Ride a Comet Beats Pink Lloyd in Kennedy Road
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Photo: Michael Burns
Ride a Comet takes the Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine
In a page out of the odd facts about Thoroughbreds book, it seems Ride a Comet, a 5-year-old son of Candy Ride , is quite a baseball fan.
As trainer Mark Casse tells the story, during the early days of the pandemic, he built a baseball field for his teenage son and his friends at the family's training center in Ocala, Fla. The spot for it overlooked a paddock where Ride a Comet was recovering from two tendon injuries that sidelined him for 25 1/2 months.
Each time the teens played, they could count on at least one four-legged fan who would closely monitor what they were doing.
"He's a pretty astute baseball follower," Casse said about a Ride a Comet. "He would just watch them."
Given his own chance to step to the plate, John Oxley and My Meadowview Farm's Ride a Comet hit a home run Nov. 21 when he won the CA$181,650 (US$138,741) Kennedy Road Stakes (G2) at Woodbine in his second start since that lengthy layoff, handing a loss to the living legend of Woodbine, Pink Lloyd, who finished third while bidding for an incredible 24th stakes victory at the Canadian track.
"He's an amazing horse," Casse said about Ride a Comet, a half brother to 2017 Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) winner Tapwrit out of the Successful Appeal mare Appealing Zophie. "He's become one of my favorite horses."
In September 2018, Ride a Comet had just become a grade 2 winner for the first time when he bowed a tendon after winning the Del Mar Derby (G2T) at 1 1/8 miles on turf.
After that sidelined him for a year, he suffered an injury to the same tendon—this time in a different spot—giving Ride a Comet the free time he needed to become a baseball fan.
"We had to give him another year off, and the rest is history," Casse said.
Mark Casse
Casse shipped Ride a Comet to Woodbine for his comeback and ran him in an Oct. 16 seven-furlong allowance race on the track's synthetic main surface. Running for the first time since Sept. 2, 2018, he cruised to a two-length victory over Casse trainee Kingly, who won a grade 3 last year when trained by Bob Baffert.
"We've won a lot of races at Woodbine this year (Casse is a runaway leader with 92 wins at the meet), and when I was asked recently which was the most impressive, I said Ride a Comet when he won off a 26-month layoff," said Casse, who also sent out the runner-up, Live Oak Plantation's Souper Stonehenge, in the Kennedy Road.
Casse was apprehensive at first about cutting his horse back to six furlongs for the Kennedy Road, but it all worked out.
"He circled the field and won that allowance race, beating a graded stakes winner, while never being allowed to run," Casse said. "It didn't take much out of him, so I told the owners, 'You're going to think I'm crazy, but I want to run at six furlongs next."'
Opting to run against Pink Lloyd at Woodbine might cause any owner to question a trainer's sanity, but Saturday was not one of the better days for Entourage Stable's winner of 26 starts in a 33-race career, all at Woodbine.
The Canadian-bred 8-year-old Old Forester gelding came into the Kennedy Road with five consecutive wins and victories in 10 of his past 11 tries, but the multiple Sovereign Award winner mustered only a mild rally, moving up from fifth to wind up third, 3 1/4 lengths behind Ride a Comet.
"He's amazing," Casse said about Pink Lloyd, a two-time Kennedy Road winner. "He shows up and runs hard every time. You have mixed emotions when you beat a horse like that because you have the utmost respect for him."
Ridden by Patrick Husbands, Ride a Comet was last in the field of seven after a quarter mile in :22.77, but then the 2-1 second choice followed an inside route to power to a short lead at the eighth pole and draw clear in the final furlong.
Ride a Comet ($6.90), who was bred in Kentucky by My Meadowview, was timed in 1:08.25 and will now return to Florida to target one-mile and 1 1/16-mile turf stakes at Gulfstream Park or Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
"We'd like to get him a grade 1 win," Casse said.
Ride a Comet and Tapwrit are the lone graded stakes winners for Appealing Zophie, who has a weanling Justify colt and a yearling Tapit filly, who was a $185,000 RNA at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Souper Stonehenge, a 4-year-homebred Speightstown gelding, was making his third start after an 11-month layoff due to throat surgery.
"He's no slouch," Casse said.
But is he a baseball fan?