By Dick Jerardi
When the calendar turns to January each year and you have a promising 3-year-old in your barn, it is difficult not to consider what it might be like if the potential becomes performance that gets your horse on the road to the Kentucky Derby or Kentucky Oaks.
Those were the thoughts in the aftermath of the Parx Future Stars and Parx Future Starts Filly Division on December 30, each won in dominating fashion by a colt who announced himself before he ever started and a filly that may have cost just $5,000 as a yearling, but would go for many multiples of that if for sale today.
First, up in the Future Stars was Mailata, named for Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata. A son of star stallion Maximus Mischief and bred in Pennsylvania by owners Cash Is King (Chuck Zacney) and LC Racing (Glenn Bennett), Mailata had been touted long before he got to the races. The colt was not ready for everything that goes with racing when he made his debut on Aug. 20. If there was something he could do wrong before that race, he did it, yet still managed to be third to stablemate Tough Guy Tony. The colt returned on Sept. 20, Pennsylvania Derby Day, but made kind of a mess of it at the start of the race before making a promising late run to be fourth.
Trainer Butch Reid then outfitted Mailata with a set of blinkers, put leading Park rider Mychel Sanchez aboard and the light went on. Going two turns for the first time, Mailata went wire to wire to break his maiden Oct. 29 while getting a 72 Beyer figure. Four weeks later, back in a sprint race (7 furlongs) Mailata showed surprising early speed in the Pennsylvania Nursery, went right the front and dominated a very good field, earning an 80.
Mailata looked so strong in the 7-furlong Future Stars that there were only two other horses in the starting gate from what had been a nine-horse field. One of them was the horse that had won the race where Mailata made his first start – Tough Guy Tony.
Well, neither Tough Guy Tony nor Higher Sense were any match for Mailata. In fact, the way he ran, you wonder how many Mid-Atlantic horses would have had any chance. Mailata broke a touch slow so Sanchez steered him off the rail and just let him cruise up to the other two horses on the backstretch. The colt went by without any resistance and just kept increasing his margin until he got to the wire 19 lengths clear in a final time of 1:27.20.
When asked if it was as easy as it looked, Sanchez said: “super easy, pretty much like a workout. Plan A was to go to the lead, but we know the other horse got some speed too…I rode him like the best horse, put him outside clean, pretty much like a workout from the half (mile pole) to the wire.’’
It has been clear for a while that Mailata had graded stakes potential. Sanchez agrees. So does Reid.
“I think the sky’s the limit for him, I really do,” the trainer said. “Unlike a lot of the Maximus babies who seem to be a little distance limited, I don’t believe this horse is. We haven’t gotten near to the end of this horse.”
And it will be fun to find out exactly how far he will go and how fast he can run.
“Hopefully, he is going to be that 3-year-old that’s going to be really good,” Bennett said. “It certainly looked like it.”
Bennett, along with his partner Zacney, is in the game to try to get into and win the biggest races.
When asked if the Kentucky Derby was in the back of his mind, Bennett said: “it’s kind of in the front of my mind. I’m trying to keep it in the back. Chuck’s a little more level-headed than I am. We’re going to have fun with him. He’s a really nice horse. Hopefully, he’ll continue to move up.”
You can’t teach ability and Mailata clearly has that.
“He’s got a big old stride on him and now he’s got the head for it too,” Reid said. “His first start, he got loose and ran all over the place. Since then, he’s really settled down, acted great in the paddock.”
Law School, a daughter of Sprint champion Mitole, did not have quite the resume of Mailata when she came out of the gate in the Filly Division, but, in her own way, ran just as impressively. She had won her debut for leading Parx trainer Jamie Ness and owners Super C Racing Inc. and Jagger Inc. (also Ness) by 12 1/4 lengths at Parx, interestingly on the same day as Mailata made his first start. Ness tried her on the grass in her next start, but that did not go well. She ran creditably without winning in Delaware Park, Parx and Laurel optional claimers before breaking through with a 14 1/4-length win at Laurel on Dec. 7, earning a 69 Beyer.
Ridden by star apprentice Yedsit Hazlewood in the Filly Division, Law School sat just off pace setter and stakes winner Divine Intentions early before rolling by her with ease. She won the race by 7 lengths and, surprisingly, ran the distance faster than Mailata, going the 7 furlongs in 126.62.
“She’s just a blue-collar horse,” Ness said. “It just shows you don’t have to spend a lot. She’s a $5,000 yearling purchase. Nobody wanted her. A friend of mine bought her and we bought her from him. He called me and said she’s good so we paid a little bit more than ($5,000). Not much more.”
“From Day One, she was good. My assistant asked me today: ‘Who’s the best horse we’ve got in the barn?’ I said `we’ve got some nice older horses, but this is the best one.'”
“She’s 2 (years old) and she can go two turns. I think she proved today that she can run.”
Ness thinks even 7 furlongs is too short for her. He is convinced she is a two-turn horse and two turns, of course, is where the big money in the game is.
“It’s nice to have a horse like that in the barn, especially like us, we don’t have a lot of those kinds of big-time horses,” Ness said. “We just hope she stays healthy and sound. She’s got a good future.”
Law School’s time computed to a 79 Beyer while Mailata got a 73. The filly won’t have to improve that much to become a major player in her division. Mailata obviously will have to get faster, but the talent clearly is there. There was a serious wind at Parx the day the then 2-year-olds ran which could have affected the final times if it was changing directions. That is difficult to quantify. What is less difficult to quantify is letting your eyes tell you that Mailata and Law School are absolutely Parx-based horses to watch in 2026.
