Page 7 - Maple Leaf Mel News Today

When Credibility Matters

NYRA to offer a cross-breed Cross Country Pick 5 on Saturday featuring racing from Saratoga Race Course and the Meadowlands

BY MIKE MacADAM/The Leader-Herald SARATOGA SPRINGS — For the second time in four days, a filly will put a 2-for-2 record at Saratoga Race Course on the line in a graded stakes. In both instances, that segment of their respective resumes led to an Eclipse Award. Nest defeated Clairiere in th

When Credibility Matters

When Credibility Matters

If anyone ever was to doubt that the quality of a stallion’s book makes a significant difference to his success, just take a look at the results for Cross Traffic (by Unbridled’s Song) over the past few years.

Trainer Melanie Giddings celebrated the first stakes win of her career Saturday with August Dawn Farm’s Maple Leaf Mel, who was named for her trainer during her tenure as an assistant trainer to the filly’s original conditioner Jeremiah Englehart.

August Dawn Farm’s Maple Leaf Mel remained perfect through five career starts with a powerful gate-to-wire effort to provide her namesake trainer, Melanie Giddings, her first career stakes win in Saturday’s $175,000 Victory Ride (G3), a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies, at Belmont Park.

Undefeated Maple Leaf Mel makes her first start for her namesake, trainer Melanie Giddings, in Saturday's Victory Ride at Belmont Park.

The New York Racing Association's Cross Country Pick 5 on Saturday includes stakes from Horseshoe Indianapolis and Belmont Park.