Deep Flame dominates Maxfield; Nu What’s New wires Hanshin

Sunday’s closing day program at Churchill Downs featured a pair of Grade 3 events in addition to the juvenile stakes.

Deep Flame’s romp in the $250,000 Maxfield (G3) stamped him as a sophomore to follow, Nu What’s New went all the way in the $298,500 Hanshin (G3), and retiring jockey Corey Lanerie was honored with a special ceremony in the winner’s circle. 

Maxfield (G3)

Juddmonte’s homebred Deep Flame ranked as the 1.25-1 favorite coming off his seven-length maiden conquest over this track. Bettors forecast that the up-and-coming Brad Cox pupil would have the measure of Bob Baffert’s Brant, last year’s Del Mar Futurity (G1) winner who is trying to regain form, and so it proved.

Under meet-leading rider Irad Ortiz Jr., Deep Flame attended pacesetter Prize Pick through fractions of :22.40 and :44.77. Brant, the 1.76-1 second choice, made a menacing move to challenge rounding the far turn. But Deep Flame repelled him and kicked away by 5 3/4 lengths, while Brant ultimately faded to fourth.

Deep Flame sped seven furlongs in 1:21.43 and gave Ortiz his 64th win of the spring meet. He was padding his stats, having already wrapped up the riding title over younger brother Jose Ortiz, who had 50 wins.

American Man, another making his stakes debut here, stayed on for second. Igniter closed belatedly from last for third, a length short of completing a “combustible” exacta. Brant, Prize Pick, and Oscar’s Hope rounded out the order of finish. Crown the Buckeye was a late scratch by the regulatory vet, while Spun D M C was withdrawn earlier.

Deep Flame improved his scorecard to 4-2-2-0, $255,156. The bay had played second fiddle to a couple of high-profile opponents in his first two starts. Best of the rest behind eventual Lafayette S. hero Trouble Calling in his Feb. 14 premiere at Fair Grounds, Deep Flame missed by a half-length to Gilded Bandit next time at Keeneland. He’s since put it all together with back-to-back romps beneath the Twin Spires.

“He came into this race with a good foundation being his fourth career start,” said Cox, who finished second in the trainers’ standings, just one win shy of meet leader Joe Sharp.

“We felt like the timing was right to stretch him out to seven furlongs. There’s a long year ahead with a lot of big opportunities left. After the way he breezed last time, we were confident he was going to run a big race today.”

Deep Flame is entitled to be a late bloomer as a May 18 foal. By perennial leading sire Into Mischief, the Kentucky-bred is out of the Speightstown mare Barbadia, herself a half-sister to Group 1 star Etoile Montante (dam of Starformer and granddam of Flavius). This is the all-star family of $14.9 million-earner Country Grammer, Bonny South, Obligatory, and current European performer Red Letter, who just placed third in Saturday’s Pretty Polly (G1) at the Curragh. 

Hanshin (G3)

While Nu What’s New’s front-running tour de force is the main takeaway from the Hanshin, Lanerie provided a suspenseful subplot with his final ride aboard Coal Battle.

Coal Battle broke from post 9, but Lanerie artfully steered him over to the rail as the field navigated from the chute to the backstretch proper. That put him into the best position to launch a bid in upper stretch. 

Nu What’s New was winging it through fractions of :22,40, :44.68, and 1:08.66, a tempo that ran ragged his nearest pursuers – 3.24-1 favorite Imagination and 4.21-1 second choice Tour Player. When straightening for home, Nu What’s New might have been expected to start feeling it himself.

At that point, Coal Battle cut the corner to offer his burst, and for a few strides, a fairy-tale ending to Lanerie’s career appeared possible. But Nu What’s New responded to jockey Luis Saez and held sway by 1 1/2 lengths. 

“He just kept finding more for me today,” Saez said. “We were going a solid pace, but he was doing it so easily. Every time I asked him, he gave me a little bit more.”

Coal Battle ran out of steam late. Passed by the clear second Owen Almighty, Coal Battle lost third by a head to the rallying Hall of Fame. Next came Neoequos, Crazy Mason, Moonlight, Dragoon Guard, Imagination, and Tour Player.

Trained by Jimmy DiVito for Doubledown Stables, Nu What’s New negotiated the one-turn mile in 1:34.06 and returned $19.90. The four-year-old now sports a mark of 11-4-2-2, $763,494.

“He just keeps getting better,” DiVito said. “We felt like a mile would really suit him, and he showed today how tough he can be at this distance. It's rewarding to see him continue to improve with every start.”

The Munnings gelding burst onto the scene at Oaklawn Park over the winter, finally breaking his maiden and crushing an allowance. Runner-up to future Dubai World Cup (G1) and Stephen Foster (G1) star Magnitude in the Razorback (G3), Nu What’s New scored his first stakes win in the Oaklawn Mile (G3). He was most recently fifth in the 1 1/16-mile Alysheba (G2) on Kentucky Oaks Day, and the cutback suited him.

Bred by BlackRidge Stables in Kentucky, Nu What’s New went to his current connections for $300,000 as an OBS April juvenile. The bay is out of Heavenly Scat, a Scat Daddy half-sister to Grade 3 vixen Champagne Problems, from the family of multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Southern Image. 

Lanerie’s retirement ceremony

The Hanshin postscript was a retirement ceremony for Lanerie. The 51-year-old native of Louisiana was feted as the second-winningest rider of all time at Churchill, with 1,245 wins beneath the Twin Spires. Only Hall of Famer Pat Day won more races (2,482) at the historic Louisville track.

After a highlight reel recognizing his overall 5,152 career wins, and a poignant interview with Joe Kristufek, Darren Rogers presented Lanerie with a saddle towel commemorating his 19 riding titles at Churchill. Lanerie will also receive a new golf bag courtesy of Churchill Downs, once it is engraved with his final win tally.