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Tale of the Cat, the sire of MAKYBE's foundation sire featured in the US at the weekend when his top class son Gio Ponti snared his second Group One triumph of the year when staging a last to first win in the Group One Woodford Reserve Manhattan Handicap at Belmont.
A Group Two and Three winner last year as a three year-old, Gio Ponti broke through for his first Group One win in the Frank E Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita back in March and added his second with a barnstorming victory in the Manhattan.
Allowed to drop back to last in the mile and a quarter event on turf, Gio Ponti sprouted wings in the straight to zoom home and win by a length and a half, taking his overall record to seven wins and two seconds from 12 starts with prizemoney of $1.2 million.
"I was actually back there and I was a little worried because I was so far back," said winning rider Garrett Gomez.
"He kind of threw his head at the start and he shot off really nice.The only thing that really had me worried was I had Better Talk Now in front of me and next to me and it seemed like I was a little further back then I needed to be. He's never really run a bad race for me and he continues to just get better with age."
Gio Ponti was freshened up coming into this assignment by trainer Cristophe Clement and had not raced since his previous Group One win on March 7.
"This was great," Clement said.
"It was a very good race to see him come from last to first. We always thought he was a very good horse. He won a grade I race on a firm turf course going a mile, now he has won a gradeI race at a mile and one quarter on good (yielding) ground. He's a good horse."
Raced by Castleton Lyons, Gio Ponti is a half-brother to stakes-winner Fisher Pond, being from the stakes-placed Alydar mare Chipeta Springs, a daughter of Argentinian Group One winner Salt Spring.
Gio Ponti is one of half a dozen Group One winners worldwide for his accomplished sire Tale of the Cat (USA.
MAKYBE eargerly awaiting the first crop of Purrealist by Tale of the Cat this Spring. He covered a quality book of 119 mares in his first crop. Refer to news story titled, "The Book is a Beauty for Purrealist," for details on the outstanding book of mares Purrealist covered.
(Adapted from Breednet, Tara Madgwick - Sunday, 7 June 2009)