‘Horse For Course’ Cross Border Brings Top Form To Sword Dancer

A winner of 10 races and nearly $1 million in purse earnings, Three Diamonds Farm's Cross Border has saved his best for Saratoga. Trainer Mike Maker, enjoying a spectacular summer of his own at the Spa, is hoping to continue the magic in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer.

The 1 ½-mile Sword Dancer, a 'Win and You're In' for the Grade 1, $4 million Breeders' Cup Turf November 6 at Del Mar, is one of seven graded-stakes – six of them Grade 1 – worth $4.6 million in purses on a blockbuster program highlighted by the 152nd running of the Grade 1, $1.25 million Runhappy Travers.

Cross Border, a 7-year-old New York-bred son of turf champion English Channel, has made seven of his 35 career starts at Saratoga with six wins and a second, the latter coming in last year's Sword Dancer. Of his $948,821 lifetime bankroll, $544,400 has been earned at the Spa.

“He's a horse for course. I hope we have another rabbit to pull out of the hat,” Maker said. “I wish I knew [why]. I wouldn't have to train horses. The horse never has a bad hair day. He always looks well and trains well. Obviously, he has an affinity for up here, where he's had his best performances. So, we'll take it.”

Cross Border turned in one of his best efforts to date last out to win the Grade 2 Bowling Green by 1 ¼ lengths July 31. It was his second career graded triumph, the other coming in last year's Bowling Green following the disqualification of first-place finisher Sadler's Joy, who edged Cross Border by a neck at the wire.

“His last race was spectacular,” Maker said. “Obviously, we had a great setup and we'd have no problem getting that again.”

Cross Border has placed in four other graded-stakes, beaten a neck in the Grade 3 W.L. McKnight in 2020 and third by 2 ¼ lengths in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf January 23, both at Gulfstream Park. He was a distant but decisive seconds in last year's Sword Dancer, won by Channel Maker over a course listed as soft.

The 2-1 program favorite for the Sword Dancer is Grade 1 United Nations winner Tribhuvan. Cross Border is the third choice in a field of seven at odds of 4-1.

“Last year we had a lot of rain and it was probably a bit softer than he would prefer,” Maker said, “But he still put in a good effort.”

Also for Three Diamonds Farm on Saturday, Maker will send out Doubly Blessed in the Grade 1, $600,000 Forego for older horses sprinting seven furlongs, marking the graded debut for the 4-year-old Empire Maker gelding.

“We entered an allowance race and it failed to fill, so we figured we'd give this a shot,” Maker said. “He's been doing great. Hopefully, he gets a hot pace to run into. We're looking forward to it.”

Doubly Blessed has not raced since May 29 when he scored by 1 ½ lengths in a second-level optional claimer in the Belmont Park slop. In his only other stakes appearance, he ran fourth in the 1 3/8-mile Stud Muffin March 27 at Aqueduct.

After beginning his career with seven turf races, the first two for previous trainer Jonathan Thomas, Maker moved Doubly Blessed to the dirt this year and he has responded with four wins and a second from six starts including three in a row at Aqueduct to open 2021.

“He had worked well on the dirt and we weren't getting the results we were expecting on the turf, so we figured we'd give it a shot,” Maker said. “Since he came off the turf, he turned the corner and has become a nice horse for us.”

Prior to the Forego, the shortest Doubly Blessed has run is one mile – the distance of each of his three wins this winter. Meet-leading rider Luis Saez will be aboard from post position 5 in a field of seven that includes Grade 1 winners Firenze Fire, Lexitonian, Mind Control, Mischevious Alex and Whitmore and 5-2 morning-line favorite Yaupon. Doubly Blessed is listed at 15-1.

“The competition is the main thing. The seven-eighths, one-turn doesn't bother me,” Maker said. “It's a pretty salty field. We're going to find out how he fits.”

Maker said Three Diamonds Farm's Army Wife was doing well out of her third-place finish in the Grade 1 Alabama August 21, which followed back-to-back wins in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan May 14 at Pimlico Race Course and Grade 3 Iowa Oaks July 2 at Prairie Meadows.

“She's never missed a bite of grain coming out of the race and this morning she was a handful, so we're happy,” Maker said. “She ran a big race, and she came out of it super. We're pointing to the Cotillion.”

The Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles will be run September 25 at Parx Racing.

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Two Emmys Too Good For Domestic Spending In Mr. D At Arlington

In a day filled with laments for the last of Arlington's biggest race cards, the race formerly known as the Arlington Million, renamed the Mr. D. in honor of former track owner Richard Duchossois, saw a surprise ending for the day's slate of graded stakes, with longshot Two Emmys going wire to wire in the Grade 1 turf stakes.

Two Emmys, a gelding by English Channel, comes into the Mr. D. with wins at the allowance and claiming levels, his best graded stakes showing a second-place finish in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial Classic Stakes at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La., and the Grade 3 Arlington Stakes at Arlington last month. In the Mr. D., Two Emmys, with jockey James Graham grabbed the lead early, with Bizzee Channel and Strong Tide behind him. Chad Brown trainee Domestic Spending, the race's favorite, lingered in fourth, with Flavien Prat aboard. Controlling the pace throughout the first half of the race, Two Emmys still held on to a one-length lead six furlongs in after setting fractions of :26.12 for the first quarter, :52.43 for the first half, and 1:16.64 for the three-quarters.

Into the final turn, Bizzee Channel challenged Two Emmys, with Prat on Domestic Spending gearing up for a move in the stretch. Bizzee Channel could not stay with the leader, falling back as Prat and Domestic Spending started their closing kick. Two Emmys had plenty left in reserve, holding off the closing Brown trainee to win by a half-length. Glynn County was third, with Space Traveller in fourth. Bizzee Channel, Armory, Zulu Alpha, and Strong Tide rounded out the order of finish.

The final time for the 1 1/4-mile Mr. D. Stakes was 2:03.34. Find this race's chart here.

Two Emmys paid $56.20, $9.80, and $5.80. Domestic Spending paid $2.40 and $2.10. Glynn County paid $8.00.

Bred in Kentucky by Tottenwood Thoroughbreds, Inc., Two Emmys is by English Channel, out of the Buddha mare Miss Emmy. Co-owned and trained by Hugh Robertson, the 5-year-old gelding is also owned by Wolfe Racing. Consigned by Vinery Thoroughbreds, Two Emmys was sold for $4,500 to Hugh Robertson and Wolfe Racing at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. With his win in the Mr. D. Stakes, Two Emmys has two wins in six starts in 2021, for a lifetime record of 4-7-0 in 16 starts and $545,708 in career earnings.

 

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‘Hugh’-e Upset In Mr. D.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL–Hugh Robertson has started close to 10,000 horses in a journeyman career, but celebrated his biggest–and likely most bittersweet–victory when Two Emmys (English Channel), a 5-year-old gelding he also owns in partnership, went wire-to-wire to cause a massive upset in Saturday's Mister D. S., ostensibly the final Grade I race to be run at historic Arlington Park.

“I never thought I'd have a horse in the Million, and then when I do, it's not a million [dollars],” the long-time Chicago-based conditioner told TVG's Scott Hazelton following his neck defeat of Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}). “It's nice,” he said, before speaking for many a horse racing fan by saying, “but I wish they'd keep running.”

As it stands, that is not happening. Arlington did not apply for racing dates for 2022 and parent company Churchill Downs is in the process of reviewing bids for the property located in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, about 20 miles away.

The money poured in for Domestic Spending, looking to give trainer Chad Brown a fourth straight 'Million' and the gelding was off as the 2-5 chalk. Two Emmys veered a bit to his right at the start, but James Graham righted the ship and the duo made it to the front easily, as Bizzee Channel (English Channel) and Strong Tide (English Channel) gave chase through an opening two furlongs in a dawdling :26.12. Flavien Prat had Domestic Spending handier than is his custom, no surprise given the lack of pace, while Armory (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was ridden back in the field by Ryan Moore and raced without the benefit of cover into the first turn.

Two Emmys expended no energy whatsoever down the Arlington backstretch, getting the half in walking time of :52.43 before upping the tempo somewhat past six furlongs in 1:16.64. Committed for home from there, Two Emmys was asked for his best in upper stretch and had just enough in the tank to hold off the late challenge of the chalk, who finished the race on his incorrect lead while gaining inches late.

“I knew he would go that far, but they let him go a really soft pace and he's a tough horse,” said Robertson, whose most noteworthy runner was Polar Expedition, a five-time graded winner, including the 1993 GII Breeders' Futurity S. and 1994 GII Jim Beam S.

Added the winning rider: “When I didn't see anyone behind me at the quarter pole, I knew they would really have to run to catch me. He's shown he can do it before and he did it today.”

It was the fifth Grade I for the Irishman, who won the Central Bank Ashland S. aboard Karlovy Vary, the dam of GI Beverly D. S. runner-up Mean Mary, back in 2012.

A maiden winner for $20,000 at this venue two summers ago on the synthetic track, Two Emmys won one of his four starts over the winter at the Fair Grounds and closed that segment of his campaign with a runner-up effort to Colonel Liam (Liam's Map) in the GII Muniz Memorial S. in March. Given a three-month freshening, he resumed with a runner-up effort behind Bizzee Channel in a local third-level allowance June 19 and made most of the running in the GIII Arlington S. July 17, surrendering late to drop a neck decision to Bizzee Channel.

Pedigree Notes:

Two Emmys is the 11th top-level winner for the underrated English Channel, whose Illinois-bred The Pizza Man won the 2015 Million. Two Emmys' second dam, a full-sister to GISW Sunshine Forever, is responsible for SW & MGSP Don't Read My Lips (Turkoman), the dam of MGSW Hotstufanthensome (Awesome Again), MSW Tacit Agreement (Unbridled) and Silver Charades (Broad Brush).

Saturday, Arlington
MR. D. S.-GI, $600,000, Arlington, 8-14, 3yo/up, 1 1/4mT, 2:03.34, gd.
1–TWO EMMYS, 126, g, 5, by English Channel
                1st Dam: Miss Emmy, by Buddha
                2nd Dam: Our Dear Sue, by Roberto
                3rd Dam: Outward Sunshine, by Graustark
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST
GRADE I WIN. ($4,500 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Wolfe Racing LLC
& Hugh H. Robertson; B-Tottenwood Thoroughbreds, Inc.
(KY); T-Hugh H. Robertson; J-James Graham. $352,800.
Lifetime Record: 16-4-7-0, $545,708. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Domestic Spending (GB), 126, g, 4, Kingman (GB)–Urban
Castle, by Street Cry (Ire). (300,000gns Ylg '18 TATOCT).
O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Rabbah Bloodstock Limited (GB);
T-Chad C. Brown. $117,600.
3–Glynn County, 126, c, 4, Kitten's Joy–Quad Tens, by Rock
Hard Ten. ($45,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP; $80,000 2yo '19
OBSAPR). O-Three Diamonds Farm; B-Kenneth L. Ramsey &
Sarah K. Ramsey (KY); T-Michael J. Maker. $58,800.
Margins: NK, 2 3/4, HF. Odds: 27.10, 0.40, 38.90.
Also Ran: Space Traveller (GB), Bizzee Channel, Armory (Ire), Zulu Alpha, Strong Tide. Scratched: Another Mystery, Big Dreaming. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs, or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Belmont a Weathervane for Calumet

The mystique around Calumet is such that it aptly discloses a nearly perfect anagram for “Camelot.” Both words evoke, not just an idealized past, but a yearning for the restoration of standards eroded during our unchivalrous times. Of course, Calumet has itself had its modern lapses, but there's no mistaking the wholesome intentions animating its latest ownership.

True, the methods of Brad Kelley and his team sometimes strike the orthodox observer as idiosyncratic, to put it mildly. But it makes sense to write a new chapter, in their own hand, rather than try to retrace the calligraphy of a bygone, irretrievable age. To some of us, moreover, the ends implicit in the Calumet program are as exemplary as the means can admittedly appear quixotic.

The volume is certainly industrial, yet with a superb contempt for the commercialism that sustain operations on a similar scale elsewhere. And someday the unfashionable values condensed in the stallion roster–hardiness, stamina, old-school genes and a good dash of turf quality–will perhaps be prized as critical to the regeneration of a breed corroded by short-term “pragmatism”: by pharmaceutical training, for instance, or fast-buck breeding.

These happen to be precisely those assets required in the GI Belmont S., the 153rd running of which has corresponding potential to measure the progress of the Calumet revival.

Most obviously, that's because the farm silks are carried by Bourbonic (Bernardini), winner of the GII Wood Memorial before failing to get involved in a GI Kentucky Derby dominated by those closer to the pace. His longshot success at Aqueduct had vindicated Calumet's familiar indifference to the wagering odds, and if Bourbonic can do the same Saturday, then you could measure his achievement against the rather surprising fact, given its record in the other Classics, that the farm has hitherto raced only two Belmont winners.

Both, moreover, were completing a Triple Crown. Of course, Alydar's epic duel with Affirmed, completing their Triple Exacta, arguably gave him as resonant a place in Calumet history as Whirlaway (1941) or Citation (1948), but one way or another Pensive (1944), Tim Tam (1958) and Forward Pass (1968) all found the Belmont a bridge too far.

Bourbonic is something of a bonus, having been acquired in utero when his Grade II-winning dam Dancing Afleet (Afleet Alex) was recruited to the broodmare band for $170,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2017. Arguably, then, the stakes are barely less high in Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), who is throwing a lifeline to a stallion drifting perilously close to the weir.

Oxbow entered Kelley's ownership just as he was ramping up his ambitions on the Turf, purchased for $250,000 at the 2011 September Sale the year before he took over Calumet. Bred by Colts Neck Stables, he had a wonderful two-turn pedigree: by Awesome Again out of an unraced sister to Tiznow (and so to Budroyale and the rest of the crew).

His debut at Saratoga the following summer could scarcely have been less auspicious, pulled up and vanned off. Within the year, however, he had completed a hectic career under D. Wayne Lukas. Having required another three attempts to break his maiden, he ran fourth in the GI Futurity on the synthetic at Hollywood Park. Lukas then put him through monthly Derby trials and, though his performances were uneven, they did include an 11-length romp in the GIII Lecomte S. and a narrow defeat by Will Take Charge (Unbridled's Song) in the GII Rebel S.

Lukas had laid his foundation and Oxbow's sixth to Orb (Malibu Moon) was a fine effort in what remains the last Derby to set up for a closer, stubbornly the last to relent among those exposed to the pace. Able to control a less exacting tempo at Pimlico, he duly lasted home for Calumet's eighth GI Preakness.

Proceeding to the Belmont, he was thwarted only by Palace Malice (Curlin) and duly qualified as the premier overall achiever across the Classics that year. Unfortunately, he then emerged from the GI Haskell Invitational with an ankle injury that brought down the curtain, but Oxbow had established himself as a throwback, speed-carrying scrapper with a pedigree worth recycling.

With the new regime at Calumet evidently finding its feet, Oxbow was launched with 110 mares at Taylor Made, but he came “home” for 2015. Here, with the broodmare band expanding, he was favored with a remarkable sequence of books, corralling 134, 153 and 187 covers through his second to fourth years.

Hot Rod Charlie is a graduate of that monster fourth book. By the time Bob and Sean Feld picked him out as a $17,000 short yearling, the last horse from the estate of Edward A. Cox Jr., Oxbow had already been renounced by the commercial market. Even the rise of his half-brother Mitole (Eskendereya) could not inflate an inspired pinhook beyond $110,000 when Dennis O'Neill found him back at Fasig-Tipton that October.

The big question is whether Hot Rod Charlie has broken out in time to redeem his sire. Oxbow's next three books plunged giddily to 78, 23 and 15. On the face of it, you would have to conclude that the Calumet team had themselves come to the same conclusion as the market. From nearly 600 covers across his first four seasons, he hadn't really seized his chance.

True, he came up with GII Gulfstream Oaks winner Coach Rocks from his first crop. But Oxbow had only one other graded stakes winner before Hot Rod Charlie, who will duly be credited by many to a mare who contrived to produce a champion sprinter by a stallion meanwhile exported to South Korea.    Remember that Oxbow's close relative Paynter, retired in the same intake, is operating at almost double the strike-rate in terms of black-type winners and performers. Hot Rod Charlie, then, unmistakably finds his sire at a crossroads.

Now it may be that he has never really had much quality to back up the quantity. Yes, Calumet is throwing volume across the board–an approach, in 2019, that restored the farm as leading breeder by prizemoney for the first time since 1961, and its racetrack division (intended to develop families and support the breeding program) to second in the owners' table. But Oxbow's covering history suggests that he can't ever have had much outside support from mares that might have brought him a little commercial zip.

That's hardly surprising, in that he wasn't really priced to invite them. For if there has been one aspect of Calumet's roster that made even its admirers a little uncomfortable, it was a pricing structure that set a challenging premium on assets culpably under-rated by the marketplace. Fair enough: why should Calumet undervalue the breed's family silver just because others do? But that does make it hard to sell to outside clients aspiring to some kind of dividend at auction.

Take a look at the 2018 roster. To be fair, at $25,000 English Channel was becoming as accomplished a stallion as you can find anywhere, at that kind of price, but the puerile treatment of turf horses by the commercial market made him an option principally for end users. Next came Keen Ice, introduced at $20,000. Oxbow was standing at the same fee; Bal a Bali (Brz) and Big Blue Kitten were offered at $15,000; and Red Rocks (Ire) was $10,000.

This spring, however, Calumet joined virtually every other farm in making fee cuts in the pandemic economy. But their action was more decisive than most, and the result was a roster that suddenly looks far more accessible. English Channel, having been elevated to $35,000 as he increasingly stood comparison to Kitten's Joy, was trimmed back to $27,500. Keen Ice was cut from $20,000 to $9,500; as a relative newcomer, Ransom The Moon was pegged at $7,500, but rookie Bravazo was pitched into play at just $6,000; Bal a Bali was slashed from $15,000 to $5,000; and Big Blue Kitten, from $10,000 to $5,000. And Oxbow, freshly decorated by a GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up, was now trading at $7,500.

There's a timeless message on a splendid clocktower recently added to one of the colleges at Oxford University. On one side are carved the words: “It's later than you think.” On the next you read: “…but it's never too late.” That's just about where Oxbow stands now.

It would be a pity for this conduit of such good blood to dry up altogether. Paynter, as mentioned, is reiterating the potency of their family–he's out of another of Tiznow's unraced sisters–while their late sire Awesome Again has bequeathed a dynamism on dirt (seen at its mightiest in Ghostzapper) that has made him the vital linchpin of the Deputy Minister sire-line. That's especially comforting, given Deputy Minister's iconic influence not just as a broodmare sire, but also as a sire of broodmare sires. So whatever else Oxbow can still do, some breeders will surely try their luck with his daughters.

Calumet clients, incidentally, can tap into a double dose of Deputy Minister through Keen Ice. He's by Curlin (whose damsire is Deputy Minister) out of an Awesome Again mare, and showed the trademark Deputy Minister constitution in earning $3.4 million across four seasons. From an aristocratic family, Keen Ice now looks particularly good value for breeders who might retain a filly. His first juveniles are off the mark already, but we know that they will only get better.

By the same token, Oxbow may himself retain half a chance to claw a way back via the foothold he has found in Hot Rod Charlie. So many of this sire-line's premier achievers, from Knicks Go to Game On Dude, have thrived with maturity that perhaps a few others, among the maturing graduates of those big books, can now follow in Hot Rod Charlie's slipstream.

All in all, then, a Belmont success for either Bourbonic or a son of Oxbow would showcase precisely those speed-carrying, two-turn dirt genes that first exalted Calumet. With a positive test dangling over Medina Spirit (Protonico), many people have this spring been remembering the farm's promoted Derby winner Forward Pass. The disqualification of Dancer's Image that year was far too complex a tale to reprise here, but certainly created unease about the possibility of a Triple Crown falling into the lap of Forward Pass.

In 2021, however, the Belmont could help everyone recognize the service Calumet is offering a sport facing a painful battle with so many corner-cutting practices. Oxbow is the first Preakness winner to stand there since Forward Pass. And whether or not he can renew his career with Hot Rod Charlie, or Bourbonic ends up joining the likes of Keen Ice in fighting the good fight, Calumet is sketching out a new chapter, not just in its own long history but in that of the whole industry.

Kelley and his team have grasped that soundness and durability, backed up by deep pedigrees, can actually make a precarious business more sustainable. Someday, as such, breeding a horse for the sales ring might even become the same as breeding a horse for the racetrack. It's a long haul, for sure. But where better to start than a race like the Belmont?

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