Blazing Sword triumphs in the Washington Park Handicap, and a report on the Arlington Derby

Based on its 2000 field, perhaps the American Derby (G2) should have been renamed the Euro-American Derby.

American Derby (G2)
Arlington International, July 23, $194,000, 13/16 miles, turf, firm, 1:55.46
1-PINE DANCE, c. 3, Pine Bluff-Dancing Affair, by Dancing Champ.
2-Hymn (Ire), c. 3, Fairy King-Handsewn, by Sir Ivor.
3-Del Mar Show, c. 3, Theatrical (Ire)-Prankstress, by Foolish Pleasure.

Of the four starters in Arlington International Racecourse's $200,000 grass race on July 23, two were from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, and they ran first and second.

Pine Dance, from Dermot Weld's yard in Ireland, stalked the pace, got through on the rail turning for home, took the lead, and went on to win by 1 1/2 lengths over Hymn (Ire) from John Gosden's yard in England.

Del Mar Show, carrying the colors of the late Allen Paulson, finished third, a neck behind Hymn, and Arlington Classic (G2) runner-up Boyum finished fourth as the 6-to-5 favorite. Owned by Highland Farms, Peter Wetzel, and Five Star Racing Co., Pine Dance ran the American Derby's 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.46 on firm turf.

Ridden by transplanted Japanese champion Yutaka Take, Robert Sangster's Hymn dueled with Del Mar Show for the early lead before taking command at the half-mile call. But when Pine Dance made his move, Hymn could not cope.

Accompanying Pine Dance and Weld from Ireland was 22-year-old jockey Eddie Ahern, who was making a triumphant American riding debut after winning three races the previous day back home.

"I hope (trainer) Richard Mandella was watching out in California," said Ahern. "I owe him a lot. I came over a few years ago and rode horses for him in the morning for four months. When I went back to Ireland, I was a different jockey."

Although Pine Dance was the longest shot at odds of 7.60-to-1, Weld anticipated that the Kentucky-bred son of 1992 Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Pine Bluff would run a big race.

"I've always thought highly of this horse," said Weld, who sent Go and Go (Ire) from Ireland to win the 1990 Belmont Stakes (G1) and 1989 Laurel Futurity (G2). "He was working well, and I thought he'd love the firm ground here. And in Ireland, he was carrying a lot of weight."

In Pine Dance's previous two races-handicaps at the Curragh-he bore 136-pound burdens. In the American Derby, all of the starters carried 114 pounds. Pine Dance's Irish record showed two victories and a second in a career that began last October 13.

"I believe in taking my time with two-year-olds," said Weld. "I'm a believer that if you are patient it will pay."

Weld said he will keep Pine Dance at Arlington to run in the last leg of the Mid-America Triple, the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes (G1) on August 19. The Arlington Classic (G2) was the opening race in the series, and it was won by King Cugat. Trainer Bill Mott chose not to run King Cugat in the American Derby-he sent Del Mar Show instead-but plans to send the Arlington Classic winner back for the Secretariat.

Unfortunately, the second leg of the series of grass races for three-year-olds lost its biggest European star, 8-to-5 morning-line favorite Suances (GB), when the French Group 1 winner injured himself in his stall the day before the race.

Suances's mishap took place after he was schooled in the Arlington paddock. When he returned to his barn, he kicked the door and suffered a laceration in his right hind leg. The colt then was scratched from the race and taken to Illinois Equine Clinic in Naperville, Illinois.

Suance underwent surgery there to repair a damaged tendon, and his prognosis is good, said John Whittaker, D.V.M., who treated him immediately after he was injured.

The American Derby was to have been not only the American debut for Suances but also his first start for his new owner, the Red Baron's Barn of Jed Cohen, and trainer, California-based Darrell Vienna.

The son of Most Welcome (GB) out of Prayer Wheel, by High Line, began his career last July with a third-place finish in a race at San Sebastian in Spain. He then won his next four races, and after his decisive victory in a May 1 allowance race there, he was sent to France, where he won the Prix de Guiche (Fr-G3) at Longchamp on May 18 and the Prix Jean Prat (Fr-G1) at Chantilly on June 4.

Blazing Sword strikes

Mula Gula and Nite Dreamer were locked in a fight to the finish line when Blazing Sword found the key to victory in the $250,000 Washington Park Handicap (G2) on July 22.

Washington Park H. (G2)
Arlington International, July 22, $250,000, 11/8 miles, fast, 1:50.59
1-BLAZING SWORD, g. 6, Sword Dance (Ire)-Demetroula, by Singular.
2-Mula Gula, c. 4, Lil E. Tee-Night Tan, by Ascot Knight.
3-Nite Dreamer, h. 5, El Prado (Ire)-A Dream Above, by Great Above.

The key was an opening on the rail. Jockey Jose Rivera II sent Blazing Sword charging through, and he went by the other two nearing the wire to emerge a one-length winner in Arlington's top dirt race for older horses.

Runner-up Mula Gula finished a neck in front of Nite Dreamer. Night Dreamer led until late in the stretch but was under constant pressure, first from Kimberlite Pipe and then from Mula Gula, who uncorked a three-wide move.

"I thought I had enough to hold on," said Mark Guidry, Arlington's leading rider who was aboard Northern California invader Mula Gula, the 8-to-5 favorite in the eight-horse race. "We were battling, battling, battling with Nite Dreamer, and Blazing Sword just snuck in on the inside. I was outside Nite Dreamer and there was nothing I could do."

According to Rivera, Blazing Sword does not usually do his best work on the inside.

"He usually wants to run on the outside," said the jockey who accompanied the 10.40-to-1 longshot from Calder Race Course. "But I was behind a wall of horses and got pushed inside. When I came here, a friend of mine told me horses were doing well inside all week, so that's where I stayed."

The triumph was the fourth for the six-year-old gelding by Sword Dance (Ire) out of Demetroula, by Singular, in seven starts this year. He ran the 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.59.

Prior to the Washington Park Handicap, Blazing Sword's biggest score in 2000 came in Gulfstream Park's Widener Handicap (G3) on March 18. He finished second in that 1 1/8-mile race but moved up on the disqualification of first-place Lemon Drop Kid, one of the leading members of the handicap division.

"I love this horse going a mile and an eighth," said Kathleen O'Connell, who trains Blazing Sword for owner-breeder Gilbert Campbell's Stonehedge Farm. "He will do anything you ask, but you have to keep asking. He needs a strong rider. That's what I like about Jose-he's a strong rider and he listens."

Campbell works as a real-estate developer in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His involvement as an owner dates back to the mid-1980s.

"I have about 85 broodmares and 65 babies at my farm, Stonehedge Farm South in the Ocala area, and about 25 at the racetrack with Ned Allard at Philadelphia Park and Kathleen in Florida," Campbell said.

Campbell bred Marlin, winner of the last running of the Arlington Million (G1) in 1997 before Richard Duchossois shut down the track for two years. Marlin, who is out of the Damascus mare Syrian Summer, also is a son of Sword Dance.

"I owned the dam and the stallion and we now have a two-year-old full brother (to Marlin) named Kingfishking, who looks just like Marlin," Campbell said. "I still have Blazing Sword's dam. She just had an absolutely beautiful filly who looks just like Blazing Sword. Before that, the last foal she had was Blazing Sword, who probably is the best horse I've ever owned."

The $150,000 winner's share of the Washington Park purse lifted Blazing Sword's lifetime earnings to $1,158,128 in a 42-race career that has been interrupted by serious illness and injuries. As a two-year-old, he had a mysterious illness that brought on colic, and as a four-year-old he broke his pelvis when he slipped and fell in his stall.