When a fashionably bred horse closes out his 5-year-old season owning grade 1 wins at 3 and 5, a trainer would be wise to prepare a farewell party.
Yet when owner Peter Brant faced that type of decision with Raging Bull , he elected to delay the son of Dark Angel's stud career and return him to the racetrack for a 6-year-old campaign, much to the delight of trainer Chad Brown.
"Raging Bull is very well bred and he has all of the right attributes to be a top racehorse," Brown said. "We're lucky to have him and lucky Mr. Brant wanted to run him another year. It's definitely been worth it. Mr. Brant knows his horses very well and he felt this horse had another top season in him."
Brant's insight proved spot on as Raging Bull wasted little time in becoming a grade 1 winner at 3, 5, and 6, capturing the April 9 Maker's Mark Mile Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland in his 2021 debut for a third top-level win at a third different track.
"He's running as fast as ever," Brown said. "He has run some fast numbers and he's still doing it. He's a very consistent, sound, and reliable horse who runs fast numbers."
The $1.4 million earner will try to add to those laurels June 20 when he faces eight rivals, including two stablemates, in the $250,000 Poker Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park which will end a rather noteworthy streak.
Sunday's race will bring down the curtain on Raging Bull's streak of 12 straight starts in grade 1 stakes that dates back to his 3-year-old season.
"I've never trained a horse who has run in that many grade 1's in a row," said Brown, a four-time Eclipse Award winner. "We weren't looking to break the string, but there were some transportation issues that prevented us from going to California, so we opted for the Poker so he can run out of his own stall and prep for the Fourstardave (Handicap, G1T, Aug. 14 at Saratoga Race Course)."
While those shipping woes worked out well for the runners in the May 31 Shoemaker Mile (G1T) at Santa Anita Park, which Raging Bull won in 2020, they have made life considerably difficult for those challenging him in the Poker at a distance where he has started 12 times with four wins, three seconds, and two thirds with earnings of $874,750.
"Hopefully he has a clean run Sunday and can move forward off it," Brown said about the son of the Mr. Greeley mare Rosa Bonheur who was bred in France by Dayton Investments.
Brown will also send out Veronesi and Front Run the Fed in the Poker, one of the few graded turf stakes in New York that does not have the trainer's name yet attached to the list of winners.
Veronesi, a son of Kendargent owned by Brant, has not raced since finishing fourth 21 months ago in the Qatar Prix Niel (G2) at Longchamp.
"He was injured and sent over here and has come back well. It seems a good starting point for him," Brown said.
Front Run the Fed, Klaravich Stables' grade 3-placed stakes-winning son of Fed Biz , was steered to the Poker after missing the six-furlong June 5 Jackpocket Jaipur Stakes (G1T) due to illness.
Get Smokin had a forgettable afternoon when he faced Raging Bull in the Maker's Mark Mile and faded to eighth after battling on the front end through a demanding half-mile in :45.65. Wheeled back in the May 22 Seek Again Stakes, also at a mile, the 4-year-old Get Stormy gelding coasted on the lead and posted a gate-to-wire win.
The grade 2 winner, owned by the Mary Abeel Sullivan Revocable Trust and trained by Tom Bush, should also have a relatively easy time on the front end Sunday.
"A mile seems to suit him pretty well," Bush said. "We had a pretty soft pace last time. I'm not sure how it will shake out this time, but that worked out very well for him in that they didn't go too fast up front."
Another intriguing starter is Team Valor International's Oleksandra, a stretch-running 7-year-old grade 1-winning Animal Kingdom mare who is in foal to Into Mischief .
Belmont Park, Sunday, June 20, 2021, Race 9Entries: Poker S. (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Raging Bull (FR) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 124 Chad C. Brown 1/1 2 2Oleksandra (AUS) Joel Rosario 117 Neil D. Drysdale 12/1 3 3Veronesi (FR) Eric Cancel 118 Chad C. Brown 15/1 4 4Get Smokin (KY) Junior Alvarado 124 Thomas M. Bush 9/2 5 5Sanctuary City (NY) Manuel Franco 118 James W. Ferraro 15/1 6 6Front Run the Fed (KY) Jose Lezcano 118 Chad C. Brown 4/1 7 7Raased (KY) Heriberto Figueroa 118 Alison Escobar 50/1 8 8Tell Your Daddy (KY) Luis Saez 118 Thomas Morley 8/1 9 9Penalty (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 118 William I. Mott 15/1
