Get Serious NY’s Newest Millionaire With Record-Setting G3 Red Bank Repeat

by Sarah Mace

The ultra-speedy Get Serious does not often find himself tracking the pace setter, but in order to earn his second consecutive victory in the Grade 3 $200,000 Red Bank Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday, he had to run down At the Disco, who set blistering fractions, and then hold off a fresh closer in Nownownow. He did just that – by a brave neck –  for the repeat victory, breaking his own course record and pushing his purse earnings over the $1 million mark to become New York’s 23^rd million dollar-earner.

A six-year-old son of City Zip, bred when City Zip stood in New York at Gus Schoenborn Jr.’s Contemporary Stallions (2002-2004), Get Serious has been virtually unstoppable this year. Although unplaced in his solid effort in the 1 3/8-mile Grade 1 United Nations in July, he has won all three other starts for owners James M. Dinan, Jacques J. Moore, and John Forbes’ Phantom House Farm, including the Grade 3 Monmouth Stakes in June and the Grade 3 Oceanport Stakes in August. He has also continued his love affair with the Monmouth turf course, where going into the Red Bank, he had won nine of 12 starts.

Get Serious seems to be in the best form of his life and his trainer, John Forbes concurs. “He’s training great,” the trainer said a few days before the race. “He’s training better than at any time this year. The way he’s acting, he’s ready to run his best race of the year.” Forbes also added a word of caution, with a horseman’s thorough knowledge of the vagaries of the race track: “Sometimes it looks easy,” he said, “and that’s when it’s the toughest.” As it happened, after the gates opened, it was anything but business as usual for the chestnut gelding and his regular rider Pablo Fragoso.

Accustomed to breaking on top, Get Serious stumbled at the start, got bounced around and then crowded. He was forced in the end to cede the lead to an eager At the Disco (by New York stallion Disco Rico), who led the way through fractions of 21.89 and 45.10, with Get Serious tracking two or more lengths behind. Get Serious then began to move on his rival turning for home, came up alongside him in upper stretch, and kicked away. Meanwhile, however, Nownownow – winner of the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf – who was reserved at the back of the six-horse field early on, was starting to make a big closing run. After the testing early pace (three-quarters in 1:08.32), Get Serious and Fragoso really had to dig down in the final sixteenth to hold off the challenger. They hit the wire with a neck to spare in 1:32.37. The final time for the mile over firm turf lowered the course record for the distance, which Get Serious himself set on July 11, 2009, when he went the mile in 1:32.70. Carrying the high weight of the field at 123, he was ceding five-seven pounds to the field on Sunday.

After the race, Forbes gave his horse great credit for overcoming adversity. “He stumbled pretty badly which I think cost him getting to the lead,” Forbes said “He overcame a lot.  He was giving some weight, stumbled, didn’t really have the perfect scenario, but still overcame it.” His trainer also has some ambitious plans for the chestnut’s future. “He trained great coming into the race, chased a horse loose on the lead, collared him, and lowered his own track record.  If he comes out of this race as good as he’s been coming out of his races, we can’t rule out Churchill [Breeders’ Cup Mile, Nov. 7].”

The Grade 3 Red Bank win was Get Serious’ 13^th victory in 30 starts, his fourth graded stakes win and eighth stakes win lifetime. He has won six of seven starts at a mile, ten races in thirteen starts over the Monmouth grass, and is four-for-five in 2010. The win boosts his career earnings to $1,000,691, so he now adds a new name to the elite roster of 22 other New York-breds who have earned over $1 million.

Get Serious was bred by Morgan’s Ford Farm and foaled at Marlene Brody’s Gallagher’s Stud. He was purchased by Forbes (as agent) for $130,000 when he sold as the top-priced New York-bred at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s 2005 October yearling sale. Get Serious has three six-figure-earning half-brothers, including stakes-placed Java Warrior. He is the fifth winner produced by New York-bred winner Java Gal, a Java Gold mare purchased by Morgan’s Ford Farm for $25,000 at Keeneland’s 1999 November sale. Java Gal, whose progeny have now earned over $1.3 million, is a half-sister to Gallagher’s Stud’s New York homebred Allez Milord ($362,913), a Grade 1 winner in California, champion in Germany, multiple group-winner in England, and Group 1 runner-up in Japan.

Source URL: http://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2010/09/06/get-serious-g3-red-bank-repeat/

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