Making the Grade: Flexibility

Flexibility and his connections after winning the Jerome Stakes on Jan. 2. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
Making the Grade, which will run through the 2016 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could impact the next Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Flexibility, winner of the $200,000 Jerome Stakes on Jan. 2 at Aqueduct.

Flexibility

Bay Colt
Sire (Father): Bluegrass Cat
Dam (Mother): Santa Vindi, by Vindication
Owner: Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence
Breeder: WinStar Farm (N.Y.)
Trainer: Chad Brown

After chasing home Mohaymen in back-to-back races, Flexibility earned a breakthrough stakes win in the Grade 3 Jerome Stakes. He is tied with two other 3-year-olds with 14 points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby points system, trailing only Nyquist (30) and Exaggerator (16). It’s fair to wonder if Flexibility made a significant improvement in the Jerome that would stamp him a legitimate contender for the Triple Crown races or if he just beat an easier group without his familiar rival Mohaymen. Let’s try to figure out how bright the future might be for Flexibility.
Ability: A $185,000 purchase by owners Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence out of the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of selected 2-year-olds in training, Flexibility won his debut in style at Belmont Park on Oct. 10. He shook clear in the stretch of the 6 ½-furlong race and powered to a 1 ¾-length victory as the 1.25-to-1 favorite.
Trainer Chad Brown then tested Flexibility at a mile in the Grade 2 Nashua and he ran a solid second, 1 ¾ lengths behind winner Mohaymen. The result was nearly the same in the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes as he finished second again to Mohaymen in the 1 1/8-mile race. After improving from a 90 Equibase Speed Figure in his debut to a 94 in the Nashua, Flexibility took another small step forward to a 96 in the Remsen.
Sent off as the overwhelming 0.55-to-1 favorite in the Jerome Stakes, Flexibility appeared to tower over the opposition and he delivered an impressive 4 ¼-length runaway win. For his résumé, the Jerome was a key race for Flexibility. It was worth 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and made him a graded stakes winner as well. But from a speed figure perspective, the Jerome was only a two-point jump to a 98. The good news is that he has made steady improvement in each of his four races and the Jerome did not appear to be especially taxing. The bad news is that he has some catching up to do with the best 3-year-olds in this class.
Running style: Flexibility was fourth by five lengths after the opening quarter-mile in the Jerome but he was within three lengths in each of his previous three races after the first quarter. In the Remsen, Flexibility pressed a leisurely pace but could not match strides when Mohaymen came to challenge. He’s got enough early speed to stay within striking range of a hot pace or to be just behind the leader if the tempo is slower. This style works well especially well on the path to the Kentucky Derby and is effective in the Triple Crown races where horses need to ration speed. However, there is almost always a large group of runners seeking the same type of position in the 20-horse field for the Kentucky Derby. The potential for traffic trouble is very real.
FLEXIBILITY IN THE JEROME

Connections: Longtime partners Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence own Flexibility and also raced 2014 Remsen Stakes winner Leave the Light On. They finished sixth among North American owners by earnings in 2015 and fifth in 2012, when they won five graded stakes. Two of their graded stakes wins in 2012 were won by Balance the Books, who finished third in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Klaravich and Lawrence also owned Grade 1 winner Currency Swap and finished second with Top Decile in the 2014 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Klaravich Stables is the racing operation of New York native Seth Klarman, a minority owner of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox and founder of the Baupost Group hedge fund. Lawrence is an investment adviser who co-founded New York-based Meridian Capital Partners.
Klaravich Stables also raced Read the Footnotes, a multiple graded stakes winner who finished seventh in the 2004 Kentucky Derby. Klarman earned his first graded stakes win with Subordination.
Trainer Chad Brown has finished in the top three among North American trainers by purse earnings in each of the last three seasons, including back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2015. Brown’s horses amassed a new personal-best $20,256,459 and he also finished second in North America with 51 stakes wins and 33 graded stakes wins. A former assistant to Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, Brown won a pair of Breeders’ Cup races (Filly and Mare Turf, Stephanie’s Kitten; TwinSpires Filly and Mare Sprint, Wavell Avenue) to boost his career total to seven in the event. One of the best trainers on the planet, Brown is still searching for his first win in a Triple Crown race. Brown, who got his start in the Thoroughbred industry working for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey, finished fourth with Normandy Invasion in 2013 with his only Kentucky Derby starter to date. He also finished fourth with Street Life in the 2012 Belmont Stakes, his lone Belmont starter to date.
Irad Ortiz Jr. has been aboard Flexibility for his two most recent starts. He is one of the brightest young stars in the industry, ranking second in North America by purse earnings in 2015 with $23,546,727, fourth by graded stakes wins with 20, and third by stakes wins with 46. He made his Kentucky Derby debut in 2014 with Uncle Sigh, finishing 14th.

Previous Making the Grades
Nyquist
Exaggerator
Mohaymen
Airoforce
Mor Spirit

Pedigree: Flexibility is from the sixth crop of Grade 1 winner Bluegrass Cat, runner-up to Barbaro in the 2006 Kentucky Derby and also second in that year’s Belmont Stakes. He finished first or second in nine of 11 starts.
Flexibility is one of 30 stakes winners and nine graded or group stakes winners by Bluegrass Cat. Two of his best runners to date have been 2011 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes winner Sabercat and Kathmanblu, who won the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes at two and the Grade 3 Rachel Alexandra Stakes early in her 3-year-old season in 2011. Both were very good at an early age but could not maintain that excellence through their 3-year-old seasons.
Bluegrass Cat began his stallion career in Central Kentucky before moving to New York and then to California, where he now stands at Ballena Vista Farm in Ramona. He was the leading California sire in 2015.
Flexibility is one of three winners from four starters out of the Vindication mare Santa Vindi, who is a very close sibling to Grade 1 winner Golden Missile, by A.P. Indy. Both Golden Missile and Santa Vindi share the same dam (mother), multiple graded stakes winner Santa Catalina, and grandsire, Seattle Slew, who sired both Vindication and A.P. Indy.
Santa Vindi’s best result from four starts was a runner-up finish in a three-quarters-of-a-mile sprint.
Santa Catalina won nine of 28 starts at distances ranging from 6 to 7 furlongs, including the Grade 3 Shirley Jones and First Lady Handicaps as a 6-year-old in 1994. She definitely preferred sprinting, however, as she finished last of 12 in her only start longer than 7 furlongs. Santa Catalina sold for $1.35-million at the 1999 Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
Neither Flexibility’s third dam (maternal great grandmother) nor fourth dam (maternal great-great grandmother) reached the winner’s circle, but there are a couple of interesting names deeper in his pedigree, such as 1969 Malibu Stakes winner First Mate and 1988 Rebel Stakes winner Sea Trek, who was third in that year’s Arkansas Derby.
While this pedigree doesn’t inspire confidence that Flexibility will become better as the distances get longer, he has consistently improved in small steps in each of his races to date. With continued maturity and development, he could grow into one of the better horses among this year’s group of 3-year-olds, but he does need to make a fairly significant jump to join the elite 3-year-old runners.
Let’s take a wait-and-see approach with Flexibility. If he can win again versus better competition, I’d be much more likely to jump on his bandwagon.