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Y42 Steward’s Cup Recap: All Weather Milers Edition
Original article written by Jack Meyer posted 8 years 1 week ago
On to the Milers we go, this edition will feature the four Steward Cup races for the All Weather Milers. There were a couple of storylines in this group as Jasmine continued her rivalry with Bad Endings and Live in Harmony, would she finish her career off with a win or would it get spoiled sending her to the shed still missing that Steward’s Cup win. Then we had Stephen and Allvar, Stephen seemed to get the better of his rival in the bigger races but Allvar was really coming into his own in the latter part of the year.
In the Steward’s Cup Synthetic Juvenile Fillies speed continued to reign supreme as frontrunner Ripa rushed to the front beating out other speedballs like Circle of Beliefs, she then outlasted the fast closing Chateaus in the stretch to score the 1 ¾ length victory. Lucas Davenport’s little filly Ripa scored with an 80 Speed Figure giving her 3 wins in 5 starts on the year with hopes of battling the elder ladies in the coming year, I’d say she is off to a good start.
The Steward’s Cup Synthetic Juvenile saw the Danny Derby owned Know How to Knock come from nowhere to score the victory wearing down the Dusty Klatt pair of Fister and the deep closing monster Syndergaard to score the win. Know How to Knock barreled down the stretch to a 1 ¾ length victory putting a hefty 84 Speed Figure on the Past Performance sheet, he was quickly sold to new owner Talia Ichinari for an astounding sum of 3.5 million making Danny a very happy camper and giving Talia a super contender whom will try and answer the call to the next level next year.
The aforementioned Jasmine picked up the pieces after It’s a Bad World and Closed in Traffic wore each other out early on closing from 4th then holding off the onslaught of Live in Harmony as she circled fillies in the stretch to get nipped at the wire. Jasmine, whom finished 3rd in her previous two attempts at the Steward’s Cup, finally crossed the finish line in first after two heartbreaking defeats, she finished her illustrious career with 14 wins in 18 starts with nearly 1.3 million in earnings. She heads to the shed with a date with Happy Snowman on the slate as her first order of business, I’m sure we will be hearing a lot from her off the track since we witnessed her final hooray on it Monday night.
The final race on the card was the Steward’s Cup Synthetic Mile, what was pegged as a two horse race saw two superstars literally battle the entire away around the track as Allvar held outlasted Stephen in a breathtaking show of heart. I can’t help but think of the way Affirmed and Alydar did battle on the track years ago when I think of this race, these two never felt pressure from another colt, it was their show, and they gave the crowd every bit of what they came for. It looks as though both colts will remain in training and renew their rivalry for at least one more year so mark your calendars now for 16 weeks from here because these two will likely be poised to throw down one last time for their beloved fans before hitting the shed to do battle there.
The next edition will feature the Routers of the All Weather Division, there will be four races to cover as we finish up the poly track part of our Steward’s Cup review giving way to the wave of sprinters in the dirt and turf division.
Jack Meyer