BackTrack: Heat Haze Scorches Beverly D. Rivals

While (2003 Arlington Million Stakes [G1T] winner) Sulamani confirmed his status as one of the world's finest turf runners, Beverly D. winner Heat Haze might have gone to the head of the class among trainer Bobby Frankel's turf females—no small achievement in itself.

Frankel's assistant, Humberto Ascanio, who saddled the horse while Frankel stayed at Saratoga Race Course for Spoken Fur's third-place finish in the Alabama Stakes (gr. I), agreed that Heat Haze may be the best of a great lot. Tates Creek, the morning-line favorite for the $700,000 Beverly D., was not given a chance to stake her claim when Frankel said he was unable to arrange a late flight for the mare. That left it up to Heat Haze to save the day for Juddmonte Farms, and the English-bred daughter of Green Desert out of Hasili, by Kahyasi, did not disappoint.

Jockey Jose Valdivia Jr., who ran his unbeaten string to four aboard the stretch-running 4-year-old filly, said he remained unconcerned after breaking last behind a dawdling pace.

"This filly is awesome," Valdivia said. "That's the only word to describe her. I knew the pace was slow. She kind of walked out of there just a little slow, but the main thing was, like Bobby told me, 'Wherever she's at, don't worry as long as she's relaxed. I'd much rather have her last if they're going 50, as long as she's not pulling on you and she's relaxed.'

"It felt like it was really slow. I wasn't that far off the leaders, even though I was last. I saw the German filly (Walzerkoenigin) and Rene Douglas' filly (Owsley) tugging pretty hard on their riders. I knew the pace had to be slow when I saw Dublino laying second. This filly has an enormous turn of foot. All I did was just show her something and she came home blazing."

Heat Haze ran down pacesetter Bien Nicole to prevail by 11/4 lengths, with Riskaverse another half-length back in third. Bien Nicole, the longest price on the board in the field of seven, hung on gamely, leaving trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel ecstatic.

"When they put the half-mile time up there (:49.78), I thought we had a chance to get a really big chunk of it, and that's the way it turned out. Mr. (Don) Pettinger rode a good race. If you can just put up with the slow fractions, you can run farther than you would normally."

Because of the slow pace in the Beverly D., West Coast star Dublino found herself stalking the leader, much to the chagrin of trainer Laura de Seroux. "I wasn't happy with her laying second because that's not her style, slow pace or not," de Seroux said. "I'd have rather had her back where Heat Haze was because she's a closer."

But jockey Kent Desormeaux chalked up the fifth-place finish to a bad day. "We were crawling," he said.

"I enjoyed my position all the way around the track. She ran out of steam in that canter, so we have to check the engine."

Valdivia's biggest worry turned out to be the weather. A threatened shower held off despite high humidity and a temperature of about 90.

"Bobby said he was concerned about the soft ground," Valdivia related. "He said, 'If it rains, I'm scratching.' All last night I was praying it wouldn't rain."

The course was rated "good" for the three turf stakes. Heat Haze finished up the 1 3/16-mile Beverly D. in 1:55.94, while Storming Home's time for the 10-furlong Million was 2:02.29. (Storming Home would be disqualified to fourth for interference.) That was just .24 seconds faster than it took Kicken Kris to negotiate the same distance in the Secretariat (G1T).