OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Michelle Giangiulio is hoping that the fourth time is the charm with New York-bred stakes winner Sea Foam as he targets next Sunday’s $250,000 Empire Classic on Empire Showcase Day, October 30 at Belmont at the Big A.
The nine-furlong Empire Classic headlines a loaded program for Empire Showcase Day, which includes seven other stakes races for New York-breds awarding a total of $1.6 million in purse money.
Ten Strike Racing, Four Corners Stable, Broadview Stables, and Cory Moelis Racing’s Sea Foam has contested three of the last four runnings of the Empire Classic. During his 3-year-old season, when trained by Christophe Clement, he was eighth in the 2018 Empire Classic before rounding out the trifecta in the past two editions of the race.
Giangiulio claimed Sea Foam for $45,000 from Clement following an allowance optional claiming score last July at Saratoga, and the son of Medaglia d’Oro provided the young conditioner with her first trip to the winner’s circle as a trainer in the next-out Evan Shipman at the Spa.
In his final start of last year, Sea Foam went out with a bang, going gate-to-wire in the Alex M. Robb on New Year’s Eve. He did not return to action until August, when finishing a nose behind Bankit in the Evan Shipman on August 12 at Saratoga.
“He had a little bit of a bleeding issue last year after the Alex Robb. It wasn’t bad, but he can’t run on Lasix, so we gave him a little time,” Giangiulio said. “I took my time bringing him back, he only spent two months on the farm. We just let him train himself and he was ready to roll once we had him ready. It was a bummer he got beat, but he ran a winning race that day. It was an epic race.”
Sea Foam made his last start at open company stakes level in the Polynesian on September 24 at Pimlico, finishing a distant fifth. Giangiulio said the race is one worth throwing out, noting how badly he stumbled at the start.
“If you watch the head on view, it doesn’t look like it but he hit himself pretty badly coming out of the gate. He still almost made the lead,” Giangiulio recalled. “He still ran really well, but he was pretty quiet most of the day and I don’t know if he handled the shipping that well.
“He was really quiet in the paddock which isn’t like him, he’s usually pretty pumped up and gets a little hot. He was dry and as cool as a cucumber, which I didn’t really like. So, I’m putting a line through it. He’s a one-run kind of horse. He needs the lead, and didn’t get the lead so I’m not worried about it. He came out of it fine and healed up well. He hasn’t missed a step since.”
Giangiulio added that Kendrick Carmouche, the pilot in Sea Foam’s last four starts, will likely retain the mount for the Empire Classic.
Bred in the Empire State by original owners Waterville Lake Stables, Sea Foam is out of the graded stakes-winning Unbridled’s Song mare Strike It Rich.
NYRA Press Office
Photo: Sea Foam gamely winning The Alex M. Robb on New Year’s Eve 2021. Photo by Susie Raisher
