Xtra Heat Stakes Claim to History
Xtra Heat, a small filly capable of big accomplishments, replaced Susan’s Girl as the top career stakes winner among females Saturday by coming home a 1 3/4-length winner in the fog in Laurel, Md.
By winning the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap, Xtra Heat registered her 25th stakes win, breaking a tie with Susan’s Girl, a Hall of Fame distaffer who became the first filly to earn $1 million when she raced from 1971 to ’75. Susan’s Girl was a three-time divisional champion.
Ridden by Rick Wilson, Xtra Heat out-finished Carson Hollow, who went into the race with five wins and a second in seven starts. Xtra Heat, who had to wait a week to run in the Fritchie because of bad weather in Maryland, rang up her 26th win in 35 starts. The 5-year-old mare, who’s trained by John Salzman, also has five seconds and two thirds, and purses of $2.4 million.
The only win -- and start -- by Xtra Heat that hasn’t been in a stakes race came in her first race, running for a $25,000 claiming tag, at Laurel in June 2000. That was shortly after her original owners, three Marylanders including Salzman, had bought her for $5,000 at an auction of unraced 2-year-olds. After a sixth-place finish in last October’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Xtra Heat failed to bring a high enough price in a Kentucky auction and was sold privately the next day to S. David Plummer and his partners for $1.5 million.
Salzman has continued to train Xtra Heat. “She is game and she proved how good she is,” Salzman said after Saturday’s race, which was run on a sloppy track. “The other filly [Carson Hollow] had never been outrun except for the day she was sick [and finished last] in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. My filly deserves this record. You look at her [small size] and she is truly amazing.”
Typically, racing’s record books don’t always agree, but the consensus is that Exterminator, who won the 1918 Kentucky Derby and ran 100 times before he was retired in 1924, won 33 stakes and holds the overall record. Others still ahead of Xtra Heat on the stakes list are John Henry with 30 wins and Who Doctor Who with 26. Stymie and Little Bold John also won 25 stakes apiece.
Seven of Xtra Heat’s 25 stakes wins have come at Laurel, where she regularly trains. She’s also won stakes at seven other tracks -- four each at Belmont Park, Aqueduct and Delaware Park; two apiece at Keeneland and Pimlico, and one each at Philadelphia Park and Charles Town. Xtra Heat has seven graded stakes wins, the only Grade I coming in the 2001 Prioress at Belmont.
Winning the Fritchie for the second consecutive year, Xtra Heat carried high weight of 125 pounds, six more than Carson Hollow. The winner, who paid $6 as she went off favored for the 24th time, covered seven furlongs in 1:24 3/5.
Plummer said his group bought Xtra Heat as a broodmare prospect, which might mean her last race will be the $2-million Dubai Golden Shaheen Stakes, March 29 in the United Arab Emirates. She finished third in the race last year.
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Harlan’s Holiday could be headed for the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 29 after he became only the second horse to win both the Florida Derby and the Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park. Harlan’s Holiday, winner of the Florida Derby last year, won the $500,000 Donn on Saturday, beating Hero’s Tribute by 2 1/2 lengths. The only other Florida Derby-Donn double was posted by Cryptoclearance in 1987 and 1989.
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My Cousin Matt, running for the first time since his sixth-place finish in the Malibu at Santa Anita, won the $200,000 General George Handicap at Laurel, where Disturbingthepeace was third and D’wildcat ninth.... Bob Hess Jr., who trains D’wildcat, had better luck at Santa Anita, where he won the $135,500 Las Flores Handicap with Spring Meadow.... El Dorado Shooter won the $100,000 Ken Maddy Sprint Handicap at Golden Gate Fields.