Maple Leaf Mel stays unbeaten in Victory Ride

“Mel” and “Mel” make quite a team.

In her first start for namesake trainer Melanie Giddings, star New York-bred 3-year-old filly Maple Leaf Mel ran her record to a perfect 5-for-5 in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Victory Ride, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint, at Belmont Park.

It was the first graded stakes win and third overall win for Giddings, a former assistant to Maple Leaf Mel’s original trainer Jeremiah Englehart, who sent out her first official runners in January. Owner Bill Parcells, the pro football Hall of Famer who races as August Dawn Farm, named his filly after the Canadian-born Giddings – a fixture in Maple Leaf Mel’s career since the early days with Englehart last year. Maple Leaf Mel won twice as a 2-year-old at Saratoga Race Course and kept right on going this year with victories in the East View Stakes at Aqueduct in March and then Pimlico’s Miss Preakness-G3 in May.

Giddings officially took over training duties from there and has been preparing the gray at Saratoga with the Victory Ride in mind.

“I haven’t eaten all day. I’ve been kind of nervous,” Giddings said. “I actually have to make the drive back to Saratoga tonight, I have some workers in the morning. This will make the drive a lot easier. I was more nervous for the filly than myself. I don’t even feel like it’s about me. I just felt like she was 4-for-4 and I would just hate for her to have anything bad in her life. She’s been so good to me.”

Bred by Joe Fafone, Maple Leaf Mel sold for $18,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September and joined the August Dawn team for $150,000 as a 2-year-old at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale last May. The gray daughter of Cross Traffic and the City Place mare City Gift has won all five in front-running fashion for jockey Joel Rosario.

The 39-year-old Giddings, treated for ovarian and endocervical cancer in 2020 and is now in improved health, credited Rosario for being a steady hand aboard the young filly.

“I feel comfort having Joel on her. He fits her perfectly,” Giddings said. “I didn’t tell him anything. I just said, ‘Keep doing what you do, you’ve won a lot of races, I won’t tell you how to ride.’ ”

Maple Leaf Mel broke quickly from post five and led through fractions of :22.54 and :45.52. Two-time graded stakes winner Red Carpet Ready tracked in second with Dazzling Blue third.

The winner dispatched Red Carpet Ready as Dazzling Blue came off the rail late in the turn, but there was no reeling in the winner, who scored by 2 ½ lengths in 1:15.74. Dazzling Blue held for second, 1 ½ lengths over the Vahva in third.

Rosario said he felt comfortable throughout.

“She’s very nice. She goes out there and just does her job,” Rosario said. “She was very relaxed and was never worried about someone challenging her because she was moving so well. She was always in charge. She goes out there and shows her speed and says, ‘come and beat me.'”

Giddings said Maple Leaf Mel will target the $500,000 Test, a 7-furlong sprint at Saratoga Aug. 5 that could provide retired Super Bowl-winning coach Parcells an elusive Grade 1 win.

“That would be the goal. I hope the whole group is there,” Giddings said. “In a way, we’re all part of the team. I’ve been texting Jeremiah all day about the filly and he wished me the best of luck. I wish he could have been here with me.”

Foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, Maple Leaf Mel is the sixth foal out of City Gift, also the dam of the stakes-placed eight-time New York-bred winner Eddie’s Gift. Worth $96,250 to the winner, the Victory Ride lifted Maple Leaf Mel’s bankroll to $399,650.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2023/07/08/maple-leaf-mel-stays-unbeaten-in-victory-ride/

---