Crabcakes Stays Hot in $100,000 Maryland Million Distaff
Crabcakes Stays Hot in $100,000 Maryland Million Distaff
Stretches Out Against Older Horses for Third Straight Win
LAUREL, MD – Morgans Ford Farm’s Crabcakes, facing older horses for the second straight race, put away pacesetting She Rolls in mid-stretch and held off a late run from My Magician to extend her win streak to three in the $100,000 Maryland Million Distaff Saturday at Laurel Park.
The seven-furlong Distaff for fillies and mares 3 and up was the fourth of seven stakes that, along with four starter stakes, comprised the 32nd annual Jim McKay Maryland Million Day program named for the late Hall of Fame broadcaster that helped launch the groundbreaking concept in 1986.
Bred by the late Elizabeth ‘Binnie’ Houghton at Buckingham Farm in Chestertown, Md. and trained by her nephew, Bernie, Crabcakes ($2.80) was a popular winner on ‘Maryland’s Day at the Races,’ covering the distance in 1:23.03 over a fast main track.
It was a half-length back to My Magician in second, followed by She Rolls, Up Hill Battle, Item, Faze the Nation, Rocky Policy, Hell of Afire and Scip’s Sonata. Daylight Ahead, If I Was a Boy and Moon Virginia were scratched.
“It’s hard not to get tears in your eyes every time you do this because my aunt just loved horse racing more than anything in the world,” Bernie Houghton said.
Now a three-time stakes winner whose previous victories also came at Laurel in the Aug. 19 Miss Disco and the Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship last December, Crabcakes gave jockey Forest Boyce her second straight win on the day and sixth in Maryland Million history. Among her previous triumphs was 2013 and 2014 Classic with Eighttofasttocatch.
“I love my filly. I think she did well to win today,” said Boyce, aboard for each of the last four races, three of them wins. “I don’t think seven furlongs is her ideal distance; I think she’s a little handier going 5 ½ or six.
“She broke well and she settled real nice,” she added. “I didn’t think there was a ton of speed and luckily [She Rolls] went out there and we were able to sit right there and she finished up great. It was nice to be able to sit off her and then come running, and [My Magician] really came at us at the end.”
She Rolls, a 60-1 long shot coming off an impressive entry-level allowance victory Sept 22 at Laurel, got first run at the lead and took the field of nine through a quarter-mile in 23.14 seconds and a half in 46.51 with Boyce and Crabcakes poised in the clear in second to her outside.
Boyce gave Crabcakes her cue on the turn and they forged a short lead after going six furlongs in 1:10.34. She Rolls stubbornly gave chase as Crabcakes edged clear and opened up enough to turn back the oncoming stakes winner My Magician.
Crabcakes, by Great Notion out of the Charismatic mare Aunt Elaine, won for the second time in four tries going seven furlongs. She is four-for-six lifetime at six furlongs and has been first or second in nine of 10 career starts, the exception coming in her lone graded attempt in the Miss Preakness (G3).
“It was tough. I was a little worried because she is a 3-year-old and going the longer distance facing older horses,” Houghton said. “I trained her a little harder this time just to get to this race because of the extra distance. I thought she was going to need it. I told Forest, ‘When you think you’ve got to move, wait a little bit more.’
“I wanted her to wait and wait, just to give her that last bit at the end there,” he added. “I thought she was doing good. She looked to me like she was going easy the whole way. She’s a nice filly to ride. At the end there, I was waiting for the wire to come.”
Houghton said Crabcakes would have one more race in 2017, with the $100,000 Safely Kept for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs Nov. 11 and the $75,000 Politely for Maryland-bred/sired females 3 and up at six furlongs Dec. 30, both at Laurel, the most likely options.
“As she gets older I think she will stretch out, but she has a lot of early natural speed so six furlongs is probably her best bet,” Houghton said. “I’ll think about the [Safely Kept]. I’m not sure. I was thinking maybe the Politely. We’re going to give her one more run and then we’re going to put her away for the wintertime and give her a little break.”
