Right after Courtlandt Farm’s Never Explain captured the $200,000 Dinner Party Stakes (G3T) trainer Shug McGaughey was uncertain about the next start for the son of Street Sense .
“I have no idea,” the Hall of Famer replied. “He was 15-1.”
Based on Never Explain’s course-record debut in stakes company, there will no doubt be plenty of options for the 5-year-old, up and down the East Coast in graded stakes in the coming months.
After saving ground in fourth under Flavien Prat, Never Explain eked out a half-length victory over favored Hurricane Dream in a tight finish in which the top five horses were within a length of each other to prevail in the 1 1/8-mile turf stakes for older horses May 20 at Pimlico Race Course.
“It’s a big confidence builder when they can go over there and win a few races the right way,” said McGaughey, whose horse punched his ticket into graded stakes company by winning a pair of allowance optional claimers at Tampa Bay Downs. “I’ve had some luck doing that before.”
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Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes (G1T) winner Atone and Siena Farm and WinStar Farm’s grade 2 winner Emmanuel showed the way through fractions of :23.85 and :47.40 over the firm turf. Frontrunning Atone still held a length-and-a-half lead at the eighth pole but that disappeared in the final sixteenth as a host of challengers descended upon him.
Moving best were Never Explain, who shifted from the rail to the four path in the stretch, and Team Valor et al’s Hurricane Dream, the 6-5 choice, who made his run widest of all in the five path. In the final yards, Never Explain staved off the determined bid by Hurricane Dream, who edged Emmanuel by a head for the place spot.
The winner’s course-record time was 1:46.14. He paid $32.40 for a $2 win bet. .
Never Explain was bred by Hidden Brook Farm and Godolphin out of the Forestry mare Black Oak . He is the first stakes winner from his dam’s five foals who have raced.
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Whitebeam wins Gallorette for Juddmonte, Brown
For trainer Chad Brown, the big surprise about Juddmonte’s 4-year-old homebred filly Whitebeam was not her victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Gallorette Stakes (G3T) at Pimlico.
It was that the daughter of Caravaggio was beaten a neck in her United States debut, the April 16 Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack.
“She’s trained super since she came to me this winter from Juddmonte,” Brown said. “I’m surprised she got beat the first time. She had the outside post (five) in a small field and got jammed up in a slow pace, pulling the whole way. It was a sloppy trip.”
Everything was crisp and clean Saturday as Whitebeam and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. sat comfortably a few lengths off the leaders and then took charge in the final furlong to draw away for a 2 1/2-length victory over Madaket Stables and Bill Strauss’ Sopran Basilea in the 1 1/16-mile turf stales for fillies and mares, 3-year-olds and up.
Whitebeam takes the Gallorette Stakes under Irad Ortiz Jr.
“The sky’s the limit for this filly,” Brown said. “She came out of her last race brilliantly and I was really pointing to this race.”
The victory was the fourth in eight starts for the daughter of the Oasis Dream mare Sleep Walk . She was clocked in 1:41.67 and returned her backers $3.60 to win as the favorite.
As One Racing, CMNWLTH, and Edgar Harty’s Bipartisanship was a neck back in third.
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