Read the Footnotes’ Out of Respect and Posse’s Comedero 1-2 in Select S. Thriller

by Sarah Mace

The six-furlong $100,000 Select Stakes at Monmouth for three-year-olds on Sunday looked on paper like a two-horse race involving the two speeds of the field, Out of Respect – a New York-bred gelded son of New York sire Read the Footnotes looking for his first stakes score – and Grade 3-winner Comedero – a gelding by New York-based Posse. And that was exactly the way the race unfolded. The pair hooked up and dueled with virtually nothing between them until deep stretch when, in his last eight strides before the wire, Out of Respect drew away to win by a length and a quarter.

JMJ Racing Stables’ Out of Respect moved to Scott Volk’s barn (from trainer Bruce Levine) earlier in the year and, after a freshening, showed improvement in his performance in two starts at Monmouth (and escalating Beyer Speed Figures). Coming back strong from a twelve-week rest, the dark bay/brown gelding won a first-level allowance race for three and up on June 13^th, and on July 4^th, his toughest class test to date, ran a huge race at long odds in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore Stakes, setting a red-hot pace only to be run down late by Discreetly Mine, who would go on in his next start to win the Grade 2 Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga with ease.

Out of Respect, who had one five-furlong maintenance drill since the Jersey Shore Stakes, went to his outside post of five for the Select Stakes under Paco Lopez (Monmouth’s leading jockey, who was also aboard for the Jersey Shore Stakes) as the 2-to-1 second choice. His rival, Grade 3 winner Comedero, with Robby Albarado in the irons, was heavily favored at 1-to-2, having won eight of his career starts lifetime, seven of them stakes races, and spotting the rest of the field 4-6 pounds.

Shortly after the break, there were three horses lined up across the track: Six Gun City showing early speed at the rail from his inside post, Comedero at his shoulder from post four, and Out of Respect on the outside. It was not long, however, before Six Gun City could no longer go with the speedsters and, locking horns, Comedero and Out of Respect burned up the track, running the first quarter in a sizzling 21.59 and the half in 43.75. With rest uninvolved, the duo barreled through the turn and down the stretch shoulder-to-shoulder, until Out of Respect outran his rival shortly before the wire. The final time for the six furlongs over the fast main track was 1:10.07 and the tour de force performance earned Out of Respect a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 98. After the race jockey Lopez said, “The trainer just told me to put him wherever he was comfortable. I was happy with my position even though we were going really fast.”

The Select Stakes victory is Out of Respect’s fourth win in seven starts and first stakes win; previously he had run second to Make Note in the Great White Way Division of the New York Stallion Stakes. Having never finished worse than second, he can now boast lifetime purse earnings of $197,620. Out of Respect has made all of his career starts at six furlongs.

Bred by Thomas-Narlinger LLC and Dennis Repp, and foaled at Sequel Stallions New York, Out of Respect is one of three New York-bred winners (of three foals to race) produced by Val’s Diablo (by Diablo), who was purchased by JMJ Racing for $3,000 at the 2006 New York Mixed Sale. His sire, Read the Footnotes stands for Sequel Stallions[3] at Keane Stud and Posse, sire of the talented runner-up Comedero, stands for Empire Stud[4].

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2010/08/10/out-of-respect-select-stakes/

---