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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Eda Returns To Graded-Stakes Action In Great Lady M

Making just her second start in the last 16 months, Bob Baffert's Eda (Munnings) looks to keep her winning streak rolling in Tuesday's GII Great Lady M S. Los Alamitos Race Course plays host to the $550,000 OBS March grad who enters having won her last five straight dating back to Oct. 2021 for owner Baoma Corp. Already a Grade I winner over this track with her victory in 2021's GI Starlet S., Eda went to the sidelines off a gate-to-wire score in the GIII Santa Ysabel in her next start and did not return for 13 months. Again showing her trademark speed, she wired the allowance field at Santa Anita Apr. 28 in her first start off the layoff. Trainer Bob Baffert seeks his fifth Great Lady M win having taken four of the last seven including back-to-back editions with Marley's Freedom (Blame) in 2018 and 2019.

Lined up just to Eda's inside, Elm Drive (Mohaymen) also enters off a win, taking the Mizdirection S. at Santa Anita May 20 in her first attempt on the grass. Last year's third-place finisher in this race, the 4-year-old has her own win streak going and is undefeated since coming back to Phil D'Amato's barn for 2023 with a win in the off-the-turf GIII Monrovia Apr. 8. In her only prior start against Eda, Elm Drive came out the winner, just getting her head in front of her rival in second career start in the 2021 rendition of the GII Sorrento S.

Last year's winning connections of owner Nick Alexander and trainer Steven Miyadi, who took the 2022 Great Lady M with Becca Taylor (Old Topper) bring Rose Maddox (Grazen) to the gate in an attempt to take back-to-back renditions of the Great Lady M. The grey filly makes her graded-stakes debut Tuesday but enters off multiple stakes win in both open and state-bred company.

The only 3-year-olds in the field, Vegas Magic (Good Magic) and Chismosa (Clubhouse Ride) step up to face older rivals for the first time. Vegas Magic came out running with three-straight wins including a in the GII Sorrento S. last Aug. but hasn't been seen since a 10th to 2-year-old filly champion Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 4. Chismosa also debuted a winner in her first three and was a narrowly-beaten sixth in the GIII Senorita S. May 6.

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Off The Turf No Problem For Alice Marble In Irish O’Brien

The picture of consistency, Alice Marble's only off-the-board finish in her career came on debut in Oct. 2020 when she found the synthetic at Golden Gate not to her liking. Never worse than third over both dirt and turf in California since, the 6-year-old has contested two straight stakes races at Santa Anita–finishing third to Big Summer (Mr. Big) in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint S. Jan. 7 and winning the Spring Fever S. On the dirt Feb. 19.

Happy whether this race stayed on the turf on not, the heavy 2-5 wagering choice was away in good order and checked in second of four at the first point of call. Paced up front by Feeling Grazeful (Grazen), the field remained tightly bunched up the backstretch through a half in :45.56. Up alongside the leader as Rose Maddox had the door slammed on her inside, Alice Marble took over between rivals past the quarter pole and was able to gain just a bit of separation. Rose Maddox made a gallant effort to re-rally down the outside but Alice Marble had the first jump and was home clear to top a Grazen-sired exacta.

“I was actually focused on 'Rose' and she had to take up pretty seriously, I think it spoke well for her,” said Nick Alexander, the owner and breeder of the top two finishers. “I think she (Rose Maddox) has a bright future. It is just a relief that we beat (Taming the Tigress), I didn't want to run three Grazens behind her (trainer Anthony Saavedra's Feeling Grazful included)…That worked out well.”

With a pair of stakes winners by the leading California sire already, Unsung Heroine has returned to Grazen in each of her last four seasons but has not produced a foal since 3-year-old filly Dusty Springfield. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

IRISH O'BRIEN S., $98,000, Santa Anita, 3-17, (S), 4yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f (off turf), 1:16.95, ft.
1–ALICE MARBLE, 124, m, 6, Grazen–Unsung Heroine,
by More Than Ready. O/B-Nick Alexander (CA); T-Philip
D'Amato; J-Flavien Prat. $60,000. Lifetime Record: GSP,
15-7-2-3, $470,880. *Full to Enola Gray, GSW & GISP,
$585,100.
2–Rose Maddox, 124, f, 4, Grazen–Heat the Rocks,
by Unusual Heat. O/B-Nick Alexander (CA); T-Steven Miyadi.
$20,000.
3–Taming the Tigress, 122, m, 5, Smiling
Tiger–Joeandbetty'sbaby, by Yes It's True. ($21,000 2yo '20
CTBAJA). O-Mia Familia Racing Stable and Moon S. Han;
B-Highlander Racing Stable, LLC (CA); T-Librado Barocio.
$12,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, 2 1/4, 5 1/4. Odds: 0.40, 4.80, 3.20.
Also Ran: Feeling Grazeful. Scratched: Big Summer, Shocking Grey.

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