by Brett Sturman

Following Monday’s (March 27) second leg of the Borgata Pacing series at Yonkers Raceway, only two horses remain unbeaten in the series. Both are Australian imports, neither of whom won on U.S. soil until just this year. They are former Australian champion Lochinvar Art A and at least based on international record prior to coming here, the far lesser heralded Idealsomemagic A.

A 9-year-old gelding, Idealsomemagic A is by NY-standing American Ideal and out of an Australian mare named Lifes Just Magic. Imported last year, his first win stateside was just over two months ago at Yonkers in what was essentially a bottom level NW5000L5 conditioned race. From there, the rest is history.

Co-owned by the VIP Internet Stable and Bukers Stable and trained by Cory Stratton, Idealsomemagic A has already surpassed all realistic expectations.

“Us and Ron Buker imported him last year, but it took a couple of months to get him racing,” said VIP owner Tom Janes. “He had been off for a little bit of the time before he came over too and he actually got pretty sick after qualifying in November. Then he qualified back again in December and from there we raced him really easy once or twice and then after that he’s just taken off. I’m really happily surprised every week that he races. It’s hard to tell where the bottom is for him.”

After his first win on Jan. 18, Idealsomemagic reeled off four more straight wins, each enroute to climbing the ladder to the top of the Yonkers’ condition book. His lone loss since his streak came in the open handicap at the end of February when he was raced from off the pace and was very strong in closing from well out of it to be second in a race won by Leonidas A.

As for exceeding expectations, “We certainly did not bring him over with anything like this in mind,” Janes said. “There’s difficulty in buying horses that are sound and good in the States; it can be challenging. So, like a lot of other people we’ve been dipping our toes into buying and importing horses and we thought this one looked okay and that hopefully he’d be a nice overnight horse.

“And after two or three wins, Jordan [Stratton, who drives Idealsomemagic A] told Cory that we might want to put him in the Borgata. And I was skeptical and kind of wanted to wait right up to the deadline and watch him race another time or two, but it came to the point where it was kind of hard to argue: this horse just looked really, really good. And even though we paid the nomination payment, we just didn’t have any sense as to what kind of horse he is; he just keeps getting better and better.”

With a leg three showdown coming up against Jimmy Freight, Idealsomemagic has passed every challenge thrown at him thus far.

“I think a big part of it is that he tries extraordinarily hard, it just seems like he’s always charging through the stretch,” Janes said. “In his first several races at Yonkers this year he went right to the front and looking back now he was clearly better than those horses, but we didn’t know that at the time. And he just did it so easy.

“Maybe his first three or four starts I don’t think Jordan moved a muscle the entire mile and the horse was all on his own drawing off. Even Monday in a race against Leonidas, once he got to the front, the horse was kind of on cruise control and looked like he had it well in hand.”

While enjoying a high level of success with Idealsomemagic A, the import game for VIP Stable has historically been tricky.

“It’s always been hit or miss,” Janes said. “Some horses would be good, some would be terrible, some come to us with problems and you just don’t know for sure how they’re going to be. You’re at the mercy of a lot of factors we don’t have control over.

“In this case, we brought Idealsomemagic over but also brought over two mares with him who have been training really well and should qualify in the next two to three weeks. And we actually just landed another horse last week from the same owner and trainer as Idealsomemagic A and he’s just as high on this one as Idealsomemagic. Now, I take that with an enormous grain of salt, I don’t think that’s possible. But if he’s even a third as good then he’ll pay his way.”

Elsewhere in the Borgata series, Lochinvar Art A put forth his most impressive race at Yonkers to date this past Monday (March 27). Raced in stormy conditions, he took back at the start and was next to last after a half mile in :56.4. Having to go wide off less than great cover into the final turn, it still looked hard to see how he would be able to reach, but once into the stretch he confidently went by everyone and won by an easier than it looked margin of a neck. Anyone surprised with his success or that of Lauren Tritton driving him, shouldn’t be. As documented here last month, the Down Under accolades of both horse and driver are impressive.

After a hiccup in his first start of the year two weeks ago, it looks like any cause for concern for Tattoo Artist was short lived. The winner of almost $900k last year came back with a vengeance in his second leg of the series on Monday. After leading into the stretch and finishing eighth by a couple of lengths in that first start, he crushed his Borgata competition in leg two to win going away by over three lengths in a time of 1:51.2; the co-fastest time of the night along with Idealsomemagic A.

Lastly, judges made the right call in the Borgata leg in which Jimmy Freight was victorious. Following his win, there was an inquiry as he went inside two or three pylons around the final turn, but judges kept him up as they determined the pylon infractions wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the race. Because rules differ from state to state, this is in contrast to a similar situation I wrote about at the end of last year at the Meadows when the top two horses were disqualified for pylon violations, even though it had zero bearing on the outcome of the race. That win puts Jimmy Freight right back in the mix of the Borgata standings and well done for not disqualifying a worthy winner.