Safely Kept: Sprinting Past the Boys

Safely Kept battles Dayjur before winning the 1990 Breeders' Cup Sprint. (Photos by HorsePhotos.com)
Most of racing’s great battles of the sexes were contested at two-turn distances.
A mere mention of them can resurrect memories of Zenyatta’s two tremendous starts in the Breeders’ Cup Classic or Rachel Alexandra’s triumphs in the 2009 Woodward, Haskell and Preakness, or Rags to Riches, Winning Colors and Genuine Risk winning Triple Crown races, or the ill-fated match race between Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure.
Yet sprinters have also had their share of lively male vs. female duels.
Perhaps the best came in the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint when a fleet Maryland-bred filly named Safely Kept met European champion Dayjur in a matchup that added international intrigue to the inherent battle of the sexes and produced a race that will be long remembered for the manner in which it was decided.
Originally owned by her breeders, David and Jo Hayden, and trained by Carlos Garcia, Safely Kept showed her grand potential from the very beginning of what would be an illustrious Hall of Fame career.
Though she finished second on June 7, 1988 in her career debut at Pimlico, she moved forward impressively and won her next start by 6 ½ lengths, then breezed to a lopsided, gate-to-wire 7 ½-length win in the $54,000 Playpen Stakes.
After the Playpen, the Haydens sold Safely Kept to Barry Weisbord for $300,000 and he would later sell a portion of her to Richard Santulli of Jayeff B Stables late in 1989.
Safely Kept ran as sensationally for Weisbord as she did for the Haydens, winning the $50,000 Smart Angle Stakes at Pimlico by 9 ½ lengths in her first start for her new owner.
Entered in a seven-furlong race for the first time, the daughter of Horatius then weakened in the final furlong and finished third in the USFG Lassie at Laurel in what would be her final start at 2.
When she returned at 3, she was transferred to the barn of trainer Alan Goldberg and a promising Maryland-bred emerged into one of the nation’s best sprinters of any age or sex.
She started the year with a four-length win in the Politely at Laurel and then moved up the East Coast to take the Grade 3 Budweiser Breeders’ Cup at Garden State by 2 ¾ lengths and the Grade 2 Genuine Risk  at Belmont Park by four lengths.
The road show continued with decisive wins in the Regret at Monmouth and Grade 2 Prioress at Belmont.
Off that five-race winning streak, she was sent to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Test Stakes at seven furlongs and for the first time in her 11-race career she was not the betting favorite. Sent off at 5-2 odds with Craig Perret aboard her for the first time, the speedy filly was a bargain at that price as she cruised along on a clear lead and registered a length-and-a-half victory.
Returned to Pimlico, she reeled off two more stakes wins by a combined 9 ¼ lengths and then headed to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Gulfstream Park, where she was one of the main contenders in a wide-open race that featured six horses at odds of 6-1 or less.
Safely Kept’s speed, though, separated her from the rest. She carved out fractions of 21 4/5 and 44 seconds and moved out to two-length lead at the eighth pole. Unfortunately in that final furlong, Safely Kept could not resist a final bid by Dancing Spree who surged past the determined filly in the last strides to win by a neck in a track-record time of 1:09.
SAFELY KEPT FINISING SECOND TO DANCING SPREE

It was a disappointing end to her season, but did not diminish her accomplishments throughout the year. With eight wins in nine starts, she was voted the champion sprinter of 1989. The award at that time covered sprinters of both sexes.
At 4, Safely Kept had the kind of year most horsemen would covet, but it did not meet the impeccable standards she set as a 3-year-old. She started 1990 with four straight victories against distaff rivals, capped by a second straight win in the Genuine Risk, then faced males in a Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Finger Lakes and won  by 2 ¼ lengths.
Her next assignment was also against the boys. She was sent off as a 3-5 favorite in the $350,000 DeFrancis Dash and turned in the most puzzling race of her career. Ridden by Chris Antley for the first and only time in her career, Safely Kept was not in front at any of the calls and was fourth after the opening half-mile.
At the finish, she was fourth, 6 ½ lengths behind the victorious Northern Wolf.
Back against fillies and mares, she won the State of Maryland Distaff at Pimlico and a Grade 3 Breeders’ Cup stakes at the Baltimore track, but then flopped against males in the Grade 3 Boojum at Belmont Park, which was the home of the 1990 Breeders’ Cup. Again Safely Kept failed to poke her head in front at any of the poles and wound up fourth.
Undaunted, Goldberg decided to bring Safely Kept back in 13 days and give her a second shot at the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, which lacked a dominant American entrant due to an injury that sidelined eventual sprint champion Housebuster.
The 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint attracted a field of 14, but the horse everyone talked about was the 3-year-old sensation Dayjur.
Dayjur was called by Racing Post “the world’s fastest horse” during a brilliant career. Owned by Sheikh Hamdam Al-Maktoum and trained by Dick Hern, Dayjur was coming off an easy victory in the prestigious Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in which only five rivals turned out to challenge him.
Bettors made Dayjur a 2-1 favorite for the Sprint, while Safely Kept was overlooked at 12-1 odds that were nearly double her price in the previous year’s Breeders’ Cup.
The 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint produced an unforgettable duel between the lady and the European.
Unlike the Boojum, Safely Kept was once again at her best in the Sprint and she quickly grabbed the lead under Perret. After a slow start, Dayjur, in his first start on dirt, rushed up under Willie Carson and joined her. In an instant, the duel was on.
At the half-mile pole, Dayjur edged to a short lead over Safely Kept as they opened more than two lengths on the rest of the field. Around the turn and into the stretch, the two horses remained locked together, neither giving an inch. At the eighth pole they were side-by-side and were seven lengths ahead of everyone else.
Dancing Spree, bidding for an encore victory in the Sprint, would finish nearly seven lengths behind Safely Kept this time around.
The Breeders’ Cup Sprint was a furious two-horse race to the wire and in the final sixteenth of a mile Dayjur grabbed a short lead and seemed destined to win the epic battle. But then, with the wire some 40 yards away, Dayjur jumped a shadow on the racetrack.
With the European off-stride for a moment, Safely Kept seized the opportunity and valiantly kept running, putting her head in front at the wire to win by a neck.
1990 BREEDERS' CUP SPRINT

Video courtesy of Breeders' Cup World Championships
At 5 she continued her winning ways. She reeled off three straight wins to open the year, including a third consecutive victory in Belmont’s Genuine Risk, before finishing third behind Housebuster in the DeFrancis Dash.
She would run three more times, losing only when tested around two turns for the only time, but didn’t make it to the 1991 Breeders’ Cup, retiring due to a right front ankle injury. She left the racetrack with a stellar record of 24 wins in 31 starts and earnings of $2,194,206 that made her the first-ever sprinter to earn more than $2 million.
"She was life-altering," Weisbord told Blood-Horse after Safely Kept’s passing in 2014. "Twenty-five years later, Richard and I still own many horses and businesses together and Al has kept training for us. We all live near each other, play golf together, and go to the races together. She changed our lives. Besides all the thrills she gave us, the fact she brought all of us together is the gift that will keep on giving."
Thrice would been nice as far as the Breeders’ Cup Sprint goes, but in her two visits to the world championships, Safely Kept gave performances that stamped her as one of the best sprinters of her era – and as a filly who showed battle of the sexes could be just as lively at one turn as two.

Fun Facts

Safely Kept was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 2011.
She was the first Maryland-bred to ever win a Breeders’ Cup race.
Safely Kept entered the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 2013.
Her dam, Safely Home, was claimed by the Haydens for $11,500.
She won races at 11 different racetracks.
Safely Kept had 17 straight wins in stakes restricted to fillies and males.
Safely Kept is currently seventh on the all-time list of Maryland-bred earners.
Both Laurel and Arlington Park have named stakes after her.
She won the Genuine Risk, Garden State Breeders’ Cup Handicap and Maryland Million Distaff Handicap on three occasions.