Making An Empire......Slowly

- The first crop of Empire Maker is proving to be slow to even get to the races, no less win them. According to equiline.com, only four of his 93 foals have even started. One of those, Miss Red Delicious, has won; and that one is a stakes winner having taken the Anna M. Fisher Debutante at Ellis Park.

But that shouldn't be too surprising based on the stallion's career. He didn't get to the races until October 20 of his freshman year, scoring a 3 1/2 length win at odds of .45-to-1. He made one subsequent start that year; a third (behind Toccet and Bham) in the Remsen.

So they should be starting to come out soon, and indeed, here's no less than three making their debut at Belmont on Thursday, and they all do so on the grass. In the second, at a mile and a sixteenth, Mushka debuts for Bill Mott. She brought a winning bid of $1.6 million at Saratoga last August. She's out of Sluice, a stakes winning daughter of Seeking the Gold; her second dam is the four-time Grade 1 winner Lakeway. In the same race, Frankel presents Country Star, a Stonerside homebred out of Rings A Chime (Metfield), the 2000 Ashland winner.

In the sixth, a NY-bred grassy sprint affair, Tom Bush has Tulipmania, a homebred of the upstate Gallahger's Stud. This filly, inbred 3x4 to Fappiano, is out of Eventail, a NY-bred stakes winner by Lear Fan who's a half-sister to the excellent race mare Take Charge Lady, two-time winner of the G1 Spinster, and an earner of nearly $2.5 million.

And back to the second race, John Kimmel unveils Emotional, by the thus far effective first-out sire E Dubai. The trainer has won three of these baby turf races with first-timers this year out of six tries, two of them at Saratoga. She's out of a dam by the juvenile champion Favorite Trick; and her second dam is the juvenile filly champion Smart Angle, the dam of the speedy Houston.