Max Player
Dark Bay or Brown Colt / April 27th, 2017 in KY / by Honor Code out of Fools in Love
$817,500
2021 earnings
113
speed figure
40%
2021 wins
racing Record
2021 Stats
Career Stats
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2
Firsts
4
0
Seconds
1
0
Thirds
2
3
Unplaced
5
5
Starts
12
$817,500
Earnings
$1,312,500
$163,500
Earnings / Start
$109,375
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Bio
Max Player closed from far off the pace to run second by a half-length in his career debut Nov. 12, 2019, at Parx Racing. He followed with a dominant 4 ¼-length victory Dec. 17 in a one-mile race on a sloppy track at Parx.
Trainer Linda Rice tested the dark bay or brown Honor Code colt against graded stakes competition in his 3-year-old bow, entering Max Player in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes Feb. 1 at Aqueduct. Max Player aced the exam by closing from sixth for a 3 1/4-length score and banked 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Max Player closed from far off the pace to run second by a half-length in his career debut Nov. 12, 2019, at Parx Racing. He followed with a dominant 4 ¼-length victory Dec. 17 in a one-mile race on a sloppy track at Parx.
Trainer Linda Rice tested the dark bay or brown Honor Code colt against graded stakes competition in his 3-year-old bow, entering Max Player in the Grade 3 Withers Stakes Feb. 1 at Aqueduct. Max Player aced the exam by closing from sixth for a 3 1/4-length score and banked 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Max Player made his first start since his breakthrough Withers win in a very tough assignment: the 152nd Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets on June 20. Well back early in the 1 1/8-mile Belmont, which was shortened and rescheduled as the first leg of a Triple Crown altered by the global health pandemic, he rallied in the stretch to secure third behind Tiz the Law and Dr Post, earning 30 more Kentucky Derby qualifying points. Max Player finished third again in the Runhappy Travers Stakes Aug. 8, cementing his spot in the starting gate for the run for the roses with 60 points.
Max Player earned his first graded stakes win in more than a year in the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes at Belmont Park on July 3, 2021. He won the Grade 2 Suburban Stakes by a neck at 8-1, winning a stretch battle with odds-on favorite Mystic Guide. With that win, Max Player earned a spot in the starting gate for the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 6.
Two months later, Max Player further cemented his status as a major player in the older male division when he won the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga on Sept. 4. The race also offered a spot in the Longines Breeders' Cup Classic, although Max Player had already secured his berth. With that win, he became the first horse to win the Suburban and Jockey Club Gold Cup in the same year since Flat Out in 2011.
A half-brother (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to Group 2 winner Seahenge, Max Player is out of the stakes-winning Not For Love mare Fools in Love.
