A fast polo pony many years ago led to a celebration in the Arlington winner’s circle Sunday after the $500,000 Grade I Beverly D.
Owner John Phillips traced the breathtaking neck victory by Memories of Silver down his bloodlines to his grandfather.
“This is really the third generation. Grandpa started it with the polo ball and stick,” said Phillips, who owns Memories of Silver with his mother, Joan. “He had a fast polo pony and he took it to the Fair Grounds and it won and he decided the thoroughbred business was kind of fun.
“The nice thing about this race with this horse for ourselves is that she’s a homebred, not only in the first generation but in multiple generations. The female side of the family was started many, many years ago by my grandfather. It’s a special thrill for us to win this prestigious of a race.”
Those years of careful planning paid off 300,000 different ways. The win pushed Memories of Silver’s career earnings to $923,465, gleaned from a record or six wins, two seconds and three thirds in 12 starts.
Jockey Jerry Bailey had a plan for the Beverly D. But his ideas were soon changed for him.
“I kind of figured Escena would be on the lead, the Irish filly (Dance Design) would be in second,” Bailey said. “I was going to be tracking in third and probably move out and make a nice little run at the top of the stretch.
“But it unfolded a little different, and I was tucked in along the fence and I just had to take what the race had given me and that was an inside trip.”
Instead favored Dance Design rushed to the lead, setting fractions likely unequaled in her European career, with Escena resigned to a stalking role 1 1/2 lengths off the early pace. When the pace began to back up turning for home, Bailey found himself boxed in along the rail.
“The good thing about this filly is she has a tremendously quick turn of foot,” Bailey said. “If a hole opens she can be there. It doesn’t take her 100 yards to get her momentum up and in the hole, because it can close in that amount of time. So she gives me a lot of confidence to do things like come through the fence like that.”
With Dance Design drifting slightly off the rail, the Eclipse Award-winning jockey boldly shot through a narrow opening to make the winning move.
Memories of Silver paid $7.40, $3.80 and $2.40 as the second race favorite and exacted her revenge over New York foe Maxzene, who finished second.
“She ran a dynamite race,” said Maxzene’s pilot, Mike Smith. “I got her (Memories of Silver) once (in the Grade II New York Handicap July 12 at Belmont Park) and she got me once. I guess you could say it’s becoming a rivalry. Hopefully we’ll turn the tables next time.
“She (Maxzene) was a little bit too eager down the backside, but other than that she was great. She’s only going to get better.”
When plans were being discussed for Memories of Silver’s 1997 future, trainer James Toner plotted out 1 1/4-mile ventures in the Flower Bowl at Belmont, and the Yellow Ribbon and Matriarch on the West Coast.
The turf star’s racing plans for next season are uncertain. But John Phillips was sure of one important contributing factor:
“We’ll have to see. But she (his mother) likes the winner’s circle. And I don’t blame her.”
