Sea Foam closes 2021 with victory in Alex M. Robb

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

Danny California tried to spoil the party in Friday’s edition of the $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes at Aqueduct but even-money favorite Sea Foam wasn’t to be denied and held off the challenger by a half-length at the wire.

Sea Foam continued to prove that the $45,000 claim his connections made in July at Saratoga Race Course was a good one, taking home two stakes victories and placing third in the Empire Classic Handicap since.

Sea Foam came into the 2021 stakes finale on the NYRA circuit on a two-month freshening since the Empire Classic but didn’t appear to gather any rust before Friday’s stakes. He and Captain Bombstastic opened up 5 lengths on the field almost immediately in the 1 1/8-mile race before slowing down the tempo up the backstretch. Though the field tightened up at that point, Sea Foam continued to keep the lead and only a few challengers stuck with him around the turn.

Sea Foam kept Our Last Buck at a safe distance into the stretch and looked on his way to a clear win before the late-closing Danny California made his run. The finish post came just in time for Sea Foam, who won in 1:52.17.

“He’s a one-trick pony,” winning jockey Kendrick Carmouche said. “You just got to get him to the lead and let him keep rolling. [Trainer Michelle Giangiulio] had him ready off that last race at Belmont. I just had to get him to the lead and manage him from there. Every time they ran up to him, I asked him, and he gave me more, gave me more.”

Campaigned by Ten Strike Racing, Four Corners Racing Stable, Broadview Stables and Corey Moelis Racing, Sea Foam was the first winner for his trainer in the Evan Shipman Stakes Aug. 11 and became her fifth winner in the Alex M. Robb.

“It’s hard to comprehend how well I’ve been doing,” said Giangiulio. “I was always confident in myself as a trainer, but it’s hard to even think about what I’ve accomplished. I’ve put many years into this, so it’s not like it happened overnight. I’m just so happy and thrilled it’s worked out the way it has for some really good people, too. It’s been great.”

Racing in New York for all but two of his 26 starts, Sea Foam hasn’t strayed far from Berkshire Stud in Pine Plains, where he was foaled for breeders Dick Leahey and John Meriwether’s Waterville Lake Stables. The 6-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro has been a model of consistency with 16 top-three finishes and $774,745 in earnings.

Trainer Christophe Clement bought Sea Foam’s dam on behalf of Waterville Lake Stables as a yearling for $350,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings. Strike It Rich paid off the price in spades both on the track and in the breeding shed, winning the 2010 Grade 3 Boiling Springs Stakes, one of two stakes victories for the Unbridled’s Song mare. Joining her owner’s broodmare band after her racing career, she’s produced five winners from seven to race with the group that also includes 2021 Manila Stakes third Straw Into Gold.

Strike It Rich has a 2-year-old New York-bred Kitten’s Joy filly named Waterville, who broke her maiden for her breeders and Clement in August at Saratoga. After two barren years, the mare was bred to 2020 Horse of the Year Authentic in 2021.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2021/12/31/sea-foam-closes-2021-with-victory-in-alex-m-robb/

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