Make Mischief rallies up inside to win Maddie May

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Maddie May slips through the inside to top Brattle House in $100,000 Maddie May at Aqueduct. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.

By Tom Law

Make Mischief showed plenty of promise early, starting as a yearling when she brought $285,000 and the sixth most expensive price at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred sale.

The daughter of Into Mischief backed up that potential with results last summer, winning her debut at Belmont Park before back-to-back placings in graded stakes and another stakes placing against fellow state-breds at Saratoga Race Course. She added another win in late January to further bolster the pedigree of her 100 percent winner-producing dam, the winning Speightstown mare Speightful Lady.

Make Mischief further bolstered those credentials – her own and Speightful Lady’s – even more Saturday at Aqueduct when she came up the inside late to win the $100,000 Maddie May Stakes for 3-year-old New York-bred fillies.

Make Mischief, the 8-5 favorite running in Gary Barber’s pink and black colors under Eric Cancel, outdueled fellow Saratoga New York-bred sale graduate Brattle House in deep stretch to win by a neck for her first stakes victory. Vacay, the 7-2 second choice, finished 2 ¼ lengths back in third. Trained by Chris Englehart, Make Mischief won the 1-mile stakes in 1:40.55 on the muddy main track.

“It was a little bit nerve-wracking in the stretch,” Cancel said of the tight quarters in the lane. “I had the hole at the beginning of the stretch, but then it started closing in pretty tight. I just had to keep on guiding her and work my way to victory. I tried to ride her comfortable. From the quarter pole to the wire, I did my job and I’m glad she helped me do it.”

Cancel, who won three races Saturday at the Big A, rode Make Mischief for the first time in the Maddie May. She’d been ridden by five other jockeys in her six prior starts – Jose Ortiz for the maiden win in June, John Velazquez for her runner-up efforts in the Grade 3 Schuylerville and Grade 2 Adirondack, Joel Rosario for her runner-up in the Seeking The Ante and Abel Cedeillo when fifth in the Grade 2 Chandelier at Santa Anita Park in late September.

Make Mischief made those first five starts for trainer Mark Casse. She prepped at Casse’s training center in Ocala late last year and early in 2021, including five breezes from mid-December to mid-January, before the Canadian Hall of Famer sent her north to join Englehart’s string at Belmont. She won her return to New York in a 7-furlong optional at Aqueduct Jan. 31 to set up her run in the Maddie May.

Bred by Mario and Dawn Martinez’s Avanti Stable and foaled at Song Hill Thoroughbreds in Mechanicville, Make Mischief was purchased by Flamingo Bloodstock at the 2019 New York-bred sale. She sold late in the second of two sessions, the fourth most expensive yearling of the night, out of the Paramount Sales consignment.

She’s one of five winners out of Speightful Lady, purchased in foal to Uncle Mo by Mario Martinez for $75,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale.

Speightful Lady delivered her first foal a few weeks later, the Uncle Mo colt later gelded and named Motown Rhythm. He was her first winner, along with $220,450-earner Speightful Kitten, the $250,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling Jody’s Song and the $115,000 Saratoga select yearling Crescent Lady. Speightful Lady is also the dam of a yearling filly by Union Rags born last April named Speightful Lily.

Make Mischief’s Maddie May victory improved her record to 3-3-0 from seven starts and boosted her bankroll to $207,750.

Endnotes:

[Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/MakeMischiefMaddieMay.jpg

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2021/02/20/make-mischief-rallies-up-inside-to-win-maddie-may/

Bankit topples open company in John B. Campbell

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Bankit makes it two straight stakes scores in Saturday’s John B. Campbell at Laurel. Jim McCue/Maryland Jockey Club Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Bankit rewarded those who backed the New York-bred son of Central Banker and made him the race favorite with an easy victory in Saturday’s $100,000 John B. Campbell Stakes at Laurel Park.

Waiting an extra week for the Campbell after it was rescheduled due to a winter storm didn’t hurt the Steve Asmussen trainee, who looked to be at his peak after a two-month break. Bankit broke from the widest stall in the field of eight and jockey Sheldon Russell let him pick his spot with only one horse beaten early.

Zabracadabra and Deal Driven raced through early fractions of :24.10 and :47.48, setting the run up perfectly for Bankit. As the field entered the far turn, Russell was ready to let his mount stretch his legs and the 5-year-old Bankit happily complied when the jockey let his reins out a notch.

Swiftly passing most of the field by the time they hit the top of the Laurel stretch, Bankit was full of run for the closing stages. He briefly hung with the trio of dueling leaders before moving on with Galerio the only horse to go with him. Bankit had gotten the jump on Galerio, who was never able to shrink the advantage, and the race was over . Bankit won by 1 3/4 lengths from Galerio, who was a clear second with Cordmaker another 1 1/4 lengths back in third. Bankit won the 1 1/16-mile stakes in 1:42.07.

The race went to plan for Russell, who knew Bankit would be hard to beat.

“You can see on the Form he runs better with just a little bit of a stalking trip so I let him break sharp,” Russell said. “A couple of the inside horses went, and he got into a good spot going into the first turn. About the half-mile pole I felt I had a lot of horse. I opted to hang him out there five wide and he just got to running. And I knew at the top of the stretch, he pricked his ears, he’s a professional horse to ride.”

The victory was the fifth for Bankit and second straight stakes victory after winning the Alex M. Robb Stakes last out. Bankit has finished in the top three in 17 of his 26 starts with $876,675 in earnings.

From the first crop of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds’ Central Banker, Bankit was foaled at that same farm in Saratoga Springs for breeders Hidden Brook Farm LLC and Blue Devil Racing. He is the first foal out of the Blue Devil Racing-raced Sister In Arms, who that owner bought for $125,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga select yearling sale.

Bankit followed his dam’s footsteps when bringing $85,000 in that same ring during the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale when sold by Hidden Brook. From there, their paths diverged with Bankit then going through the ring as a 2-year-old when bought by current co-owner Winchell Thoroughbreds for $260,000 at the OBS March sale. Winchell later added a partner in Willis Horton Racing LLC.

Sister In Arms won two of her six starts before retiring in 2015 and visiting Central Banker. The mare also has Kentucky-bred 3- and 4-year-olds and gave birth to a Good Magic colt last year before visiting Street Sense.

Sister In Arms is following a family tradition with each of her first six dams producing stakes performers. Among those in Bankit’s family are U.S. champions Action This Day and Drefong, European champion Star Catcher and Grade 1 winners Cannock Chase and Bodemeister.

Endnotes:

[Image]: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BankitCampbellMJC.jpg

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2021/02/20/bankit-topples-open-company-in-john-b-campbell/