This winter has been one of the most testing winters I can remember for training horses across the country. We’ve seen extreme weather in New York with an enormously large amount of snowfall and an above average number of cold days. This is what winters used to be like, but in recent times we’ve not seen a winter like this for a few years.
Even Louisiana and the Fair Grounds Division have had to deal with six inches of snow and several days of severe storms and very cold conditions. As such, it’s been a mental test to be training horses in either jurisdiction. Luckily, up north it appears the temperatures have broken and we’re now consistently seeing temperatures in the mid-fifties without getting any ground frost at night.
In fact, it’s nice to see the daffodils and the snowdrops have poked their heads out and that’s normally a good sign that spring is upon us. We’ve had a very enjoyable past six weeks with some winners and some high profile horses running very well. On January 31, Patty Brown Eyes won her second race for Lucky Hat Racing and V Hop Racing before being claimed away by Linda Rice. We will miss her as she had become a little bit of a barn pet.
The same partnership also had Carol Said No win her second race on February 7. And with the two fillies being named after the two wives, it was nice that they both found their way to the winner’s circle within ten days of each other.
Paula’s a Star is a very exciting filly to be going to war with this year. Last spring, she ran very well against colts on debut as a two-year-old, but sadly sustained a very minor soft tissue injury that necessitated the summer off. She’s recently come back and retained all the ability she had, breaking her maiden extremely impressively on February 8 for Santa Rey Stable and Rainbow’s End Racing. She defeated a lovely filly of Christophe Clement’s running a 77 Beyer in the process and has backed that up recently by running third in the Jimmy Winkfield Stakes—a Black Type Stakes against colts on March 15.
My reasoning for running her in this race, so that those of you who question it understand my thought process: The allowance race for straight three-year-old fillies in New York got one entry and did not go. We then entered her in an Allowance race at Colonial Downs for three-year-old fillies, which got two entries and also did not go.
As a trainer, I like to see my horses in a regular racing pattern when they’re fit and well. In my opinion, doing so helps me maintain their fitness and aid in their improvement. And the only logical spot for this filly to run was over the correct distance that she wants, which is six furlongs. This required her second of three lifetime starts to be against colts.
For her to come out the right side of that and gain very valuable Black Type by finishing third means that I can build towards races like the Miss Preakness, the day before the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, without breaking our racing rhythm. This filly has got an awful lot of speed and a huge will to win, so it was great to see her run so competitively against the boys a couple of weekends ago.
On February 28, American Know How rounded out February by winning his second race of the year for Reagan Jack Racing, John Hickey, Michael McKenna, and Anthony Pepe. A bit of a difficult horse to keep on the racetrack, it was great to see him win two out of his last three starts for the barn.
As I mentioned last time, it’s been wonderful to have Donegal Momentum back in the barn. So far, touch wood, everything has gone according to plan. He came back to the races probably one work shorter than where I would like to have been against a very salty group of older Allowance horses at the Fair Grounds going a mile at the beginning of March. This is a condition and race I always think is incredibly difficult for very talented three-year-olds.
It’s their first start ever against older foes, and against Donegal Momentum were several horses who were making their 30-35th lifetime start. One of them had won 17 races. One of them is verging on being a millionaire. These are battle-hardened, older warrior horses. They are not Grade One caliber horses, but they are seasoned and very tough competitors with a lot of experience tucked into their girth.
With that in mind, for a relatively lightly raced, early-season four-year-old to come back and beat those horses off of a holiday was extremely encouraging for me to see. The ground at Fair Grounds this winter has been plagued by persistent rain, so Donegal Momentum is going to be much better seen on a firmer surface than he encountered in New Orleans.
Javier Castellano flew in for the ride as he adores this horse, and we very much appreciate him wanting to be a part of the journey. I want to give an enormous mention to Mitchell Murrill, who is basically our stable jockey in Louisiana and has done everything in his power to get Donegal Momentum ready in the mornings, knowing that he wasn’t going to get to ride him in the afternoons.
Thank you, Mitchell, for all of your tireless work, not just this winter with Donegal Momentum, but also for breezing all of last winter before the horse came in and debuted in New York. It’s efforts like this by our team players that I hope I can reward people like Mitchell with as many winners as possible over the years to come.
Donegal Momentum has now been nominated to two races. The first one is the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct in the beginning of April, going seven furlongs on the dirt. The other race is the Maker’s Mark Mile on April 10 at Keeneland, which is a Grade One on the grass. The latter is the race he will most likely end up running.
Although I haven’t ruled out the Carter, depending on the weather, I wouldn’t want to go to Keeneland and run on very soft turf if I could instead stay home with a legitimate shot at a Grade Two, going seven furlongs on dirt, especially since it’s a surface Donegal Momentum has run very creditably on before. Certainly, as I’ve always said, it’s something we’re planning on having another go at this year at some point with him.
A couple of horses who did not win but deserve a special mention would be Titletown Racing Stables and Rainbow’s End Racing’s Will of a Womanne. This partnership group has been incredibly patient waiting for this filly to debut, and I don’t think I’ve ever worked a horse more times without running them than I have her. Because she is a young horse going through huge skeletal changes, I didn’t feel she was ready for the rigors of a race, and as such, she arrived at the barn in September and debuted on March 8.
The great part about it is she surprised me by finishing second. She’s a filly I think will improve dramatically on turf. I wasn’t sure she had the speed to sprint, so when she proved otherwise, it was pleasing to see her run so well to an extremely good filly trained by Christophe Clement.
Another horse who finished second in rather extraordinary circumstances was One Nine Hundred, who is the fastest three-year-old on dirt in our barn and he lost a Maiden Special Weight by six and a half lengths. This was rather astonishing to me, considering it was twelve lengths back to the third place finisher in a dirt sprint.
The other thing that was rather astonishing was how fast he ran. One Nine Hundred attained a 92 Beyer Speed Figure, losing a Maiden Special Weight to a horse who ran a 106 Beyer. These are numbers that are normally reserved for Graded Stakes-level horses, so the fact that he ran fast enough to theoretically win a Grade Three, but lost a Maiden, was a tough pill to swallow. He does, however, seem to be in really good form and will target another six-furlong race on March 29.
Two-year-old sale season has officially started and I managed to spend two weeks in Ocala looking at our two-year-olds on the farm, very pleased with their progress. We were lucky to pick up a couple of horses at the OBS March sale. A special mention to Steven Rocco and Adelphi Racing, who bought my favorite horse within our budget limits on the second day of the sale. And one of my favorite horses at the sale, a Yaupon New York-bred from Grade One investments.
He is now having a brief vacation before joining our string in New York. These sales aren’t my favorite place to select horses as I feel too much is asked of these babies. But, over the years we’ve seen more and more good horses thanks to consigners aligning themselves with trainers in wanting to see their horses go on and be successful on the racetrack rather than putting them through too much too quickly at the sales.
That’s it for now.
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