Chief Rainmaker Scores Easily In Gr. 2 Moises Alou Cap

Chief Rainmaker suddenly jumped into the hunt in the 2012 Derby Trail picture with a relatively easy win in the $150,000 Grade 2 Moises Alou Cap in Belgium this weekend.

The scratch-bred son of Indian Charlie won by two lengths over Brother Ben in the 1 1/16 mile overseas derby prep on the dirt, and he might be starting to look like the colt who won last year’s Bluegrass Derby, Indy Storm Cat, in that it was his second consecutive win of 2012, and he’s unbeaten this year, just like Indy Storm Cat was at this time last year, on his way to his run for the roses.

In fact, it was Chief Rainmaker’s sixth win in his last seven starts, so if you’re like me and you’re starting to draw comparisons, Chief Rainmaker might just be a little bit better, with that streak going.

“Everything looked good on paper going into the race,” said the owner of Chief Rainmaker, Dixiedotco Racing. “He had come up to the race well, and his races had been properly spaced. He seemed to be winning easily enough in his previous three races, that I don’t think he was overly taxed. It looked like a good spot to jump up into a grade 2. There were some nice horses in there, but none that you had to be deathly afraid of if you thought you had a legit Derby hopeful.”

There were indeed some very good horses in the field Chief Rainmaker faced Friday. There was Brother Ben, who finished second, beaten 2 lengths by the Chief. Brother Ben won the $1 million Sam’s Town Delta Jackpot last season.

Then there was speed merchant Overindulgence, the Aussie-bred who had switched surfaces recently and who led for much of Saturday’s race, before fading to third.

Chief Rainmaker, who jumped to ninth in the three year old dirt colt rankings with the win, stayed far back off a really not so quick pace set early on by Overindulgence.

Overindulgence wasn’t exactly burning it up on the front end, as far as fractional times go, but he was in control of the race. He was being pressured by Dragon Saber to his outside and Brother Ben to his inside.

It rather looked for a bit like it was Brother Ben’s race to win, or lose, as the son of Elusive Quality actually took the lead briefly, when he slipped through on the rail at about the quarter pole briefly, before he was overtaken by Chief Rainmaker in deep stretch, about a furlong from the wire.

It was a pretty impressive win by the Chief, who overcame a 9 ¾ length deficit to score the win. He was that far back at the mid-point race, in seventh place.

“It seemed like he was a little farther back than normal, which was a little concerning, but once he hit top gear you could tell he had them at his mercy,” said the owner of Chief Rainmaker. “That bodes well for his chances going farther. He showed that nice stretch kick that is so important in these bigger races.”

The owner of the Chief said he didn’t have any concerns with the step up in class for the colt, who was coming off three consecutive listed stakes wins. Chief Rainmaker had run in only one graded event before this, the Grade 3 Sparkling Wine, but that was as a two year old, some five or six months ago. That fifth place finish in the Sparkling Wine in Upper New York was his only defeat in seven races, dating back to August of 2011, when he won his second try in a MSW.

“I didn’t have any concerns with the step up in class. Either he handled it or he didn’t, but I was confident given that he had already hit a 94 speed figure as a two year old, and he had won handily in both starts as a three year old. So I felt there was lots more in the tank,” said Dixiedotco, who wasn’t sure where his colt was heading next.

“The ideal would be one of the preps in week 5002, since I would prefer to give him five weeks (rest going) into the Derby. But we’ll have to see how he quickly he bounces out of this race. If he’s not ready for one of those, he’ll go in the Wood or the California Derby.”

Chief Rainmaker ran a 100 speed figure in this weekend’s race in Belgium, winning the 1 1/6 mile race in a time of 1:42 3/5, not overly taxing for this time of the year. In fact, he looked like he was on cruise control when he took the lead at the 1/8 pole, and he really sort of just walked on past the finish in front of the tiring early pacesetters.

That 1:42 3/5 this weekend, by the way, was the fastest running ever in the three runnings of the Grade 2 Moises Alou Cap, eclipsing the record of 1:42 4/5 in the prior two runnings.

“The distance is always a question,” said, Dixiedotco, “and his pedigree isn’t stamina-laden at all. I would think 9 furlongs tops, with his pedigree, but as has often been shown, class can overcome pedigree. With his style, I don’t expect it to be a problem for the time being.”

And the Chief didn’t have any problems at all in taking down his first graded win of his career. In fact, it was just about this time last year, maybe a little earlier, when the 2011 Bluegrass winner Indy Storm Cat scored his first graded win in the Grade 3 Risen Star in Louisiana.

“I’m just taking it step by step,” laughed Dixiedotco, when asked if Chief Rainmaker has a legitimate shot at breaking the nearly ten year drought of Triple Crown winners. “The Belmont is so far away, getting to the Derby is the only priority right now. He doesn’t strike me as a 12-furlong horse by any stretch of the imagination. If he were to somehow win the first 2 legs, and I was FORCED to run in the last leg, then I guess I’d try him,” he chuckled.

While the owner was right in that it may be looking a little far into the future, this colt is indeed ranked ninth in the overall points standings for the Derby, a field he will no doubt surely be in, if his owner decides to send him to Kentucky on the first Saturday in May, and he is looking like he’s really starting to come around and mature as a three year, something you always like to see at this point in the Triple Crown Trail. And he’s on a huge win streak, for the moment, just like last year’s winner was.

The Chief paid $13.00, $6.20 and $4.10 to his backers this past weekend. The 6-5 exacta with he and Brother Ben paid $86.40. The 6-5-4 trifecta with Overindulgence third paid a pretty hefty $593.10.