When a Maiden Isn’t a Maiden
The sixth race at Belmont Park on Sunday, May 15th, was a $75,000 maiden special weight that was run on the inner turf course with a field of eleven. The race was won in an impressive time of 1:59.94 by Mongolian Prince. The four-year-old New Zealand bred, who is owned by the Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry, paid $35.60 to win, while earning the $45,000 winner’s share of the purse.
Mongolian Prince came into the New York race with just one other listed race in the United States and that was a fifth place finish, beaten by 14 lengths, in a March 18 maiden special weight on the Gulfstream Park turf where he was bet to be the 4.00-1 third choice.
What makes this particular maiden victory unusual is that Mongolian Prince was not a maiden at all. Mongolian Prince had already raced five times in China and had recorded three victories. As a matter of fact, he was regarded as one of the most promising three-year-old stakes winners in China.
The Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry is one of the leading owners of thoroughbreds in China. In recent years Lin Lang, the head of the IMRHI, has spent millions of dollars to bring almost 1,000 horses, bred in New Zealand, to race in China. The group was very excited to bring one of their best runners in Mongolian Prince to compete in the United States and his arrival was announced in two prominent American racing websites in January.
Clearly, the fact that Mongolian Prince managed to run at Gulfstream as an apparent first time starter and then at Belmont with only that distant fifth place finish listed, raises many questions. The most important question is why did his races in China not become part of his race record when his paperwork went through the Jockey Club offices in New York.
The betting public did not have the appropriate information and the other ten horses in the Belmont Park race were not actually running against a second time maiden starter. Mongolian Prince won that race by a head over Revved Up, who runs for the prominent American barn, the Phipps Stable.
At this point it seems probable that nobody was trying to intentionally perpetrate a betting coup, but more likely that this is one of those unforeseen situations that come along for which none of the governing bodies was prepared.
As we have seen with lots of horse racing issues, the many and varying official organizations, be they domestic and/or international, have trouble working together to do what is best for racing.
On the other hand it also seems like nobody outside of the official organizations was willing to make sure that the American racing public got all of the information about Mongolian Prince. Did they all think that somebody else would take care of the dissemination of the correct information?
Obviously the ownership group knew his past record and did not make sure that Mongolian Prince’s past performances were complete. Should they be held accountable for that lack of full disclosure of that vital information?
No doubt that all of the groups involved, from the race tracks to the Jockey Club to the individual state racing commissions, had a roll in what happened when Mongolian Prince was allowed to run in the two American races. At the very least, provisions have to be made to prevent this from happening again and there should be consideration about whether any kind of official action be taken about the recent maiden victory.