NEWS
Midshipman leads Experimental Free Handicap
Posted: Thursday, January 29, 2009 4:00 PM
MIDSHIPMAN
Benoit & Associates photo
by Jeff Lowe
Champion Midshipman received the highweight assignment of 126 pounds on the 2008 Experimental Free Handicap, a hypothetical ranking of last year’s two-year-olds as if being handicapped for a 1 1/16-mile race on dirt.
Midshipman won three of his four starts in 2008 for trainer Bob Baffert. He scored a Grade 1 victory in his second career start in the Del Mar Futurity (G1) and followed with a second-place finish in the Norfolk Stakes (G1), before leading throughout the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Santa Anita Park for owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Darley Stable.
The 126-pound assignment is the standard high impost and is one pound less than fellow champions and Juvenile winners War Pass and Street Sense received in 2007 and ’06, respectively.
War Pass was the only horse ranked higher than 120 pounds on last year’s Experimental Free Handicap, but five horses were pegged higher than 120 pounds this year.
Vineyard Haven, the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes (G1) and Champagne Stakes (G1) winner, follows Midshipman at 124 pounds.
Square Eddie is third highest 123 pounds in recognition of his victory in the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity (G1) and second-place finish in the Juvenile.
Street Hero, who won the Norfolk and finished third in the Juvenile, is next at 122 pounds, while Remsen Stakes (G2) winner Old Fashioned rounds out the top five at 121 pounds.
Donativum (GB), the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, received 120 pounds, along with CashCall Futurity (G1) winner Pioneerof the Nile.
In the filly division, champion two-year-old filly and Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Stardom Bound is the standout at 124 pounds, one pound more than the previous three champions, Indian Blessing, Dreaming of Anna, and Folklore, received.
Dream Empress, who finished second in the Juvenile Fillies after winning the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1), garnered 120 pounds. Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1) winner Laragh, Frizette Stakes (G1) winner Sky Diva, and Demoiselle Stakes (G2) winner Springside were all three pounds lighter at 117 pounds.
A.P. Indy, Lion Heart, More Than Ready, Sky Mesa and Sligo Bay (Ire) are the leading sires among the males with three representatives each, while Smoke Glacken and Tapit head the filly list with four representatives each. Combining the two lists, Sky Mesa is the leading sire with six representatives. Of the 191 juveniles weighted, 118 were bred in Kentucky, 27 in Florida, and nine in California and New York.
Three racing secretaries—Ben Huffman of Churchill Downs and Keeneland Race Course, Tom Robbins of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and P. J. Campo of the New York Racing Association—assigned the weights to 104 males and 87 fillies who finished in the top four in an unrestricted race in the United States with an added value of at least $75,000.
For a full list of Experimental Free Handicap weights, click here.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
