Takethemoneyhoney Snatches Distaff Purse
Whenigettoheaven Proves Turf Sprint Worth the Wait
By Vinnie Perrone
LAUREL, MD–A couple of detours couldn’t divert Celtic Contender from making Maryland Million history today at Laurel Park.
Fully healed from a broken bone in one foot and an infection in another, Celtic Contender rallied to become the first two-time winner in 41 editions of the $100,000 Maryland Million Sprint, this year sponsored by Fair Hill Training Center.
Second betting choice at 8-5 in a field of eight, Celtic Contender loomed boldly as And Sum and New York shipper Suremeanttobe set a lively pace on a fast dirt track. Forest Boyce nudged Celtic Contender closer to the leaders deep through the far turn, and the 5-year-old chestnut took the cue. He passed the frontrunners three-wide, repelled a brief challenge from 3-2 favorite Haileysfirstnotion and held the advantage through the stretch.
Suremeanttobe proceeded gamely but finished a length behind in second, Band Camp another 1 1/4 lengths back in third. And Sum nosed out the slow-starting Top Manipulator (50-1) for fourth.
Celtic Contender, the 2024 Maryland Million Sprint winner, missed last year’s Million with a foot fracture and spent eight months without a start. He resumed racing in March, winning two of five, before he nicked a foreleg in a September workout. A stone bruise surfaced, infection grew, and more idleness ensued.
“The leg blew up,” trainer Hammy Smith said, “and we had to give him some time for that.”
His prep window compressed, Celtic Contender resumed training early this month and braced for the Sprint with two strong half-mile breezes. Jockey Boyce, astride for the sixth straight time, spoke no reservations about their prospects today.
“Hammy does such a good job,” she said. “He kind of left it up to me. It was mine to screw up.”
Neither horse nor rider made a misstep, and Celtic Contender’s six-furlong spin in 1:10.15 coaxed a throng to the winner’s circle. The Lewis Family Racing Stable and invitees of all ages arrived en masse, leaving Celtic Contender to reposition for his triumphant photograph.
By Irish War Cry from the stakes-winning mare Celtic Katie, Maryland-bred Celtic Contender earned $55,590 with the victory, pushing his three-season total to $556,865. The homebred has won three stakes in an 8-for-23 career and 19 times has finished third or better.
“He’s a cool horse,” Boyce said. “You just kind of do your best to stay out of his way. Let him do his thing.”
The typically understated Smith, in his 50th year training, had only plaudits for the compliant manner of Celtic Contender, an ungelded hotshot.
“He’s a sweetheart,” Smith said. “Being a stud horse like he is, he’ll nip at you and stuff. He’ll holler for you to come over and play with him. He’s just an all-around good horse to be around.”
Celtic Contender provided the first of two Million Day winners for Smith. Less than two hours after the Sprint, Smith sent a homebred of his own, Talking Foolish, to victory in the $100,000 Glenangus Farm Lassie for 2-year-old fillies.
*Takethemoneyhoney Makes Off with Distaff Victory
Principal owner Bob Krangel smiled about the sweet offers he’s rejected for star mare Takethemoneyhoney.
“If I sold the horse,” he said, “I’d probably have to find a new wife.”
The Krangels, Bob and Sue, found mutual delight today at a favored haven, Laurel Park. There, Takethemoneyhoney again defied time and eight challengers in dominating the $100,000 Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Maryland Million Distaff.
Unraced since early March, Takethemoneyhoney acted if no time had passed. From the rail post, she moved to the lead soon after the start and commanded the outcome as she often does, finishing 5 1/2 lengths before second-place Onyx Ten.
Rerun Table, feisty and determined at 15-1, finished third. Fourth-place Violet’s Charm had a nose on Doc’s Miracle, and Slewperstitus failed to sustain a rally in a sixth-place finish as second choice.
By then, track announcer Dave Rodman had exclaimed, “Takethemoneyhoney, even money and gone!”
Michael Moore, who trains the winner at Parx, thus assessed the phenomenon. “She’s so amazing,” he said. “The way she bursts away in the stretch, you would never know she’s been off that amount of time. Every one of her races has been good to this point.”
Moore’s statement bore no hyperbole. Takethemoneyhoney, never worse than second, made the Distaff her eighth career win in 11 starts. The three exceptions came by a nose, a head and a nose, making her tantalizingly close to undefeated.
With today’s $55,000 winner’s share, Takethemoneyhoney has earned $466,770 for the Krangels’s Kasey K Racing LCC and minority partners Michael R. Day and Final Turn Racing Stable LLC. The Krangels and Final Turn sent the stakes-winning mare Goodonehoney to the stallion Golden Lad in 2020; Takethemoneyhoney was her first foal.
The dark bay mare with black blinkers and two rear ankle wraps improved to 6-for-8 at Laurel with a seven-furlong blast in 1:23.87 under Eliseo Ruiz, who’s ridden each of her races but the first.
“I know as a trainer that good horses make your job a lot easier,” Moore said.
Good owners too. The Krangels share Moore’s objective to give their star ample rest when circumstances dictate. This spring, a knee issue suggested they wait, so they sent Takethemoneyhoney to Betsy Houghton’s Sylmar Farm in Pennsylvania, where the Krangels board their small band of broodmares.
“Michael and I have been together 10 years,” Bob Krangel said. “He takes care of my money like it’s his. He takes care of the horses. He’s the most honorable friend and a hell of a trainer.”
Takethemoneyhoney fits right in, Krangel said, with her gentle, cooperative manner. And the story could get richer: Krangel said they expect Takethemoneyhoney’s half-sister, a Pennsylvania-bred by Wicked Strong, to debut on November 2 at Parx.
Given Takethemoneyhoney’s typically fragmented racing schedule, Krangel seemed uneasy about making and expressing race plans. But he remembers the mare’s nose-length defeat to Passage East in her richest start, the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Stakes in February, and said the chance for redemption remains compelling.
*Whenigettoheaven Breaks Through in Turf Sprint
Whenigettoheaven waited three years and a couple of minutes to get a Maryland Million Turf Sprint victory at last.
No better than second in three previous Million appearances, Whenigettoheaven kept his head during a starting-gate delay, then showed his tail to nine others in a 1 3/4-length triumph over 16-1 Tidewater. World On Fire finished third at 12-1, followed by the well-bunched Blame the Tux (53-1), Jessica’s Eyes (21-1) and gray 7-5 favorite Witty, million-dollar earner and winner of the 2023 edition.
The $100,000 1/ST BET Turf Sprint began late after defending champ Had to Have Him (5-1) declined to enter the starting gate as prompted. As the assistant starters tried to cajole him into the stall and time ticked away, Whenigettoheaven and seven others waited in their enclosures. For Paco Lopez, Whenigettoheaven’s rider, the strategizing had begun.
“I’m trying to calm down my horse a little bit, keep him quiet,” Lopez said Lopez, “and he did it very well today.”
For all his pre-race composure, Whenigettoheaven burst out of the gate as Lopez urged, and assumed an immediate lead on a firm Dahlia course. Even as Lopez gathered a hold, his frontrunner cut through fractions of 22.48 seconds, 45.42 and 56.88.
Blame the Tux, second-highest price in the 10-horse field, moved outside the leader on the far turn and kept at it to midstretch before the circling Tidewater, then World on Fire, passed him. Tidewater too encroached on Whenitgettoheaven in the lane but couldn’t maintain the advance, the winner clocked in 1:03.04 for 5 1/2 furlongs.
“The course wasn’t slow, but there’s a little give to it,” said Lopez, widely regarded as a turf rider of high rank. “He liked it fine.”
Two months after Whenigettoheaven finished fourth in the 2023 Turf Sprint, his first Million start for breeder Larry Johnson, owner Ken Ramsey claimed the horse for $62,500 at Gulfstream Park. Saffie Joseph Jr. served as trainer for two starts, then yielded to Nolan Ramsey, the owner’s grandson.
Back in Maryland, Whenigettoheaven won his first start for Nolan Ramsey, then became a stakes winner next out in the 2024 Ben’s Cat at Laurel Park. That fall, Whenigettoheaven finished fifth in the Maryland Million Turf Sprint at 9-5; he was second last year at 11-10, three-quarters of a length behind Had to Have Him.
Off as second choice today, Whenigettoheaven returned $5.40 and added $55,000 to his bankroll, now at $599,210 over 35 starts. He has three stakes victories and nine overall.