Therapist in the 2023 United Nations
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| Therapist |
Mike Maker is busy becoming a legend of sorts among horse racing trainers for a very specific domain. Maker has regularly identified semi-veteran and veteran horses capable good performance in long route turf races. After identifying the steeds, Maker deftly trains and places them, often gaining black ink in graded events. As has become familiar, he had thee such horses running in today’s Grade 1 United Nations Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, and for some betters, the main task was to pick which of his steed would win, although Michael Stidman’s Catnip stood in the way, an interesting possibility, stepping up and stretching out after three straight wins. Today’s Stakes was won by Therapist, a horse that started out as a prodigy mid-length turf races for Chad Brown, the fizzled out, unable to consistently stay in training or run dependably when he did. Therapist became a claimer, eventually to be scooped up by Maker. Therapist, tho ridden by this year’s Derby victor Javier Castellano, was not my first choice today – that first choice was Red Knight piloted by Tyler Gafflione. But the odds {12-1] called for a side bet. This was just too good an opportunity to pass up.
And 8-year-old Therapist triumphed, finishing ahead of
Catnip and Red Knight [9 yo]. The victory put the horse over the $1 million
mark in lifetime winnings. The interview after the race’s running in the
YouTube video with the horse’s owner Michael Dubb is worth viewing.
Trainer proclivity, backclass, distance breeding, recent good effort, recent good closing speed, mispriced odds: Reasons for picking this horse today. May the horse be with you. -B.B.
Per Wikipedia, The United Nations Stakes ‘… has been run
since 26 September 1953, at that time at the Atlantic City Race Course in Mays
Landing, New Jersey as an Invitational handicap event, The United Nations
Handicap over the distance of 1+3⁄16 miles. The event was named after the
intergovernmental organization United Nations with the idea to promote the
internationalization of the sport of horse racing whereby foreign horses bred,
owned and trained would compete against each other in the US.’
Maker has won this race before – with Aquaphobia and Big
Picture. Among other memorable winners were Hunter O'Riley, English Channel,
Lure, Steinlen, Equalize, Fort Marcy, Iceberg and Manila. Among a host of
stellar winning trainers over time are Chad Brown, Mack McKenzie and Bill Mott.
He seems to always maintain his rhythm. I knew that horse on the lead (55-1 shot So High) was going to stop. I just rode my race. I knew he was going to come back to us. I didn't want to chase him and not have anything left. It's a long distance. You have to have a lot of patience and have a lot of confidence in the horse. It's amazing that he won a Grade 1 race at 8 years old. He's just a professional horse.- Javier Castellano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Stakes
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