Horse Racing’s Biggest Upsets of 2015 - Part 2

Picking up where I left off yesterday, here are a selection of my favorite upsets from the second half of the 2015 racing season ...

This year’s Delaware Oaks was set up to be the triumphant return of the Kentucky Oaks winner, Lovely Maria. Freshened a bit after back-to-back Grade 1 wins in Kentucky, the Larry Jones filly entered Delaware Park’s $300,000 race off a ten-week freshening, and was bet down to 3-10. Chief among her competition was another Grade 1 winner in Peace and War. Completely dismissed in the eight horse field was the Kelly Breen-trained Calamity Kate. Fresh off a disappointing eighth place finish in the Grade 1 Acorn, the daughter of Yes It’s True had one thing on her side -- early speed. Speed killed as it turned out. Sent right to the lead, the 54-1 bomb made every pole a winning one. Lovely Maria tried, but flattened out badly to finish 5th, while Peace and War rallied well, but could get no closer than 1 ¾-lengths at the wire. The 2015 Delaware Oaks winner lit up the toteboard for a whopping $110.80. She came back to finish second in the million dollar Cotillion in her next start. Young trainer Liam Daniel Benson’s career is just beginning. So is the career of his juvenile son of Leroidesanimaux, Expected Ruler. Together, the two pulled off a big surprise on the Jersey Shore in early August, when the colt, owned by Benson’s father, made his career debut in the Tyro Stakes. Sent off at 47-1, Expected Ruler sat near the back of the pack early on in the five furlong sprint for two-year-olds. Saving ground on the inside, he shot through an opening under Wilmer Garcia, and sprinted clear to a decisive 2 ½-length victory. He rewarded his backers with a $96.60 windfall, and completed the distance over the Monmouth Park turf in a snappy :56 4/5. He finished well beaten in two graded stakes in Kentucky since then, but look for the career debut stakes winner to be back sprinting for Benson and Benson to begin 2016.

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Third in the Belmont, and a fast closing second in the Haskell, in most years, Keen Ice would not have been a long shot in the Mid-Summer Derby, but of course, most years would not include a Triple Crown winner on an eight race win streak. After losing his career debut, only one horse would ever finish in front of American Pharoah. That honor goes to Keen Ice, who swooped in late to run right by American racing’s superstar in the last 50 yards of the Travers. Keen Ice paid $34.00 for the win, while American Pharoah, who had been hounded by the talented Frosted through fast middle fractions, finished a game second. For Keen Ice, it remains his only win outside a maiden. For American Pharoah, it was the only blip on an otherwise perfect season of historic feats. For Saratoga, it was one more reason why the upstate New York oasis has earned the reputation for being the graveyard of favorites. The Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland is arguably the most prestigious race in the country specifically for three-year-old turf fillies. As usual, this year’s running attracted a solid field of nine. The red-hot Sentiero Italia was made an odds-on favorite, while four other fillies, with plenty to like, were sent off at odds lower than 10-1. None of them would win, however. Instead it would be the seventh choice, Her Emmynency, who would get the job done. Despite coming off a solid second place finish in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, the lightly raced California filly was sent off at 19-1. Making a strong move on the far turn, she struck the lead quickly, and led the field into the stretch. Blocking Miss Temple City’s move up the rail, she looked home free at the sixteenth pole, but that rival, came again on the outside, and just missed nailing the long shot. Her Emmynency would not be the only big upsetter ridden by Florent Geroux this fall at Keeneland. It was more of a treat than a trick for all those that had Mongolian Saturday on top in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Halloween afternoon. In front of a capacity crowd at Keeneland, the five-year-old speedster was not one of the longest shots in the 5 ½-furlong event, but at just a shade under 16-1, he entered the starting gate as the eighth choice in the big field of 14. Able to get a prime stalking position from his outside post, it was clear that he had come to run on the far turn, as he powerfully ranged up to the early leader, Ready for Rye. Sure enough, the horse who had finished second in last four stakes attempts, bounded to the lead in early stretch, under Florent Geroux, and braced for the oncoming challengers. In the end, it was the diminutive filly, Lady Shipman, who tested his will to win, but the international owned gelding was just able to hold on by the skin of his teeth, paying $33.80 to win in the process. And last but not least, the most recent big upset of 2015 happened less than two weeks ago in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes on the Del Mar Turf. The $300,000 race attracted a gaggle of turf mares looking to finish their season off in style, and of the 14, only one was less preferred by the bettors than Stormy Lucy at 65-1. Her job was made a little easier when one of the favorites, Hard Not To Like, stumbled badly out of the gate, but the six-year-old Stormy Lucy still needed every inch of the one-mile test to successfully uncork her late run to nail Recepta on the wire, under Kent Desormeaux. The daughter of Stormy Atlantic tilted the tote with a $2 win payoff of $132.80. The victory was not only the biggest of her career, but it was also her first win in more than a year and a half. Interestingly, in her only other Grade 1 race attempt of the year, she led in the stretch of the Gamely, before finishing a good third at 24-1. In case you missed it, check out Horse Racing’s Biggest Upsets of 2015 - Part 1, for the biggest shockers from the first half of the year.