Berry's Creek

The first big three year old race of the year, the Berry’s Creek, will be raced on Saturday night at the Meadowlands. This is the twentieth installment of the event that has always been raced at the Meadowlands. Its name comes from the actual Berry’s Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River, which runs just west of the Meadowlands.

The first ever Berry’s Creek (in 1989) was won by Fiorello Blue Chip, a Precious Fella colt out of a Steady Star mare. Fiorello Blue Chip went on to win $740,000 in 95 career starts. The Berry’s Creek purse in 1989 was $309,250 (interestingly higher than this year’s purse of $230,000) and the score of $154,625 equated to 21% of Fiorello Blue Chip’s total lifetime earnings. Not bad for one night at the Big M.

The first major ‘star’ to win the Berry’s Creek was arguably Cam’s Card Shark. CCS earned $2,500,000 in just 30 lifetime starts. His winning time in 1994 was 1.51.0, the second fastest in the then short history of the race, second only to Vine Street’s 1.50.2 victory the year prior. Vine Street’s win that night increased the colt’s earnings by $175,000, but didn’t propel him to greatness like CCS as it represented nearly 50% of his lifetime earnings of $356,000. One thing those two colts did have in common was their driver, John Campbell, who has won the Berry’s Creek a record five times.

The morning line favorite this year is River Shark, a colt out of Four Starzzz Shark who is beginning to round into form as a top 3 year old. He was only a $9,000 purchase at the 2007 Lexington Select Yearling sale. The fun thing about going to those sales is looking back and seeing if you made any notes or had thoughts about horses. I pulled out my old catalog and took a look at hip number 568. ‘Saw Saturday AM’ I wrote with a rating of 7 and a comment of ‘too slim’. I commend the owners for having more insight than I did!

There are a couple of horses in this race that our own In Over My Head took on earlier in the year, including the second favorite Hypnotic Blue Chip. He took some time off in late winter/ early spring and in his first race back he won his elimination to the Berry’s Creek in 1.51.2. In my opinion, Hypnotic Blue Chip doesn’t have to take a back seat to anyone in this field. It will be interesting to see what kind of price he goes off at with the money chasing the River Shark entry.

In other news, Mr. Mo is getting close to qualifying to re-start his 3 year old season. He is training down with John Butenschoen at Pocono and hope to get a qualifier and a start in by the end of May. It’s getting close and I can’t wait!