Somekindofmagician Takes the Million Turf

BALTIMORE – The way trainer Madison Meyers sees it, “It’s Grateful’s world and we’re just living in it.”

And it’s been a pretty good place to be over the past few years. The 5-year-old gelding, who Meyers says has a “mind of his own,” went to the front in Saturday’s $100,000 $75,000 Maryland Million Turf Sprint and never looked back, running away from 10 others under jockey Jevian Toledo to win the Sprint by 1 ½ lengths over Sky’s Not Falling.

Owned and bred by Gordon Keyes, Grateful Bred covered the 5 ½ furlong turf course in 1:02.29. Grateful Bred has now won five of 11 starts and is five of nine at the distance.

Coming off a troubled fifth-place finish last time out in the Laurel Dash, Grateful Bred broke cleanly Saturday and Toledo took the son of Great Notion right to the front, setting fractions of :22.54 and :45.12 before driving home.

“It looked on paper like there wasn’t that much speed in the race, and he’s got a lot of speed so we just used his speed today to our advantage,” Toledo said. “He was so comfortable in front. When I asked him, he just took off. He was basically waiting for horses. We got a good trip and he got the job done.”

Meyers said the plan wasn’t necessarily to take Grateful Bred to the front.

“If someone else had made [the lead] we probably would have sat off, but it was about playing the break and not getting hung up in traffic again,” she said. “It was unfortunate to get that wide last time out [in the Laurel Dash] and he was still only beaten a length. I was glad when I saw he had kicked clear.”

In the words of Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, it was “fare you well” from there.

Somekindofmagician Takes the Million Turf

Bell Gable Stable LLC’s Somekindofmagician seems to be getting better with age, evident by his gutsy nose victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Maryland Million Turf over Johng.

The 7-year-old gelded son of Street Magician came driving down the stretch under jockey Angel Cruz to win by a nose, registering his third victory in his last four starts for trainer Gary Contessa. He covered the 1 1/8-mile course in 1:49.

“I’ve always thought when you want an older horse to peak you have to keep him happy, and this horse is a happy horse,” Contessa said. “We just figured out what he likes and what he doesn’t like and we’ve tried to keep him on the straight and narrow with the things that he likes and he’s just delivered. And in my career I’ve had many horses like him, turf horses, who get good at six, seven and eight years old. He’s had the year of his life this year.”

Cruz said Somekindofmagician was a “little rank in the beginning,” but down the backstretch the 7-year-old settled while Ravens Delight set fractions of :23.90 and :48.31 while favored Cannon’s Roar was rated just off the leader. But Cruz gained ground entering the final turn and moved four-wide entering the stretch. It was Cannon’s Roar, Johng and Somekindofmagician noses apart coming to the wire before Somekindofmagician stuck his nose in front at the wire.

“What I thought was my nose was down on the wire,” Cruz said. “It was a good race, and it worked out good for me.”