Exclusive: Toast Of The Town set to supplement to Little Brown Jug

by Brett Sturman

Riding on a career-form wave, Toast Of The Town (Sweet Lou—New Year) will be the latest horse to supplement to this year’s Grade 1 Little Brown Jug when supplemental entries are due tomorrow (Sept. 19).

Both owned and bred by Let It Ride Stables, with an ownership group that also includes Morrison Racing Stables, Jesmeral Stable, and Alberg Racing, as well as being bred with Bottom Line Racing, the group had been leaning of late to make the $45,000 supplemental payment. Let It Ride Stables’ Eric Cherry confirmed to me that the group will indeed be moving forward to make Toast Of The Town eligible to next week’s 3-year-old pacing classic.

“We are one of the few industries where the larger you are, the harder it is to be successful financially,” Cherry said. “We have taken the philosophy not to stake most of our 2-year-olds to larger races with the exception obviously being the sire stakes races. There are just too many horses that wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Instead, we’ve taken the attitude that when a horse has a real chance to do well, that we will supplement.”

A six-time winner on the year and currently on a win streak of three, Toast Of The Town has been dominant for the past month. The recent streak includes a 1:48.4 win at Pocono three races back in a Hempt consolation over Jug-eligible Superchamp Hanover, and most recently crushing PA-Sire Stakes consolation foes by over five lengths at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

In between those tries is the most impressive of the three wins. That’s when Toast Of The Town won a PA-Sire Stakes division at The Meadows in a time of 1:48.1 and notably defeated Grade 2-winner Melillo, a top-rated Jug eligible horse, as well as Superchamp Hanover again.

Though the Jug would be an obvious further step up in class for Toast Of The Town, he hasn’t been too far off from the sport’s best on limited tries this season. In this year’s Adios final, he lost by just three lengths when closing furiously from post 9. In a Tompkins Stake that followed at The Meadowlands, he was beaten six lengths to Brandon Blvd.

Aside from Brandon Blvd who has elevated himself from the rest of the sophomore pacing group, the list of Jug eligibles doesn’t seem particularly intimidating. And with Brandon Blvd in-to-go Saturday at The Red Mile in a $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final, it doesn’t seem likely — though maybe still possible — that he would race on short rest with multiple heats a few days later.

Cherry said, “Another factor that weighed into our decision was that we were able to see who entered the Kentucky Championship finals and with Brandon Blvd in there and probably out of the [Little Brown Jug] mix, it made our decision that much easier.”

In its fifth year of breaking from tradition to now allow for supplemental entries, it’s always a question as to if it’s worth it to supplement — this year for $45,000 — knowing that you’re a bad post-position draw away from being doomed.

“It’s also more than just financial,” Cherry said. “For our group, it’s also a lot of fun, which shouldn’t be discounted.”

Toast Of The Town would be the second known supplement thus far to this year’s Little Brown Jug, joining Redland Rocket Man whose connections announced their intentions following that one’s eye-catching 1:46.4 win in the Simcoe Stakes at Woodbine Mohawk Park last Saturday. It was a race where fellow Jug-eligibles — Sweet Lovin Lou and Beau Jangles — ran second and third, respectively.

The supplements add fresh faces to a 3-year-old crop that’s seen a different horse each time win the bigger 3-year-old stakes races. That trend could continue if one of the newer shooters were to win, or, there would be plenty of storylines if a horse like let’s say Beau Jangles were to find redemption in Delaware, OH. Other Jug-eligible contenders include Al Papi, who most recently was second to Melillo on Sept. 6 in the $300,000 PASS final at Chester in 1:48.3. Fragment is another contender, and he too would enter the Jug on the heels of a $300,000 sire stakes win – his coming in New York at Yonkers this past Saturday.

With supplemental entries due Saturday, all entries along with the draw for the Little Brown Jug, will take place on Monday. It’ll be interesting to see all who entered, and of course, which post positions they draw.