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My Typhoon lashes foes in Just a Game

My Typhoon blew up a win in the Just a Game (Charles Pravata/Horsephotos.com) Live Oak Plantation's MY TYPHOON (Ire) (Giant's Causeway) took charge early in Saturday's $294,000 Just a Game S. (G2) and never looked back en route to a 3 3/4-length triumph. Under astute handling by Eddie Castro, the Bill Mott mare got away with tepid splits of :25 and :49 while tracked by Wait a While (Maria's Mon). My Typhoon then began to ratchet up the tempo, getting six furlongs in 1:12 2/5, and she accelerated smartly in the stretch. The chestnut kicked clear of her pursuers and widened her advantage, ultimately completing the firm-turf mile in 1:34 4/5 at Belmont Park. Sent off as the 7-2 second choice in the five-horse field, My Typhoon returned $9.10, $3 and $2.20. "No one challenged me on the lead, and I kind of expected them to," Castro said. "She was going really easy and turning for home, I let her out a little bit. She won really easy. I had a ton of horse at the end." "We weren't in the winner's circle yet, but I liked the way she was doing it," Mott said of the way the race unfolded. "Going into the turn, he let her out a notch and Wait a While just didn't really keep stride. At that time I thought, 'Hmm, I kind of like this.'" Wait a While gave valiant chase but couldn't match the winner's turn of foot, settling for the runner-up spot by 1 1/2 lengths. The 3-5 favorite gave back $2.40 and $2.10 and ended the $16.60 exacta. The 5-1 Take the Ribbon (Chester House) raced in third for much of the way, yielding $2.60 and concluding the $42.60 trifecta (2-5-1). Mauralakana (Fr) (Muhtathir [GB]) checked in fourth, followed by Miss Shop (Deputy Minister).

My Typhoon is now a millionaire, boasting $1,003,361 in earnings from her 18-8-3-3 line. This was her seventh career stakes success, following victories in the Mrs. Revere S. (G2), Virginia Oaks and Hilltop Breeders' Cup S. in 2005, the Ballston Spa H. (G2) and Mint Julep H. (G3) in 2006, and the Jenny Wiley S. (G2) last time out. The five-year-old mare has also placed in six stakes, chief among them the 2005 Garden City Breeders' Cup S. (G1).

"I think she's kind of gotten better each year, and that's why she's still in training," Mott said. "I kind of put my head on the chopping block and voted for her to stay in training. She was very sound, and I thought she would improve. She appeared to me to be one of those that hadn't had her best year yet. I give Mrs. (Charlotte) Weber a lot of credit for keeping her in training because she will be a very valuable broodmare."

Bred by Sunderland Holdings in Ireland, the winner was purchased for more than $2.9 million as a weanling at the 2002 Tattersalls December Sale. My Typhoon is out of 1993 French highweight older mare Urban Sea (Miswaki), who captured that year's edition of the famed Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1). Urban Sea has excelled herself as a broodmare as well, producing 2001 European champion three-year-old colt Galileo (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), now a promising young sire; 2002 Italian highweight Black Sam Bellamy (Sadler's Wells); Group 3 winner Urban Ocean (Bering [GB]), a highweight at three in Ireland in 1999; English Group 3 winner and classic-placed All Too Beautiful (Sadler's Wells); English stakes winner and dual classic-placed Melikah (Ire) (Lammtarra); Blue Wind S. (Ire-G3)runner-up Cherry Hinton (Green Desert), most recently fifth in the Epsom Oaks (Eng-G1); as well as an unraced two-year-old colt named Sea's Legacy (Green Desert) . Urban Sea is a half-sister to King's Best (Kingmambo), winner of the English Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) in 2000.

Mott said that the July 28 Diana S. (G1) at Saratoga would be next on the agenda.

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