Melanie Giddings | Horse Racing Free Tips

Mel’s Baby Sister Moves into Maple Leaf Mel’s Stall

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Owning a very similar name and the same color, sire, owner and trainer, Mel's Baby Sister (Cross Traffic) was moved Wednesday into the stall occupied by the late Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic).

Despite the names given to them by owner Bill Parcells, the NFL Hall of Fame coach, to honor trainer Melanie Giddings, Maple Leaf Mel and Mel's Baby Sister are not related.

Maple Leaf Mel was on her way to victory in the GI Test S. Saturday when she suffered a catastrophic leg injury near the finish line. She was euthanized on the track. Her stall was vacant for three days and was turned into an impromptu memorial for the 3-year-old New York-bred. Trainer Brendan Walsh, whose filly Pretty Mischievous (Into Mischief), ended up finishing first in the Test, brought the winner's blanket of flowers to Giddings Sunday morning and it was placed in the front of the stall. The floral arrangement has been moved to the front of the shedrow to make room for Mel's Baby Sister.

“I didn't want to put anybody in there, but I needed the stall today,” Giddings said. “I thought, 'Whether it's today or next week it's going to have to happen sooner or later.' I felt like if somebody should go in there, it's her.”

Parcells purchased the 2-year-old Mel's Baby Sister in May for $110,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Timonium Sale.

“They have a lot of the same personality,” Giddings said. “You know what? Maybe there is something to a name. I don't know.”

Giddings, 39, said she is beginning to recover from the tragic loss of the star of her small stable.

“A little better every day,” she said. “I think keeping busy helps everybody. Even my staff. Keep them busy and just try to keep everybody's mind OK and in a positive way.”

Giddings is quite familiar with dire situations. In June 2020, the native of Coburg, Ontario was diagnosed with Stage 4 endocervical and ovarian cancer. She underwent 10 hours of surgery to remove tumors, six rounds of chemotherapy and 28 radiation treatments. She recovered and in 2021 returned to the racetrack as an assistant for Jeremiah Englehart, who trained for Parcells. When Giddings decided to open her own stable this year, Parcells moved Maple Leaf Mel to her care.

It was a winning combination. Together, the Maple Leaf Mel team picked up three stakes victories: the East View for New York-breds, the GIII Miss Preakness S. in May at Pimlico and the GIII Victory Ride S. in early July at Belmont Park. The unbeaten gray was about 10 yards from a victory in the Test when she was injured.

Giddings said she has been overwhelmed by the number of people who have reached out to her since Saturday.

“It's pretty incredible,” she said. “I said to somebody the other day, 'I didn't even hear from this many people when I was dying.' I knew she was popular. Did I think she was that popular? No.

“I guess a lot of it was half the horse and half the people messaging me about their battle with cancer as well. It just shows you that there is good in horse racing.”

Giddings said a fundraiser has been established by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance in Maple Leaf Mel's name.

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Antonucci: ‘It Just Brings You Back To It’

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Trainer Jena Antonucci could have easily stepped aside Sunday morning and passed on a question about Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic)'s catastrophic injury in Saturday's GI Test S. That's now how she handled it.

After commenting on how pleased she was with the way her GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) worked five furlongs in 1:00.21 Sunday morning, Antonucci turned to how trainer Melanie Giddings has to deal with the loss of her star filly.

“I get chills,” Antonucci said, then paused to compose herself.

“Any trainer that has had it happen, it just brings you back to it,” she said. “To say no one deserves it, the horse does not deserve it, we are doing everything we can to steward the best possible lives and outcomes for every horse that is in our barns. I know that that filly meant a great deal to Melanie and the team, but it is so much bigger than that. I can't imagine the amount of prayers and support and I pray that she knows that there are so many people that will rally with her. I was glad to see her at the barn this morning and how you pull yourself out of bed in the morning after that.”

Antonucci, the first woman trainer to win a Triple Crown race, said that everyone in racing feels the pain from the tragic accident that happened near the wire of the Test.

“This is what is real,” she said. “You can villainize us and villainize this industry and everything else, but you cannot fathom the failure you feel as a human that we are doing everything we can to steward the best for our horses and then something freaky happens.

“I know personally–I am not going to speak for Melanie–you feel you failed them,” she continued. “I am very aware that the general public views this sport with a terrible light and they are entitled to their opinion, but I feel strongly that they're not entitled to label everybody in the way that they do. There is not a single human that puts a horse on a race track with the intent to harm, ever. Even nefarious people. To have it happen in that situation, with all the extra layers (of safety inspections), at the end of the day, we are going to do what is absolutely right in the stewardship for that horse.”

Antonucci said it is wrong and irresponsible for critics of racing to push the narrative that the sport exists and profits from something that leads to the deaths of horses.

“The enrichment these horses bring to us and everybody else is way beyond racing,” she said. “It is a relationship that we have with no other animal, since the beginning of time. They brought us through war. It is an amazing relationship that we have with this animal. I understand it is not their cup of tea and it doesn't need to be, but it's our cup of tea. And us continuing to educate everybody and explain to everybody everything we go through and do. These horses have more health care and more exams than 98% of the human population. Shitty things are going to happen. Just like someone can walk out their front door and get hit by a car.”

Antonucci said that racing needs to keep talking about the care race horses receive. She praised the way that the New York Racing Association and the connections of the winner, trainer Brendan Walsh, jockey Tyler Gaffalione and owner Godolphin, handled the incident.

“Everyone knows that that filly was the winner of the race and it just sucks,” she said.

“This is the cruelest of sports,” she said. “I have always said the 2-by-4 that hits you doesn't care where it hits you. The sport doesn't care about how you feel. It will make you check your mettle and check your constitution time after time. That is why I continue to say that my commitment is to doing the best that I can to steward the best possible situation for every horse that is in my barn. I don't think it's much different than that with almost every other trainer on this backside. The details and the depths that we go through to foster the best possible outcomes is like no other industry.”

Antonucci said she does not know Giddings well, but that one of her former assistants is a very good friend. She noted that Giddings has been able to return to the sport after a difficult struggle with cancer.

“I know her story,” Antonucci said. “She is a very good horsewoman and I know she will get through it. She has dealt with much bigger things and more important things in life than winning horse races. This was about a relationship she had with a horse and that is the story.”

Antonucci said that it is important to tell about the equine-human connections.

“It sounds so cliche to say she lost a family member yesterday, people are going to scoff at that,” she said. “But when your life revolves around another being–whether it's an animal or whatever–and that part is then gone, I can't give you words because the feeling that you have, gutted doesn't even do it. It stays for life. I can tell you every horse that I have lost.”

Antonucci said she worries about every horse she saddles.

“I always say a prayer,” she said. “Every race. Every time. Be blessed and be safe.”

Antonucci said what she does know about Giddings is that she doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for her.

“She wants the filly to be honored, and rightly so,” Antonucci said. “She is a strong woman. I know she will find another path.”

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Mel Giddings Enjoys First Saratoga Summer With Her Own Stable

Melanie Giddings had originally planned on a no-stress summer when she decided to move her fledgling stable from its home base at Palm Meadows up to New York for the Saratoga meet.

“I had said, 'Why don't we just go up to Saratoga and enjoy ourselves?'” Giddings recalled with her signature easy smile. “No pressure, no nothing. Just take the horses there and see what we can do.”

Those expectations went out the window pretty quickly when a filly named Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) landed in her barn. The undefeated sophomore won her first race with Giddings listed as trainer when she put in a dominant gate-to-wire performance in the GIII Victory Ride S. on July 8 and now, Giddings and her stable star are preparing for what will be the biggest race of both their careers in the Aug. 5 GI Test S.

Last spring, former Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Parcells purchased Maple Leaf Mel for his August Dawn Farm at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale. He decided to name the daughter of Cross Traffic after Canadian-born Giddings, who was then the assistant to his regular trainer Jeremiah Englehart.

Giddings has been with Maple Leaf Mel since the grey filly first came to the racetrack, so when Giddings went out on her own at the beginning of this year, her namesake soon followed. It was a decision by Parcells and Englehart that Giddings does not take lightly.

“It would have been weird for me to not have her in my barn, but to have her in my name is pretty incredible,” she explained. “It's a big responsibility to try to live up to a filly who is undefeated and keep it that way. I'm so grateful for Coach to give me the chance and for Jeremiah to be so supportive of my training career and let me have this filly in my name.”

Mel Giddings and Jeremiah Englehart celebrate Maple Leaf Mel's first graded stakes win in the GIII Miss Preakness S. | Horsephotos

The pressure was on in the Victory Ride when Giddings was first listed as Maple Leaf Mel's trainer, especially when the entries included the likes of MGSW Red Carpet Ready (Oscar Performance) and Grade II-placed Interpolate (Into Mischief). Giddings called an old friend and mentor for a confidence boost before the race.

“I spoke with Jeremiah when the past performances came out and I said, 'Well I drew the toughest field to have her in my name for the first time.' He told me not to worry and he was right. She doesn't care who it is and horses don't read the form. She went out there like every other time and put on a show.”

Now five-for-five with four stakes wins to her credit, Maple Leaf Mel is emerging as one of the top fillies of her division, but her trainer said that the speedy grey is like a kid on the playground when she steps into the starting gate.

“I think for her, being a good racehorse is just the fact that she loves her job,” said Giddings. “She knows what day it is when it's time to run and she's a different horse. She can't wait to run. I don't even know if she really knows what she's doing. She just goes out there and she thinks it's a good time.”

Maple Leaf Mel put in her most recent work in preparation for the Test on July 21, going four furlongs in :49.22.

“She's feeling frisky,” reported Giddings. “I'll try to keep her that way and keep her as fresh as I can going in. This will obviously be the biggest race of her life.”

Giddings has been around her fair share of talented racehorses in her 26 years in the industry. Over the years she has worked for the likes of Al Stall Jr., Mark Casse, Kevin Attard, Steve Asmussen and Roger Attfield. The thought of hanging out her own shingle never really crossed her mind until a life-threatening illness put things in a new perspective.

In 2020, Giddings was diagnosed with Stage 4B endocervical and ovarian cancer. After surgery to remove two grapefruit-sized tumors, several rounds of chemotherapy, and a long recovery, Giddings returned to the racetrack.

Maple Leaf Mel goes five-for-five in the GIII Victory Ride S. | Sarah Andrew

“I thought I would see how I could make it through the first year, whether I could even make it still doing what I love doing,” recalled Giddings. “The first year was really tough. I mean, that first year if you had said that I was going to train, I'd have told you that you're nuts because I was struggling a lot.”

But by last year, Giddings was back to overseeing around 40 horses in the Englehart barn and soon after, she discovered the dream she never really knew she had.

“I had never thought of training,” said Giddings. “I just always loved the racetrack. I've been here for 26 years and I just love getting horses ready and I take pride in them doing well and succeeding. When I got sick, I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to have another job in my life, let alone make it. So when I did I thought, 'Why not do it for myself?' No stress, no goals. Just do it and see what happens.”

Giddings said she sometimes can't believe how much time has passed since those long, excruciating months when she was so far removed from life on her beloved racetrack.

“Sometimes I look at my hair and I go, 'Oh, it's been that long,'” she said, grabbing her ponytail of now shoulder-length hair.

So just over three years after she first received the cancer diagnosis, Giddings is soaking in every moment with a filly named in her honor and a stable of promising 2-year-olds that she hopes will further her stable's early success.

Giddings has eight horses in her barn on the Oklahoma this summer, which she runs with the help of her 15-year-old pup Reese. Maple Leaf Mel is her only older horse, but Giddings has always enjoyed working with the babies and she is excited about the progress of each of her pupils.

On Wednesday, another auspicious grey namesake called Mel's Angel (Leofric) will make her debut at Saratoga. Picked out by Giddings for $32,000 at the OBS March Sale for owner James Kelly, the filly will face fellow New York-breds sprinting on the turf.

“Mel's Angel is really straightforward,” said Giddings. “She's a total sweetheart in the barn, but she's got a lot of feistiness on the track.”

With several new clients, Giddings hopes to be busy claiming and taking on the sales in the coming months. She understands the struggles that come with starting out on your own and she is grateful to the owners who have shown their support from the start.

“It's tough to break out on your own if you don't have people to back you,” she said. “If you're not winning, you're not making money so [support] is huge. We're super grateful to owners like Bill Parcells, who gave Maple Leaf Mel some time off when we asked him to and now she's rewarding him. I'm just glad it worked out because we all told him that it would and now here she is. I hope she can have a big year for him.”

Of course, not every horse in her stable will be another Maple Leaf Mel, but Giddings loves all her horses just the same.

“You get attached to the horses,” she said. “They all have their own personality. I mean, even if they're a five claimer of if they're a stakes winner, I love them all.”

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Cross Traffic’s Maple Leaf Mel Wins Battle of the Undefeateds in Victory Ride

Billed as a showdown between unbeaten sophomore fillies Maple Leaf Mel (Cross Traffic) and Dazzling Blue (Into Mischief), with the added bonus of Red Carpet Ready (Oscar Performance), who took down previously unbeaten Munnys Gold (Munnings) in Churchill's GII Eight Belles S. May 5, Belmont's GIII Victory Ride S. didn't disappoint as Maple Leaf Mel turned back a stiff challenge from Dazzling Blue and stayed unbeaten in five starts.

Interpolate (Into Mischief) bobbled out of the gate, but Maple Leaf Mel broke straight and true. The gray found her customary spot on the lead with ease, setting :22.54 and :45.52 fractions as Red Carpet Ready pursued her from second and Dazzling Blue followed closely in third. The trio stayed one-two-three until exiting the turn, when Red Carpet Ready dropped off and Dazzling Blue looked poised to strike. The latter tried to run down the easy-moving Maple Leaf Mel, but couldn't catch her and swapped to her wrong lead late as she tired.

“It definitely gives me a big relief,” said Melanie Giddings, a former assistant to the winner's previous trainer, Jeremiah Englehart, but now herself the trainer of record. “She's amazing. She's won at Aqueduct, Belmont, twice at Saratoga, and Pimlico. She's pretty incredible.”

The undefeated Victory Ride winner debuted last summer at Saratoga, took the state-bred Seeking the Ante S. and the state-bred East View S. with a seven-month hiatus in between, and made both her open company and graded company debut May 19 with a gate-to-wire, geared-down joyride in the GIII Miss Preakness S. at Pimlico. Never headed, Maple Leaf Mel has led at every call in all five starts. Giddings indicated the gray will target the GI Test S. Aug. 5 at Saratoga.

August Dawn Farm bought Maple Leaf Mel as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Spring 2-year-old last year for $150,000 after she worked in :10.2. The operation named her for Englehart's then-assistant Giddings, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. Englehart trained the filly for her first four starts, but Giddings took over as trainer of record after the Miss Preakness win.

“I've been texting Jeremiah all day about the filly and he wished me the best of luck,” said Giddings. “I wish he could have been here with me.”

Pedigree Notes:

Maple Leaf Mel is one of four graded winners and 15 black-type winners for Spendthrift's Cross Traffic, an Unbridled's Song son who was also represented by GI Cental Bank Ashland S. winner Defining Purpose's win in the GIII Indiana Oaks about 30 minutes prior to the Victory Ride.

A New York-bred, Maple Leaf Mel has one younger half-sibling, a 2-year-old colt by Brody's Cause. Cole Bennett had bought the mare carrying that now-2-year-old for $4,000 at the 2021 Keeneland January sale. Florida-bred City Gift is by the unraced City Place, whose four stakes winners out of his daughters include 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year Mighty Heart (Dramedy).

Saturday, Belmont
VICTORY RIDE S.-GIII, $175,000, Belmont, 7-8, 3yo, f, 6 1/2f, 1:15.74, ft.
1–MAPLE LEAF MEL, 124, f, 3, by Cross Traffic
               1st Dam: City Gift, by City Place
               2nd Dam: For My Wife, by Not For Love
               3rd Dam: Heavens to Betsy, by Miswaki
($18,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $150,000 2yo '22 EASMAY). O-August
Dawn Farm; B-Joe Fafone (NY); T-Melanie Giddings; J-Joel
Rosario. $96,250. Lifetime Record: 5-5-0-0, $399,650. *1/2 to
Eddie's Gift (El Corredor), SP, $167,950. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Dazzling Blue, 120, f, 3, Into Mischief–Blue Violet, by Curlin.
1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($500,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP).
O-Juddmonte; B-WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-Brad H. Cox.
$35,000.
3–Vahva, 120, f, 3, Gun Runner–Holiday Soiree, by Harlan's
Holiday. 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($280,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP).
O-Belladonna Racing, LLC, Edward J. Hudson, Jr., West Point
Thoroughbreds, LBD Stable LLC, Nice Guys Stables, Manganaro
Bloodstock, Runnels Racing, Steve Hornstock and Twin Brook
Stables; B-Woodford Thoroughbreds, LLC (KY); T-Cherie
DeVaux. $21,000.
Margins: 2HF, 1HF, 7. Odds: 2.75, 5.60, 8.00.
Also Ran: Interpolate, Downtown Mischief, Topsy, Red Carpet Ready, Adeliese's Smile.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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