Monday Morning Message with Jason Beem for July 14, 2025

A good Monday morning to you all. It’s Haskell (G1) week, and for some reason it feels like this year that big race snuck up on me. Maybe it’s the longer Saratoga opening couple of weeks, but for some reason I always thought the Haskell was a very end of July race. Regardless, it’s always one of the most fun races of the summer and hopefully this year’s event will continue in that tradition.

I had the good fortune of seeing one Haskell in my lifetime and that was 2019. It was probably the hottest and most humid day I can ever remember being at a racetrack. They ran the first race of the day and then decided it was too hot to keep running during the daytime. So they postponed the stakes races until later that evening and ran the five of them in a span of about an hour and twenty minutes. I remember the GM at Monmouth saying to reporters “we have that nice shore breeze don’t forget.” I looked up at the flag when I heard him say that and it was standing completely still!  Maximum Security ended up winning that year and I feel like the couple of thousand people who stuck around for it were ready to head home as soon as the race hit the wire. It was a crazy day!

Weather has proven frustrating so far this year up at the spa as the turf races have been scarce and rain has been plentiful. I’m still somewhat new to being an East Coaster but it still shocks me how much it rains during the summer months over here. I’m from the alleged rain capital of the US in Seattle, and even as an adult I assumed that was true because people always talked about it. Saratoga Springs averages 10 more inches of rain a year than Seattle! Richmond, Virginia, where I’m at now, averages 4 more inches of rain than Seattle. It’s crazy out here in the summer months!

Our opening weekend here at Colonial Downs was mostly spared by the weather gods as we had to cancel the steeplechase races and take two races off the turf on Thursday. Other than a lightning delay on Saturday, the rest of the races went off on the right surfaces and the handle and pools were very strong. I so believe in the product we’re putting out, and it’s exciting to see more and more people tuning in with each passing year. Generating interest and getting more people to tune in usually takes a few years to see real dramatic growth like we’ve seen at Turfway Park and Ellis Park among other tracks. Hoping Colonial can be part of the next wave of ascending betting products.

This weekend’s Diana (G1) ended up being an exciting stretch run in what wasn’t a very exciting wagering race. She Feels Pretty poking a neck in front at the eighth pole looked to be the winning move to me, but Excellent Truth had other ideas as she rallied back to dig in and win a very exciting stretch battle between the two. The win was a big one for Resolute Racing, who came into racing guns and wallets blazing and are starting to see some nice wins from some of these big horses they’ve bought. Congratulations to them!

Looking forward to this week as we close in on the Haskell. Speaking of the Haskell, we’ll have Larry Collmus on the podcast tomorrow and talk about his first Haskell and getting the job at Del Mar.