John Kimmel was showing a visitor around the barn at Saratoga and stepped into the stall for a meet and greet. If the big chestnut gelding cared that two humans entered his domain, he didn’t really let on.
Sniff, sniff, futz, futz. “OK, whatever, can I go back to eating hay now?”
And he went back to eating hay.
Kimmel laughed, put an arm on the horse’s withers and started talking.
“This is him,” said the trainer. “He’s so cool to be around. They gelded him as a yearling because he was so big.”
Big translated to good, eventually. Mr. Buff broke his maiden in September of his 2-year-old season, won twice more as a 3-year-old and started 14 times as a 4-year-old – winning starts nine, 12, 13, and 14 – the last a stakes win in the Alex M. Robb.
As good as that campaign was, Mr. Buff took things another step forward in 2019 with wins in the Jazil in January, the Saginaw in June, the Evan Shipman in August, the Empire Classic in October and the Robb once again in late December. The campaign of five wins in nine starts (including three could-have-gone-better tries in graded company) was worth $455,750 for Chester and Mary Broman and earned the homebred a spot among the best New York-breds of the season and the older dirt male crown.
It all nearly went haywire in the starting gate of the Shipman at Saratoga as Mr. Buff kicked at a fly on his belly and hung his right hind leg on the pontoon of the starting gate. The narrow platform provides a spot for the assistant starter to stand in each stall, and apparently gives a 17.2-hand horse no trouble to find.
Kimmel watched it from the box seats, and fretted as the race’s heavy favorite stood on three legs for 90 seconds, broke slowly and abandoned his usual front-running tactics. Mr. Buff overcame the trouble, took over after a half-mile and won by 3 1/2 lengths.
“Relief. I hate being 3-5, I like it in some respects but you’re expected to win, if something goes awry…then he hangs his foot in the gate,” Kimmel said afterward. “That was a race that wasn’t pretty, certainly not his best.”
Mr. Buff delivered anyway, and finished the year with $933,286 in career earnings. Mr. Buff goes way back with the Bromans and Kimmel on the top side of his pedigree as sire Friend Or Foe and grandsire Friends Lake both raced in the green and white and for Kimmel. Dam Speightful Affair was purchased for $80,000 at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in 2013. In addition to Mr. Buff, she has produced winners Cain Is Abel, Daddy Knows, Organic Gemini and unraced 2-year-old filly Miss Buff (a full-sister).
Mr. Buff opened 2020 with more success, taking the Jazil in January and Haynesfield in February to pass $1 million in career earnings.
“He’s awesome,” said Kimmel in March. “Like wine, he just keeps getting better with age. He’s an iron horse. He’s been in training for quite some time, but it’s very hard to take him out of training when he continues to go out and show me everything in the morning that he does. He’s a happy horse. The middle of winter in New York and his coat looked like a copper penny.”
It wasn’t always this way. Mr. Buff was a gawky 2-year-old Kimmel said with a laugh resembled “two men in a horse suit” early. The conformation and coordination eventually caught up with the size and Mr. Buff won his second career start. Risked for a $75,000 tag in February 2017, after four consecutive losses, he won but was disqualified for bumping a foe in the stretch. Call it an opportunity missed by the slip-droppers, and a disaster dodged by Kimmel. Mr. Buff won two of his next three, and never saw another claiming race.
“As he started into his campaign as an older horse there was always a question at what was his best attribute,” said Kimmel. “We spent a lot of time in shorter-distance and middle-distance races. He was running OK, but not to the level he’s been doing now, and there were a bunch of races where he was losing a shoe. He had kind of a white, shelly foot and we put glue-ons on him and he started on that campaign of good performance after good performance after good performance.”
Mr. Buff has tried graded company three times, without much success, but Kimmel thinks that could change and would also like to see his horse continue to stretch to longer, two-turn races.
“Maybe against those top horses his running style of committing to the front is not the best for him,” said the trainer. “He’s shown he doesn’t have to be on the lead at every call now and I think if he got that kind of race against those good horses he’d be pretty tough. He can lead the whole way, run fast and do all the running against New York-breds, but not against Grade 1 horses. They stick around and come back on him more and they’re hard to handle. If he runs the kind of race he’s run so far this year in one of those, it’ll be a pretty powerful performance.”
Mr. Buff
Ch. g. 2014, Friend Or Foe–Speightful Affair, Speightstown.
Breeder/Owner: Chester and Mary Broman.
Trainer: John Kimmel.
2019 record: 9-5-0-1, $455,750. 2019 stakes: Jazil, Saginaw, Evan Shipman, Empire Classic, Alex Robb.
The above article appeared in the 2019 NYTB Awards Dinner program produced by the team behind The Saratoga Special and This Is Horse Racing.
The NYTB published the winners on the organization’s website (https://www.nytbreeders.org/) and social media channels on the original date of the Awards Dinner, Monday, April 6, after the event was canceled due to the coronavirus crisis. At the same time, NYTB launched a microsite at nytbawards.com to host a video presentation produced by PM Advertising featuring the top performances of all nominees and showcasing the winners.
Other champion older dirt male finalists:
Giant Expectations
Ch.h. 2013, Frost Giant–Sarahisittrue, Is It True.
Breeder: Sunrise Stable.
Owner: David Bernsen, Exline-Border Racing, Gatto Racing, Garett Zubok.
Trainer: Peter Eurton.
2019 record: 6-0-2-2. $161,500. California-based runner placed in the San Pasquale and Pat O’Brien, both Grade 2 and the latter in a photo, and was also second in the Commentator at Belmont in May. Won two Grade 2 stakes in 2017, and finished 2019 with more than $1.3 million in earnings.
Honor Up
Dk.b./br.c. 2015, To Honor And Serve–Unobstructed View, Yes It’s True.
Breeder: Gainesway Thoroughbreds.
Owner: Saratoga Seven Racing Partners.
Trainer: Michelle Nevin. 5-2-0-1. $175,480. Won the Say Florida Sandy and Haynesfield to open season, and placed in Grade 1 Carter in April. Second to runaway winner Mr. Buff in 2020 debut, the Haynesfield Stakes, at Aqueduct in February. Half-brother to stakes winner Blueridge Traveler.
Pat On The Back
Ch.h. 2014, Congrats–Accomplished, Awesome Again.
Breeder: Sugar Maple Farm.
Owner: Harold Lerner, AWC Stable, Nehoc Stable.
Trainer: Jeremiah Englehart.
2019 record: 6-3-0-2. $383,550. Opened with spring stakes wins in the Affirmed Success and Commentator, then finished third at Saratoga before prevailing in Grade 2 Kelso at Belmont in September. Third to division champion Mr. Buff in Empire Classic, and finished 2020 with nine lifetime wins and more than $1.1 million earned. Half-brother to stakes winner Sarah Accomplished, eight-time winner Built In A Day, seven-time winner Celebrating Sarah and six-time winner Verbosity.
