Appealing Tale Wins Kelso, Honor Code Third

Gary Barber's Breeders' Cup hopeful Appealing Tale shipped from California to New York and enjoyed the visit, dashing gate-to-wire in the $400,000 Kelso Handicap (gr. II) at Belmont Park.

The Peter Miller trainee came off an Aug. 22 victory in the Pat O'Brien Stakes (gr. II) at Del Mar and will conintue his jetsetting ways, likely heading to the Oct. 30 Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) at Keeneland. In nine starts this season, he has been first or second in all but two races.

"On to the Breeders' Cup next," Miller said. "We'll cross enter in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) and Breeders' Cup (Dirt) Mile, but we'll probably lean more on entering in the (Dirt) Mile."

Multiple grade I winner Honor Code, expected for the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I), rallied to finish third but was nowhere near the winner, who ran a mile in 1:34.86 on a sloppy sealed track under jockey Joe Talamo. Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, however, said Honor Code will continue on to the Breeders' Cup as planned.

"The way things came up, it wasn't his day," McGaughey said. "He'll be fine (for the Breeders' Cup). I really thought he would like (the track surface) OK. He's run good in it at Saratoga at times. But, like I said, in the second race, it looked like (speed) was holding a little bit. I got a little bit concerned there. It looked like, when he came down on the inside, he was struggling a little bit."

Red Vine, coming off a third in the TVG Pacific Classic (gr. I), was second by 1 3/4 lengths to Appealing Tale, who set easy fractions of :23.50 and :46.35 before getting three-quarters in 1:09.89 en route to his second straight graded win.

"We had a perfect trip," Talamo said. "We went to the front and I kind of let him set his own fractions. Turning for home, I wanted to try and open up a little bit because I knew, obviously, that Honor Code and the horses were coming. But that was just an unbelievable performance.

"He's only run on a wet track one time in California and he won on it. But obviously, that was a long time ago. I think that was when he broke his maiden. I just loved the way he did it today. He wasn't really keen, he was very relaxed, (and) took a couple of deep breaths around the far turn. I was very impressed with him today." 

Off at odds of 6-1 in a field of seven, Appealing Tale paid $15.20, $4.70, and $3.40. Red Vine brought $5.50 and $2.80, while Honor Code paid $2.10 as the 3-5 favorite. Tamarkuz, Mylute, Scarly Charly, and Matterhorn completed the order of finish.

Appealing Tale was bred in Kentucky by Hart Farm out of the Unbridled's Song mare Appealing Bride, and improved his career tally to 6-6-6 from 25 starts for earnings of $773,222.