NEWS
Globalize spins to Spiral triumph
Posted: Saturday, April 01, 2000
Bay Area colt comes back from poor effort to defeat Elite Mercedes in Kentucky's first 2000 Derby prep
Some races are so inexplicably poor that owners and trainers have no choice but to disregard them. After a clinker, trainers often will say in the argot of the backstretch that they are going to "throw out" the bad effort and continue to their next destination.
Turfway Spiral S. (G2)
Turfway Park, March 25, $600,000, 11/8 miles, fast, 1:49.16
1-GLOBALIZE, c. 3, Summer Squall-Sugar Hill Chick, by Fit to Fight.
2-Elite Mercedes, c. 3, Mercedes Won-Elite Dancer, by Northern Jove.
3-Rollin With Nolan, c. 3, Summer Squall-Pi Phi Hi D, by Sauce Boat.
Trainers Jerry Hollendorfer and W. Elliott Walden had reasons to despair after dismal efforts by their prime Kentucky Derby (G1) candidates on March 11. Globalize, trained and partly owned by Hollendorfer, had won Bay Meadows Race Course's Golden State Mile Stakes on February 12, but the Summer Squall colt ran a bloodless fourth in the El Camino Real Derby (G3) over the same track.
Elite Mercedes, turned over to Walden after his purchase in December by WinStar Farm, ran a respectable third in Gulfstream Park's Fountain of Youth Stakes (G1) on February 19 but then went nowhere in the Florida Derby (G1), finishing a distant eighth.
The Mercedes Won colt had an excuse, however. He apparently had displaced his soft palate when checked on Gulfstream's first turn and gasped for air the rest of the trip. Walden then headed home to Kentucky and set his sights on the $600,000 Turfway Spiral Stakes (G2) on March 25 at Turfway Park.
Hollendorfer had no such excuses for Globalize in the El Camino Real Derby. He checked Globalize's blood count after the race; the tests came back in good shape. He drilled the three-year-old colt hard, sending him a half-mile over the Bay Meadows track in :46.60 on March 20. Hollendorfer, Northern California's dominant trainer, then threw out the El Camino and put Globalize on a plane for Northern Kentucky.
A native of the Akron, Ohio, area, Hollendorfer, of course, had visited Turfway before. Two years earlier, he shipped in Event of the Year for an overpowering victory in Turfway's Jim Beam Stakes (G2), the race that last year was renamed the Galleryfurniture.com Stakes (G2) and now is the Turfway Spiral.
Globalize may not yet be the equal of Event of the Year, who was a leading Derby contender before an injury knocked him out of the race. But Globalize showed both class and courage when he overcame a strong bump in Turfway's stretch and powered through the final sixteenth mile to catch Elite Mercedes and win the Turfway Spiral by 1 1/2 lengths before a sun-drenched record crowd of 22,480 at the Cincinnati-area track.
Rollin With Nolan, a lightly raced Summer Squall colt from Nick Zito's barn who went off as the 2.70-to-1 second betting choice, gained a brief lead at the head of the stretch and held on for third, 1 1/2 lengths behind 5.20-to-1 Elite Mercedes. It was the same margin back to Deputy Warlock, a stretch runner who came from last in the field of ten. San Vicente Stakes (G2) winner Archer City Slew, the Turfway Spiral's 2-to-1 favorite, stopped after bumping with Globalize at the three-sixteenths pole and finished seventh.
Globalize, who went off at 11.60-to-1, ran the Turfway Spiral's 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.16 on a fast track. He is owned by Howard Litt, a retired stockbroker from Mill Valley, California; Seattle cancer specialist Dr. George Todaro; and Hollendorfer. Out of the Fit to Fight mare Sugar Hill Chick, Globalize was bred by William S. Farish and W. Temple Webber Jr. and sold by Farish's Lane's End to Hollendorfer for $80,000 at the 1998 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Lots of speed
The first three finishers in the Turfway Spiral were near the front throughout, but the race very well could have set up for stretch runners after attracting a bounty of speed. In addition to Archer City Slew and Rollin With Nolan, both confirmed front-runners, the cast also included Runspastum, a blazing allowance winner at Gulfstream. Elite Mercedes also possessed good early speed. The post position draw compromised both Archer City Slew, who left from the eighth starting stall, and Elite Mercedes, on the outside with Pat Day.
Globalize drew the rail and Hollendorfer opted to use a Turfway-based jockey, Francisco Torres, who was the track's leading rider last year.
When the gates opened, Globalize came away quickly, and one of the likely pacesetters, Runspastum, was squeezed back when sandwiched between Nature and Rollin With Nolan. Archer City Slew, ridden by Garrett Gomez, glided toward the front, with Elite Mercedes right behind him.
As the field entered Turfway's clubhouse turn, Globalize led by a half-length after an initial quarter-mile in :22.91, but Archer City Slew steadily advanced on the turn and took the lead early on the backstretch run. Rollin With Nolan joined the fray, with Elite Mercedes on the outside in fourth. Archer City Slew completed the half-mile in a quick :45.83, and Torres gave Globalize a brief breather before entering the final turn.
Archer City Slew's ability to stay beyond a mile was in question before the race, and the Slew City Slew colt began to weaken late on the final turn, with Rollin With Nolan taking the lead in early stretch. "By the time we hit the top of the stretch, he was a little wobbly," said Gomez, a last-minute substitution for Chris Antley, who took off his mounts that week.
Day and Elite Mercedes were moving well on the outside, and Torres asked Globalize to run again as they left the bend. As Globalize surged on the rail, Archer City Slew gave Globalize a solid bump.
Responds aggressively
If anything, the bump made Globalize more aggressive even though the incident may have cost him a length. "He actually dug in harder," Torres said.
Elite Mercedes powered to the lead and led Rollin With Nolan by a head at the furlong pole, after a mile in 1:36.28. But Globalize flew along the rail, surged to the lead in the last 100 yards, and quickly drew clear. Day said Elite Mercedes never stopped running. "It appeared we had everything in hand, and when we got the lead inside the eighth pole he just kept going on and I thought we had it won," Day said. "But then I glanced over and there was that other horse (Globalize) doing better on the rail. My colt certainly ran well enough to win."
Hollendorfer said he had no firm plans for Globalize, although he will return him to California to prepare for a possible start in the Derby on May 6. He did not rule out another start. Winner of the California Juvenile Stakes (G3) last fall, Globalize raised his career earnings to $527,650 with the Spiral's $360,000 first-place purse.
Don Clippinger is managing editor of Thoroughbred Times.
