Photo: Adam Coglianese
After missing by a neck in the same race last year behind Giant Moon, Earle I. Mack’s six-year-old Icabad Crane grabbed the laurels in the $75,000 Evan Shipman Stakes for older New York-breds – Saratoga’s sloppy Monday feature – delivering a gutsy and determined performance in that put him a nose in front of pacesetter Stormy’s Majesty at the wire.
Heavy rain just before Saratoga’s second race on Monday moved turf racing to the main track and produced a downgrade of the Saratoga racing surface to “sloppy,” which led not only to a day of racing over an extremely heavy track, but also to the scratch of Chester and Mary Broman Friend Or Foe, favorite on the Evan Shipman morning line (with entry-mate Mine Over Matter). The additional scratches of Naughty New Yorker and Johannesburg Smile left five older New York-bred males to slug it out for 1 1/8 miles over a boggy main track. Both Stormy’s Majesty and Spa City Fever had graduated in the slop, while Icabad Crane, Mine Over Matter and Saginaw had all scored victories over off going.
Photo: Debra Roma Photography
Stormy’s Majesty (#6), 3-2 post time favorite for the Evan Shipman, came out of the gate gunning for the lead and, by the time the field moved through the clubhouse turn, had secured a rail position up front. Saginaw set up in second at the rail with Mine Over Matter just to his outside, while Spa City Fever raced in fourth. Icabad Crane, second choice in the wagering (2-1) under Rajiv Maragh, brought up the rear early on, but only four lengths off the pace.
As Stormy’s Majesty carved out fractions of 24.76, 48.95 and 1:12.68 over the heavy going, he extended his lead over Saginaw to about four lengths. Icabad Crane made up ground at the rail along the backstretch run, cut the corner coming out of the turn and advanced into fourth at the top of the home stretch. Around the three-sixteenths marker Icabad Crane took third, then second.
Photo: Debra Roma Photography
With still two lengths to make up at the furlong marker, Icabad Crane opened up his stride under urging and gained ground, while Stormy’s Majesty was becoming leg-weary. The race came down to the final stride, when Icabad Crane edged just clear of his rival by a nose. Mine Over Matter finished in third 4 ¾ lengths behind the front two and a nose in front of Saginaw, who was followed over the line by Spa City Fever. After a 1:37.66 mile, the final time for 1 1/8 miles run over a sloppy, sealed main track was 1:51.42. [VIDEO]
All smiles, but looking more like mud than man after the race, winning jockey Rajiv Maragh said, “I knew it was going to take a lot for my horse to catch up. The other horse had put quite of bit of separation between himself and the field. But my horse ran as hard as he could. He’s such a hard trier. When I hit the wire, I thought I might have it. I was hoping for the best. He didn’t mind having the mud splashed in his face at all. He’s a pretty classy horse.”
Photo: Debra Roma Photography
Winning owner Ambassador Earle I. Mack, also in attendance, praised both jockey and trainer and seemed pleased with a Spa victory. “That was a gutsy ride,” Mack said. “It’s not easy to win at Saratoga and my compliments to Graham on a fine job. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, and the opportunity to win at this world class track.”
Mack also shed a little light on Icabad’s name, an apparent play on words based on the character Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s early 19th century short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” “[The horse’s name] was a misspelling at the beginning, a miscommunication. I went to school in Sleepy Hollow, so I know just where the headless horseman rode. I gave Graham his half brother [a two-year-old colt by Corinthian] and we’re going to call him Van Tassel [after Ichabod’s beloved], right from the same storybook, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.’”
Photo: Debra Roma Photography
Icabad Crane, a $65,000 Preferred Saratoga Yearling in 2006 and $110,000 OBS Calder Select two-year-old, has compiled an extraordinarily strong record of 7-6-8 from 26 starts with five stakes victories and 14 in-the money stakes performances, including third place in the 2008 Grade 1 Preakness and in this year’s Grade 3 Schaefer Memorial. He also finished second to a dominant Friend Or Foe in the Empire Classic last October. The gelding’s Evan Shipman victory, his third straight in state-bred stakes competition after back-to-back scores in the Alex M. Robb and G’Day Mate on Aqueduct’s inner oval over the winter, pushed his earnings over the half-million dollar mark to $548,895.
A gelded son of Jump Start Icabad Crane is a third generation product of Mrs. Marlene Brody’s Gallagher’s Stud. His second dam, Gallagher-bred Adorable Micol (by Riverman out of Turn to Me), was a graded winner in the United States, a stakes winner in France, New York Champion Turf Female, and New York Champion Broodmare. She produced stakes-winner and Grade 1 stakes-placed Adorydar (Alydar) and graded stakes-winner and sire Adcat by Storm Cat.
Icabad Crane’s dam Adorahy (Rahy) has produced six winners from six foals to start, including New York-bred stakes winner Our Golden Dream by Medaglia d’Oro, a $265,000 Saratoga Preferred Yearling purchase in 2007 and earner of $149,066. Her two-year-old colt by Corinthian (the future “Van Tassel,” who is in training with Motion) was purchased by Mack for $120,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September Yearling sale.
Adorahy’s yearling Bernstein filly is being offered in the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred Preferred Yearling sale on August 13-14 (Hip 258). She gave birth to a Tapit colt on April 27.
