The coolest horse you’ve never heard of runs Saturday. He runs fast, he jumps high, he wins pretty much all the time. He’s also a 12-year-old steeplechaser who will be nowhere near Santa Anita Park and the Breeders’ Cup. No, this star Thoroughbred is Decoy Daddy.
Born in Ireland, his career record includes 58 starts (all but five over jumps). He’s won 16 times and earned more than $446,000. Saturday, he makes his fifth consecutive start in the historic Noel Laing steeplechase handicap at the Montpelier Races in Orange, Va. He’s won it three times (2013, 2011 and 2010) and finished second in 2012.
The Laing dates to 1937 and counts among its past winners champions and Hall of Famers. Decoy Daddy will never be either, but that’s OK. Bred in Ireland by Charles Persse, the chestnut son of Lord Of Appeal made his racing debut (as a 5-year-old) at Limerick in 2007. He finished sixth in a 2-mile bumper for trainer Tony Mullins. At Tramore in August, he won on the flat and added a hurdle win that November at Cork. He lost nine times in 2008, falling twice over chase fences 10 days apart. His 2009 was better, with a chase win at Gowran Park in March, a hurdle win at Roscommon in June, another chase win at Limerick in July. He even made the Galway Festival, checking in seventh of 20 in the Galway Hurdle. He went back to Galway the next season and finished fourth in the Guinness Chase. Sold to American owner Irv Naylor that fall, Decoy Daddy finished seventh in the Grand National but rebounded to win his first Laing in his next start.
Four years later, the gelding sports an American record of nine wins in 22 starts over jumps and $331,900 earned. He’s proven to be pretty tough in specific races, winning the Laing three times, the Temple Gwathmey at Glenwood Park in Virginia three times and the National Hunt Cup at Radnor in Pennsylvania twice. He’s made a couple of forays in major stakes, finishing second in the 2011 A.P. Smithwick at Saratoga, but mainly sticks to the second tier.
And dominates.
He makes his third start of 2014 in Saturday’s Laing, run over the historic natural brush jumps at Montpelier. The property was once the home of James Madison and later the home of Virginia owner/breeder Marion du Pont Scott, who campaigned champions on the flat and over jumps. Montpelier, now owned by the National Historic Trust, features a dirt training track, the steeplechase course, two training barns, the grave of America’s English Grand National hero Battleship and others.
No wonder Decoy Daddy likes it.
“This is his race,” said the horse’s trainer Cyril Murphy. “He’s been working away, working away, steady and he seems to be coming right for the right day. The only thing that concerns us is the weight he has to give away. I don’t think there’s another horse we have to be concerned with. He’ll run his race.”
Murphy is the fifth person to train Decoy Daddy in the U.S. and loves the association.
“It will be a highlight of the year for me if he could win it, based on what he’s done around the course,” the trainer said this week. “His jumping is so slick, he’s constantly getting breathers into himself while the others are still coming down out of the air, so he’s never under any duress at any point.”
At 12, Decoy Daddy seems to be in career form with two wins this spring. A work on the farm in Maryland Tuesday was vintage.
“You bring a neutral observer out there and tell them he’s 12 years old and they wouldn’t believe you,” Murphy said. “The enthusiasm is there and you really think he’s 4 or 5. You really see it when somebody comes upsides him. The ears are pinned back and anything would be life and death to get by him.”
Decoy Daddy and jockey Carol Ann Sloan face just four others in the 2 1/2-mile stakes but must give away 14-20 pounds under the handicap conditions. The Laing is the sixth race on a seven-race card that starts at 12:30 p.m.
