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Decisive Delgado Could Not Wait for Castellano

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — It turned out that a non-decision is precisely what settled who would ride GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) and GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo (Arrogate) in the GI Travers.

Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano rode both horses to their victories in the Triple Crown series and had his choice of which one to ride in the Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course. He holds the Travers record of six wins.

Mage's trainer, Gustavo Delgado, asked Castellano on Monday to give him an answer by late Tuesday afternoon. Castellano asked for more time and when he did not contact Delgado by the deadline, Delgado announced that Luis Saez would ride the chestnut colt.

“I can't wait for him. That's no problem,” Delgado said. “He said he can't make a decision right now. I understand.”

Delgado said the owners of the colt were asking him who would ride and since he expects the $1.25- million Travers to have a large field, perhaps as many as a dozen runners, he felt it was important to act.

“The decision was not Castellano's. It was my decision,” he said. “My decision was not to wait. Not to wait until next week. Not wait until entries.”

Saez's move to Mage leaves Tapit Trice (Tapit) without a jockey for the moment. Trainer Todd Pletcher said he would talk with the colt's connections about a replacement.

Delgado and Castellano are both from Venezuela and are longtime friends. Castellano said he understands why Delgado wanted the matter settled.

“It's a hard decision. Nobody can be mad,” he said. “We shouldn't be mad. Nobody. This is the business.”

Castellano had hoped he would have more time to discuss his options with his agent and Arcangelo's trainer Jena Antonucci, but Delgado was firm. After spending Tuesday on a boat with his family, Castellano returned home to learn that Delgado had booked Saez.

“I don't blame them because they gave me the right to choose,” Castellano said. “Then they gave me the deadline and I couldn't answer that question right away. Then they took away the decision. It was good. It worked out for everybody.”

Delgado said he settled on Saez because he had ridden the colt to a second-place finish in the GI Florida Derby. Forte (Curlin) made a strong run in the stretch to catch and pass Mage.

“At that moment, he was not used to the horse,” Delgado said. “I think he was surprised with the horse because he never rode (Mage). When I talked with him after the ride, he said, 'Gustavo, this is a good horse. You can win the Derby, but right now I have a commitment to Tapit Trice.'”

Delgado turned to Castellano and he earned his first Derby victory. He also rode Mage to a third in the GI Preakness and a second in the GI Haskell.

Saez's agent Kiaran McLaughlin said they made it clear that they wanted another opportunity on Mage.

“We were always in touch with them,” he said. “We knew there was going to be a possible issue so we told them we would be happy to ride him if they needed a rider.

It wasn't an easy decision because Tapit Trice has been very good to us and Todd has been very good to us, but we just thought we would like to be on Mage in the Travers.”

McLaughlin said he got the call from the Mage camp Tuesday afternoon.

“I just waited for them,” he said. “I told Todd as soon as they told me and he was good with it. He's very, very good to deal with. He's a very close friend and I hate to ever take off a Todd Pletcher, for a claiming race or a Grade I. It's not easy.”

Antonucci said early in the meet that she would be patient and let Castellano pick who he would ride.

“You just have to give things time to breathe sometimes and not force topics and everything always works out the way it's supposed to,” she said. “I'm a big believer that there are stuff way bigger and stronger than us making things happen and watching out.

One of us was going to have Javier and one of us was going to have Luis Saez.”

Castellano is 3-for-3 aboard Arcangelo. Antonucci said she turned to him when Jose Ortiz gave up the mount after two starts. Castellano was up for the maiden victory on Mar. 18, and wins in the GIII Peter Pan on May 13 and the Belmont on June 10.

Antonucci said Castellano's patient approach suits Arcangelo's running style.

“For me, it just works,” she said. “He believes in the horse. The horse knows that. They keep forming more and more of a relationship. It just works.”

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NYRA to Seed Saturday’s Late Pick 5 with Additional $100K

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will offer a Late Pick 5 pool seeded with $100,000 on Saturday, at Saratoga Race Course.

The additional money offered in Saturday's Late Pick 5 pool is to honor NYRA's commitment to horseplayers following extenuating circumstances on Sunday's card that saw three races taken off-the-turf late in the day which disrupted a number of multi-race wagers.

Featuring a 15% takeout rate and 50 cent minimum, the Late Pick 5 is open to retail customers only and offered on every live race day at NYRA tracks. The popular multi-race wager, which covers the last five races of the card, features a carryover provision of 100% of the net pool into the next day's Late Pick 5 if there are no winning tickets.

The seeded funds do not affect the NYRA Bets $1 million Late Pick 5 bonus, which is available exclusively to NYRA Bets customers on every Saturday and Sunday during the 2023 Saratoga summer meet.

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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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Ways and Means “Leader of Her Crop” Since Day One

Klaravich Stables homebred Ways and Means wowed the crowd in her 'TDN Rising Star'-worthy debut on Sunday at Saratoga, but for the connections who have worked with the daughter of Practical Joke leading up to that 12 3/4-length romp, her impressive performance came as no surprise.

Out of the Klaravich-campaigned stakes winner Strong Incentive (Warrior's Reward), Ways and Means was a standout at Dell Ridge Farm since the day she was foaled. Sent to Nick de Meric's in Ocala to go through her early training, again she was one of the highest-rated horses in his barn. The story was much the same when she arrived at Chad Brown's barn early this summer.

“She's been the leader of her crop all the way until she got to us and she's been the leader here too,” Chad Brown said the morning after her maiden win. “Those horses that are really the leaders of their class from birth and everyone that has touched them has the same thing to say, that's really where the stars come from.”

Jockey Flavien Prat got to know the bay juvenile this summer in Saratoga leading up to her debut. On July 23, she worked out of the gate with Prat aboard, going five furlongs just a tick over a minute flat. From there, jockey and trainer made a plan to make her first start a learning experience.

“I really wanted Flavien to try to teach her something and not be on the lead,” Brown explained. “He executed beautifully. She was able to rate behind horses quietly and then when he made the lead, she was professional.”

Ways and Means launched her bid going around the turn, took the lead at the top of the stretch and then cruised down the lane without so much as a hint of urging from Prat.

“It's hard for an unraced 2-year-old to even breeze alone, let alone run alone–a whole stretch with no partner to either chase or follow,” said Brown. “You often see horses maybe get green, not travel straight or wait on horses. None of that with her. She just galloped through the lane like she was a 3-year-old. Flavien really took care of her through the lane. I'm happy that he never really asked her to run much because there's a lot of big stuff ahead of her.”

The filly is on to the Sept. 9 GI Spinaway S, according to Brown, who added that he wasn't concerned about the stretch in distance or the heightened competition.

“It just felt like she had a lot more in the tank,” he said of her debut.

The filly follows a pretty similar path as her sire Practical Joke, who also broke his maiden on debut on Aug. 6 for Chad Brown back in 2016 and went on to earn the GI Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S. double.

The Ashford Stud-based stallion was competitive on the 2017 Kentucky Derby trail, running second in the GII Fountain of Youth S. and GII Blue Grass S. and finishing fifth on Derby day, but he returned to the winner's circle later that year for the GIII Dwyer S. and GI H. Allen Jerkens S.

“He was such an honest, hard knocking, reliable racehorse,” recalled Brown. “He raced at the highest level. He was effective running really from six furlongs all the way to a mile and an eighth. The more I do this, I find that those horses that have a wide range in distance and still are effective through various distances, oftentimes they become really good sires.”

Practical Joke is also the sire of this year's GIII Schuylerville S. winner Becky's Joker and he currently ranks second behind Gun Runner on the list of leading third-crop sires.

Ways and Means is one of six homebreds by Practical Joke this year for Klaravich Stables. Her dam has also produced GSW and Airdrie sire Highly Motivated (Into Mischief) and recent GIII Lake George S. winner Surge Capacity (Flintshire {GB}).

All three Klaravich-bred athletes are also campaigned by their breeder, which is a unique occurrence for the prominent racing entity.

“The Klaravich plan is we mostly buy horses in the marketplace and sell our very best horses as part of our business plan to pay for the new purchases,” explained Brown. “Seth [Klarman] loves racing and we're trying to constantly make minor changes to what we're doing to get to the races that we really want to get to together. That said, we may keep a broodmare or two along the way that we felt had a lot of ability. We've bred a few of these in conjunction with the breeding rights that we've started to accumulate from stallions that we've made. The breeding is never going to be the centerpiece of our racing operation, but it's an evolving plan all the time and we're always trying to get better at it.”

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