Jamie Spencer
As torrential rain hit Chicago, a storm came down on Arlington Park on Saturday as an eventful Beverly D Stakes ended in drama and controversy – and a huge slice of disappointment for Ralph Beckett and Jamie Spencer.
Secret Gesture passed the post a clear winner, only to get thrown out for alleged interference in the final strides, leaving US-trained Watsdachances (Chad Brown/Joe Bravo) as the fortunate winner of the $700,000 contest.
With Spencer riding for his old retainer, Sheikh Fahad, Secret Gesture hit the wire a length and a quarter in front of her rivals in the Grade 1 contest.
However, she had drifted out a little under a left-handed drive from Spencer, who did the correct thing and switched his stick – but not before Irad Ortiz, on the closing Stephanie’s Kitten, had stopped riding and forfeited second place by a neck to the late rally of her Chad Brown-trained stablemate Watsdachances.’
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“I’m sorry there had to be a loser in here, but I do think the stewards made the right call,” said Brown, the number one turf trainer in North America. “We were lucky both of our horses fired today.”
The question for the stewards was whether Secret Gesture did indeed impede Stephanie’s Kitten, as Ortiz appeared to exaggerate the effect of the leader’s manoeuvre. But the officials adjudged that the US filly had been interfered with and therefore had to demote Secret Gesture.
The 9-1 chance Watsdachances, a winner at Navan as a two-year-old in 2012 for original trainer Ger Lyons, encountered precisely none of what little interference there may have been. But under the rules, he had to be promoted to first place once the stewards ruled interference had taken place.
Ortiz, who rides Acapulco for Wesley Ward in this week’s Nunthrope Stakes, was adamant that Stephanie’s Kitten had suffered to a significant degree. “The winner kept coming out and it definitely cost me second,” he claimed.
Be that as it may, winning jockey Joe Bravo had reason to thank his lucky stars. “You can’t make this game up!” he said. “With the rainstorm we got, and they had her ready to run and she just loved the distance.”
For Spencer, the decision must surely have had echoes of one of the unhappiest moments of his career when the Ballydoyle-trained Powerscourt was disqualified after passing the post first in the Arlington Million in 2004.
Racing on rain-softened ground Secret Gesture had tracked the favourite Euro Charline in the early stages before being produced by Spencer after they turned for home. Under a strong drive from Spencer, she was always holding the closing pack – only for the stewards to have their say.
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