World Record for Red Giant
28th September 2008
Outstanding sire Giant’s Causeway enjoyed a memorable weekend with a new Group One winner in Red Giant and a fine second stringer in Group Two winner Fairbanks.Outstanding galloper Red Giant (4h Giant’s Causeway x Beyond the Sun, by Kingmambo) turned in a career best performance to run a world record time and claim his first Group One victory in the Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championships on the Oak Tree course at Santa Anita.
Allowed to settle off the ferocious pace by jockey John Velazquez in the 1 1/4-mile contest, Red Giant moved up to runner-up Out of Control at the top of the straight and the two drew away to fight out the finish.
They stopped the clock at 1:57.16, with a head margin in favour of Red Giant and a further six lengths back to the third placed horse.
That broke the previous world and course mark of 1:57 2/5 established by Double Discount on October 9, 1977 and equalled at Santa Anita by Bequest on March 31, 1991.
“I knew they were going pretty fast in front of me and I didn't want to move too soon," Velazquez said. "Down the backside, I just decided to go with Frankel's horse (Out of Control).
"The conditions today were completely different from Saratoga. The turf there was soft and today it's really firm. I was a little concerned about it, but he handled it fine."
Injured and sidelined for a large chunk of his three and four year-old seasons, the Todd Pletcher trained Red Giant has now won each of his two starts this year having also saluted in the Group Two Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga at the start of August.
"He was the class of the race," Pletcher's assistant Mike McCarthy said. "I imagine he'll go on (to the Breeders' Cup Turf) if he comes out of this race all right. He's a very easy horse to be around and a very easy horse to train. He almost trains himself."
Raced by the Peachtree Stable, Red Giant was a $350,000 purchase from the Keeneland September Yearling Sale having been bred by Edward and Marilyn Seltzer, his overall record now standing at six wins and four placings from 12 starts with prizemoney of $1,092,410.
A half-brother to stakes-winner Carnera, Red Giant is from the Kingmambo mare Beyond the Sun, whose extended family features legendary broodmare Korveya, the dam of champions Hector Protector and Bosra Sham.
Red Giant becomes the 12th individual Group One winner for Giant’s Causeway, who is the leading sire of individual stakes-winners in North America this year.
Also firing for Giant’s Causeway over the weekend was classy entire Fairbanks (5h Giant’s Causeway x Alaska Queen, by Time for a Change), who took the Group Two Hawthorne Gold Cup and like Red Giant is also prepared by Todd Pletcher.
Back in form last start with a soft win at Saratoga on August 9, Fairbanks took it up a notch to win this 1 ¼ mile event by close to three lengths taking his overall record to six wins from 18 starts with prizemoney of $462,854.
The top priced offering at the 2004 Fasig-Tipton August Saratoga Yearling Sale when he made $1,850,000, Fairbanks is raced by Team Valor International and is a half-brother to another good galloper in Group Two winner Keats, their dam Alaska Queen a half-sister to Group Two winners Darn That Alarm and Strong Performance.
