With a hard-charging rally on the outside, Wet My Beak scored a surprise victory at 24-1 in the $150,000 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup “Future Stars Friday” undercard at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 3.

The 4-year-old daughter of Union Rags made her stakes debut in the Ken Maddy, and was most recently a traffic-troubled third in a second-level six-furlong turf allowance at Santa Anita on Oct. 6. In her prior start, she won a first-level allowance at five furlongs going away in her turf debut at Del Mar on Aug. 31. She was the fourth-biggest longshot on the board in the Senator Ken Maddy, conducted on Santa Anita’s six and a half-furlong downhill turf course.

She broke well from post six in the field of 11 and was rated towards the back of the pack by Jose Ortiz, riding her for the first time. The front-runners rolled down the hill through fast fractions, rattling off a first quarter in :22.18 and an opening half in :44.05. As they entered the stretch and prepared to cross over to the main turf course, Ortiz angled Wet My Beak towards the center of the track for clear sailing and charged after the leaders.

As they flew down the stretch, Brandon’smylawyer briefly assumed a short lead, but favored Elm Drive fought back on the rail and started to pull away. Wet My Beak continued her relentless pursuit after the leaders but remained two lengths behind with a furlong to go. However, with continuous urging from Ortiz, Wet My Beak maintained her momentum and got up in the last few strides to win by a head. The final time over a firm turf course was 1:12.37.

The victory improved Wet My Beak’s career record to 3-0-1 from six career starts, with earnings of $176,988. After returning a $70,000 RNA at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling sale at Timonium, she was originally campaigned by her breeders, Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds LLC. Unraced at 2, she made her debut in a seven-furlong maiden special weight at Laurel Park on April 1, 2022, for trainer Graham Motion. She finished fifth that day, but won next out at a mile and a sixteenth at Pimlico in a $40,000 maiden claiming race (where she was exempt from the tag) on May 12. Following a sixth-place effort at Laurel on June 10 at a mile, she was purchased by current owners Thelma & Louise Stable LLC and shipped to California to the barn of trainer Vladimir Cerin, whom she has raced for since. 

Wet My Beak is the second of three foals out of the Speightstown mare Who’s in Town, from the Sycamore Hall’s stakes-producing family tracing back to graded winner Who Did It and Run. Who’s in Town is also the dam of 3-year-old John Hall (Violence), who races for his breeder and is a two-time winner at Laurel (most recently Oct. 1) out of the Brittany Russell barn, with earnings of $77,700.

In her 13-race career, Who’s in Town won four times, including the 2014 Safely Kept Stakes, and earned $211,022. Wet My Beak’s second dam, Who’s Cozy, was multiple stakes-placed, including a third in Saratoga’s Grade 3 Lake George, and has produced seven winners from as many starters, including stakes-placed Campaign Vows (Broken Vow) and Circling the Drain (West Coast).

Wet My Beak’s third dam Who Did it and Run (Polish Numbers) won the Jersey Derby and the Reeve Schley Jr. Stakes in 1998 and earned $352,756 in her 26-race career. She produced stakes winners Giant Run, American Victory and stakes-placed Stickingtogether.