Ain’t Da Beer Cold Back for More in Maryland Million Classic
At 0h36, on October 10, 2024 • By Laurel Park
Matt Spencer, Kelly Jo Cox and Bonuccelli Racing’s Ain’t Da Beer Cold, a 36-1 winner last year after being placed first due to a disqualification, will attempt to defend his title and become just the sixth repeat winner of the $150,000 Classic on Saturday’s 39th Jim McKay Maryland Million program at Laurel Park.
The 1 1/8-mile Classic for 3-year-olds and up is the richest on a 12-race card featuring eight stakes and four starter stakes worth $1.08 million in purses that comprise ‘Maryland’s Day at the Races,’ celebrating the progeny of stallions standing in the state.
Doors will open at 10 a.m. with a special first race post time of 11:30 a.m. The Classic, carded as Race 11, has a post time of 5:12 p.m.
Not since Admirals War Chest in 2016 has a horse repeated as a Classic winner. Timely Warning was the first to do it in 1990 and 1991, followed by Algar (1997-98), Docent (2002-03) and Eighttofasttocatch, who is the race’s only three-time winner (2011, 2013-14).
This will be the fourth straight year in the Classic for Ain’t Da Beer Cold, a 6-year-old Freedom Child gelding that was eighth in 2021 and 2022 and owns the most starts (41), wins (seven) and purse earnings ($465,224) in the main field of 11. His victory via disqualification of first-place finisher Market Maven last fall gave trainer Kenny Cox his first Maryland Million victory.
“It’s always exciting. Even when it looks like you can count him out, you still can’t count him out,” Cox said. “With his form the way it is, we kind of just took the pressure off ourselves and said, ‘If he shows up, he does,’ and if he doesn’t, we still have the Classic from the year before. There’s no pressure, and I’ll be fine with whatever happens. Sure, we would love to win it outright this year. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”
As he did in a front-running head victory in the 1 1/8-mile Native Dancer April 13 at Laurel, Ain’t Da Beer Cold set the pace in last year’s Classic before losing the lead to Market Maven entering the stretch. The two battled through the lane, bumping near the eighth pole, and were separated by a neck at the wire before the result was reversed.
Cox was encouraged after Ain’t Da Beer Cold breezed five furlongs in 1:00 Sunday, the fastest of 12 horses at Laurel. Jevian Toledo, the leading active rider in Maryland Million history with 17 wins, one behind Hall of Famer Edgar Prado for the all-time lead, has the return call from Post 7. They are rated at 12-1 on the morning line.
