MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2021 WHEN AN AMBULANCE ESSENTIAL QUALITY 'LOOKS AMAZING' AFTER BELMONT SCORE; COX EYES TRAVERS FOLLOWS YOU AT WORK, Essential Quality (Tapit) got great marks from trainer Brad Cox the morning after the colt triumphed in a strong renewal of the THE JOB IS NEVER EASY GI Belmont S., and Cox said the Godolphin homebred will be pointed next to the GI Runhappy Travers S. Aug. 28 at Saratoga. The Belmont victory marked the first Grade I win as a sophomore for last year's champion 2-year-old male and offered a measure of redemption for the gray, who was the beaten favorite when fourth in last month's GI Kentucky Derby, his first career defeat. AHe looks amazing. It doesn=t look like he lost any weight. We jogged him up this morning and he was moving great,@ Cox told the NYRA notes team Sunday. AHe=s a very intelligent horse. It=s amazing to watch him. We train him on race day and whenever we put him back in, he=ll lay down the rest of the day.@ Cont. p6 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Ricardo Santana, Jr. pumps his fist aboard Silver State CLASSIC DOUBLE FOR ST MARK’S BASILICA St Mark’s Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) added to his French Sarah Andrew Classic laurels with a win in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club at The Week in Review, by T.D. Thornton Chantilly on Sunday. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN A couple of decades ago, I knew a press box wiseguy who Europe. faithfully played what he called Aambulance chaser@ bets. Every time a rider got unseated in a spill, he would put two bucks to win on the next mount that jockey rode back. The wagers didn=t have to involve an actual ambulance ride--he believed the very act of hitting the dirt and having to dust yourself off might give a jockey extra incentive once he or she got back in the irons. If the jockey sustained an injury that required time on the sidelines, the ambulance chaser would duly note this, putting the rider on a bet-back list to await his or her future return. I have no idea if this wagering theory turned a profit over time--I seem to recall hearing my friend tout the veracity of his system only when those comebacking riders won. But I suspect he wasn=t making ambulance-chaser bets so much for financial gain. He admired and respected jockeys for their tenacity and resilience, and viewed this small form of pari-mutuel support as a way to have a rooting interest in their well-being, perhaps hoping to send some good racetrack karma in their direction. This gent likely would have backed Ricardo Santana, Jr.=s winning ride aboard 2-year-old firster Cool Papa G (Maclean=s Music) in Friday's fifth race at Churchill Downs. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Senior Contributing Editor Monday, June 7, 2021 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN Deputy Editor Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Associate Editors Christina Bossinakis @CBossTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN News and Features Editor In Memoriam: Ben Massam (1988-2019) ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Project Manager Rachel McCaffrey Advertising Assistants Amie Newcomb Kristen Lomasson Photographer/Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Essential Quality snoozes in his stall the morning after his GI Belmont S. triumph. | Sarah Andrew Social Media Strategist Justina Severni Associate Producer Katie Ritz BULLET WORK FOR QUALITY ROAD COLT AT OBS 7 Director of Customer Service A Quality Road colt consigned by McKathan Bros. turned in Vicki Forbes [email protected] the fastest furlong of the final under-tack show for next week's OBS June sale when going in :9 4/5 Sunday. Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of IT & Accounting WITH A NAME LIKE THAT, HOW CAN SHE MISS? 9 Ray Villa [email protected] Bill Finley profiles Derbe Glass, who is trying to stick at [email protected] Monmouth this summer as an apprentice jockey. WORLDWIDE INFORMATION International Editor Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 10 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • JUNE 7, 2021 The Week in Review cont. from p1 It came one race after Santana=s mount careened violently through the inner turf rail, leaving him prone on the course while the race got halted midway and declared a Ano contest.@ Complaining only of post-spill soreness, Santana was medically cleared to climb back in the saddle. Not only did he win the very next race, but he later boarded a plane to New York to ride six horses on Saturday=s GI Belmont S. card. Irad Ortiz, Jr., on the other hand, would have landed on the ambulance chaser=s comeback list after escaping major injury in a scary-looking spill in Thursday=s fifth race at Belmont Park. His mount stumbled while switching leads in the stretch, and the thrown Ortiz was run over by a trailing horse ridden by his younger brother, Jose. After being removed from the track on a stretcher and ambulanced to a hospital, Ortiz required only stitches in his head and arm. He vowed to be back riding in two weeks. So while Saturday=s final leg of the Triple Crown turned out to be a worth-the-wait stretch battle that featured >TDN Rising Star= Essential Quality (Tapit) out-torqueing the relentless Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) while 11 1/4 lengths clear of everybody else, the stacked slate of graded stakes on the Belmont undercard was shaped in some ways by Santana=s presence and by Ortiz=s absence. Ortiz, currently the continent=s leading rider both in terms of victories and earnings, had been booked to ride all 13 races Saturday at Belmont. Horses he was scheduled to ride won the first three races on the day and five of the first seven, including three Grade I stakes (two of which ended up being pickup mounts for brother Jose). Although Santana had the call aboard France Go de Ina (Will Take Charge), the longest shot in the Belmont S., his main reason for trekking to New York was to ride Silver State (Hard Spun), who quietly cruised into the GI Metropolitan H. after building an under-the-radar, five-race win streak for trainer Steve Asmussen and co-owners Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing. The Met Mile has historically been a productive launchpad for horses who weren=t quite ready for the rigors of the Triple Crown chase at age three but are poised to peak at four after adding muscle and maturity (Vekoma, the 2020 Met Mile winner, is a prime recent example). Silver State ($450,000 KEESEP) had dead-heated for a Churchill Downs win in his debut in September 2019 (9 3/4 lengths ahead of the third-place horse), then earned two seconds while taking the 2020 Fair Grounds prep path to an anticipated start in the GI Kentucky Derby. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 10 • THETDN.COM MONDAY • JUNE 7, 2021 But Silver State twice couldn=t match strides with well-meant never panicked and always appeared to have his mount within winners from the barn of trainer Brad Cox, and when a third in a striking distance. division of the GII Risen Star S. was followed by a seventh in the Knicks Go began to wilt under duress at the top of the lane, GII Louisiana Derby, Asmussen withdrew his colt from Triple and when he drifted out, shouldering Mischevious Alex (Into Crown consideration and opted to hit the Areset@ button after a Mischief) even wider off the bend, Santana cued Silver State to freshening, aiming for shorter distances. The Met Mile would be barrel through that gift of a gap. With clear inside passage, Silver Silver State=s target for 2021. State asserted himself for the stretch run, swatting away a late Asmussen and Santana got Silver State to New York by racking bid from length-back runner-up By My Standards (Goldencents), up back-to-back allowance-conditioned races at seven furlongs with the plucky Mischevious Alex still chugging along another in Kentucky last autumn. Confidence mounting, Silver State then three-quarters of a length back in third. Knicks Go finished a rolled into Oaklawn Park to win three consecutive stakes over drained fourth. the winter and spring, stretching out in distance from 1 to 1 Saturday=s Met Mile win (100 Beyer) was the third in the last 1/16 and then 1 1/8 miles while stepping up in class and twice four years for the training and riding tandem of Asmussen and cracking triple digits in Beyer Speed Figures. Santana. They scored in the 2018 edition of North America=s Having never faced Grade I company, Silver State was let go at most prestigious one-mile stakes with Bee Jersey and in 2019 5-1 in the Met Mile betting, although his elevated mutuel was with Mitole (they didn=t have an entry in the 2020 renewal).