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Lost And Found Presented By LuibriSYN HA: The Stories Behind The Top Summer Stakes Races

Racing aficionados likely are aware of the meanings behind the names of long-running stakes while others might find them both perplexing and amusing. The Peter Pan Stakes — New York's traditional Belmont Stakes prep — comes to mind. Some may think of a peanut butter brand or the forever young character, but the race honors the 1907 Belmont Stakes winner and Hall of Famer of the same name.

The Preakness Stakes is widely known as the second leg of the Triple Crown and few connect the event with the durable star of the late 1800s who was named for a New Jersey township. In 1870, he won a stakes on opening day of Pimlico Race Course's inaugural meeting and was still campaigning when the track's signature event was rebranded three years later. The tradition of honoring the very best continues today, often after a marquee winner retires. Such is the case with Churchill Downs' Wise Dan Stakes, formerly known as the Firecracker for its spot on the calendar around the July 4 holiday.

This month's Lost and Found highlights some “lost” meanings of well-known stakes “found” on the summer schedule. The sampling is arranged in chronological order.

Matchmaker Stakes (July 17 at Monmouth Park) This fixture was conceived with an unusual incentive to attract the best fillies and mares. In addition to the financial reward, the prize for the top three finishers came with breeding options to premiere stallions. The original edition was held in 1967 at the now-idle Atlantic City Race Course. As sponsorships gained traction in the 1990s, Kentucky's leading stud operations began adding their brand to the title in addition to seasons to their stallions. Known as the WinStar Matchmaker since 2014, the 2021 renewal offered matings to Audible, Global Campaign and Tom's d'Etat.

Molly Pitcher Stakes (July 17 at Monmouth Park) Whether Molly Pitcher was a real person is a subject of debate, but the general consensus or legend is that she was a woman who carried water to troops at the Battle of Monmouth during the American Revolutionary War in 1778. The modern-day Molly Pitcher, first held in 1946, is undeniably a race that has attracted countless champion fillies and mares to the Jersey Shore track.

Jim Dandy (July 31 at Saratoga) The naming origin sometimes gets lost in translation for this test that is synonymous as the prep for the Travers Stakes, the Saratoga season's headliner. The race is a nod to the Thoroughbred who won the inaugural Travers in 1930 in a stunning upset over Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox. The surprise was one of the many that resulted in the track being dubbed “the graveyard of favorites” that has morphed into “the graveyard of champions.” Jim Dandy never came close to duplicating his best when it mattered the most. In his 141 starts, he produced just seven victories. By the stallion Jim Gaffney, Jim Dandy's label most likely reflected the definition for something of superior quality, a term that may have been inspired by a minstrel song of the mid 1800s.

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Yellow Ribbon Handicap (August 7 at Del Mar) In racetracker slang, “get tied on” for this explanation of a pretty name with a pretty convoluted background. For starters, the summer edition is the rebranded Palomar Handicap while the first incarnation at Santa Anita is now the Rodeo Drive. The original was first held in 1977 during Santa Anita's autumn meeting when the Oak Tree Racing Association traditionally leased the facility. A popular song of the era was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon (Round the Old Oak Tree)” and somehow the wording grew into a good idea for a race. The varied symbolism and history of yellow ribbons includes awareness of the military although the hit song apparently is about a freed prisoner and his girlfriend.

Best Pal Stakes (August 7 at Del Mar) In short, the race for 2-year-olds recognizes the California-bred gelding but the story goes deeper. Best Pal was one of the most popular horses of his time thanks in part to his folksy name, West Coast roots and consistency during 47 races spread over seven seasons. His first of 12 graded wins came at Del Mar at age two in the Balboa Stakes which reflected area locations honoring the Spanish explorer. Best Pal retired in early 1996 and later that year the Balboa became the Best Pal. His 47-18-11-4 and $5,668,245 record includes Grade 1 victories in the Santa Anita, Charles H. Strub and Oaklawn Handicaps, Hollywood Gold Cup, and Hollywood Futurity and a runner-up effort in the 1991 Kentucky Derby.

A homebred of the revered Golden Eagle Farm of John and Betty Mabee, Best Pal returned to his birthplace but was less than thrilled with a life of too much leisure. He became a stable pony to accompany young horses to the track at Golden Eagle's training division. He died of an apparent heart attack at age ten and was buried on the property.

Beverly D. Stakes (August 14 at Arlington Park) The race for fillies and mares was designed in 1987 as the counterpart to the track's marquee Arlington Million that is run on the same day. The event honors the late wife of Richard Duchossois, whose name is forever linked with transforming Arlington Park into a spectacular setting for world-class racing. This year the Million will be contested as the Mister D. with a purse of $600,000. The Secretariat Stakes, the track's signature test for 3-year-olds, has been rechristened the Bruce D. to commemorate the couple's son who died in 2014.

Alabama Stakes (August 21 at Saratoga) Since 1872 some of the nation's finest fillies have been associated with Alabama which can be a head scratcher when glancing at headlines. The stakes refers to the home state of William Cottrell, a prominent owner-breeder of the era, who declined to have a race named for himself.

Singspiel Stakes (August 21 at Woodbine) First held in 2005, this race pays homage to the remarkably consistent international runner whose only two North American starts were at Woodbine. After winning the Canadian International at the Toronto track, the Irish-bred Singspiel was runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Turf to earn the 1996 Eclipse Award as champion grass horse. In his 20-race career, Singspiel was first or second on 17 occasions and banked just shy of $6 million. His triumphs include the 1997 Dubai World Cup. That triumph is commemorated with a race in his name that is contested early each year at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. After a productive stud career in England, Singspiel was euthanized in 2010 following complications of laminitis. By definition, Singspiel is a German opera with spoken dialogue. He is a son of In the Wings (GB) which is a theatrical term for a player waiting to go on stage.

Riskaverse Stakes (August 26 at Saratoga) This lyrical label sounds racehorsey, but with a hyphen after “risk” the term relates to investors reluctant to take certain gambles. A newbie on the calendar with an inaugural running in 2009, the 3-year-old filly feature is named for the mare who earned more than $2 million before closing her five-season campaign in 2005. Her record includes consecutive victories in the G1 Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes at Belmont Park.

Ballerina Stakes (August 28 at Saratoga) First run in 1979, the label easily conjures up images of athletic and elegant dancers so one might not consider an equine version. However, the name is a nod to the standout filly of the 1950s who won New York's inaugural Maskette Handicap (now the Go for Wand).

Travers Stakes (August 28 at Saratoga) Arguably the most famous race of summer, the “The Midsummer Derby” is revered for highlighting returnees from the Triple Crown trail and the late bloomers getting into stride and for memorable victories and defeats. Dating back to 1864, the showcase honors Saratoga Race Course co-founder William R. Travers, who won the inaugural running with his horse Kentucky.

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Barn Buddies: Like His Namesake, Firenze Kitten Is Full Of Fire

Summer at Saratoga is heaven for the writer of a series on barnyard companion animals. Kitten season has just happened, people staying in town bring their dogs to morning barn walks, and there are bound to be goats. Each summer has its star, and this year's star is bright enough that I couldn't resist a special edition of Barn Buddies to spotlight him.

(Our Barn Buddies series is a long-running reader favorite. Check out the archives here. If you'd like to bring back this monthly series as a sponsor, please call our director of advertising.)

Everywhere I've gone this week, people have asked whether I have met Firenze, and they don't mean Kelly Breen's multiple graded stakes winner Firenze Fire. They're referring to a four-month-old tabby cat named Firenze, referred to in some circles by Firenze Kitten.

“I asked the guys in the barn what they wanted to call him, and of course the first thing that came out of their mouths is Firenze,” said John Attfield, assistant to Breen.

Attfield, who is the son of Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield, said that perhaps surprisingly, he has not been a lifelong cat person. Firenze is his second cat, and he has taught Attfield a lot. Firenze knows his name, but unlike many felines, will actually come trotting when his name is called. He will not, however, come when called away from the Oklahoma Training Track, which is steps away from his barn and where he tried galloping on the outside rail a couple of times. (He had to be more closely monitored after that outburst.)

Firenze climbs trees, chases blades of grass, and will alternately accept admiration and tussle with whichever visitors come by to see him — and there are many.

Firenze pauses from a play session to snap a selfie

Attfield picked Firenze and a littermate up from a fellow horseman on the backstretch, who insisted he had to take two kittens from a feral cat.

“He was literally as big as my hand,” recalled Attfield. “He was too little to be in the barn, so he lived in my office at Belmont.”

To Attfield's relief, another assistant fell in love with Firenze's sibling and relocated him, so Firenze has the Breen shedrow to himself.

John Attfield and Firenze Kitten

It remains unclear if Firenze will be an efficient mouser; he was too little at Belmont to catch much of anything, and Attfield says there are no mice or rats at Saratoga for him to practice on, but he does pursue birds with enthusiasm, much to Attfield's dismay. If he isn't much of a hunter though, it won't matter — Attfield brings him canned food in a wide variety of flavors, so that he can choose whatever suits his fancy on a given day.

Firenze Kitten and Firenze Fire

Breen is mainly based in New Jersey, so his interactions with the famous Firenze have been limited, but Attfield reports the spunky kitten has made quite the impression. Breen was headed out one afternoon and had the kitten draped around his neck.

“I said, 'Where are you going with my cat?'” said Attfield. “They're bloody amazing animals. I didn't realize how cool they were.”

If ever Attfield can't find his little companion, he just peeks into the back of Firenze Fire's stall, the first one next to the barn office. Firenze [Kitten] will nap there when things are quiet, and has a little hole back there that he can use to move between the office and his namesake. Attfield isn't sure what the cat may get up to in the evenings, but during the day Firenze Fire is the only horse who gets a visit from Firenze.

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Stone Farm’s ‘$4-Million Man’ Leads Another Seven-Figure Yearling To Fasig-Tipton Saratoga

Everett Charles didn't even like horses when he took a job at Stone Farm in 1978.

In the four decades that followed, his ability to develop young horses and show them at auction would become so proven, he'd lead a pair of seven-figure session-toppers to the ring in consecutive editions of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.

In 2019, it was a $1.5-million Curlin colt who'd one day become Grade 3 winner First Captain. On Monday, it was a $1.6-million Uncle Mo colt out of the Grade 1 winner Dame Dorothy who sold to Robert and Lawana Low.

Those two achievements alone reach a stratosphere most in the Thoroughbred industry will never touch, but they both look up to the horse Charles prepared and showed at the 1998 Keeneland July Yearling Sale: the $4-million Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus. That crowning achievement earned Charles the “$4-million man” nickname from Stone Farm owner Arthur Hancock III.

Butterfly effects are real in the Thoroughbred industry. A choice or twist of fate decades earlier can influence the present in ways one couldn't possibly predict.

With that in mind, something as simple as a detoured drive to work potentially swung millions of dollars in the auction ring.

“I worked in a factory, and I came out to Stone Farm just to look around,” Charles said about his introduction to the business. “I didn't care about horses. I wouldn't even watch it on TV. I came out to the farm, and the farm manager said, 'Hey young man, would you like to come out here and work?' I said, 'I work in a warm place, and it's cool in the summer. I don't care about working outside.'

“I was leaving my house, driving to Lexington to work, and a snowstorm hit,” he continued. “I got halfway there, turned around, and went back home. Two or three days later, I called the farm, went there and started working.”

Charles worked with Monday's session-topper since the colt was weaned from his dam. Six days a week, he cared for the colt, and prepared him for putting up with the grueling show schedule he'd face as a highly coveted lot at the Saratoga sale. He rode with the colt in the van from central Kentucky to upstate New York, and showed him when his number was called on the sale grounds.

It's the same regiment that he's gone through with any top-dollar horse under his care over the years. That dedication to the animals has earned the respect of the Hancock family that owns and manages Stone Farm.

“He's a key player on our team,” said Lynn Hancock, Stone Farm's director of sales and racing. “He can come to the big dance and get it done.

“He's a good horseman; you have to be to work with them for this long,” she continued. “He's a great showman. He's got a good rapport with the horses, and he's a hard worker. I don't remember a time he's missed a day of work.”

Charles said the Uncle Mo colt's professionalism stood out early on. He quickly figured out the traits that served him well at the sale, and that will serve him equally well on the racetrack: rest at every opportunity presented to you, and fuel up with food and water whenever it's presented.

Though the colt was everything one would expect from a top-level son of Uncle Mo on Monday night, his star quality didn't always shine through. Charles said the colt thrived when he was given a job, even if that job was just to make himself look good.

“At first, we had him in the field with 15 other yearlings, and he didn't really stand out,” he said. “Once he got away from the pack, and we brought him to the training barn and gave him his own paddock, he's got a big paddock full of luscious grass. I call it a 'buffet paddock.' Since then, he just took off and filled out. You couldn't ask for a better colt to take care of. He's done everything I asked him to do.”

Monday's session-topper was bred in Kentucky by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who also campaigned dam Dame Dorothy to a Grade 1-winning career. Hancock said the quality the Bernardini mare impressed onto her foal was evident.

“They look like doppelgängers,” she said. “I've been showing people at the consignment pictures of her as a yearling and him as a yearling up here. They look so much alike, down to their markings. They're both well-balanced, and he's got a lot of Bernardini in him. He's proven he's an excellent broodmare sire.”

Going back to the great butterfly effects of the bloodstock world, Flay actually offered Dame Dorothy up for sale with the Uncle Mo colt in utero at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale. She ultimately finished under her reserve with a final bid of $3.1 million and remained in Flay's broodmare band.

Though the Uncle Mo colt displayed a quiet class during his time at the sale, that's not the only road to a seven-figure payday at the auction.

Charles' greatest protege, Fusaichi Pegasus, was quite the opposite, and buyers were clearly undeterred by it. He also spent more time with the Mr. Prospector colt, transferring from the weanling barn to the yearling division as Fusaichi Pegasus graduated.

“FuPeg was a little bit meaner and more aggressive,” he said. “If I bring FuPeg out to show, he's going to rare up, swing his head, or scream out real loud. This (Uncle Mo) colt, he's so quiet. When I come out to walk him, all he does is stand quiet and perk his ears up. He notices everything, even the least little thing.”

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Even though he's brought up bigger sellers, and he's been taking horses to auction with Stone Farm for decades, the thrill of seeing one of his students eclipse seven figures still fills Charles with the same joy.

Monday's session-topper might have sold for $2.4 million less than Fusaichi Pegasus, but in the moment, Charles couldn't tell the difference.

“I was standing up there with my friend, and when he got to $1.2 million, my knees started shaking,” Charles said. “I couldn't control them. Then he went on to $1.3 million, then $1.4 million. Then, he got to five and I went numb. Then, when he hit six, I looked at my friend and said, 'I don't think I can take any more.' It's the greatest feeling in the world.”

Everett Charles might not have been a horse person when he started with Stone Farm, but the love he had for Monday's session-topper clearly went beyond the number he brought in the ring – a love learned over the course of 44 years.

Watching him check on the horse in his stall after the hammer fell, the ticket was signed, and the champagne was popped was a bittersweet moment. He was proud of his charge for what he'd accomplished after months of work, but it also meant the months of work were about to come to an end, and their paths were hours away from splitting.

Departing is a natural by-product of the auction business, but that doesn't mean it has to be easy. As he scratched the colt's neck under the dim light of the stall, Charles didn't tell the colt how much he just sold for. He told him something much more relevant.

“I'll miss you.”

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‘I Know How Bad I Want This’: Keithan Starting Training Career With Grit, Hard Work

Rachael Keithan can feel the skepticism as she tries to establish herself as a female trainer in what remains a male-dominated realm.

Keithan, 32, oversees a fledgling operation of seven 2-year-olds. She awakens before dawn and toils until dark as she grooms and feeds them herself due to financial constraints. She does all of this with her left ankle in a walking boot, the result of a fracture in a riding accident last September that never healed properly.

She is driven by a me-against-the-world attitude.

“It's ridiculously harder because everyone assumes just because I'm a female, I'm just going to quit and go away,” Keithan said. “They're just waiting to see how long it is going to take. I'm not going to.

“Things are so negative here all the time, but I'm not negative. I'm positive. I know where I'm at, and where I'm going.”

Keithan looks to the example of Margie Stone, her stepmother. Stone asserted herself in other male-dominated spheres. She drove a tractor-trailer for many years before she joined the Coast Guard.

“We are a family of norm-breakers,” Stone said.

Keithan grew up in Maryland and began riding when she was five. She learned the basics by working as a hotwalker and groom at old Bowie Race Track in Maryland before she began to gallop horses. She received early lessons from John Salzman, a Maryland trainer who excels at developing juveniles, before becoming a traveling assistant to highly-regarded Christophe Clement. She gained a deeper understanding of the claiming game while she worked for Danny Gargan for the last two years before striking out on her own.

Keithan saddles a horse at Saratoga, boot and all

She owns two victories through 11 starts this year with one runner-up finish and a third-place effort for earnings of $51,380. Two horses account for her limited success. Survey (IRE), a 6-year-old gelding, finally broke through in a Jan. 27 maiden race at Tampa Bay Downs for $16,000 claimers and brought home $7,250 of a $13,350 purse. He built on his new-found confidence by taking a March 12 race for non-winners of two races lifetime to bank $8,845 of a $16,100 purse. Trainers customarily receive 10 percent of purse money in addition to their day rate.

Landslid is the most precocious of her 2-year-olds and has shown she belongs on a major circuit. After a fifth-place debut at Keeneland, she placed second and then third in maiden special weight dirt races at Belmont Park to boost her earnings to $30,600. Landslid is ready to run at Saratoga, but it has been difficult finding a suitable spot.

Through the first three weeks of the Saratoga meet, R Doc, a 2-year-old ridgling by turf star Gio Ponti, had provided her only two starts. Those were not good. In a maiden special weight race at 1 1/16 miles on the turf on July 17, he was bumped at the start and lagged seventh of nine. When he was brought back two weeks later at the same level and distance, things went from bad to worse. He was fractious at the gate and then Jalon Samuel, chasing his first win, attempted a six-wide move at the quarter pole. R Doc ran last of eight.

Keithan knew it was a reach when she left behind a basement apartment in Brooklyn to move her stable to Saratoga and rent a room outside of town.

“I didn't expect to have a superstar meet because I don't have any superstars in my barn yet. But I do know what I've got can hit the board and what I aim to accomplish,” she said. “Next year will be a different story because I will have a variety of stock.”

Despite that, she decided she had to do whatever she could to assert herself at such a demanding meet. “People assume that when you go to a lesser track, you are a lesser trainer,” she said. “I can train with all of the big boys.”

Keithan at Saratoga

She yearns for owners who will give her a shot by claiming horses for them.

“My strong suit is with the claimers and I don't have any claimers in my barn,” she said, adding, “I have relationships with people. But when you first go out on your own, everybody is a little reluctant. They want to see what you can do.”

Despite lack of financial support, she continues to scrutinize the claiming ranks, confident her opportunity will come.

“You've got to understand the breeding. You've got to understand how every barn works,” she said. “There are certain barns I won't touch because of practices they use. I pay attention to everything.”

When Keithan reaches the point of exhaustion and needs emotional encouragement, she turns to a stepmother who has known her since she was 15. Stone could not be more confident that Keithan will ultimately overcome her initial struggles and establish herself.

“When Rachel puts her mind to doing something, she will do what it takes to get there,” Stone said. “She is an exceptionally hard worker. She gives her all when she is doing this.”

For now, she has seven horses in her barn that she describes as projects, lack of financial support and a bum ankle. She also has a dream she insists will not be denied.

“I know how bad I want this,” she said. “It's something I'm willing to fight for.”

Tom Pedulla wrote for USA Today from 1995-2012 and has been a contributor to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blood-Horse, America's Best Racing and other publications.

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