By Mike Kane
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY–Even though Incurable Optimist (Cure the Blues) does not appear anywhere in Edict's (Arg) (Il Campione (Chi)) pedigree, think of her as a direct descendent of the precocious 1998 New York-bred Horse of the Year, who became a top sire in Argentina.
Family ties notwithstanding, there is a straight line between Incurable Optimist and Edict, who will make her first start in the U.S. in the listed $150,000 Athenia Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack on Saturday. Their connections, stretching across decades, are rock solid: from owner John Behrendt, through trainer David Donk and Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. Without Incurable Optimist, who died at the age of 28 in January, there would be no Edict story to tell.
Like Incurable Optimist, Edict is a champion. A pair of Group I victories in Argentina last year carried her to the country's 3-year-old filly title and inspired Behrendt to import his Triple Alliance homebred to run in North America. Her start in the 1 1/8 miles Athenia completes the circle that started with Incurable Optimist's successful racing career with Donk and subsequent move to Argentina to stand at stud at Haras El Paraiso in Buenos Aires.
Behrendt and his wife, Theresa, have a long history of owning and racing in the U.S. They had met the owners of Haras El Parasio, Victoria and Pablo Duggan, prior to relocating Incurable Optimist to what is now the nation's top breeding farm and in the years since have developed a thriving breeding and racing business in Argentina. The Behrendts's 92 mares reside at Haras El Paraiso and the Duggans and the Behrendts are partners in the farm's nine stallions. The standout of their stallions is Il Campione (Scat Daddy), who was the 2015 Horse of the Year in Chile and was the leading sire in Argentina the past two years.
Edict outside of Tomorrow's Wish | Sarah Andrew
Edict is the first of the many horses he has bred in South America that Behrendt has brought to race in North America. Why her? Why now?
“Because we think she's good enough to compete,” he said. “Our model is we sell about 80% of what we raise. But we keep good fillies to race to replenish the broodmare band. We've always said that if we got one that we thought could come up here and compete at the top level, we would bring her up. And she showed us enough that we thought she might be able to do that.”
The breakthrough races took place late in 2023 at the Hippodrome de San Isidro. Following a seven-furlong allowance win on turf on July 30, Edict finished second by a half-length in a Group 1 race at a mile on dirt on Sept. 2. Six weeks later, she was a distant fourth in a 1 1/4 miles Group 1 on dirt. A switch back to turf proved to be the right move and she won the G1 Enrique Acebel Stakes at 1 1/4 miles Nov. 4 and the G1 Copa de Plata Roberto Vazquez Stakes against older horses at 1 1/4 miles Dec. 16.
“So we brought her up in February, and she acclimated in Florida for a while with Pat Hopple and then came to David at Belmont,” Behrendt said. “The experience people have changing hemispheres is that their best year is the second year they're up here. Not the year they come up, because, for some reason, the acclimation process and hemispheres, north to south, is very different than going east to west. Nobody's ever been able to say exactly why. But there's been a bunch of great South American horses that have done well in North America.”
As a result, the Behrendts and the Donk consider this season as a prep for what they hope will be a strong 2025 campaign. Donk said that if all goes well in the Athenia, Edict might make one more start in 2024.
Edict's connections | Sarah Andrew
Edit arrived at Donk's barn in early April and began preparations for her first U.S. start. Since she he had a long layoff, Donk was aiming for an allowance race for her debut. He planned to run her at Saratoga the first week of August in one of the few where she could fit the conditions, but she got sick. Edict was entered in GIII Noble Damsel Stakes Sept. 21 at Aqueduct, but did not make that race either.
“A few days after I entered her, she came up with a foot bruise,” Donk said. “Fortunately, we were able to clear it up fairly quickly. This is the next option. She has had two breezes since that weekend. I don't know if she is 100 percent, but I need to run her somewhere. We are running out of time here, but she's had two good works and I want to get a line on her.”
Velazquez, who was aboard all of Incurable Optimist's races 26 years ago, is set to ride Edict. He has breezed her a few times for Donk.
The Behrendts purchased Incurable Optimist as a yearling from agent Mike Ryan, who had acquired him as a yearling in 1996 for $44,000. The colt out of the Seattle Slew mare Miss Turlington, was bred by Drs. Bill Wilmot and his wife Joan Taylor at their Stepwise Farm in Saratoga Springs. He raced twice in dirt sprints in June 1998, finishing second and then third. Donk moved him to turf at Saratoga Aug. 31 and he opened many eyes with a 14-length victory at 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf course. Though he had a rough trip during which he was blocked, Incurable Optimist won the World Appeal Stakes at the Meadowlands by 1 1/4 lengths. He led from gate to wire to win the GIII Pilgrim Stakes by 4 1/2 lengths and justified the cross-continent trip to Hollywood Park to win the GIII Generous Stakes by nine lengths.
Incurable Optimists' glowing resume with four wins by a combined 28 3/4 lengths carried him to two New York-bred division titles and Horse of the Year honors that punctuated his short but brilliant career. While being prepared for his 3-year-old season that his connections hoped would include Classic races in Europe, he suffered a career-ending soft-tissue injury. Incurable Optimist stood one season in New York at Highcliff Farm, but it became clear to the Behrendts that he did not have enough appeal to be a commercial success.
Edict | Sarah Andrew
“We had just met Pablo and Victoria,” Behrendt said. “They needed a sire and we were still struggling to find out the right home for him. He took us down there and it's just been a really great decision because they become dear friends. It's really thrilling racing there. The racing community is terrific. The horsemanship is terrific. We love it. We love the people.”
Incurable Optimist was an immediate hit in Argentina, where he stood for 22 seasons. He was the leading freshman sire in 2004, the leading sire in 2008 and was the sire of two Horse of the Year winners. As a result of Incurable's success–“a good horse can take you places where you can't buy the ticket,” Behrendt said–his owners shifted the majority of their breeding and racing interests to South America.
“It changed our lives,” Behrendt said.
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