Happily Unbridled

Peppers Pride, that amazing Thoroughbred mare from New Mexico, has just done what the great Citation, Cigar, Mister Frisky, and Hallowed Dreams could not … she has just won her 17th race in a row and remains undefeated.

Just a week after Curlin snatched the North American Thoroughbred earnings record from Cigar by winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup Invitational (gr I) which pushed his bankroll over the $10 million mark, Peppers Pride smashed another record in the number of consecutive wins by a Thoroughbred in the United States.

She broke into the record books by winning a six-furlong optional claiming allowance race at Zia Park in Hobbs, New Mexico. Peppers Pride stalked the pace in third and then took the lead on the turn winning the race by two lengths over the second place finisher, Silver Expression.  Jockey Carlos Madeira has been aboard the daughter of Desert God in all seventeen races. Peppers Pride is trained by Joel Marr and owned by Joe Allen.

The five-year-old mare has never traveled outside of her home state of New Mexico and all her races have been run exclusively against competitors in that state.

Her detractors claim that since she has never run against open company outside of New Mexico, this somehow lessens the significance of this victory. However, this writer respectfully disagrees with that opinion … it’s very difficult to maintain the physical and mental fitness of a race horse throughout a continuous campaign and the connections of Peppers Pride deserve all the recognition this accomplishment brings them. This is a very significant achievement and I suspect it will be quite a few years before this record is broken again.

Peppers Pride may run at least one more time in the New Mexico Cup Filly/Mare Championship at Zia Park on November 9. After that she will most likely be retired and perhaps in a few years we’ll have the privilege of seeing some of her sons and daughters on the track attempting to equal or break this remarkable record.

Go Baby Go!

Labor Day weekend was closing day at a bunch of tracks around the country … Del Mar, Saratoga, Arlington Park, and Canterbury Park among others. I’ve covered some of the best races in previous posts so this post will just be a potpourri of leftover news from various tracks.

Canterbury Park’s (Shakopee MN) 67-day meet closed with a decline in attendance and on-track handle. However, when factoring in results from all sources, total handle ended about on par from last year due to increased import wagering. This 2008 season had one less race day and 15 fewer total races than in 2007. The number of starters per race increased by 1.86% to 7.76. Daily purses were also up .53% to $125,969.

Mac Robertson won his fourth consecutive training title, Derek Bell was the champion rider for the sixth time with 93 wins. S E J Stables of Detroit Lakes MN won the Thoroughbred owner title for the third time in a row with 32 wins.

Ellis Park in Henderson KY’s closing day was an eventful one … three men wearing bandannas stepped behind the clerk’s counter in the Sky Theater Restaurant at the track and, brandishing a pistol, tried to take two money bags. One of the brave clerks knocked the gun out of the bandit’s hand while trying to grab back one of the bags. The clerks called for help while still struggling with the robbers and the cowardly robbers then ran from the restaurant, dropping the bags as they ran. There were no serious injuries to any of the clerks and there is conflicting information about whether the robbers actually got away with any money. I know it can be foolish to fight with a gun-wielding perpetrator but in this case, the clerks came away with the victory.

Should Peppers Pride have been scratched? That was a question that surfaced this week when Peppers Pride was scratched on Sunday from the Lincoln Handicap at Ruidoso Downs. She’s won 16 races in a row and this would have been her record-breaking attempt … the horse racing gods have not been kind to North American Thoroughbreds — Cigar, Citation, Hallowed Dreams and Mr. Frisky — attempting to win 17 straight races. The track came up sloppy on Sunday and her connections scratched her a couple of hours before the race. The owners said that because the track was so sloppy and slick, they didn’t feel it was worth risking a chance of injury by running that race. Peppers Pride was the only horse in the eight-horse field to be scratched but it should be noted that a horse in the previous race was injured and had to be vanned off.

Peppers Pride is a certainly a remarkable horse to have won 16 straight races and although she has only run in New Mexico, she deserves the respect that is accorded to an undefeated contender.

I have conflicting thoughts about the fact that Peppers Pride was scratched. Was she possibly scratched because she has never run on an off-track and the connections were concerned that she would lose? If that was the reason, then that was an unsportsmanlike move, but I also feel that due to the risk of possible injury to their prized equine, they made the right decision to keep her as safe as possible no matter what. There will be another race at another time and if Peppers Pride wins, she’ll have broken the 16-race curse. If she loses, it won’t be because she raced on an off track and she will have no excuse except that, on that day, another horse was faster than she was.

Big Brown is prepping for the Monmouth Stakes to be run over the turf course on September 13. This will be his final race before the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. Big Brown won his first race on the turf but has raced on dirt ever since. I’m guessing the connections are running him on the turf because Santa Anita has a synthetic surface (Pro-Ride) and horses that run well on the turf seem to run well on synthetic surfaces. This is not always true of dirt-specialists (like Curlin who will likely skip the Breeder’s Cup because of the artificial surface) so if Big Brown runs well, it will be a positive sign that he’ll be a major foe in the Classic.

Big Brown breezed easily for six furlongs in 1.15:3/5 on the Aqueduct turf on September 3. His last race was the Haskell Invitational (gr I) which was his 4th Grade 1 win of the year.

There’ll be more exciting news in the next few weeks until the Breeders’ Cup. Stay tuned for all the fun things to come …

Go Baby Go!