Upstart colt won third straight while making stakes debut in grade 3 test.
As good as the card might be on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs, the ungraded races on the program are easily overshadowed by America’s most famous horse race.
But if someone kept a close eye on the fifth race on this past May 1 Derby Day card, they were rewarded June 26 in the $500,000 Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown. After romping by 11 3/4 lengths in an allowance optional claimer on that undercard, FTGGG Racing’s Masqueparade took a big jump into graded stakes company and registered a determined half-length victory in the rich graded stakes for 3-year-olds on Thistledown’s premier day of racing.
“He stepped up. When you win a non-winners-of-1 and then step into graded stakes it’s a whole different animal and he acquitted himself nicely,” trainer Al Stall Jr. said, “He’s on the upswing and learning.”
That upswing began quite abruptly May 1 when the son of Upstart came into the Churchill Downs allowance race after earning his first win in four tries via disqualification March 20 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. While Masqueparade had yet to cross the finish line first, he was all by his lonesome at the wire on Derby Day as he pulled away in the stretch for a dazzling win in a quick 1:48.35 for the 1 1/8 miles.
“We liked him but we had no idea he was going to run a Ragozin (speed figure) like the Kentucky Derby winner. That was a very pleasant surprise,” Stall said.
Faced with a choice of running back in the $125,000 Matt Winn Stakes (G3, May 29 at Churchill Downs) or Saturday’s half-million-dollar Ohio Derby, Stall opted to give Masqueparade more time and was rewarded with a fit and stronger 3-year-old for the bay colt’s stakes debut.
“You could see in the paddock the weight and muscle he put on since his last race,” Stall said.
Promise Keeper , winner of the Peter Pan Stakes (G3), set the pace in the 1 1/8-mile Ohio Derby, bidding to give trainer Todd Pletcher a third graded stakes win on his 54th birthday. The son of Constitution dueled with 69-1 shot Hello Hot Rod through fractions of :22.80 and :48.08 and put that rival away after six furlongs in 1:12.42. But on the outside, Masqueparade rushed into contention from fifth and joined Promise Keeper as they turned into the stretch.
Promise Keeper battled on from the rail and held a narrow lead in mid-stretch, but jockey Miguel Mena pushed Masqueparade to the front in the final sixteenth and then fended late charges from graded stakes winners King Fury and Keepmeinmind to triumph in 1:50.82 as the 2-1 favorite ($6.40).
“He’s a very nice horse,” Mena said. “I see him getting better and better every day and with every race.”
FTGGG entered the sport in 2019 by purchasing two horses at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. One of them was Masqueparade, who now has three straight wins and earnings of $422,208 after selling for $180,000 from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment.
The ownership group was organized by Wilbur “Bill” Babin, who enlisted six of his friends (Neal Comarda, Jubi Hillery, Steve Landry, Jimmy Lee, Bob Murphy, and John O’Shea) and named the stable FTGGG as an acronym for “For The Greater Glory Of God.”
Masqueparade was bred by Brereton Jones and his the third foal and first winner out of the Any Given Saturday mare Cry War Eagle, who also has an unraced Mohaymen 2-year-old filly, a Collected yearling filly and a weanling Cairo Prince colt.
Stonestreet Lexington Stakes (G3) winner King Fury, who was scratched from the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) due to a fever, was second for trainer Ken McPeek. Owned by Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimney Farm, the son of Curlin was a nose ahead of Cypress Creek Equine, Arnold Benewith, and Spendthrift Farm’s Keepmeinmind, a son of Laoban trained by Robertino Diodoro who won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at 2.
Promise Keeper was a half-length back in fourth.
Stall said he’s considering the July 31 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course for Masqueparade’s next start.
