Today’s Flavor adds Saturday’s Belmont Turf Sprint to his victory earlier this season in the Affirmed Success at Aqueduct. NYRA Photo.
By Melissa Bauer-Herzog
The Joseph Calvo-bred Today’s Flavor earned his second stakes victory of the year Saturday with a win in the $200,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Stakes at Belmont at the Big A.
Coming into the off-the-turf race after an allowance-optional victory just over two weeks ago, the 5-year-old Laoban gelding had the faith of the bettors when they sent him off as the 7-5 favorite. Today’s Flavor was bumped out of the gate by Pirate Rick but quickly recovered to take the lead. He led Dancing Buck by a length through early fractions of :22.33 and :45.41.
Jockey Javier Castellano started coaxing Today’s Flavor at the top of the stretch with fellow New York-bred Thin White Duke making a run. Thin White Duke didn’t let up, but Today’s Flavor was determined to stay in front and won by a half-length with Wit a further half-length back in third.
“That type of horse in the dirt, he likes to be put on the lead,” Castellano said. “He was going to the lead and he encourages himself and gets very confident in himself and that was my goal today and it worked out great. It was supposed to be on the turf, but it rained and the conditions worked out in my case for this particular race, especially the way he did it. I tried to use his speed on the lead and run wire-to-wire. I had a lot of confidence with him and knew he would put in a good show today and I’m happy with the result today.”
Today’s Flavor stopped the clock in 1:09.74 for his seventh victory in 14 starts, pushing him closer to the half-million mark with earnings of $474,080. Fourth in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and Grade 2 True North – both at dirt – Today’s Flavor also won the Affirmed Success in late April at Aqueduct this season.
“His win last time was just an experiment [on turf] because he is a Laoban and he’s a very versatile horse,” said Blair Golen, assistant to winning trainer George Weaver. “They were a little frustrated with him and the way he was going, and they tried to freshen him up over the summer. He breezed excellent, so what’s the worst that would happen? He wouldn’t win? So, now we have a lot of options.”
The Weaver trainee races for Reddam Racing, which purchased him for $80,000 with Waves Bloodstock as agent at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale from South Point Sales Agency.
Today’s Flavor is one of three winners from seven foals out of the Speightstown mare Evangelical, whose other two winners won three races each. Evangelical herself was a four-time winning half-sister to Grade 2-placed Worship The Moon and four other winners.
Evangelical was sold for $27,000 at the Keeneland November breeding stock sale the year after Today’s Flavor was born and foaled a Jimmy Creed filly in Korea the following February. The filly is a three-time winner in the country. Her most recent foal is a Shackleford yearling filly bred by Kim Ho Jong.
