Beautiful Pleasure romps to a popular, easy victory

If achievement on the racetrack is easily calculated by such yardsticks as time or margin of victory or weight carried, then how best to take the measure of a champion Thoroughbred like Beautiful Pleasure in terms of appeal and staying power?

Hempstead H. (G1)
Belmont Park, June 24, $250,000, 11/16 miles, fast, 1:41.54
1—BEAUTIFUL PLEASURE, m. 5, Maudlin—Beautiful Bid, by Baldski.
2—Pentatonic, m. 5, Cure the Blues—Aljadam, by Anticipating.
3—Roza Robata, m. 5, Fire Maker—May Day Ninety, by Alydar.

Would you measure the decibels of the applause as she trots back to the winner's circle?

Chart the attendance figures on days she races? Count the pieces of fan mail she receives?

On the day of the $250,000 Hempstead Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park, quantification was a simple matter indeed. Of the $593,000 wagered in the show pool, $562,900 was bet on the five-year-old daughter of Maudlin—Beautiful Bid, by Baldski.

And she did not disappoint her fans, her backers, or her connections on June 24. With jockey Jorge Chavez sitting motionless on her back, Beautiful Pleasure swept to the lead, floating through fractions of :23.11 and :45.71 for the first half-mile as she put first 21/2, then four, then five lengths between herself and her five rivals in the 11/16-mile race.

Speeding around the turn, Beautiful Pleasure opened up six lengths, completed a mile in 1:34.93, and finally hit the wire in 1:41.54, with 19-to-1 Pentatonic scrambling up for second, 71/4 lengths behind.

John Ward Jr., who trains the champion filly but leaves much of the day-to-day preparations to his wife and assistant, Donna, said the time was not unexpected. "Donna said she expected her to run in about 1:41 and change," he said. "She just took command from the start. I was extremely impressed with the strength that she showed us in the top of the stretch. She was just cruising at that point."

"Anyone could have ridden her. An elephant jockey could have ridden her," said Chavez. "She is the best filly in the land. She is professional and more mature. Last year, she was a little bit tough to ride. Today, the fractions were fast, but she did it on her own. Nothing can stop her. And if someone thinks about beating her, they're going to have to run with her. She is beautiful and a pleasure to ride—it's a great name for her. The only thing I would add to her name is something like 'Jet' because she is so fast."

Roza Robata, the 4.10-to-1 second betting choice, was third, a length behind Pentatonic, and was followed under the wire by Biogio's Rose, Sazarac Jazz, and Nikita.

The prohibitive 0.25-to-1 favorite in the win pool, Florida-bred Beautiful Pleasure earned $150,000 to boost her bankroll to $2,206,578 for owner John Oxley, who was unable to attend the race because he was touring in Italy, Ward said.

"I was happier than John Ward today," said Richard Schosberg, who saddled New York-bred Pentatonic to her first stakes placing. "Certainly, we were making a lot more noise than they were. She (Pentatonic) did a fantastic job out there today.

"Considering the fractions Beautiful Pleasure put up, Pentatonic was where she should have been. Only a champion can put up fractions like that and do it so easily. She was clearly second-best, but she's now Grade 1 stakes-placed."

"I was very impressed with the race Beautiful Pleasure ran," said Dale Romans, trainer of Roza Robata. "My horse ran all right today."

Given the overwhelming performance by Beautiful Pleasure, the story behind Roza Robata's name was one of the more interesting angles in the race. The five-year-old mare was named after an obscure Holocaust victim who participated in an uprising at Auschwitz. Her owner, Fletcher Clement, wanted to tell her story and thought naming the horse after the woman would be a way to keep her memory alive.

"I finally decided it was be nice to honor this courageous lady," Fletcher told Joe Drape of the New York Times.

Winner of eight of her 31 lifetime starts, Roza Robata won the Pimlico Distaff Handicap (G3) earlier this year and will next start at Saratoga Race Course. "But not against Heritage of Gold or Beautiful Pleasure," said Romans.

The Hempstead victory was Beautiful Pleasure's ninth in 17 starts and second in three races this year. She won the Shuvee Handicap (G2) over a sloppy Belmont Park track on May 20 and finished an uncharacteristic fifth to Heritage of Gold in her 2000 debut, the $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park on April 9.

"That was bad luck," said Chavez of the Apple Blossom, in which Beautiful Pleasure was boxed in on the first turn. "She broke slow, and I was too confident. It's nice to ride a filly where you don't have to do that much with her, but I was too confident."

Then again, said Chavez, it is difficult not to be confident in the imposing bay mare, who is following the trail mapped out for her last year by Donna Ward as she seeks to defend her title as the nation's champion older female.

"Hopefully she and Heritage of Gold will stay healthy because I want to run against her," Chavez said of her rival, who is 4-for-4 in stakes races this year.

So far, Beautiful Pleasure has won two of the races she lost en route to the 1999 title—the Shuvee and the Hempstead. She will next start in Saratoga's Go For Wand Handicap (G1) on July 30—she was second last year—and in the Personal Ensign Handicap (G1) on August 25, which was the first of three straight wins culminating in a Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) victory and the championship.

"I'll be glad to get to Saratoga, for a lot of reasons," said Ward. "It's a two-turn racetrack, she likes it there, and it's fun to win, actually, to compete, at the highest level at the most prestigious race meet in the country."

Ward, who excused himself after the race to watch Beautiful Pleasure cool down in the receiving barn, said he was delighted with the Hempstead, not only because of the victory but because of the maturity Beautiful Pleasure continues to show.

"There is an unbelievable improvement over where she was at this time last year," said Ward.

"I watch her and I think, as Mr. Oxley told me a few days ago, that we should enjoy this. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."