Four Steward's Cup Winners Converge in Mile

Original article written by Alysse Peverell posted 9 years 3 weeks ago

In another year or another race, Rilian would be an easy favorite. The four-year-old Rebecca Rose Hepburn homebred has done very little wrong in his career. Eleven times in fifteen starts, he has found the winner’s circle and has never run off the board. In another year or another race, his earnings of over $2 million and victory in this race last year would make him a clear standout. However, this year’s field for the Steward’s Cup Mile is not any year.

With a week to go until the Steward’s Cup, a field of eleven is entered for the $2.5 million Mile. The entrants combine for a total of 27 Grade 1 victories and earnings of $12,406,600. Over half of the field has achieved millionaire status and a stunning four already have a Steward’s Cup trophy on the mantle. In addition to last year’s winner of the race, the last three winners of the Juvenile Turf have not only remained in training but are returning to the Steward’s Cup for the Mile.

For the better part of their careers, three-year-olds Do No Harm, Early Edition, and Might have been rivals and meet up again here. Early Edition was a runaway winner of last year’s Juvenile Turf over Might while Do No Harm shipped to South America to romp in the Los Campeones Juvenile. The trio knocked heads over the premier Grade 1 turf mile races for three-year-olds in Europe, taking a win a piece. Early Edition and Do No Harm last met in their final prep against elders, Early Edition coming out on top, while Might shipped back to the United States for his prep race. Lock, who was fifth to Early Edition and Might in the Juvenile Turf, rounds out the sophomore representation in the field. He wisely stayed away from those rivals this year, enabling him to claim a Grade 1, and exits an open company victory in the Grade 2 Arcadia Turf Mile.

Among the older horses that Early Edition and Do No Harm defeated in their European prep was Gapster, Juvenile Turf winner two years prior to Early Edition. Though he seemed to peak earlier in his career, this year Gapster has won three of his five starts. His only other loss came to Aleksander, another entrant in the Mile. Aleksander won the Los Campeones Juvenile and has amassed six Grade 1 victories in a career that has seen him never worse than second from races across the globe. He won this year’s Dubai Millennium Mile and he has done his final preparations for the Steward’s Cup in North America.

The fourth Steward’s Cup winner in the field is Hold Fast, winner of the Juvenile Turf two years ago. He narrowly defeated Rilian in that spot before Rilian got the best of him and handed him his first defeat in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas, despite that race resulting in high career highest speed figure. Though the year began for Hold Fast with three losses to fellow competitors Gapster, Aleksander, and Rilian, he comes into the Mile off two victories and could be rounding back into form.

Dark Heart is the last of the millionaires in the field and is riding a five-race win streak. He, too, has done some globetrotting and won stakes in Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia this year alone before heading stateside to prepare for the Mile. As the name of his prep race would indicate, Dark Heart has finished seventh in the past two runnings of the Mile, though his two Grade 1 wins this year may suggest he is just coming into his best form now.

To round out the field are two six years olds in Infinity and Jolly Fast. Infinity is a gelding who has just captured his first Grade 1 and comes into the Mile off three consecutive wins. Although his sire and dam both won Steward’s Cup races as a juvenile, he proves that sometimes things get better with age. His last three races have all produced career-high speed figures for the gelding. Jolly Fast completes the field as the only horse without a Grade 1 win to his name. He is, however, a multiple stakes winner who has hit the board in three Grade 1 races.

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