What’s In A Name? Rose Maddox Seeks Graded Stakes Win For Nick Alexander

You may know Rose Maddox (Grazen) the horse. A 4-year-old California-bred filly, she's won five races, including the Golden Poppy S. and the Moscow Burning S., and is 6-1 in the morning line for Tuesday's GII Great Lady M. S. at Los Alamitos. But you may not know of Rose Maddox the person.

She was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player who passed away in 1998. Born in Boaz, Alabama and the daughter of sharecroppers, her family sold all their possessions for $35 when she was seven and left for California to find a better life. They began their journey on foot before hopping a freight train to complete the journey.  She'd go on to have 14 hits on the Billboard country singles chart between 1959 and 1964, including several duets with Buck Owens.

She's exactly the type of person owner-breeder Nick Alexander looks to honor when he names his horses.

“I always try to find people who have succeed against long odds or persevered and she fit the bill,” Alexander said.

When it comes to naming horses, no one is more clever than Alexander. Now 80, Alexander has been a fixture at the California tracks since the late seventies. He races exclusively California-breds and many are named after people who are, to Alexander, real-life heroes who haven't gotten the recognition they deserve.

“What I do, it's an opportunity to put something out there that just isn't a combination of the dam and sire's name,” he said.  “I've always thought that was kind of a dumb idea. I'm trying to give some notoriety to people who had either been forgotten or were never very well known.”

The list is a long one.

Desmond Doss (Grazen) is among Alexander's better horses. He's a three-time stakes winner who has earned $456,911 and is named after the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. Doss is best known for distinguishing himself during the Battle of Okinawa by saving an estimated 75 men. Doss refused to carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist against killing, the reason why he became a combat medic. His story was the subject of the 2016 Oscar-winning film Hacksaw Ridge.

“Desmond Doss had very strong convictions about his religion,” Alexander said. “He was determined to save lives rather than take lives. I can't imagine how in the Battle of Hacksaw Ridge he did what he did in those conditions. He singlehandedly saved 75, 80 wounded marines through the night of a miserable battle against the Japanese. He survived, came home and married his high school sweetheart. You have to admire someone like that.”

Alexander's father served in the Navy during World War II, a reason why he likes to name horses after people who served with honor during the war. Alexander owns an unraced 2-year-old colt named Butch O'Hare (Grazen), who is named after another World War II hero. O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named after the Navy fighter pilot.

“He was a very atypical World War II navy fighter pilot,” Alexander said. “Most of them were tall, dark and handsome and looked like movie stars. He was short, balding and pudgy. He flew into a a squadron of Japanese bombers who were headed toward the Lexington, which at time was our only operational aircraft carrier after Pearl Harbor. He was coming back from a mission where he didn't find anything and he was flying alone. He flew right into the middle of this group and took out five or six of them to the point where they turned around and went back.”

He's also a baseball fan. Growing up in Los Angeles, he has been a Dodger fan going back to their days in Brooklyn. He liked the team because he was a big admirer of Jackie Robinson. He has yet to name a horse after Robinson but does have a Pee Wee Reese (Tribal Rule), whose wins include victories in the GII Eddie D. S. and the GIII American S. and is named after one of Robinson's teammates.

“Pee Wee Reese is one of my best horses ever,” Alexander said. “He was the captain at time Jackie came up. Pee Wee was from the South originally and some of southern players on Dodgers signed a petition saying they didn't want to play with Jackie. Pee Wee was the one that changed minds and made people realize why wouldn't you want someone as good as Jackie Robinson playing for your team, no matter what color he was?”

Sometimes, Alexander will name horses after fictional characters. That list includes Isabel Ludlow (Grazen), who will start in Tuesday's third race at Los Alamitos, a Cal-bred maiden special weight race. Isabel Ludlow is the name of a character in the movie Legends of the Fall. Alexander said it's one of his favorite movies and that he was a fan of the character played by Karina Lombard.

He says he doesn't spend a lot of time researching names or doing anything out of the ordinary.

“I'm 80 years old and I've been around a long time, so I guess I know a few things,” he said. “I'm not a serious scholar, but there are things I'm interested in like World War II.”

Facing open company in a graded stakes race after running second against state-breds in the Fran's Valentine S., Rose Maddox will be in a tough spot in the Great Lady M. Alexander is hoping for the best.

“It would be awesome to win a race like that,” Alexander said. “We've had a couple of Grade II winners from our homebreds, but it's always exciting to see another one come along who has the potential.  She started out modestly at Golden Gate but she can do just about anything. She's won short, long, on synthetic, on dirt, on turf. I don't know if she's good enough to run with those horses.  We will find out. But she's a wonderful horse to have in the barn.”

And so well-named.

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Independence Day Action Highlighted by Great Lady M

Historically, Independence Day racing had served up a smorgasbord of delectable graded action throughout the U.S. Since the advent of the 'Super Saturday' format instituted in many of the nation's biggest racing jurisdictions in more recent times, however, July 4 racing has felt a little more abstemious than gourmand. Underscoring the point, this year's holiday racing schedule features a single graded stakes race, the GII Great Lady M. at Los Alamitos.

Formerly the Sequoia H., the Great Lady M. was initially contested over seven furlongs at Hollywood Park in 1941, when it was won by movie mogul Louis B. Mayer's Painted Veil. KO'd by World War II the next two years, it returned in 1944 as a race for juvenile fillies at six furlongs. Not held from 1947 through 1958, the race resumed in 1958 once again featuring older horses, and in 1986, it was upgraded to a Grade III before gaining Grade II status in 1990. Renamed the A Gleam H. in 1979, the contest finally garnered the name of the Great Lady M. in 2013, when moving to Los Alamitos following the closure of Hollywood Park. The race's namesake, trained by Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, won the 1980 renewal of the A Gleam, far surpassing her racing accomplishments as a broodmare after foaling 1986 Horse of the Year Lady's Secret (Secretariat).

While last season's 6 1/2-furlong test for filles and mares served as a stage for an embarrassingly easy 10-length romp by the 2020 campion female sprinter Gamine (Into Mischief), the 2022 edition of the race doesn't appear to have a filly of that caliber in its midst, although Nick Alexander's Becca Taylor (Old Topper) has proven dominant on the left coast, having won eight of nine starts, including Santa Anita's GIII Desert Stormer S. June 4. A debut winner at Los Al during her juvenile season, the California-bred has registered wins at four different California tracks, having only tasted defeat once when nosed out for the win while facing statebreds in the grassy Irish O'Brien S. Mar. 19.     Also included among graded stakes winners in this year's renewal are Ain't Easy (Into Mischief), last term's GII Chandelier S. scorer, who also finished third in a pair of Grade II races in 2022, and GII Sorrento S. victress Elm Drive (Mohaymen), winner of her sole start in 2022 in the May 8 Angels Flight S. at Santa Anita.

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Great Lady M Highlights Los Al Summer Stakes Schedule

Three stakes–including a graded event–worth a combined $425,000 highlight the Los Angeles County Fair meet at Los Alamitos. The 10-day season is scheduled to begin Friday, June 24 and continue through Sunday, July 10. Racing will be conducted Friday-Sunday opening weekend (June 24-26) and the final week (July 8-10) and Friday-Monday (July 1-4) the middle week. The July 4 program is a special holiday card and will include a handicapping contest with two berths in the 2023 NTRA National Handicapping Championship in Las Vegas on the line. Post time will be 1 p.m. each day.

The richest event on the calendar is the $200,000 GII Great Lady M. S. for fillies and mares at six furlongs. Captured by champion Gamine (Into Mischief) in 2021, the Great Lady M. will be offered Monday, July 4. The $125,000 Los Alamitos Derby for 3-year-olds will be run Saturday, July 9. The other stakes on the schedule is the $100,000 Bertrando for 3-year-olds and up bred or sired in California at one mile Saturday, June 25.

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Gamine Tops Field Of Eight For Monday’s Great Lady M Stakes

Multiple Grade 1 winner Gamine heads a field of eight in the $200,000-guaranteed Great Lady M Stakes Monday at Los Alamitos.

A Grade 2, the Great Lady M is for fillies & mares (3-year-olds) and up at 6 ½ furlongs. It is the eighth of nine races on closing day of the Summer Thoroughbred Festival. Scheduled post time for the main event is 4:28 p.m.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert for Michael Lund Petersen, Gamine has won seven of eight and earned $1,286,500.

A 4-year-old Into Mischief filly out of the Kafwain mare Peggy Jane, Gamine has four Grade 1 successes in three different states on her resume. She has earned those victories – the Acorn at Belmont Park, the Test at Saratoga, the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland in 2020 and the Derby City Distaff at Churchill Downs earlier this year – by a combined 33 ½ lengths.

Baffert, who has won the Great Lady M. previously with Fantastic Style (2015) and Marley's Freedom (2018-2019), also entered Qahira.

Idle since finishing a distant second behind Gamine in the Grade 3 Las Flores April 4, the 5-year-old Cairo Prince mare has won half of her 10 races for Baoma Corporation and banked $249,400.

Out of the Bates Motel mare Motel Lass, Qahira is 1-for-1 at Los Alamitos. She won an optional claimer as the 3-5 choice during the 2019 Summer Thoroughbred Festival.

Edgeway will be aiming for her third consecutive victory for Hronis Racing LLC and trainer John Sadler.

The 4-year-old Competitive Edge filly out of the Stormin Fever mare Magical Solution followed a win in an optional claimer Feb. 7 at Santa Anita with a stakes success in the Carousel April 10 at Oaklawn Park.

Edgeway has won four of six and earned $307,200. She was runner-up in the Grade 3 Dogwood as a 3-year-old in her only prior start in a graded race.

Hronis Racing and Sadler also entered Candura, a lightly-raced 5-year-old Into Mischief mare. The gray, who is out of the Candy Ride mare Halloween Candy, has won three of four and banked $162,945. She is 2-for-2 in 2021 with both victories coming at Oaklawn Park, the most recent April 25.

Her win in California came in her career debut Aug. 22, 2018 going five furlongs on the Del Mar turf.

A 4-year-old Shanghai Bobby filly out of the Richter Scale mare Lady Dynasty, Dynasty of Her Own will seek her first graded victory for Tommy Town Thoroughbreds LLC and trainer Jonathan Wong.

The Kentucky bred has won seven of 11 and earned $194,148. She has been away since capturing a $34,980 allowance over the Tapeta surface at Golden Gate Fields May 20.

Her only win in four tries on dirt came in the Borderplex Stakes at Sunland Park in New Mexico Jan. 26, 2020. In her lone graded stakes try, she finished fifth of six in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks at 1 1/16 miles last year at Prairie Meadows.

Trained by Simon Callaghan for Kaleem Shah Inc., Bella Vita will be making her graded debut. A daughter of Bayern and the Storm Cat mare Queenie Cat, the 4-year-old is 2-for-8 with earnings of $181,790. The California bred has been worse than third only once in her career.

Owned D K Racing LLC, Radley Equine Inc., breeder Helen Alexander and Ramona and Perry Bass II and trained by Dan Blacker, Eyes Open broke her maiden in her seventh career start May 23. The 4-year-old Street Sense filly out of the Bernardini mare Delightful mare has banked $56,920.

Road Rager will be making her first start in nearly 10 months for Samantha Siegel's Jay Em Ess Stable and trainer Brian Koriner.

The 5-year-old Quality Road mare was last seen finishing third in an optional claimer last Sept. 6 at Del Mar. Out of the Aggressive Chief mare She Is Raging, Road Rager has won twice in 13 attempts and banked $128,162.

From inside out, the field for the Great Lady M Stakes:

  1. Candura, Tyler Baze rides, 119 pounds
  2. Dynasty of Her Own, Ricardo Gonzalez, 119
  3. Qahira, Abel Cedillo, 119
  4. Edgeway, Flavien Prat, 119
  5. Gamine, John Velazquez, 119
  6. Bella Vita, Juan Hernandez, 119
  7. Eyes Open, Edwin Maldonado, 119
  8. Road Rager, Jessica Pyfer, 119

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