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Carlo Vaccarezza's sons Nick and Mike made it out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alive on that horrific Valentine's Day in 2018 in Parkland, Fla., when a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 17 students and educators.

Nick's buddy Joaquin Oliver didn't.

“Nick said, 'Dad, the next horse you buy, let's name him after one of my best friends, Joaquin Oliver — they call him Guac,'” recalled the elder Vaccarezza, a horse owner, trainer and Boca Raton restaurateur.

Three weeks later, Vaccarezza paid $55,000 at the Ocala 2-year-old sale for a son of the Claiborne Farm stallion Flatter. The colt was named Little Guac (pronounced wok) to honor the slain 17-year-old.

It would be another two years and four months before Vaccarezza finally got Little Guac to the starting gate for his first start, racing with Nick as owner. If willing something to happen was enough, Little Guac would have been in the winner's circle after Ellis Park's eighth race Saturday. Instead, he raced up close to the leaders until late in the turn before fading to sixth under Miguel Mena in the eight-horse field running 5 1/2 furlongs on turf.

Vaccarezza and jockey Miguel Mena discuss Little Guac after the race

As he waited for the race to start, Vaccarezza said that he thought he finally had Little Guac ready for competition.

“At least I hope he's ready,” he said. “I think it would be a nice story. My son would be really emotional if the horse would win. Myself, too. It's a shame — a young not even 18-year-old kid, we lost him for something crazy. He was such a nice kid and had the world to live for, and unfortunately he got shot.”

Little Guac's finish wasn't simply a matter of the horse tiring in his first start ever. The horse experienced a pulmonary hemorrhaging episode, a common condition in the equine species known as bleeding. In fact, it was what had kept Little Guac from racing earlier in his career, with Vaccarezza giving the horse lots of time off from training and specialized treatments.

Treatment does allow many horses to race successfully with this condition. Little Guac just wasn't one. Now, with Saturday's result, Vaccarezza said Little Guac most likely is through racing after one race in which he earned $300.

“We did everything we could think of,” Vaccarezza said. “We did everything possible. … I think that's the end of his career. If I could look back, I wish I could have named another horse Little Guac, that maybe he'd have won a race. But at least we tried. This is horse racing. You can't predict the future of these animals. It doesn't matter how much you pay for them. We gave it a good try. I hope Little Guac in heaven is proud of his horse.”

The elder Vaccarezza said he doesn't regret trying to get Little Guac to the races.

“If this horse was any other horse, I'd have given up,” he said. “There are very few people who have a horse who is almost 5 years old and hasn't made a start. Due to the fact that it meant so much to my son and being the namesake, I did everything possible to try to let the horse be a good horse and let it run a decent race.”

Carlo Vaccarezza is best known in racing circles for campaigning $3.5 million-earner Little Mike, the horse named for his younger son. Little Mike in 2012 won Churchill Downs' Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, the Arlington Million and Breeders' Cup Turf when trained by Dale Romans. Vaccarezza, who owns Frank & Dino's restaurant in Boca Raton, races many of his horses in the name of family members: wife Priscilla and both sons. He began training his own horses in 2014.

After almost 30 years in Florida, Vaccarezza moved his entire 28-horse stable to Keeneland in mid-March. One factor is that his sons want to attend the University of Kentucky, Nick (who works for trainer Chad Brown) for the equine program and Mike for business administration.

“This has been brewing for a few months,” he said. “We're building another Frank & Dino's in Lexington, so that was the perfect scenario, just to move my horses to Keeneland. I love it in Lexington. I think it's a beautiful town.”

Vaccarezza had a win, three seconds and three thirds at Churchill Downs' spring meet, his first while training full-time in Kentucky. Saturday was his first time at Ellis Park, though he knows racing secretary Dan Bork well from Bork's years at Gulfstream Park.

“It's like a diamond in the rough,” Vaccarezza said of Ellis Park. “It's a pretty little place. Dan Bork is doing a phenomenal job. The main track is great; the turf course is superb, and the people are really friendly.”

The post Patience, Perseverance Couldn’t Overcome Physical Obstacle For Slain Student’s Namesake Little Guac appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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