Magniforma Rocks Turf World With Stunning G2 Fitness Cup Win
It was a relatively unknown grade 2 race, off the beaten path, really. And while it’s still early in the season, it was a race that was being hyped in the BTB as “The Showdown”.
There was 2011 Eclipse Award Champion Older Horse On Turf nominee Jukebox Kid, who stunned the SIM world last season when he reeled off ten wins in a row.
And then there was Can I Get Twelve, who ended Jukebox Kid’s fabulous streak with an amazing win on Del-Penn Champions Day, when he scored huge in the Grade 1 Penn Endurance.
No one else was supposed to touch those two in this 16-furlong Grade 2 Fitness Cup this weekend in New Zealand. It was the race that would kick start one or the other on the road to perhaps a 2012 Eclipse Award campaign.
But, as the racing Gods would have it, someone did touch those two horses. In fact, if you read the main board forum today, you’ll find she touched–and stunned–quite a few people.
It was a female who did it, and a lightly raced one at that.
Frankster’s mare Magniforma, a lightly raced Irish-bred scratch-bred daughter of Galileo, absolutely rocked the turf world and turned it on its ear yesterday when she busted out with a monster performance and scored a 5 ¾ length win here this weekend in the Grade 2 Fitness Cup in New Zealand.
It wasn’t just that she won. It was the way she won that had people shouting from the main board rafters.
In a simply breathtaking performance that saw the five year old mare bound out to as much as an insurmountable 16 ¼ length lead at one point Saturday, Magniforma stole the thunder away from the boys in this open race on the turf in New Zealand, and in doing so, she just may have kick started her own Eclipse campaign.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not shocked she won, as I fully expected her to run well with an excellent chance of winning that race, although I must admit she left me in awe yet again in the manner in which she won and opening up by 16+ furlongs,” said her owner, Frankster, who probably looked pretty much like a deer caught in the headlights when he was watching the race.
There was 2011 Eclipse Award Champion Older Horse On Turf nominee Jukebox Kid, who stunned the SIM world last season when he reeled off ten wins in a row.
And then there was Can I Get Twelve, who ended Jukebox Kid’s fabulous streak with an amazing win on Del-Penn Champions Day, when he scored huge in the Grade 1 Penn Endurance.
No one else was supposed to touch those two in this 16-furlong Grade 2 Fitness Cup this weekend in New Zealand. It was the race that would kick start one or the other on the road to perhaps a 2012 Eclipse Award campaign.
But, as the racing Gods would have it, someone did touch those two horses. In fact, if you read the main board forum today, you’ll find she touched–and stunned–quite a few people.
It was a female who did it, and a lightly raced one at that.
Frankster’s mare Magniforma, a lightly raced Irish-bred scratch-bred daughter of Galileo, absolutely rocked the turf world and turned it on its ear yesterday when she busted out with a monster performance and scored a 5 ¾ length win here this weekend in the Grade 2 Fitness Cup in New Zealand.
It wasn’t just that she won. It was the way she won that had people shouting from the main board rafters.
In a simply breathtaking performance that saw the five year old mare bound out to as much as an insurmountable 16 ¼ length lead at one point Saturday, Magniforma stole the thunder away from the boys in this open race on the turf in New Zealand, and in doing so, she just may have kick started her own Eclipse campaign.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m not shocked she won, as I fully expected her to run well with an excellent chance of winning that race, although I must admit she left me in awe yet again in the manner in which she won and opening up by 16+ furlongs,” said her owner, Frankster, who probably looked pretty much like a deer caught in the headlights when he was watching the race.
Frank wasn’t the only one who was shocked.
“Holy crap!! I NEVER EVER saw a lead that big before except in those freaky races where a good horse faces 3 awful computer nags…Frank’s mare can flat out fly!” posted Bill (nextbonus) on the main board. “I watched it on the Coker viewer. My horse (Lowland Lightning) was so far back at one point that I shut the thing off. I was sure he’d be distanced. Was fairly pleased when I looked at the chart and saw he got a check in a field like that. Congrats to the winning connections!”
“Kicked my ass in a dominant performance! Congratz to the winning connections!” posted Jimmy of Smokeglack Stables, who said he put his horse, Can I Get Twelve, like Kirby did his, a bit closer to the front today.
“As far as today’s s race, I put Can I Get closer to the pace at 40%, I believe, because I knew the speed was dominant. Guess I should have kept mopey at the back and made a late charge. Oh well, he’ll be back in a few, after an allowance race,” said Jimmy in a post-race interview.
And the incredible Jukebox Kid’s owner, Kirby55, was shocked as well in a thread he began on the main board forum.
“Jukebox kid started the year off trying to start a winning streak,” posted Kirby on the main board. “I had him stay a little closer to the front then before and he ran a great race but lost to Magniforma, who ran an amazing race with a 110 speed rating for 2-mile race. Should be some kind of record!”
It was definitely a Fitness Cup Stakes record, that’s for sure. Magniforma absolutely bludgeoned the previous stakes record of 3:28 2/5 set by Sadler’s Rock in last year’s version of the Fitness Cup. She blew that record away by a full second, when she crossed the finish line in a time of 3:27 2/5.
It’s still early in the season, yes, but Magniforma seriously raised more than a few eyebrows with the huge win, her seventh in only 12 career starts. And what was even more amazing was that she did it running a full four furlongs farther than she had ever run in her brief, albeit amazing, career up to this point.
And when you throw in the fact that Magniforma remained undefeated against the boys in two starts with her win Saturday, it probably means this is a mare that’s going to be very much on the turf world’s radar this season.
“She had already beaten the boys in the Grade 1 Europe Classic, so the boys didn’t scare me or her,” said Frank, who said he had actually entertained thoughts of running her in that huge DPCD Del-Penn Endurance Stakes, the one in which Can I Get Twelve busted up Jukebox Kid’s 2011 ten-race win streak a month ago.
“However, she had such a troubled trip in the BB and pretty much didn’t even run,” said Frank in his post-race interview, “that I opted to keep her at a similar distance and ran her in the Penn Test instead. That BB run was difficult to digest, as it not only cost her the race but also an Eclipse nomination. She is an amazing mare that possesses a wicked combination of both speed and stamina.”
Speed and stamina, definitely. Wicked, most assuredly.
Two furlongs into Saturday race, Magniforma (who has Dynaformer and Mr. Prospector back there in that fabulous scratch-bred pedigree) had already put five or six lengths between herself and the rest of the field. And four furlongs in, she was in front by 9 ¾ lengths.
By the time she reached the mile marker, Magniforma’s competition had lost sight of her, because she was in front by an astounding 15 ¾ lengths.
And she just kept going…and going…and going…and going.
“Holy crap!! I NEVER EVER saw a lead that big before except in those freaky races where a good horse faces 3 awful computer nags…Frank’s mare can flat out fly!” posted Bill (nextbonus) on the main board. “I watched it on the Coker viewer. My horse (Lowland Lightning) was so far back at one point that I shut the thing off. I was sure he’d be distanced. Was fairly pleased when I looked at the chart and saw he got a check in a field like that. Congrats to the winning connections!”
“Kicked my ass in a dominant performance! Congratz to the winning connections!” posted Jimmy of Smokeglack Stables, who said he put his horse, Can I Get Twelve, like Kirby did his, a bit closer to the front today.
“As far as today’s s race, I put Can I Get closer to the pace at 40%, I believe, because I knew the speed was dominant. Guess I should have kept mopey at the back and made a late charge. Oh well, he’ll be back in a few, after an allowance race,” said Jimmy in a post-race interview.
And the incredible Jukebox Kid’s owner, Kirby55, was shocked as well in a thread he began on the main board forum.
“Jukebox kid started the year off trying to start a winning streak,” posted Kirby on the main board. “I had him stay a little closer to the front then before and he ran a great race but lost to Magniforma, who ran an amazing race with a 110 speed rating for 2-mile race. Should be some kind of record!”
It was definitely a Fitness Cup Stakes record, that’s for sure. Magniforma absolutely bludgeoned the previous stakes record of 3:28 2/5 set by Sadler’s Rock in last year’s version of the Fitness Cup. She blew that record away by a full second, when she crossed the finish line in a time of 3:27 2/5.
It’s still early in the season, yes, but Magniforma seriously raised more than a few eyebrows with the huge win, her seventh in only 12 career starts. And what was even more amazing was that she did it running a full four furlongs farther than she had ever run in her brief, albeit amazing, career up to this point.
And when you throw in the fact that Magniforma remained undefeated against the boys in two starts with her win Saturday, it probably means this is a mare that’s going to be very much on the turf world’s radar this season.
“She had already beaten the boys in the Grade 1 Europe Classic, so the boys didn’t scare me or her,” said Frank, who said he had actually entertained thoughts of running her in that huge DPCD Del-Penn Endurance Stakes, the one in which Can I Get Twelve busted up Jukebox Kid’s 2011 ten-race win streak a month ago.
“However, she had such a troubled trip in the BB and pretty much didn’t even run,” said Frank in his post-race interview, “that I opted to keep her at a similar distance and ran her in the Penn Test instead. That BB run was difficult to digest, as it not only cost her the race but also an Eclipse nomination. She is an amazing mare that possesses a wicked combination of both speed and stamina.”
Speed and stamina, definitely. Wicked, most assuredly.
Two furlongs into Saturday race, Magniforma (who has Dynaformer and Mr. Prospector back there in that fabulous scratch-bred pedigree) had already put five or six lengths between herself and the rest of the field. And four furlongs in, she was in front by 9 ¾ lengths.
By the time she reached the mile marker, Magniforma’s competition had lost sight of her, because she was in front by an astounding 15 ¾ lengths.
And she just kept going…and going…and going…and going.
When she crossed the finish line 5 ¾ lengths ahead of the field, she had just given new meaning to the term “under wraps”. She was so wrapped up at the finish by her jockey M. Goff that she must have looked like a Christmas present for Frankster.
For the record, another Irish-bred, Rapaz finished second. Rapaz was as far as 21 ½ lengths behind Magniforma at the halfway marker of the race. He put on a pretty amazing comeback run to just finish second by 5 ¾ lengths.
Jukebox Kid finished third for his second race in a row, 6 ¾ lengths behind Magniforma, while Bill’s horse Lowland Lightning did indeed pick up the fourth place check. He was 11 lengths behind at the wire.
And Jimmy’s Can I Get Twelve, who was looking for his second win in a row over Jukebox Kid, finished fifth 12 ½ lengths back.
Magniforma, who was sent off by the crowd at nearly 13-1, a little up from her 12-1 morning line, paid $26.90, $12.70 and $9.10 across the board. And the 7-2 exacta with Rapaz paid a very nice $201.70.
The 7-2-5 trifecta, though, was the amazing payout. It paid a whopping $1,317.10. Obviously, the bettors were all over the Jukebox Kid-Can I Get Twelve hype.
“I’m not sure where I take Magniforma from here,” said Frank. “She came out of today’s marathon a little groggy, so I will rest her for the time being and then start looking at options down the road. I’m not to worried about the little groggy bit, at all, as that was somewhat expected after running a two-mile race the way she did.”
The way she did it–those were the key words.
It may be a very long time before we see another performance like we did in New Zealand’s Grade 2 Fitness Cup.
Well, come to think of it, maybe we’ll see it sooner than we think, perhaps even as soon as the next time Frank runs Magniforma, because she’s undoubtedly here to stay at this 16-furlong distance.
For the record, another Irish-bred, Rapaz finished second. Rapaz was as far as 21 ½ lengths behind Magniforma at the halfway marker of the race. He put on a pretty amazing comeback run to just finish second by 5 ¾ lengths.
Jukebox Kid finished third for his second race in a row, 6 ¾ lengths behind Magniforma, while Bill’s horse Lowland Lightning did indeed pick up the fourth place check. He was 11 lengths behind at the wire.
And Jimmy’s Can I Get Twelve, who was looking for his second win in a row over Jukebox Kid, finished fifth 12 ½ lengths back.
Magniforma, who was sent off by the crowd at nearly 13-1, a little up from her 12-1 morning line, paid $26.90, $12.70 and $9.10 across the board. And the 7-2 exacta with Rapaz paid a very nice $201.70.
The 7-2-5 trifecta, though, was the amazing payout. It paid a whopping $1,317.10. Obviously, the bettors were all over the Jukebox Kid-Can I Get Twelve hype.
“I’m not sure where I take Magniforma from here,” said Frank. “She came out of today’s marathon a little groggy, so I will rest her for the time being and then start looking at options down the road. I’m not to worried about the little groggy bit, at all, as that was somewhat expected after running a two-mile race the way she did.”
The way she did it–those were the key words.
It may be a very long time before we see another performance like we did in New Zealand’s Grade 2 Fitness Cup.
Well, come to think of it, maybe we’ll see it sooner than we think, perhaps even as soon as the next time Frank runs Magniforma, because she’s undoubtedly here to stay at this 16-furlong distance.
And if she can continue to combine this much speed with that stunning stamina at the end to win the way she did in her dominating performance on Saturday, this could be a very interesting season indeed in this long turf division.