Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Godolphin homebred Maxfield ended his career on a high note with a win in the Grade 1 Clark
00:07Stakes before he retired to the Darley Stead Barn.
00:11We stopped in at Johnabell Farm and spoke with Darren Fox as well as Maxfield's trainer
00:16Brendan Walsh.
00:18To have Maxfield, a homebred who was born and raised here, to go on and do what he did
00:25on the track and complete the circle and come right back to his birthplace is unbelievably
00:32special.
00:33We couldn't be happier to have a horse of his calibre, pedigree, physique and race record
00:38to fly the flag forward for us here at Johnabell.
00:41It meant a lot to us, you know, we're very, you know, he's such a good horse, he's just
00:48so talented from day one, you know, we're all very fond of him, thus we're missing him.
00:55You know, he's such a great character as well, and it meant a lot to us, you know,
01:00he was our first, or my first Grade 1, you know, and he was just a pleasure to have through
01:06his whole career.
01:07Just a great story the whole way through.
01:10He is absolutely stunningly gorgeous, he is jaw-dropping, he is, he looks like a Street
01:17Sense, you know, on first impression, that same size, the physique, but he's a smoother,
01:22better looking version of Street Sense.
01:25We see shades of Bernardini through his head, his movement, his reach, how he uses himself,
01:30it's that jaw-dropping commercial walk that every weanling and yearling purchaser looks
01:35for and he's got it in spades.
01:38The two-year-old form is almost a cherry on top that you wouldn't normally expect for
01:42a horse of his profile.
01:44Breeders Futurity at Keeneland was just jaw-dropping, you know, to be, you know, kind of a tick slow
01:51out of the gate, to be trailing the field heading into that first turn, yet to circle
01:56the field the way he did and leave him for dust to win by five and a half was, you know,
02:01incredible and a lot of shrewd people called that the most impressive performance by a
02:05two-year-old that year.
02:07Maxfield, a breathtaking run at the top of the stretch, kicks clear by six, Maxfield
02:13to win the Claiborne Breeders Futurity.
02:15He was actually very consistent through his whole career to win a Grade 1, a 2, won the
02:20Mad Win at 3 and then went on and became a fantastic four-year-old.
02:26And Maxfield is the first horse in history to win the Ali Sheba, the Stephen Foster and
02:33the Clark.
02:34They were just such impressive performances, a horse who is in his absolute element.
02:39He ran four triple-digit buyers in his career up to a high of 105, which he did so on three
02:45separate occasions, earned over $2 million, never off the board and also ran a nine-graded
02:52stake.
02:53So, he kept top company, you know, at every start and he's just a really, really special
02:59horse.
03:00We kind of miss him because he was always a great character, he just so calm with everything
03:06and he just filled you with confidence because he just had such a good temperament and there
03:12was never a worry about whether he was going to put his best foot forward and I think he
03:18showed that in the racetrack, he always did.
03:20He's as cool as could be, never turned a hair, just the confidence he exuded and it was just
03:28awe-inspiring to watch.
03:29His composure, his demeanor, his presence, it's just, again, it's just that X-factor
03:35that you look for.
03:36You add in his pedigree, his dam is a Bernardini three-part sister to Sky Mesa, you know, second
03:42dam caressed, third dam laff firmed, it's one of the best female families in the stud
03:47book and the one thing we have confidence in is that whatever ability this horse passes
03:51on to his progeny, if they inherit his class and composure, they will certainly be able
03:56to demonstrate the full extent of that ability in the afternoons.
04:00He'll make a great stallion, hopefully we can look forward to training some of his babies
04:05in the years to come.