ROBERT BRUCE OUTSTANDING IN ARLINGTON MILLION SISTER CHARLIE EQUALLY IMPRESSIVE IN BEVERLY D. STAKES

On a bright sunny day in Chicago, Robert Bruce produced a spectacular come from behind win in the Arlington Million for trainer Chad Brown. The Chilean bred out ran stable mate Almanaar and Century Dream to record his eighth victory in nine starts, and in all truth he should have remained unbeaten after experiencing severe traffic trouble in his only loss last time out in the Manhattan at Belmont Park. Drawn in a bad number 10 post, Robert Bruce looked beaten turning into the stretch but a superb hustling ride by Jose Ortiz Jr confirmed that he is probably the best rider in the USA right now. Robert Bruce is a four-year-old who won his first six starts in Chile with four of them Grade 1 events. He was purchased to run in the USA and sent to Chad Brown who now has the best male turf horse in America. Robert Bruce went off at 11-4 in the nine horse field behind favorite Oscar Performance who had to be pulled up. Deauville was making his third start in the race after finishing third in the past two runnings of the race but he finished off the board. Put your bets on now if the horse gets supplemented to the Breeders Cup Turf and make sure you watch a replay of the race.

Meanwhile in the Beverly D Stakes on the card there was an equally impressive performance from Chad Brown’s filly Sistercharlie who won the $600.000 race with virtually the same come from behind tactics from jockey John Velazquez. Sent off as the 8-5 betting choice in the fairly competitive field, the daughter of Myboycharlie had only run three weeks ago when winning the Diane Stakes at Saratoga. Her career winnings now stand at about $1.5 million and owner Peter Brand has bought a good one here. After a very slow pedestrian pace that played right into her hands, she put on an amazing turn of foot to sweep by the leaders and win going away from Fourstar Crook.

The other big race on the card was the Secretariat Stakes for three-year-olds on the turf, and a New York invader called Carrick took the spoils at 38-1. Trainer of the lightly raced son of Giant’s Causeway is Thomas Porter and it was another winning ride for John Velazquez. The interesting part of the story is more in the runners up. Chad Brown’s invincible 4-5 favorite always looked suspect on paper, and so it proved to be for the head scratching Analyze It, who had the race at his mercy but blew it. He now has three wins and three seconds in six starts and earnings of over $500,000 but that is now three defeats in a row.

Irish trainer Dermot Weld picked up a check for $40.000 for his third place horse Bandua. Carrick now has three wins from just four starts and it will be fun to see how he develops in the next few months.