Maconda Stayer Can Only Fill Superfecta

The Macondo Stayer

Grade III

Two miles

Firm Turf

$125,000

All horses, 4 year olds

Two miles is a niche market anyway, but this graded event at the ultimate distance draws only four starters.  To my recollection, graded glory for the two-mile specialist can be hard to come by.  There are others with accomplishments, but it is hard to look beyond up-and-coming K’S KUNAVICHE(KY).  Let’s meet the quartet:

1 175470 VOODOO SMILE(IRE)  texasace00  R Truitt   3/1    

With a pair of two-mile victories in his last three, you’d think he’d be rated higher than 368 in the turf marathon category.  It must be because only stakes experience in a solid 6-for-17 career was a third last out in the ungraded New Braunfels.  Still, there are speeds up to 105 this year for the son of Montjeu, and he is the closest to specialist to this distance in the field.  Has a chance if K’S KUNAVICHE(KY) is not the best.

2 163265 LATE NIGHT MAGIC(IRE)  desperado2  J Stivers   2/1 

Solid-enough campaign this year, but he’s not been stellar in the graded ranks – his only wins are an allowance and an ungraded stakes.  The 4-year-old Sadler’s Wells from Grade C A. P. MAGIC could still have steps of improvement in him, and he was not embarrassed when third in the two-mile Diamond Stakes back in February.  Coming off a series of 12-furlong type affairs, he could be needing the extra ground to pull off his best.

3 87234 K’S KUNAVICHE(KY)  prometheus  J Kemp   3/5    

He has thrived since bumping up to stakes territory in May, throwing the best speed numbers of his life.  That makes him 2-1-1 in his brief four-race stakes career.  He comes in off a win in the 13-furlong, Grade 2 Deauville (110 speed), and there is no real evidence that additional ground will expose a flaw.  I can’t find a reason to think this maturing son of Smart Strike, now ranked 24th in the marathon category, should fail to win.

4 27995 TOUCHED GOLD(KY)  manni138  S Dunlap   8/1    

Yes, Touch Gold is the sire, and as you might expect from that tidbit, he’s been better on dirt.  He reeled off six straight victories on it after being switched from the turf, but many were light and possibly suspect fields.  He was a latecoming second in the marathon Breakdown in July, but his most recent 14-plus length defeat in a dirt Grade 1 at the distance will likely not scare the more accomplished turf horses here.  He could have improved since his last turf tries in 2009, but I don’t know that he could have improved enough to beat the favorite.