Six Months Leaves More Questions Than Answers

There's the buzzer. It's halftime. Bring on the marching band and the tumbling mascots. Six months of the racing season have passed, so why not take stock and identify the leaders of the pack.

For starters, three different colts won the three races of the Triple Crown. Which three, we're still not sure, pending the resolution of the Medina Spirit  case. In the meantime, three individual winners is not that unusual. It happens all the time, or, to be more precise, it has happened 12 times since 2000, including the reconfigured classic series of 2020.

Still, three different classic winners can play havoc with the pecking order as the rest of the season unfolds, leaving the door open to a leapfrog of division leaders.Essential Quality  is currently on top, given his victories in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) and the Belmont Stakes presented by NYRA Bets (G1). But three horses finished in front of him in the Kentucky Derby, and each of those three has a resume on which a second-half championship campaign can be built, led by Belmont runner-up Hot Rod Charlie .

Among the 3-year-old fillies, it is hard to get past Malathaat  and her perfect 5-for-5 profile. In her only starts as a 3-year-old she has won the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) and the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), which is exactly the kind of first half you want to see in a champion.

And yet, Malathaat has been anything but dominant. She beat Pass the Champagne  by a head in the Ashland and Search Results  by a neck in the Oaks. Pass the Champagne has not run since finishing far back after a troubled trip in the Oaks (she breezed a half at Saratoga Race Course at the end of May), while Search Results stepped up to beat Obligatory  by a half-length in the Acorn Stakes (G1). A Malathaat-Search Results-Obligatory throwdown in the Alabama Stakes (G1) at Saratoga could be the race of the summer.

The best U.S. sprinters were all over the map through the first half of the year. Literally. Extravagant Kid  journeyed from Kentucky to win the Al Quoz Sprint sponsored by Azizi Developments (G1) in March then finished a respectable third in the King's Stand Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, while Campanelle  represented in a big way at the royal meet by taking the Commonwealth Stakes (G1) on the DQ of a badly drifting Dragon Symbol .

Since there is not much for them back home until the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) in November, both Campanelle and Extravagant Kid will dally in the Old World for now. In the meantime, the domestic dirt sprinters look like an AARP road show, featuring 7-year-olds C Z Rocket  and Flagstaff  alongside 8-year-old Whitmore , the reigning division champ. Mischievous Alex, the Carter Handicap (G1) winner half Whitmore's age, has youth on his side as the stakes intensify. Still, it would be no surprise to see Whitmore and C Z Rocket reprise their 2020 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) dramatics at Del Mar.

As for the sprinting females, defending champ Gamine  has yet to do anything wrong in two starts this year, winning the Las Flores Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park and the Derby City Distaff Stakes presented by Kendall-Jackson Winery (G1) at Churchill Downs. Even better, she tested clean after both races, in contrast to failing two tests last year.

What the champ does between now and a defense of her Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar is problematic, however. Her trainer, Bob Baffert, is banned in New York, at least for now, which takes Gamine out of the Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga. In California, where Baffert horses can run, there are only a pair of paltry grade 3 races ahead for the division. But there is the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) at Keeneland, and management there has not followed the lead of Churchill Downs in an extra-judicial ban on Baffert.

In the ecumenical turf division, there has been something for everyone, including a dead heat between Colonel Liam  and Domestic Spending  in the Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs. Those tough scrappers also have grade 1 wins on their own, which gives them the jump on one-timers Raging Bull , Hit the Road , Channel Cat , and Smooth Like Strait . Will one separate himself from the pack by the time Breeders' Cup comes around? And if they do, will it matter? That's when the Europeans figure to flood the zone again like they did last year at Keeneland, when they were 1-2 in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) and 1-2-3 in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T).

In the female half of the equation, there has been only a sprinkling of grade 1 events through the first six months of 2020. Maxim Rate  was beaten by Juliet Foxtrot  in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland, then bounced back to take the Gamely Stakes (G1T) at Santa Anita, after which Charlie Appleby swept into town to finish 1-2 in the Longines Just a Game Stakes (G1T) at Belmont Park with a brace of Godolphin fillies.

More recently, Juliet Foxtrot was upset by Mintd  in the Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes (G3T) at Churchill Downs—who didn't see that coming?—which leads to the inevitable conclusion that the current leader of the division is Mean Mary , a 5-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy trained by Graham Motion who has bagged the Gallorette Stakes (G3T) and New York Stakes (G2T) in her two starts this season. Thundering Nights , the filly Mean Mary beat by a nose in the 10-furlong New York, went home to Ireland and three weeks later to win the Pretty Polly Stakes (G1) June 27 at the Curragh.

As the season dawned, the story of older females on dirt loomed as a contest of wills between champions Monomoy Girl  and Swiss Skydiver . The idea that another mare would come along to knock that pair off the front page was farfetched, but nobody told Letruska . After converting a layup in the Fleur de Lis Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs June 26, the 5-year-old daughter of Super Saver   had won three straight grade 1 events and was poised to do even more damage as the second half of the season unfolds.

On the same afternoon at the Downs, Maxfield , now 7-for-8 for Brendan Walsh, continued his well-managed march through the soft underbelly of the male dirt division with an efficient piece of work in the Stephen Foster Stakes (G2). Races worth $600,000 should not come so easily, but no one asked for a refund. There are serious boys like Country Grammer , Royal Ship , and Happy Saver  out their licking their chops at the riches to come. But at the end of the day they all may have to deal with Mystic Guide , Maxfield's Godolphin teammate, who won the Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (G1) in a romp last March and looms as the star of the second half for Mike Stidham.

After all, isn't that what counts?