Legends of the Track: Bayakoa - From Argentina to the Hall of Fame, MyRacehorse Finds a Way to Make 2,570 Owners Happy, Seize the Grey likely for the Belmont Stakes + Name the Racecourse?
Monday Edition - May 20th, 2024 (Edition 91)
Good Morning!
Today, we look back at the legendary career of Bayakoa, whose journey to the Hall of Fame began as a 3-year-old in Argentina in 1987. The 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff is often remembered for the heartbreaking tragedy of Go for Wand's fatal injury. Yet, on that fateful October afternoon at Belmont Park, the triumph of the gallant mare Bayakoa is often overlooked.
Next, imagine owning a piece of a champion without breaking the bank. Microshare allows 2,570 owners from 42 states to each hold a tiny fraction of a horse, democratizing horse ownership like never before. We ran a poll today: do you think the MyRacehorse model is good or bad for racing? Have your say!
Great news! Following an impressive Preakness win, trainer Lukas suggests that Seize The Grey is likely aiming for the Belmont Stakes.
For your listening pleasure, check out Jason Beem’s latest podcast where he recaps Seize the Grey's Preakness victory and dives into all of Saturday stakes action from Pimlico.
Finally, here’s a trivia challenge for you: can you name the British racecourse captured in a fabulous aerial photo by John Fielding?
Riders Up!
Steve
Legends of the Track:
Bayakoa: Better With Age
Bayakoa won the Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1989, above, and repeated in the race in 1990. (Skip Dickstein/BloodHorse Library)
One of the great ironies tied into horse racing involves how triumph and tragedy can be woven together.
Even at its most distressing moments, racing can sometimes offer a measure of joy, as muted as it might be.
The 1990 Breeders’ Cup Distaff will always be remembered for the heartbreaking tragedy of the fatal injury of Go for Wand. Yet on that fateful October afternoon at Belmont Park, what is often overlooked was the triumph that belonged to the gallant mare Bayakoa.
The 1990 Distaff made Bayakoa the first two-time winner of the race and was a crowning achievement that should have cemented her status as one of the great females of her generation. On that day of triumph and tragedy, though, those thoughts were secondary – a position that was in direct contrast to the fanfare that followed Bayakoa throughout a Hall of Fame career.
Read the Full Article at americasbestracing.net
The New Ownership Model:
MyRacehorse Finds a Way to Make 2,570 Owners Happy
Seize the Grey in the winner's circle after the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
Microshare partnership posts second classic win with Seize the Grey in the Preakness.
Keeping five or six different people in the same ownership group happy can be a difficult task.
Pleasing 2,570 owners is, well, a reason why there are medications for headaches.
But for Michael Behrens, founder and CEO of MyRacehorse, there was a sure-fire way to produce a multitude of smiling, overjoyed owners.
All he needed was the 2 1/4-length victory by MyRacehorse's Seize the Grey in the May 18 Preakness Stakes (G1).
"When you do a venture like this you aspire to navigate all of the troubles in horse racing. It's a tough sport. It's tough to get new ownership. But days like this make it all worth it," Behrens said. "This means everything to our business."
MyRacehorse sells microshares of its horses to potentially thousands of owners, which, in the case of the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Seize the Grey, amounted to 2,570 different owners who paid $127 a share—a cost that roughly equates to one day of training bills for the 3-year-old son of Arrogate who was bought as a yearling at Saratoga for $300,000.
Do the math and each of the 2,570 owners from 42 different states possess considerably less than one percent of the horse. Yet watching the long and seemingly endless charge to the winner's circle of the roughly 300 Seize the Grey owners on hand at Pimlico Race Course, their level of excitement seemed no different than people who own 100% of a grade 1 winner.
Read the full article at Bloodhorse.com
What They Are Saying:
Lukas: Preakness Winner Seize The Grey ‘Likely’ For Belmont Stakes
Hall of Fame trainer said the fact that the Belmont will be run at 1 1/4 miles this year at Saratoga instead of its usual 1 1/2 miles is 'enticing'
Early Sunday morning, 11 hours after Seize the Grey delivered his Hall of Fame trainer his seventh victory in the Preakness Stakes (G1), age-defying D. Wayne Lukas, 88, was, per usual, looking ahead.
Lukas said that it was likely that the colt with 2,750 owners in the MyRacehorse partnership, would run in the Belmont Stakes (G1) June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.
After talking about how Seize the Grey, under jockey Jaime Torres, led the $2-million middle jewel of the Triple Crown from wire to wire over the muddy track at Pimlico to beat Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan by 2¼, lengths, Lukas was touting his latest group of 2-year-olds. He said the crop of talent includes about nine from top sires Justify, Into Mischief, and Gun Runner.
Racing Overseas:
Beware the pacemaker: Audience joins a list of horses who slipped the field in Group 1 races
Audience: winner of Saturday's Lockinge under Robert Havlin Credit: Edward Whitaker
Towards the end of the last Flat season, the Front Runner opined as follows: "Perhaps one reason pacemakers are less popular these days is that races are tricky things to control. You can end up winning with the 'wrong' horse..."
Well, I suppose if you have a searchable database of all your past utterings, you're bound to be able to claim foresight eventually. So here we are on the Monday after a Lockinge in which Team Gosden and Cheveley Park enjoyed an easy success with Audience (22-1), who most of us had imagined was there to set things up for Inspiral (2-1f).
I'm kicking myself a bit about this race because, like many others, I could see the vulnerabilities of Inspiral and Big Rock but was having trouble identifying a plausible alternative. In the end, I settled for Charyn and lost my money on a strong-finishing second, the traditional fate of all 'win' bets.
Who's the value bet on ground being toasted by the May sun? Why, the pacemaker, of course. On a dry surface, they don't get so tired. If they don't go mad in the first half-mile, the rest could be in trouble.
The point of last year's article was to argue there aren't as many pacemakers in top-class Flat races these days. It's just an impression, I'm not proposing to pick through decades of form books, totting them up. But, since that's my belief, I should probably have taken more of an interest in Audience as a rare example of the breed.
Read the full article at racingpost.com
What to listen to:
The Jason Beem Horse Racing Podcast
Jason looks back at Seize the Grey's win in the Preakness Stakes and discusses the big race as well as the Saturday stakes action from Pimlico.
Where on earth?
Can you name the British Racecourse where the first race meeting took place on Easter Monday, 1886?
Today's photo was kindly provided by @johnfielding001
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Riders Up!
Best, Steve