Coady Photography
By Sarah Mace
Third to Melatonin as a beaten favorite in his March seasonal debut in the Santa Anita Handicap, New York-bred champion and 2015 Horse of the Year Effinex turned the tables impressively on that rival in Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap after a protracted duel.
Top-weighted at 121 pounds in the eight-horse field and ridden for the fourth straight time by jockey Mike Smith in the 1/18-mile contest, the 5-year-old son of Mineshaft was bet down to 8-5 favoritism. Melatonin was 2-1 second choice.
Backers expected to Effinex to return to the form he enjoyed last year, when he won the Grade 1 Clark, Grade 2 Suburban and Grade 3 Clark, and ran second to American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was not unreasonable that he would move forward at Oaklawn for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
In Santa Anita, Effinex’ first start after a 3 1/2-month lay-off, he suffered from the combined liabilities of time off, a long ship to California and a dramatic case of hives on race day. This time around the horse had been settling in at Oaklawn since the beginning of the week under the care of trainer Jerkens’ assistant Kent Sweezey and all systems seemed to be go
Breaking from the outside post, Effinex moved up quickly after the bell to join early leader Melatonin from post three and Blofeld from post one, who were also both aggressive out of the gate.
Entering the first turn as a close second to Melatonin, Effinex latched on to his rival for the length of the backstretch, applying increasing pressure rounding the far turn and heading into the stretch. The clock registered 23.18 seconds for the opening quarter-mile, 47.85 for the half-mile and 1:12.05 for six furlongs.
Effinex gained a slight advantage over Melatonin with three furlongs to go and held tenaciously to the lead. Mike Smith, who rode Effinex confidently from the start, asked for a little extra in the final furlong. Effinex responded and drew clear to win by a length. Point Piper finished third another 2 3/4 lengths back, followed across the line by Blofeld, Upstart, Domain’s Rap, Carve and Financial Modeling. The final time for nine furlongs over the fast track was 1:49.
“He was a different horse today,” said Smith. “He just wasn’t happy in California because of the hives. He battled with Melatonin down the backside and just kicked it into another gear.”
Jerkens, who watched the race on TV from New York, commented, “That was really nice. I am very pleased with what he did today. He stayed closer to the pace than he’s used to doing. He really likes that track, and he likes it fast like that.”
Continued Jerkens, “He grabbed it right away, which I was happy to see because I thought he was going to end up losing too much ground coming out of the gate [from post 8]. Mike let him run a little more to cross over and that was a good job on his part.”
When asked what lies down the road for Effinex, Jerkens said, “We don’t know what’s next. We want to get him home and get him back to the barn. We want to savor this one a little bit before think about that. It’s a long year and there are a lot of races for him.”
Effinex, a four-time grades stakes winner, has record of eight wins, two seconds and four thirds in 22 starts and earnings of $2,682,950, which elevates him to third place on the all-time New York-bred earnings list, behind 2003 Kentucky Derby hero Funny Cide ($3,529,412) and A Shin Forward, who raced exclusively in Japan ($3,421,360).
Bred by Dr. Russell S. Cohen and campaigned by his 84-year-old mother Bernice’s Tri-Bone Stables, Effinex is the only foal out of multiple stakes-winning Tri-Bone homebred What a Pear by E Dubai. What a Pear’s dam Perfect Pair was purchased by Tri-Bone as a juvenile at OBS in 1999 for $28,000. The stable is named after Cohen’s three sons, who called one another “bonehead” when they were growing up.
