Maple Leaf Mel and Melanie Giddings days after the Seeking the Ante. Susie Raisher photo.
New York-bred star Maple Leaf Mel, unbeaten in her first five starts and on the cusp of a Grade 1 victory in the Test Stakes at Saratoga Race Course Saturday, suffered a catastrophic injury to her right front leg and was euthanized by track veterinarians.
The 3-year-old filly, owned by pro football Hall of Famer Bill Parcells and trained by namesake Melanie Giddings, led at virtually every point of her five victories – a maiden race at Saratoga last summer and four consecutive stakes – and followed the same script in her Grade 1 debut. She took the lead from the start, set every fraction and was coasting to victory when she fell a few yards from the finish line under jockey Joel Rosario. Pretty Mischievous inherited the victory, a hollow one according to her trainer.
“I don’t want to say a lot, to be honest. I’d rather leave it. It’s just cruel what happened,” he said in New York Racing Association press notes. “I just feel terrible for Melanie and that whole team. That must be gut-wrenching. My filly ran her race, but that’s another story. I don’t know what to think right now.”
Maple Leaf Mel was bred by Joe Fafone and foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham. She sold for $18,000 as a yearling in 2021 and was added to Parcells’ August Dawn Farm roster for $150,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old purchase last May. Sent to trainer Jeremiah Englehart, the gray daughter of Cross Traffic was named for Englehart’s then assistant Giddings, a native of Canada. Maple Leaf Mel won both starts in 2022, topped by The Seeking The Ante Stakes for New York-breds at Saratoga.
NYRA Vice President of Communications Pat McKenna released the following statement:
“The health and safety of horses and jockeys competing at NYRA tracks is our highest priority and one that stands above all other considerations,” said McKenna, NYRA VP of Communications. “NYRA, HISA (the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority) and the New York State Gaming Commission will closely review the circumstances around this incident to ensure we are providing the safest possible environment for racing and training at Saratoga Race Course.”
This year, she won Aqueduct’s East View Stakes in New York-bred company in March and Pimlico’s Grade 3 Miss Preakness in May for Englehart. Giddings kept working with Englehart horses, but opened her own stable in late December and expanded it as the calendar turned to 2023. After the Miss Preakness win, Maple Leaf Mel joined the Giddings squad at Saratoga. In her first start for the new trainer, the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont Park July 8, Maple Leaf Mel won for the fifth time – a comfortable victory over seven rivals – to boost her lifetime earnings to $399,650.
Saturday’s win would have put Maple Leaf Mel into the national picture among 3-year-old fillies and filly/mare sprinters, but instead turned tragic.
“On behalf of our board and our members, we extend our deepest condolences to her connections,” said Najja Thompson, executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. “She was a star for our program and an example of excellence. Maple Leaf Mel will be missed by those that knew her and cared for her, and by racing fans everywhere.”
