SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- As gallantly as American Pharoah ran in defeat last weekend in the Travers, the toughest beat of all at the 2015 Saratoga meet will no doubt belong to Liam's Map.
After running his heart out on the front end through withering fractions in the $1.25 million Whitney Stakes, Liam's Map spurted clear in the stretch to open a seemingly safe 4 ½-length lead at the eighth pole. Yet it was not to be. Honor Code charged through the stretch like the proverbial freight train and caught Liam's Map in the final strides to win by a neck.
Even on Saturday, when Liam's Map led throughout in winning the Grade 1, $600,000 Woodward Stakes by an impressive 4 ¾ lengths, trainer Todd Pletcher stood in the winner's circle and said he still felt the pain of that heartbreaking defeat in the Whitney.
"There are certain losses in your career you can't get back," said Pletcher, who is no stranger to success in racing's most important stakes. The seven-time Eclipse Award winner has raked in more purse money than any other trainer in the sport's long history. "[The Whitney] is one of them."
Yet at least the Woodward provided a much happier ending for Liam's Map and his connections. While registering his first graded stakes win in his seventh career start, the 4-year-old son of Unbridled's Song also joined the prestigious honor roll of Woodward winners, a collection of horses that reads like a who's who of racing royalty: Curlin, Skip Away, Cigar, Easy Goer, Alysheba, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Seattle Slew and Forego, just to name a few.
Oh, and there was also Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Woodward winner, which provided both the ribbon and ornate bow that was wrapped around a memorable day for Pletcher and two highly diverse horses.
You see, in the race immediately before the Woodward, the $350,000 Spinaway, Pletcher posted his fifth victory in the Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-old fillies, though never before had he saddled a horse in the race that created as much fanfare as his 2015 victor with a rather famous mom, Rachel's Valentina.
Yes, on Woodward Day 2015, a daughter of Rachel Alexandra, whose stirring victory over males in that 2009 Woodward is a consensus choice among the top 10 moments in the 147-year history of the Spa, registered her first Grade 1 victory.
As hard as the Whitney may have been for Pletcher to swallow, Saturday's double dip of Grade 1 success sent emotions soaring in a far more euphoric manner.
"These were two huge wins for us," he said. "Winning Grade 1 dirt races is the key to the breeding industry and when you can win with a filly bred like Rachel's Valentina and a stallion prospect like Liam's Map, it's great."
Both Liam's Map and Rachel's Valentina were sent off as the betting favorite in their races, but it was the young filly who was also a sentimental favorite.
Champion distaff stars usually do not produce off-spring that flatter them, but Rachel Alexandra has been an exception to that rule. She built a huge and fanatically loyal legion of fans in 2009 when she won the Preakness for owner Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stables and bested fellow female Zenyatta in hotly contested race for Horse of the Year.
Due to complications that arose during the birth of her first foals, Rachel Alexandra will no longer be bred, yet her off-spring are surely following in their dam's illustrious footsteps.
The older of the two, the 3-year-old Jess's Dream, named in memory of Jackson, who passed away in 2011, made his first start on Aug. 24 at Saratoga and rallied from 18-1/2 lengths back to win by a length.
In between, younger sister Rachel's Valentina won her career debut at Saratoga on Aug. 2 and then added Grade 1 laurels to her resume with Saturday's length victory on a highly appropriate afternoon.
"I'm glad it was Woodward Day," said Barbara Banke, Jackson's widow who now runs Stonestreet Stables and its breeding operation. "Now [Rachel's Valentina] is a stakes winner at Saratoga like Rachel Alexandra and it's just so gratifying because she's her final foal."
For Banke, it took some help from the "stork" to get her to Saratoga in time to watch the emotional victory. She missed Jess's Dream's victory because she was in California with her daughter, who was expected to give birth on Aug. 22.
Banke's newest grandson finally arrived Friday evening, and she was able to jet to New York in time to be a part of the festivities in the winner's circle for a filly whose career is certainly starting in a manner that not even her mom could match. It took the 2009 Horse of the Year 10 starts to win a Grade 1 stakes. Her daughter needed only two.
Could the daughter possibly turn out to be as good as the mom?
"It's possible," Banke said. "Stranger things have happened."
There was little that strange in the Spinaway as the last of the seven furlongs turned into a duel between the two favorites. Rachel's Valentina ($5.50), the 8-5 favorite, forged to the front leaving the sixteenth pole and held off a late bid by 2-1 second choice Tap to It in a performance that stamped her as a major threat for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. "I've always felt like the farther she goes, the better she gets. And I think that's proven to be true," Pletcher said. "I haven't really thought about [what's next]. I'll talk to the Stonestreet people and see. The options will be pretty straightforward; it would either be the [Grade 1] Frizette [October 3, Belmont Park] or the [Grade 1] Alcibiades [October 2, Keeneland]. I think she'll have one more race if she's doing good."
The Breeders' Cup is also on the map for "Liam," though there's uncertainty over which race he'll target. Heading into the Woodward, Pletcher believed the colt would be extremely tough to beat in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.
But after the way Liam's Map ($4.40) cruised to an easy victory, the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at a mile and a quarter has suddenly become an option to ponder. Pletcher said he was uncertain about where Liam's Map would run next and mentioned that he might enter his horse in both Breeders' Cup races.