Was anyone cheering as hard for Nutella Fella in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga as racing man and sports gambler “Mattress Mack” McIngvale?
Jim McIngvale bought and raced the winner's sire, champion sprinter Runhappy, a bay son of Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver (by Maria's Mon). McIngvale had famously backed Runhappy at good odds in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Sprint and saw his stable star roar to victory in track-record time and earn an Eclipse Award as top sprinter.
When Runhappy went to stud at historic Claiborne Farm outside Paris, Ky., McIngvale backed his horse just like he backs his selections for championships anywhere. To the hilt.
Through the sponsorship of races, as well as advertising in television and online media, McIngvale kept his horse's name in front of the public, as well as breeders, buyers, and trainers.
Now, with Runhappy's fourth crop racing at two, the sire has his first Grade 1 winner in Nutella Fella, and McIngvale is all in with Nutella, the product. The colt was scarcely under the wire when the promotional guru was on the internet with jars of the hazelnut and cocoa cream spread in front of him, offering congratulations to all those connected to this year's Hopeful Stakes winner, including sire Runhappy.
The 11-year-old bay stallion stands at Claiborne Farm for a stud fee of $15,000 and has all but grabbed Grade 1 glory before. Runhappy's first-crop star Following Sea won the G2 Vosburgh and was second in the G1 Haskell and G1 Cigar Mile; the stallion's second-crop star Smile Happy won the G2 Alysheba this year, as well as the G2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at 2, then in between finished second in the G1 Blue Grass Stakes.
The unbeaten Nutella Fella, however, was not going to be denied his Grade 1, but even that success came perilously close to being a shot in the rough.
Trainer Gary Contessa said, “This is such a nice colt, but he is absolutely claustrophobic at the gate. There is something about being in the gate that really gets to him. Before he came to me, he was scratched at the gate more than once. The day of the race [his debut] at Delaware [July 26], he was bad in the paddock, bad on the track, bad at the gate.”
In that race, Nutella Fella broke last, worked his way through the field, came outside late, and won by 2 1/4 lengths from the race favorite Linzer (Street Sense), with the third horse 7 1/2 lengths farther back.
Contessa noted: “I advise Bell Gable Stable, and the owner Nick (Beaver) said 'This colt's coming to you,' and I got him the day after he won at Delaware; I've had him five weeks and he's training like a champ … but he's a maniac at the gate.
“For this colt, talented as he is, to make this kind of racehorse,” Contessa continued, “credit the NYRA gate crew; Hector (Soler, NYRA's head starter) spent hours with this guy because this colt was the worst kind of bad actor at the gate. He'd figured out that he could flip and go home. So, he was sitting back on his hind end, going onto his back, just awful.
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“But they kept working with him, and a couple weeks ago, they tried a new device on him, put it on him so that it put a little pressure on his withers, they got him in the gate, and then he took a deep breath and relaxed. You could see him take that breath and relax, because I was standing there in front of the gate, and I said, 'We've got him.' We broke him of that bad habit, and I don't believe it could have happened without the gate crew.”
So Nutella Fella's behavior before the Hopeful, fidgety and uncooperative, was pretty good for him. Contessa said, “This colt wants to be a racehorse, handles himself well and professionally in the race, but he will be continuing his gate schooling. He'll probably be at the gate 25 times between now and the Champagne [the next projected start for Nutella Fella]. That's his Achilles' heel, but we couldn't give up on him because he had trained as well as any graded stakes colt I'd ever had.”
Bred in Kentucky by the Lyster family's Ashview Farm and Colts Neck Stable, Nutella Fella is the second foal of Krissy's Candy (Candy Ride). The dam had sold for $210,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale to Mike Ryan, agent for e Five Racing, and Stephen Lyster claimed the filly out of her third start, a maiden claiming event at Churchill Downs in November 2017, for $50,000.
Ashview had acquired the second dam, G2 Adirondack Stakes second Unbridled Beauty (Unbridled's Song) for $135,000 at the 2011 Keeneland November sale in foal to Harlan's Holiday. The third dam is a full sister to champion sprinter Housebuster (Mt. Livermore).
As a yearling, Nutella Fella brought only $12,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale, and his dam has a yearling colt by Preakness Stakes winner War of Will (War Front) to sell at the September sale that begins next week. The mare has a weanling colt by G1 winner Yaupon (Uncle Mo) and was bred back to Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie).
This pedigree has its fair share of champion sprinters. And who bred Runhappy? The Lysters at Ashview.
The post Bloodlines: Patience Paid Off On Many Levels For Nutella Fella, Sire Runhappy appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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