Safely Kept Racehorse

Flicker
The Red Cross Stakes - Monmouth Park - Contrast's dam, Safely Kept, won eight stakes in nine starts as a three-year-old filly in 1989, including a victory in the Test Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course. In 1990, she defeated males to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). She won the Champion Sprinter Eclipse award in 1989.

Sire: Horatius, Grandsire: Proudest Roman, Dam: Safely Home, Damsire: Winning Hit, Sex: Mare, Foaled: 1986, Country: United States, Color: Bay, Breeder: Mr. & Mrs. David, Owner: Barry Weisbord, Trainer: Alan E. Goldberg, Record/31: 24-3-3, Earnings/$2,194,206, Major wins: Playpen Stakes (1988), Smart Angle Stakes (1988), Test Stakes (1989), Maryland Million Distaff Handicap, (1989, 1990, 1991), Columbia Stakes (1989), Genuine Risk Handicap (1989, 1990, 1991), Prioress Stakes (1989), Politely Stakes (1989), Garden State Handicap (1989, 1990, 1991), Regret Stakes (1989), Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (1990), Meadowlands Handicap (1990, 1991), Garden State Stakes (1989), Finger Lakes Stakes (1990), Chicago Handicap (1991), Breeders' Cup wins: Breeders' Cup Sprint (1990), Awards: U.S. Champion Sprinter (1989), Honors: Safely Kept Stakes at Laurel Park, Horse (Equus ferus caballus)

Safely Kept (foaled April 7, 1986) was a Maryland-bred Bay thoroughbred filly sired by Horatius. Safely Kept stormed onto the nationwide sprint stage in 1988 and proceeded to win 24 of her 31 starts over the next three years in an era when there weren't a great deal of sprint races restricted to females. Safely Kept ended her career by finishing "in-the-money" in 30 of 31 starts and astounding 97% success rate.

As a two year old she won four of five races including two stakes races in the Playpen Stakes and the Smart Angle Stakes. At age three, she separated herself from every other sprinter in North America by reeling off eight wins in nine races. That year (1989) she entered the Breeders' Cup Sprint as the second choice in the morning line and proceeded to finish second to Ogden Phipps' Dancing Spree. Among her eight stakes wins in 1989 was the grade one Test Stakes at Saratoga Race Course and two wins in grade two races, the Genuine Risk Handicap and the Prioress Stakes. Those performances as well as her 9-8-1-0 record that year earned her the Eclipse Award for the American Champion Sprint Horse.

At age four she only improved, winning all seven races in which she competed all of them stakes races. The final race of her four year old season included a victory over a star-studded international field of 14 sprinters from every corner of the earth in the grade one Breeders' Cup Sprint. That victory over super stars Dayjur from France and Black Tie Affair from Ireland also avenged her only loss from the prior year as she defeated Dancing Spree by nine and a half lengths.

At age five Safely Kept won five of seven races she competed in with show finishes in the other two. Safely Kept took a safe and familiar road in 1991 running in the same stakes races at the same tracks that she had in the two earlier years. She three-peated in the grade two Genuine Risk Handicap, she three-peated in the Maryland Million Distaff Handicap, she three-peated in the grade three Garden Stakes Handicap (no longer run), she repeated in the grade three Meadowlands Handicap. Safely Kept also ventured off to the Mid-west and won the Chicago Handicap at Arlington Park and contested in the grade one Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes and finished third to a powerful sprinter named Housebuster.

Safely Kept's career bankroll of $2,194,206 rank her as the greatest earner among any filly or mare bred in the state of Maryland. She is one of only five multi-millionaire thoroughbred to be foaled in the state after only Cigar, Awad, Concern, and Broad Brush. At the time of her retirement, Safely Kept had earned more than any other female horse in the world bred outside the state of Kentucky except for Lady Secret and still ranks fourth on that list.

Laurel Park Racecourse re-named a Graded stakes race in her honor. Safely Kept won the 1989 running of the Columbia Stakes in devastating fashion and the next year in 1990 the race was re-named after its champion and given graded stakes status for the first time. The stakes upgrade has been credited to the level of competition that has run in the race but in large part received the upgrade after Safely Kept went on to win the Breeders' Cup Sprint. The Safely Kept Stakes is run annually on the same card as the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes. A second stakes race, the Safely Kept Stakes at Arlington Park was named after her in honor of her seven and 3/4 length victory in the Chicago Handicap in 1991.