Comings and Goings: Ain’t Da Beer Cold Retired * The Racing Biz

Popular Maryland-bred multiple stakes winner Ain’t Da Beer Cold has retired, trainer Kenny Cox confirmed Wednesday.

The seven-year-old Freedom Child gelding ends his racing career with seven wins and $469,714 in earnings from 45 career starts. He won the 2023 Maryland Million Classic via disqualification and also scored in the 2024 Native Dancer, both at Laurel Park, his home track where he made almost all of his starts.

“He retired the sound,” Cox said. “He just didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Ain’t Da Beer Cold was bred in Maryland by Matt Spencer and Kelly Jo Cox, wife of Kenny Cox, and owned in partnership with Cox’s longtime client Bonuccelli Racing. He is out of the winning With Distinction mare Distinct Affair, but was not an immediate success.

“We tried to give the mare away in foal,” Cox said with a laugh. “So that tells you right there.”

Ain’t Da Beer Cold had won five times prior to the 2023 Maryland Million Classic, but never in the stakes. That day, with Jevian Toledo in the irons, Ain’t Da Beer Cold, at 36-1, rode to the front and engaged in a spirited battle with Market Maven, falling a neck short. But that rival had bumped into Ain’t Da Beer Cold in the final furlong, and the stewards lifted him to victory. It was the first Maryland Million win in Cox’s long career.

“It’s a team working together to make everything fall into place after a bunch of miserable Maryland Millions for me,” he said in the winner’s circle afterwards. “If he would have come second without even a question or objection or anything, I would have gone home feeling like I won the Maryland Million, because he’s a homebred.”

Six months later, like an overlooked 12-1 shot, Ain’t Da Beer Cold and Toledo teamed up to make that attempt again, winning the Native Dancer by a head in a frenetic finish.

“When he came back and won the open stakes, it seemed like he was legit no matter what happened,” the trainer said. “You know, it meant a lot to me that he presented himself so well, and not because of a gift.”

Still, Cox said more than the victories: he will remember the horse’s personality.

“He had the most personality of almost any horse you could ask for. On the track he was terrifying,” Cox said. “But in the barn his personality was so great.”

Cox said there are a number of options for Ain’t Da Beer Cold’s future, the first of which is to determine whether he can be retrained as a fox hunter.

The name Ain’t Da Beer Cold comes from one of the slogans of Baltimore Orioles and Colts’ announcer Chuck Thompson, who helped cement the horse’s popularity in Maryland.

“I’m glad the name fits the horse because I like the name for our own history,” Cox said. “And like I said, Matt [Spencer]they own a liquor store in Baltimore. They’re big Oriole fans, big Baltimore fans. And you know, when you have a good name, you hate to waste it.”

TARTABULL IS EXPECTED TO STAY

Tartabull is expected to remain in Maryland to prepare for the state-limited Maryland Juvenile Stakes on Dec. 6 at Laurel Park, connections said.

Tartabull, trained by Chad Summers for Gold Square LLC, has been at Laurel in veteran trainer Jerry Robb’s barn for the past week and a half and has used the time to good effect, earning his first win on Oct. 25.

By Tapit he is out of the Great Notion mare Anna’s Bandit, one of the most popular and successful local runners in recent years. Anna’s Bandit won 17 races and more than $800,000 for Robb and his wife Gina, including winning the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics Cavada and Maryland Million Distaff a week apart in 2019.

In an article about Tartabull’s first win, Jessica Lindsey, Robb’s top assistant, urged reporters to use their “magic” to convince Summers to leave the horse in Maryland, where he is housed in the old Anna’s Bandit stable. Summers responded to a post on

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NEWCOMER PRICE

Jane Allen’s Warwick Equine Services signed the ticket for a Justify yearling foal worth $350,000 on behalf of Eric Bakker’s HYTECK Racing LLC at the October Fasig-Tipton sale last week. It might be the biggest splash yet for Allen or Bakker.

The colt is out of the unraced Cindago mare Black Valentine and is half of stakes winner Roo’s Valentine and two other stakes horses. His second dam is the dam of multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Evening Jewel, and the colt’s catalog page is a sea of ​​black conformation.

New Jersey-based Bakker’s HYTECK Racing has had two runners so far: a Violence colt he bought for $90,000 that broke his first last win at Delaware Park and a Laoban filly that earned him $150,000 and recently finished second in the first company at Aqueduct. Both are trained by Chuckie Lawrence at Delaware Park.

Allen, the daughter of longtime Maryland trainer Ferris Allen, said buying a horse at that level is an experience she will remember. Bakker had given her permission to go to $300,000, or even $20,000 above.

“The bid went to 300, and I thought, ‘Damn, I can’t lose this horse,’” she said. “I mean, the control was great. The horse is just a monster, and to buy a Justify yearling that meets expectations, you have to spend more than 250. So it went to 320 and I’m starting to feel sick. Then I went to 330, and then someone else did 340 and I thought, I can’t lose it more than $10,000. I’ve come too far. I quickly decided: if he gets mad at the 350, I’ll stay in for the 30.

Fortunately for her, that was the winning bid, and Bakker reportedly had no problem with it. So keep your eyes peeled for HYTECK’s latest addition next year.

“It was so surreal,” Allen said. “I’m still on Cloud Nine.”