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Joe Clancy So you want to be a horse trainer…
Jerry Hollendorfer, winner of 6,870 races, Hall of Famer, California legend saddles his horse in the paddock at Charles Town, signs autographs, poses for iPhone photos, wishes his owner luck and starts walking.
When Eric Guillot talks about Moreno, the trainer says things like this: “If you’re in front of my horse early, you’re going too fast,” and “I told my jockey to ride him like he stole him and the posse is chasing you,” and even “I’m here for two reasons, to pass out lollipops and win big races and I’m fresh out of lollipops.”
You want to cheer for the 13-year-old Irish-bred with three wins in the race? Or a rare son of Danzig still racing? Or maybe the 11-year-old who won an Eclipse Award three years ago? Or the former Kentucky Derby starter? Saturday’s Temple Gwathmey Hurdle Handicap includes all that and more as part of the Middleburg Spring Races at Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va.
He was bred in Germany. His race record shows starts at Dortmund, Frankfurt, Baden Baden, Liecester, Cheltenham and Aintree. But last weekend, Moneytrain made headlines for winning a sidesaddle exhibition flat race at the Loudon Hunt Point-to-Point Races at Oatlands Plantation in Leesburg, Va.
Mike Smith sounds like a guy coming to town to visit a relative or see a concert: “I fly into Dulles, right? That’s the closest airport, isn’t it? How far is that from there? I’ll probably just get a car, maybe an Uber car. I think I get in about 8.”
Unrivaled will get to run in a derby on the first Saturday in May after all, just not the one Team Valor International and trainer Marya Montoya dreamed about, after their horse wound up seventh of eight in the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland April 4.
Call this a Monday Special, a recap of the past weekend with hopefully a little detail, some news you can use and even a short look at the week ahead. Can the TIHR team keep up with it? That’s the real question. Regardless, we’ll try to keep you in the loop and a little better informed with a companion to the Saturday Special weekend racing menu.
Maker of the Crown is the kind of horse who gets your attention. He’s huge, gray, elegant, masculine. His pedigree is aristocratic. His sire, Empire Maker, won the Wood Memorial, the Belmont Stakes and was second in the 2003 Kentucky Derby behind Funny Cide.
It’s a big drawer, but file this under “only in steeplechasing” along with all the other cool stuff. Grinding Speed makes his third consecutive start in the My Lady’s Manor timber stakes, and his 14th consecutive race for jockey Mark Beecher.
The accolades continue to pour in for Dayatthespa. A little more than five months after the mare became the first New York-bred to win a Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup race and less than three months removed from collecting the Eclipse Award as North America’s champion turf female, Dayatthespa stole the show at the New York Thoroughbred Breeders Annual Awards Banquet.
