Framed Equestrian’s $152,450 Worth Star Horse Stuns with 15-1 Upset in Belmont’s Fall Grade 1 Stakes 

The Grade 1 $150,000 Lonesome Glory Handicap kept the equestrian enthusiasts hooked with curiousness. This uncertain race has to be counted as one of the favorites. It very seldom happens that a favorite in trifecta loses and the ones where this situation occurs make it an exciting one. This race is winning hearts with Merry Maker’s performance.

Merry Maker is a 6-year-old gelding and has raced from 2021 to 2023. Sired by Malinas, he was trained by Archibald Kingsley Jr. and has raced for Hurricana Farm. He has attained wins at Belmont at Aqueduct and now, after this victory, he has stakes win at the Lonesome Glory H.

Stupendous performances by equines at a prestigious equestrian event 

The Irish-bred son of Malinas gave an extravagant performance on the 2 1/2-mile steeplechase for older horses on the opening day of the Belmont at the Big A fall meet. He was ridden by Parker Hendricks and topped an Archibald Kingsley Je. trained trifecta over other fellow horses L’Imperator and Barbados. They already had hampered the return of the multiple Grade 1-winning favorite Snap decision.

The trainers did not want to leave Snap Decision alone on the ground. The others L’Imperator was amongst those who had the most chance to attain the win and he ran a winning race, but Parker got ahead of him at the last run. The uncertainty of the race made it extremely exciting. Snap Decision was saddled by Graham Watters and was given a field-high 162 pounds; it carried 20 pounds more than most of the six competitors in the match.

Snap Decision was leading the field when he went past the wire for the first time with Restitution to his outside securing the second place and at third was L’Imperator. At the fourth and fifth position was City Dreamer and Barbados. At this point, Merry Marker was still in the seventh position. Here, the game took a major turn and flipped the entire race.

An amazing win by Merry Maker on the opening day in Belmont 

According to the Paulick Report, as soon as Snap Decision took the field past the wire for the second time, the competition started to fasten. The frontrunner almost approached the final fence with Proven Innocent dominating on the outside of L’Imperator. At this point, Hendriks provided Merry Maker with his cue to make up as the far turn was approaching and there was enough space for him to speed up.

L’Imperator already took over from a tiring Snap Decision at the stretch call. Hendriks kept tasking aboard Merry Maker with a seven-wide charge down the loan, quickly covering up the gap on the race. This led to L’Imperator securing the half-length win in a final time of 4:41:02. The remaining was now a further 51/2-lengths back to Barbados in third with Snap Decision, City Dreamer, Proven Innocent, and Restitution struggling to reach the finish line. This marked the victory and it was the first Grade 1 score for Hendriks.

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After making his winning debut for Kingsley Jr. in October 2021 at Great Meadows, but then got off the boards in two of his starts in the previous season. After this win, he has gained benefit for his upcoming races.

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