Mshawish shows off his dirt chops in the Hal’s Hope
Valid was game as usual, but in this one, Mshawish simply would not be denied. Proving that he is every bit the horse on dirt as he is on turf, the Todd Pletcher trained veteran earned an impressive, but hard earned neck victory in today’s Grade 3 Hal’s Hope.
After spending much of his career racing on the turf, and enjoying solid success, it appears the Al Shaqab Racing owned horse has found a new home on the main track. Fourth, but beaten only a length in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile last time out, today marked only the second career dirt race for Mshawish.
With two-time Eclipse Award winning jockey Javier Castellano in the saddle for the second consecutive time, Mshawish was relaxed early and able to slip into a stalking position near the back of the compact field of five. On the front end, it was Valid who made all the early fractions. The lukewarm 9-5 favorite carved out early splits of :24.26 and :46.69, with long shot Grand Shores keeping close tabs.
Always in a good position, Castellano tipped the 2-1 third choice to the outside, and it appeared that Mshawish had a ton left in the tank as he moved into a menacing position through three-quarters in 1:09.95. The battle was joined as Valid dug in from the inside, but the momentum of Mshawish quickly carried him to the lead. From there it was just a matter of keeping to the task in hand. On the wire, Mshawish was a neck winner over a very game adversary. Grand Shores was more than three lengths back in third, while neither Matrooh, nor Mr. Jordan ran to their expectations, and filled in the last two spots. “I think in the Cigar Mile when he ran the first tie on the dirt, I may have moved too soon and tried to ride him like a dirt horse and he hung," said Castellano. "I paid my price and learned something good out of my mistake. Today, I rode more patient. There was a lot of speed in the race and I tried to cover up behind the speed and make one run. It paid off today.”
Bred in Kentucky, Mshawish is a six-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro. With the victory, he raised his growing record to 22-7-2-3, while raising his career earnings to $1,920,651. Not bad for a horse that once sold as a yearling for the bargain total of $10,000
Final time for the eight panels over the fast main track at Gulfstream was a sharp 1:34.61. The third choice paid $6.40 for the win, and with the favorite easily proving the best of the rest, the Hal’s Hope exacta returned a very generous $20.00 even for a pair that figured in the five horse affair.
For the runner-up Valid, it was more of the same for the veteran, who is also a six-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro. The speedy gelding, trained by Marcus Vitali, may have been narrowly denied his fourth victory in five starts, but once again, he put forth another fine effort, the kind of which we’ve grown to expect from Valid.
By winning today’s featured event, Mshawish continued the string of turf transplants to win the Hal’s Hope. He joins Lea, who was a determined winner of the race the past two years. Last year, a six-year-old Lea returned to the races, and overcame trouble, to win this race going away. He ultimately concluded 2015 with a pair of big performances; one on turf in the Woodbine Mile, and one on dirt in the BC Dirt Mile, finishing second in both.
It remains to be seen whether Mshawish will enjoy that type of success, or even better, but the stakes will likely dramatically increase in the near future, as both the Grade 1 Donn, and another trip to Dubai could be in the immediate cards for the versatile and talented veteran.