HASKELL HORSES EXITED GRADE 1 RACE IN GOOD ORDER

By John Heims —-

HASKELL HORSES EXITED GRADE 1 RACE IN GOOD ORDER OCEANPORT, NJ–

Calumet Farm’s homebred Bravazo, ran well to finish second, three lengths behind champion Good Magic and sixth lengths in front of Lone Sailor, in the Grade 1, $1 Million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Sunday. But it turns out the colt was a bit compromised.

“He lost a shoe in the race,” said Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas by phone from his Saratoga Race Course base Monday morning.

Bravazo, the only horse other than eventual Triple Crown winner and the now retired Justify to compete in all three jewels of the event this year, departed Monmouth in the early morning and was back in his Saratoga stall and resting comfortably before Noon.

“We replaced the shoe already and he looks fine this morning,” Lukas said without making any excuses for the runner-up finish.

Bravazo was four lengths behind Good Magic when the field turned for home but the son of Awesome Again made up some ground in the stretch, although jockey Jose Ortiz said after the race he was gearing down Good Magic late to leave something in the tank for the next race.

“I think the best horse won the Haskell but my horse was going to make it interesting, maybe be a little closer. But he ran very well and we’re very proud of him. He runs every time and he never lets us down,” said Lukas, who has trained more champions and won more Breeders’ Cups than any other trainer and is tied with fellow Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, the record-holding eight-time Haskell winner, for most Triple Crown victories with 15.

We’re going to point to the Travers. It’s shaping up as quite a race,” aid Lukas, who won the Haskell in 1995 with the filly Serena’s Song. “It looks like they’re all going to go there.”

The Grade 1 Travers will be contested at Saratoga on Aug. 25 and as things stand now, Bravazo will get another crack at Good Magic, whom he also competed against in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

The van carrying Good Magic departed Monmouth’s backstretch at 6:30 A.M. Monday and he was back in Chad Brown’s barn after the uneventful four-hour trip.

Brown reiterated that he is targeting the $1.25 million Travers next for the 2018 Haskell victor, who on Sunday earned a spot in the starting gate for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic via the “Win and You’re In” Challenge Series.

“He looks good,” said Brown, the defending Eclipse Award-winner who trains Good Magic for e Five Racing and Stonestreet Stables.

Brown, who swept both of Monmouth’s Grade 1 races in 2018 when Funtastic captured the Grade 1 United Nations on turf earlier this summer, runs a division at the Jersey Shore during the Monmouth Park meets. His barn staff here was still basking in the afterglow of Good Magic’s dominating victory on Monday morning.

“Having him here picks up the whole barn,” said Luis Carbrera, who runs the operation for Brown here and bedded down the colt in stall #50 for fewer than 24 hours. “I watched the race from the grandstand and a lot of our people went up to the front side to follow and cheer for the ‘Big Horse’. We all enjoyed having him here, and it’s really nice to have a champion in the barn, if only for a short time. He’s a very nice horse, and he’s very easy to work with. He’s a real professional. This horse is all class.”

Brown, who ran in five races on the Haskell card and won four, also reported that graded stakes winners Elysea’s World and Dream Awhile, the one-two finishers in the Grade 3 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes who shared the van ride home with Good Magic, also came back from their efforts in fine shape.

The Monmouth Park-based Haskell runners Golden Brown and Roaming Union, who went postward at 28-1 and 45-1 longshots and finished fifth and sixth in the seven-horse field, respectively, were no worse for the wear the morning after their first foray into Grade 1 competition.

“He gave us a thrill,” said Pat McBurney, who trains Grade 3 Kent Stakes winner Golden Brown for New Jersey owners and residents ABL Stable, Dominic Bossone, Pat Donnelly and Jay Schnoor. Jr. “He made a move and I thought he had a chance to get up and be third at one point, but it wasn’t to be. He got kind of a wide trip, but such is life.”

Golden Brown’s lone stakes score was on the Delaware Park lawn and McBurney said before the Haskell he believed that the horse would handle Monmouth’s main track.

“We now know for certain that he’ll handle the dirt,” he said.

Kelly Breen, who was born and raised in New Jersey and trains Roaming Union for George Hall, said that all was A-Okay with the son of Union Rags Monday morning.

Core Beliefs, the Grade 3 Ohio Derby winner who was fourth in the Haskell under Flavien Prat and is trained by Peter Eurton, departed the backside at 4 AM Monday for his scheduled flight home to Southern California.

Live racing returns to Monmouth Park Thursday, Aug. 2 with a nearly $200,000 carryover in the Jersey Shore six, which kicks off in race 3. First post Thursday is 1:15 P.M.