Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith masterfully pulled Geaux Rocket Ride out to blaze by Mage down the lane in a thrilling upset for the Haskell at Monmouth on July 22 on a fast track in Oceanport. A length and three quarters back at the line, Mage held on to place as the hotly-touted Arabian Knight, trained by Bob Baffert, the race’s winningest trainer, showed. The Richard Mandella-trained colt paid a bracing $25.40 to win, Mage paid a respectable $9.40, and Arabian Knight paid $4.80.
Although most ordinary handicapping logic might have tipped Kentucky Derby victor Mage to win in this Haskell’s eight-horse field, Arabian Knight was the curious, narrow and very entertaining initial morning line favorite over Mage at midweek, despite just two lifetime starts. In Saturday’s running, his more immediate problems on the track got the better of him. As this writer thought, Arabian Knight came into the race quite cold and more than a little mentally scattered. He just couldn’t seem to find himself in the running and dominate as the pundits and quite a large number of his backers thought he would. Settling in second and even leading briefly up the backstretch, Arabian Knight fell victim to the pace, which was being pressed by Awesome Strong.
We won’t truly know whether it was Arabian Knight’s lightly raced history or the deadening fact of a six-month layoff from competition that lay at the root of the sputtering run, but given those two huge disadvantages, his hitting the board at all became his accomplishment. He’s young. With luck, and judicious time back to the drawing board with trainer Baffert, who has seen this kind of thing before, he will grow from it.
Neither could second-favorite Mage raise himself to his Kentucky Derby level and hold on for the victory. Although that was, in the stretch duel, also a surprise, it was somewhat less of one than Arabian Knight’s rather uncollected effort.
It was left to jockey Smith and Geaux Rocket Ride to snatch the race from both of them in the last furlongs. While making it seem easy, Smith beautifully threaded his way through the pack closing in on race and poised his equine companion, who obviously had plenty of fuel in the tank, not too far wide to take on Mage, as Arabian Knight faded. It was a masterclass in tactical racing.
With it, Geaux Rocket Ride truly seemed the measure of the automatic invitation that the Haskell winner receives to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Classic come November.