BREEDERS’ CUP RECAPS
Singletary holds on in Mile
SINGLETARY (Sultry Song) was named after Hall of Fame NFL
linebacker Mike Singletary, who was a second-round draft pick for
the Chicago Bears in 1981. It’s only fitting that he live up to
his namesake with a powerful half-length score in Saturday’s $1,680,000
Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) under David Flores.
Racing in the colors of Little Red Feather Racing, Singletary
settled in fifth as Soaring Free (Smart Strike) sprinted to the
lead out of the gate to set reasonable fractions of :24, :48 3/5
and 1:12 3/5. Flores sent Singletary up to split horses while
angling out in the stretch, gaining the lead past seven furlongs
in 1:24 3/5, and held off Antonius Pius (Danzig) to complete a
mile on the yielding turf in 1:36 4/5.
“Oh man, it doesn’t get any better than this,”
winning trainer Don Chatlos said. “Here I am, just a poor
kid from the south side of Chicago where there aren’t any horses,
and here I am, on top of the world.”
Singletary beat out some of the best in his division to earn
only his third win this year, with the other two scores coming in
the San Francisco Breeders’ Cup Mile H. (G2) and Thunder Road H.
He’s also placed in three stakes this season, including the
Shoemaker Breeders’ Cup Mile S. (G1) and Frank E. Kilroe Mile H.
(G2).
The bay four-year-old moved his lifetime record to 16-6-5-2
and became racing’s newest millionaire with $1,439,732 in
earnings.
Sent off at 16-1, the eighth pick in the 14-horse field,
Singletary rewarded his faithful backers with payouts of $35, $15.60
and $9.80. Antonius Pius gave back $37.60 and $13.60 as the 31-1
second longest shot on the board and ended the $1,495.60 exacta.
Defending Mile victress Six Perfections (Fr) (Celtic Swing)
rallied late to grab third by a neck over Soaring Free, paying
out $5 and completing the $12,435.20 trifecta. The 10-7-11-4
superfecta gave back a whopping $107,388.
Silver Tree (Hennessy) filled out the fifth spot and next came
Musical Chimes (In Excess [Ire]), Blackdoun (Fr) (Verglas [Ire]),
Diamond Green (Fr) (Green Desert), Mr O’Brien (Ire) (Mukaddamah),
Whipper (Miesque’s Son), Nothing to Lose (Sky Classic), 7-2
favorite Artie Schiller (El Prado [Ire]), Special Ring (Nureyev)
and Domestic Dispute (Unbridled’s Song).
Disler Farms Ltd. bred Singletary in Kentucky and the bay colt
was a bargain as a $3,200 Keeneland October yearling. He is out
of the unraced Joiski’s Star (Star de Naskra) and has an unnamed
weanling half-brother by Broken Vow.