Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem Apr. 23, 2026

A good Thursday morning to you all! Obviously next week will be Derby week and we’ll have plenty to talk about as we build closer to our biggest weekend. I know there’s so much coverage of those two big days that I wanted to talk about something else this week, an interesting winner at Tampa that gave me the perfect idea to talk about. 

So last Saturday at Tampa, we had a $10,000 maiden claiming race at seven furlongs and midway on the turn it seemed that the 4-5 favorite was not firing. All of a sudden, I see a couple of price horses start to pull away and 9-1 Fire Baron ends up in front late, holding on to win by just under a length. Really not much to it other than a maiden breaking through. But the real quirk was that Fire Baron had had 41 previous attempts at breaking that maiden! Saturday was career start number 42 and the one he finally found his way to the front at the wire. 

What a long and windy road it’s been for Fire Baron to get here. It’s one of the great things about the horses in our game, they ALL have a story and a path to get where they are. Fire Baron was originally owned by Three Diamonds Farm and trained by Mike Maker, making his debut at none other than Saratoga Race Course back in the summer of 2022. He finished fifth in a maiden special weight event, beaten only seven lengths by I’m Very Busy, who would go on to win the Mervin Muniz (G2) later in his career. So a pretty promising debut! 

Fire Baron then went on to Kentucky Downs a few weeks later, going off as the favorite in a $156,000 maiden race on turf. He finished second at odds of 6-5 under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., and I have to imagine any racing fan or even horsemen would think “well this guy’s going to break his maiden soon.” If they only knew! Fire Baron tried the maiden special weight ranks seven more times with no luck. He finished third, but his finishes started to get a little worse. So finally on March 4, 2023, they tried him in his first maiden claiming event, for a $32,000 tag. He ran a decent fourth as the second choice. 

He would be a maiden claimer from there on out, vacillating between Tampa in the winter and New York in the spring and summer for new trainer Jennifer Paragallo. He had a second place finish at Saratoga in the summer of 2024 at odds of 41-1, but he could just never quite break through for a win. Fire Baron was given much of 2025 off and came back to the races for another new trainer, Gary Ellebracht, on April 1. He ran fourth in the first start back and came back 10 days later to finish second. Ellebracht then wheeled him back seven days later and wouldn’t you know it, the 42nd time was the charm, Fire Baron got his win. 

I love claiming horses and in my time there’s been a few lifelong maidens like Fire Baron who have finally gotten that elusive win in races I've called. Lord of Eagles was one I tweeted about recently, breaking his maiden in the 45th career start back at Portland Meadows. I watched that replay the other day and I was screaming like it was a stakes race. It was so fun. Our horses are so amazing and of course some aren’t as fast as others or maybe, just don’t have the instinct to be great racers. But what a cool thing when after all those tries, they finally break through. I hope I get to call Fire Baron’s first try in a "non-winners of two" race sometime soon before the meet closes. 

Have a good week everyone!