Redemption and repeat: Effinex's Suburban double from 2015-16
Tri-Bone Stables’ New York-bred Effinex posted a 28-9-3-4 career record with over $3.3 million in earnings, and two of his most memorable scores came in Belmont Park’s Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, a 10-furlong test for older horses, which he won from 2015-16.
On Saturday, the Grade 2, $500,000 Suburban presented by Subourbon Life will be contested at Saratoga Race Course for the second consecutive year during the July 4 Racing Festival, which kicks off the summer meet.
In addition to the Suburban, the Independence Day program will offer an 11-race card headlined by the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Derby and Grade 1, $600,000 Belmont Oaks, as well as the Grade 3, $225,000 Sanford. For a full list of events and giveaways for the July 4th Racing Festival, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/visit/events-giveaways/.
Effinex was trained by Jimmy Jerkens for his last 21 starts, including all six of his stakes scores. The son of Mineshaft graduated second-out for trainer Richard DeMola and then made five starts for conditioner David Smith, including an eighth in the 2014 Grade 1 Wood Memorial, before being transferred to Jerkens’ care.
“I knew the veterinarian Russell Cohen whose family owned and bred the horse. I watched the horse run and said, ‘Boy, Russell’s got himself a nice horse here.’ He ran in the Wood Memorial, acted real bad in the starting gate, and my horse Wicked Strong won it that year,” said Jerkens, who received the horse that summer.
Effinex’s first score for Jerkens came in his third start in the barn, adding blinkers to win the 2014 Empire Classic going nine furlongs versus elder state-breds as a sophomore at Belmont Park. The final time of 1:48.51 earned a then career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure, which he followed with fourths in the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup and state-bred Alex M. Robb before a seasonal layoff.
“He came around,” Jerkens said. “In the Robb, he didn’t run very well, so we gave him a couple of months. We brought him back the next year. I was watching from Florida when we brought him back and he ran huge.”
Effinex won his seasonal debut in 2015 when taking a one-mile and 70-yard optional claimer by 3 1/2 lengths that March at Aqueduct Racetrack and earning a 100 Beyer, his first of 11 triple-digit figures. He exited to win the 10-furlong Grade 3 Excelsior in April there over subsequent millionaire Red Rifle while improving to a 107 Beyer.
Effinex then tried the 1 1/2-mile Grade 2 Brooklyn in June at Belmont, but did not finish as he bolted in the far turn and traveled along the outside fence before being pulled up by jockey Angel Arroyo, who piloted his previous stakes successes.
“He would hit his pasterns badly, but it was hard to stop him from hitting them and what I think happened was that in the 1 1/2-mile race, Arroyo took more of a hold of him and he started hitting them bad, so he bolted,” Jerkens said.
For his next start in the 2015 Suburban, Jerkens equipped the dark bay with a Houghton bit and called upon jockey Junior Alvarado to ride for the first time in the afternoon.
The field featured the recent Met Mile runner-up and the 2014 Belmont Stakes-winner Tonalist for trainer Christophe Clement. The Brooklyn-victor Coach Inge brought speed to the race for conditioner Todd Pletcher, and Neck n’ Neck, Street Babe and Mylute all had at least one graded win on their resumes.
“I remember that race as one of my best rides ever,” Alvarado said. “It was a funny race, following Tonalist, making our move by the three-eighths pole, but got boxed in a little bit, had to wait. They had me trapped, but I found my way through, got through along the rail, and from the three-sixteenths to the wire it was head-to-head with Tonalist.”
Effinex exited post 5 alertly and settled into a ground-saving fifth position 11 lengths back of the dueling Street Babe and Coach Inge through the quarter-mile in 22.80 seconds over the fast dirt.
“Jimmy Jerkens, I remember him saying that he wasn’t the easiest horse to ride all of the time,” said Alvarado. “He may try to bolt or make a right turn once in a while. But in that race, he was pretty straightforward for me.”
Coach Inge put away Street Babe through three-quarters in 1:10.13, while the Hall of Famer John Velazquez-piloted Tonalist rapidly advanced from sixth to just outside the leader as Effinex moved in tandem to the inside while rounding the far turn.
“I came head-to-head with Johnny Velazquez from the quarter-pole to the wire. Our horses’ heads bobbing back and forth,” Alvarado recalled. “Being able to get the win that day was pretty unbelievable. We were not the favorite. We thought we had a chance, but Effinex, he was a pretty special one.”
Effinex, with Coach Inge to his inside and Tonalist to his outside, put his head in front in the final sixteenth. From there, it was a head-bobbing photo finish with Effinex coming out on top over Tonalist in a final time of 2:01.55.
“That was just incredible,” Jerkens added. “To beat a horse like that was really something.”
Effinex made four subsequent Grade 1 starts that season, highlighted by a runner-up finish to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the Breeders' Cup Classic and a victory in the Clark Handicap to close a 4-for-8 campaign.
As a 5-year-old, Effinex returned with a third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap before a win in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap. He then went off as the heavy favorite in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill, but finished sixth after an awkward beginning and going wide into the stretch.
“At Santa Anita, he was breaking out in hives,” noted a still-puzzled Jerkens. “Kent Sweezey was my assistant and went to California with him, we still don’t know what brought the hives on. He was a big favorite, but was third. He ran very, very well. And, of course, it was a field he may have beaten had he been at the top of his game.”
As he had the year before, Effinex would hope for redemption in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, this time with Hall of Famer Mike Smith aboard, who did pilot four of his five preceding starts, including his Clark and Oaklawn Handicap wins.
The 2016 Suburban featured Group 1 Dubai World Cup runner-up Mubtaahij making his barn debut for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin off a classy tenure for trainer Michael de Kock. The field also included Effinex’s stablemate Shaman Ghost, entering off a win in the Brooklyn, as well as Stephen Foster second-place Eagle for conditioner Neil Howard.
Effinex broke sharply from post 4 and settled into second position one length off Samraat who marked the opening quarter-mile in 25.31 seconds and half-mile in 49.34 over the fast dirt.
By three-quarters in 1:12.70, Effinex was within a head of Samraat as the favored Mubtaahij and Shaman Ghost crept closer to the leaders to the inside of Turco Bravo.
Effinex took narrow command coming to the top of the lane, but Samraat was game to his inside and put his head back in front at the eighth-pole after the slow opening quarter-mile.
“The horse acted right today,” Smith told Daily Racing Form post-race. “I was able to put him in a good spot on the outside. He got to loafing a little bit at the end, and he made me work for my money, anyway."
Effinex showed heart to get his neck in front of fellow New York-bred Samraat in a final time of 2:01.04, becoming the first back-to-back Suburban-victor since Devil His Due in 1993-94, who was trained by Jerkens’ father, the late great Hall of Famer H. Allen Jerkens, and ridden by Smith in the title defense.
“Effinex was just a great campaigner,” Jerkens said. “He'd throw in a clunker once in a while, but you could always get him right back.”
The Suburban repeat proved to be the final win of Effinex's career, making four subsequent starts. Following a sixth-place finish in a repeat bid of the Clark Handicap, Effinex retired to stud in New York before passing unexpectedly at age 7 after one breeding season.
While his stallion career was cut short, Effinex's accomplishments endure. On Saturday, another field will line up seeking its place in the race's long history, but for now, Effinex still stands alone as the Suburban's most recent repeat champion, a feat Phileas Fogg looks to accomplish in this year’s edition.
“Effinex was special,” Jerkens said. “The race is, too. My Dad won it with Beau Purple in 1962 - he beat Kelso. Then Devil His Due won it twice, and he also won it with Political Force [2007].”
