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Pyramid Park
How ‘bout a little ‘Pyramid power’ for this year’s running of the Queen’s Plate? The jury may be out after a disappointing effort in the Plate Trial, but as the son of Tethra has shown in the past, coming up big in the big races isn’t a problem.
Before we get to the good, we’ll touch on the not-so-good, namely a seventh-place finish in the aforementioned Plate Trial, nearly 10 lengths back of Pipers Thunder on June 4. You want excuses from trainer Mike Doyle? Well, you aren’t going to get any. “Disappointing,” remarked Doyle, of Pyramid Park’s performance. “He trained great going into the race. He had a bit of a slow work heading into the Trial – he got a little bit strong with Slade (jockey Callaghan) before he worked. He worked pretty well, actually, considering everything. He came over to the race in great shape and I thought he’d run really well.”
When no one stepped up to the ‘Plate’ to take the lead, Callaghan and the Eaton Hall Farm silk-bearer decided to assume the role of pacesetter. “We didn’t really want to be on the lead, the idea wasn’t to be there,” recalled Doyle. “Even as it was, it’s not like they went too fast and he stopped. He just ran to the half-mile pole and stopped. He was fine afterwards, fine before and came back and worked great and ate great, too.”
Does that mean the dark bay ‘bounced’ after a two-length wire-to-wire score three weeks earlier? “From a handicapper’s standpoint, I guess they might say he bounced. I don’t know. I’m not a good handicapper. I hope the handicappers are right because if you go off that, his next race might be his best race. I’d be happy with that. The distance will certainly suit him.”
Now let’s get to the good. After finishing sixth, fourth and fourth, respectively, in his first three starts, Pyramid Park was thrust into stakes action, the 1 1/16-mile Cup & Saucer Stakes on October 16. When the gate opened, the colt was stone-cold on the toteboard at 53-1. One minute and 41 seconds later, however, Callaghan and his charge were large and in charge on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course, a three-length winner.
While bettors gave him more respect next time out in the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity, a key prep on the road to the Queen’s Plate, he still went off at nearly 13-1. The end result? A second-place showing, a neck back of Plate rival Thinking Out Loud. Pyramid Park then closed out his two-year-old campaign with a run in the 1 1/16-mile Kingarvie, where he finished fourth, beaten 3 ¼-lengths.
In three races this year, Pyramid Park has finished second, in what his seasonal bow on April 23, followed by a two-length triumph on May 12, one that earned him a career-best 88 Beyer figure (DRF speed rating) and the seventh-place finish in the Plate Trial.
“He’s very laid-back, all that family, Ada Prospect, the mother of Tethra would lie down a lot. So would Tethra. And this horse is very much the same. He lies down a lot. And yet he can be tough, too. He can go from being so quiet and laid-back, to trying to run off. He’s just a very nice horse to be around. Chances are, down the road, he’ll be a better turf horse. We’ve known that all along. He’s just gone an odd route to the Plate.”
Before he goes head-to-head with the competition on Sunday, Pyrmaid Park is going eye-to-eye with Plate favourite Wanna Runner, who is stabled in Doyle’s barn on the Woodbine backstretch. “He looks well,” said Doyle, of the Bob Baffert trainee. “They’re a couple of doors down from one another.”
Shillelagh Slew
C’est magnifique! It’s certainly an appropriate way to describe the performance of Quebec-bred Shillelagh Slew on April 29 at Woodbine, a thoroughly dominating display both during the race and after, one that stamped the David James’ colt, listed at 15-1 in the QP Winterbook, as a serious contender for the ‘Gallop for the Guineas.’
After gliding by 11 rivals in the seven-furlong dash, the son of Chief Seattle went on to a 4 ¼-length score and then galloped out ahead of the field around the clubhouse turn by 20-plus lengths. Mon Dieu! “It wouldn’t have mattered if we hadn’t won the race,” admitted trainer Mike DePaulo. “It wasn’t a ‘have-to-win’ race. We wanted to let him settle and then have him make a strong move down the lane. Dino (jockey Luciani) barely rode him. We were ecstatic.”
The connections have felt that way for awhile. “After his first breeze, he acted as though he could run,” recalled DePaulo. “He went :35 and change and galloped out so strongly. We were pretty pumped after that.”
DePaulo is happy to dole out bunches of appealing info on his stable star. “He loves to eat bananas. He can’t get enough of them.”
And although he didn’t have a date in the winner’s circle after his first career start, a seven-furlong effort on Woodbine’s E.P. Taylor Turf Course on September 3, the dark bay showed he had heart…along with some closing ability. After being steadied and 18 lengths off the lead, ‘Slew’ flew and closed four-wide to finish third, just two lengths back of the winner. “I was hoping that he could run and on that day, he showed he had some talent.”
Okay. He has some talent, but here’s the rub. “He liked to rub his tail and he rubbed it raw,” noted DePaulo. “It was a pretty ratty looking tail, but we got him to stop doing it and it looks a heck of a lot better than it did.”
In his second lifetime start, again at seven furlongs, but this time on the dirt, Shillelagh Slew drove clear to break his maiden by 2 ½-lengths on October 2. Then came the Cup & Saucer Stakes, a race that DePaulo was hoping his charge could dish out another strong showing in. It wasn’t to be, however, as he wound up eighth, nearly 15 lengths behind Plate rival Pyramid Park. So, which horse would show up in the Coronation Futurity, a 1 1/8-mile key prep race on the road to the Queen’s Plate?
Shillelagh Slew, sent off at 8-1, utilized a five-wide bid and a ‘good rally’ to finish third in the CF, a half-length shy for all the spoils in what was his final start as a two-year-old. “I was devastated,” said DePaulo. “I thought we would have galloped. If you look at the tape, he (Shillelagh Slew) looked really clumsy.”
That clumsiness is definitely a thing of the past, though, as Shillelagh Slew elicited more than a few ‘wows’ from the crowd in his 2006 debut, the aforementioned 4 ¼-length score on April 29. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that he caught a virus and missed out on the Marine Stakes, a race that fellow Plate contender Malakoff won. “It kind of screwed us up, him getting sick,” said DePaulo. “In the perfect world, we would have run him in the Marine and then the Plate. But that didn’t happen.”
“He’s been working great and we’ve got the freshest horse going into the race,” continued DePaulo, whose media guide bio lists winning the Queen’s Plate as his No. 1 goal. “This guy has never had an inside trip in his life. Hopefully, we can save some ground and have some speed to run at in the Plate. He’s screaming to run.”
What’s the perfect marriage for DePaulo on Plate Day? A win in the big one, followed by a candlelit dinner for two, with his wife and assistant trainer, Josie. “It’s my 18th anniversary on Sunday, so it would be nice to get the victory and celebrate in style.”
Sterwins
He’s had only two career starts, both as a three-year-old, so past history suggests Sterwins, a son of Runaway Groom, won’t be saying, ‘I do’ to a win in the Queen’s Plate. But a 10 ½-length romp in his most recent race has his connections hoping he’ll be awesome again on Sunday. And speaking of Awesome Again…
The last horse to win the Plate off just two starts? It was Frank Stronach’s Awesome Again, who took the 1997 classic with a pair of races under his saddle, a third-place finish at seven furlongs and a six-length score at 1 1/16-miles. The last horse prior to Awesome Again to win the Plate off two three-year-old starts was Windfields Farm’s Regal Embrace in 1978, a 150-1 longshot in the original QP Winterbook. As for Sterwins, the grey/roan finished second in his six furlong career bow at Belmont, less than a length back of the winner, before shipping to Monmouth where he rated the pace, before drawing off as the 9-5 favourite, at 1 1/16-miles.
Here’s the goods on Sterwin’s career bow: ‘Chased pace four wide, 9 ½ lengths behind in sixth after a half-mile, dropped back on turn, came again in stretch, made up 6 ¾ lengths and lost by three-quarters of length at six furlongs; ran final quarter in 24 4/5.’
And when it comes to the owner/trainer/jockey side of the equation, it is a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the thoroughbred racing world. Eugene Melnyk owns, Todd Pletcher trains and John Velazquez rides. Talk about a 1-2-3 punch. In 1998, Melnyk was co-owner and Pletcher the trainer, when Archers Bay took the ‘Gallop for the Guineas’ under Kent Desormeaux.
What else does Sterwins have going for him? The Ontario-bred has the highest Beyer figure (Daily Racing Form speed rating) of any QP starters, 101. In fact, the gelding is the only one to have attained a triple-digit Beyer. Wanna Runner, the likely post-time favourite, is next with a 99, while Malakoff put up a 92 in his Grade 3 Marine Stakes triumph.
Keeping with the numbers game, Sterwins is the Plate’s lowest money-earner to date, with just $30,200 in purse earnings.
As for Sterwin’s sire, Runaway Groom had 18 career starts, winning six times, finishing second on five occasions, along with one third, for nearly $350,000 in lifetime earnings.
Thinking Out Loud
At the conclusion of 2005, Thinking Out Loud looked every bit like a long-distance running machine. The D. Morgan Firestone charge closed out his juvenile campaign with three straight winning performances around two turns (he was demoted from first in his first route attempt). In the 1 1/8-mile Coronation Futurity, the David Bell trainee topped the best Canadian-breds of his generation. With a resume like that, he deserves a chance in a $1 million test of stamina, even though he has struggled this year to find the same winning form.
Thinking Out Loud enters the Plate off back-to-back sixth-place finishes in the Queenston and Plate Trial, similar results in which he dueled for the lead along the inside and tired late to finish around seven lengths back. Being his first start of the season at a distance shorter than his best, it was more understandable than disappointing to see him fade in the seven-furlong Queenston.
In the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial, Thinking Out Loud was back in his element. After dueling on the inside through relatively easy fractions, he had little response when the serious running started around the second turn. Having watched his colt train forwardly into the race, Bell was disappointed with the effort. “It was a funny race, four of us going head and head. In the middle stages, I thought we were going to be last. He backed up and lost ground. He actually found another gear and kept coming, belatedly.”
Was the rail dead that day? After jockey Jim McAleney acknowledged the trend, Bell wasn’t ready to attribute the performance to the track. “(Jim) thought it wasn’t as good as everywhere else. That would be a good excuse to have been second or third. Not further than that.”
Thinking Out Loud’s inside positioning may have been a factor for a different reason. No matter how fast a horse is travelling, the rail can be intimidating. Bell’s disappointment changed to optimism when McAleney told him what the colt thought of his placement on the track. “He didn’t think Thinking Out Loud liked being in there, pressured the whole way. We came up with a game plan - try and take him off the pace in the Plate.”
Bell and McAleney put the plan into action on Saturday, June 17, working Thinking Out Loud six furlongs in 1:11 4/5, handily. “He worked very well. Jimmy did a great job with him. He ate a lot of dirt for a half-mile,” said Bell. “He came back from the work covered in dirt, like he’d finished last in a bad race. He handled it and he galloped all the way around to the backside. He was strong.” Bell said it was his best work of the year. He reported that blinkers were off during the workout and would remain off for the June 25 classic.
The virus that swept through the Woodbine backstretch in May and June affected a high percentage of Bell trainees. “The virus went through my barn really hard. He never got sick, his blood (counts) were never bad and he never coughed. But I’m not sure that he didn’t get just a touch of it.”
The 1 ¼-mile Plate distance won’t be an issue, according to Bell. “He shouldn’t have any problem with 1 ¼ miles,” he offered. “(His pedigree) is set up to be that way.”
Wanna Runner
Wanna runner? Got one. What’s his name? Would you believe ‘Wanna Runner’, who has won over a half million dollars already this season for owner Mike Pegram and trainer Bob Baffert. And the son of El Corredor wasn’t even on the Kentucky Derby trail with stablemates Sinister Minister, Point Determined and Bob and John.
Quietly, out of the spotlight and sort of under the radar, Wanna Runner has won two of his four starts this year, including his last two, a couple of supreme efforts which saw the Ontario-bred win the mile and one-eighth $600,000 WinStar Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico on April 1, then travel to Lone Star Park in neighbouring Texas for a scintillating score in the mile and one-sixteenth, Grade 3 $300,000 Lone Star Derby, May 13, recording 92 and 98 Beyers (Daily Racing Form speed rating), respectively.
He’s banked $566,950, won four of eight career starts, is the leading money winner in the Plate field and will likely be the morning line favourite for the ‘Gallop for the Guineas’.
“It (Lone Star Derby) was a nice race. He won. That’s good,” understated Baffert. “He’s been very effective in those races, so I guess I’ve been spotting him right. He’s making money, it’s all about the money. I just hope he runs like he’s been running. So far, he looks good. And he’s been working great.”
Wanna Runner arrived at Woodbine last Thursday morning from New York, after his final major tune-up, a six furlong breeze over Belmont’s main track in 1:12.17. “He went really nice,” continued Baffert. “I might breeze him (again) on Tuesday.”
His best Beyer (99) came in the one-mile San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita on January 14, when he finished third (of four) to Brother Derek and 2005 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Stevie Wonderboy. Of the Plate horses, he’s the only one to record three 90+ Beyers. Only two other horses have registered 90+ numbers, Frank Stronach’s Malakoff, who earned a 92 Beyer when he romped in the Marine Stakes at Woodbine, May 20 and Eugene Melnyk’s Sterwins, who posted a 101 Beyer at Monmouth Park, June 10, when breaking his maiden.
In his other outing this year, January 29, at the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows, Wanna Runner wound up fifth behind eventual Kentucky Derby entrant Cause to Believe, racing for the first and only time without blinkers. “I was trying to get him to relax,” said Baffert. “He gets worked up a little bit. He’s quick. He likes to be up there, in the fight.” It was also the only time jockey Victor Espinoza hasn’t been aboard, replaced that day by David Flores.
“He ranks right up there (with my other three-year-olds). I didn’t put him on the Derby trail because, (owner) Mike (Pegram) had already won the Derby and he’s the kind of guy that if he doesn’t think he can win it, why put a horse through all that.”
On why he purchased him for $80,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Yearling Sale of 2004, Baffert added, “I liked his sire (El Corredor), for one. I trained him. He really wasn’t a sprinter, more like a miler. He’s (Wanna Runner) probably the best (offspring of) El Corredor. He’s a nice-looking horse. He can go a distance, so that’s good.”
“We were thinking about the Preakness, but the Plate has always been on his schedule. Hopefully he’ll run well. The Plate’s been the main objective. He’s easy to train, a good, decent-sized horse but he gets a little stirred up. Doesn’t take much to stir him up.”
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