Gold Cup Contender Melatonin Finally Ready for Big Time

Who is Melatonin? He's one of the race favorites for Saturday's Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, but his light racing career, including a long disappearance from the track, leaves questions on where this horse came from and what he is capable of.

To start, you could take a look at Melatonin as a young horse. Sired by Kodiak Kowboy, the 2009 Eclipse Champion Sprinter, Melatonin was entered in the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and sold for a mere $20,000 to Mersad Metanovic Bloodstock. He was put through the sale ring again in Barret’s Mixed Sale the following January, but did not meet his $15,000 reserve.

There’s also his race career. Conditioned by Jeff Bonde at the time, it took Melatonin five attempts to break his maiden, which he did in February 2014 at Santa Anita. After finding the winner’s circle, Melatonin was privately purchased by Tarabilla Farms, Inc. and moved to David Hofmans’ stable; however, Melatonin would not race again for another 18 months.

While things were looking up with the gelding’s first win, they did not stay good for long. Melatonin contracted Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM), which a horse can pick up through food or water contaminated by the parasite Sarcocystis neurona. EPM in horses can cause ataxia, muscle atrophy, and incoordination along with similar problems.

Melatonin’s hind end grew weak and he was given nine months of turnout while recovering. After missing most of his three-year-old season and half of his four-year-old year, Melatonin returned to the work tab in late May 2015. His first race back was a six-furlong allowance/optional claiming race at Del Mar that August, which he took in winning style.

Melatonin’s next few starts resulted in a fifth place finish in the Pirate’s Bounty Stakes, a second in the grade 3 Eddie D Stakes, and a third in another allowance/optional claiming race.

After three months off, Hofmans brought Melatonin back in an allowance/optional claimer at Santa Anita. This time Melatonin delivered, drawing clear to win by 3 3/4 lengths.

While the allowance win was uplifting to his connections, what the gelding did next shocked the racing world.

Melatonin was entered in the grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap and went off as the fifth favorite at 16-1. His best stakes result had been a second in a turf sprint, and now he was taking on top-level horses at 1 1/4 miles on the dirt. Melatonin shot straight to the lead and never looked back. He didn’t just barely hold on to win like many longshots, but he pulled away and hit the wire with a 4 1/2 length advantage.

Melatonin – a $20,000 yearling with a few allowance wins and named after a sleeping hormone – won a grade 1 race, leaving previous grade 1 winners Hard Aces and Effinex in the dust.

Surely this longshot just had a lucky day, right?

Wrong.

Hofmans next sent Melatonin to the grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, which was the gelding’s first start outside of California. It seemed easy to dismiss the gelding as a contender. Yes, he had just won a grade 1, but Hard Aces and Imperative were not at their top form and Effinex was just coming back from his strong runner-up effort behind American Pharoah in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Effinex was also entered in the Oaklawn Handicap. When the gates opened, it was Melatonin who took the lead in another effort to wire the field. Effinex proved game this time and the competitors began dueling in the turn for home and down the final stretch. Although it was Effinex who went on to win this time by one length, Melatonin proved he belonged with the big horses in the handicap division. It was not a loss to be ashamed of.

Now Melatonin is poised to be one of the favorites, along with Hoppertunity, in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita. He will face familiar foes such as Hard Aces, Imperative, and Cyrus Alexander, and looks to continue the roll that he is on. Three weeks ago he worked a bullet six furlongs at Santa Anita in 1:11.80, a bullet seven furlongs in 1:26.60 on June 6, and repeated that time again a week later.

Even after an uninteresting and quiet background, Melatonin has certainly stamped himself as a horse to be reckoned with and is ready to make some noise this weekend.

So look out for the dark horse in the neon green silks and blinkers this Saturday. Melatonin is back home in California with some serious preps under his belt, and the $20,000 yearling isn’t messing around. He’s aiming to take his second grade 1.

Besides, who doesn’t love a successful underdog story?

By Christine Oser