hope she comes to our barn one day for a mating."

Clement, who added the Million to three career Beverly D. victories, was more cautious. While agreeing the Million was probably the 3-2 favorite's finest race, he said, "We should just enjoy the day." He vowed to "map it out race by race," with the Sept. 20 Woodbine Mile (G1T), Belmont Park's Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational (G1T) Oct. 3, and one of the Breeders' Cup races all under consideration.

Ryan fantasized about meeting the two filly superstars in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1), then talked of taking the colt "to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris..."

Will he race again in 2010?

"I'd say it's 50-50. But please point out that that's my heart talking—not my business sense," Ryan said.

Ryan, whose stable races about two dozen horses in Ireland and an equal number in North America, saw his other festival runner, Laureate Conductor, run third in the Secretariat. In just his sixth career start, the son of Bernstein out-kicked all the other closers but was 3 1/4 lengths behind Take the Points and Black Bear Island, a pair of stalkers who were separated by just a head at the finish.

Winner Take the Points started 2009 as a Triple Crown candidate, being sent out West by trainer Todd Pletcher under the care of assistant Mike McCarthy, who saddled him in the Secretariat. The son of Even the Score—Ginger Ginger, by Fred Astaire, ran second in Santa Anita Park's Sham Stakes (G3) and finished a good fourth in the Santa Anita Derby (G1) but was sent to the turf after finishing last of 13 in the BlackBerry Preakness Stakes (G1).

"Getting the horse on the turf was our ultimate goal," said Donald Lucarelli, co-manager of Starlight Partners, which bought the colt as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale for $160,000. Tried twice on the grass, Take the Points ran fourth in the Colonial Turf Cup Stakes (G2T) and a close-up third in the Virginia Derby (G2T).

"We were going to the Hall of Fame (G2T), but then changed course for the grade 1 and the bigger bucks of the Secretariat," Lucarelli said. "I felt that the European horse (Black Bear Island) was the one we had to beat, especially when (it rained). Kent Desormeaux was given instructions to do what was necessary to get the horse into the race and then to strike when the time was right."

The runner-up, an Aidan O'Brien trainee who'd been keeping company in Europe with the likes of Sea The Stars, was expected to remain in the U.S. for owners R.D. Hubbard, Robert Masterson, and Edward Allred. The classy son of Sadler's Wells inherited the lead when front-running Hoosier Kingdom (:25.71, :51.35, 1:16.29) packed it in after seven furlongs, then dueled with the winner before giving way late. "It was just the last 20 yards or so he went dead on me," said Black Bear Island's jockey John Murtagh. "The winner just got me at the wire."

The winners of the first two legs of Arlington's Mid-America Triple for 3-year-olds, Giant Oak in the Arlington Classic and Reb in the American Derby (G2T), failed to unleash their vaunted late kicks in the Secretariat, settling for seventh and eighth places, respectively.

Desormeaux praised Pletcher for having Take the Points ready, then expressed admiration for his first-time mount.

"He has a great stride and showed it throughout the race, and really had a strong stride down the lane," he said. "It was a fight to the wire—he earned it."

Lucarelli expressed a desire to run in the Breeders' Cup with the colt, who was bred in Kentucky by Phoenix Farm. But he wavered at which grass race would be best. "Would he be competitive at 1 1/2 miles against those Europeans? I doubt it. But this horse is a very good sprinter."

The local prep for the Beverly D., the Modesty Handicap (G3T), produced the first-, third- and fourth-place finishers in the Beverly D. The Modesty results, though, didn't hold up on the softer going. Pure Clan, the 2 1/2-length winner of the Modesty, was the 3-2 favorite in the Beverly D., with Modesty runner-up Tizaqueena dismissed at 20-1 and third-place finisher Dynaforce at 7-1. But pace did make the race. Tizaqueena, allowed to gallop along on fractions of :25.24, :50.67, and 1:15.65, held a narrow lead over Dynaforce into the stretch. When the leader tired, Desormeaux pounced with Dynaforce, then easily held off a late bid by the Irish-bred, French-raced Alnadana, who narrowly held second over Pure Clan and Tizaqueena. Dynaforce's winning margin was 1 1/4 lengths.

The Beverly D. reminded Desormeaux of his previous grade I-winning ride—the Secretariat, some 40 minutes earlier. "It was pretty much the same race," he said. "They both enjoyed the same trip. I got a nice, easy pace to the half and then let her stretch it out in an attempt to take the foreign turn of foot away from them down the lane."

Trainer Bill Mott wasn't surprised Dr. John Chandler's homebred 6-year-old daughter of Dynaformer—Aletta Maria, by Diesis, was able to turn the tables on her Modesty rivals.

"She ran well in her third race off a layoff," he said. "She just got fitter, and she figured to probably improve off that race. The softer turf didn't hurt her, although I don't know if she has to have it."

Belmont's Oct. 3 Flower Bowl Invitational (G1T), where Dynaforce romped by four lengths in 2008 in her biggest victory before the Beverly D., "is certainly a possibility" for her next race, Mott said.

Chandler was reminded of other Arlington races while celebrating the Beverly D. win. "Dynaforce's mother (Aletta Maria) won an allowance race at Arlington Park on the turf I think 20 years ago last month," he recalled. "And Dynaforce's half brother, Cetewayo, holds the course record for 1 1/2 miles on the turf (2:27.50, set in 2002). This makes all of the family more valuable now." The dam is now pensioned on Chandler's Kentucky farm, he said, and he owns several shares in the sire, Dynaformer. Dynaforce will get another shot in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T), where she was a troubled seventh last year, he said.

Trainer Bob Holthus said Pure Clan's chances were compromised by the dawdling pace. "She made up a lot of ground coming down the lane, and she was really running well at the end, but the pace hurt us," he said.

The ultra-consistent New Zealand-bred mare Black Mamba threw in a rare clunker in the Beverly D., finishing last of eight.