artie schiller | Horse Racing Free Tips

Where Are They Now: Ninety One Assault

Lousiana-bred Ninety One Assault (Artie Schiller) was a bit of a hometown hero at Fair Grounds, where he scored seven of his eight lifetime victories, including three stakes wins for trainer Tom Morley. However, he was also a familiar face in New York as well, calling Belmont home for part of the year.

The hard-knocking gelding was a family favorite for Morley, his wife Maggie Wolfendale and their two daughters, Grace and Willow. So, when it came time for him to retire, there was no question that he would remain in the family, becoming Wolfendale's personal riding horse and top toddler babysitter.

“He was very special to both Tom and I because we owned most of him,” Wolfendale said while standing beside the now-9-year-old gelding just after a ride. “When he won his first Louisiana Champions Day Turf S., we were in England. Obviously, it was late there. We all stayed up and watched it, sitting around his dad, who struggled with Parkinson's disease. It was this big eruption of joy when he got up and won. He has truly been our family horse. He is a very special horse to us, so we always knew when it was time to call it quits on his racing career, that he would come home with us.”

The Morleys privately purchased Ninety One Assault in partnership with Paul Braverman after he broke his maiden in his 13th start at Belmont in March of 2017.

“We bought him because he was a Louisiana-bred and we were going down there,” Wolfendale said. “He became this horse that we all loved. He won several stakes at Fair Grounds and most of his other races, except his maiden score, which was at Belmont.”

Ninety One Assault, or Boo as he is affectionately referred to by Wolfendale, quickly became a barn favorite for the Morley team.

When asked if she galloped him in the mornings, Wolfendale said, “If I won the fight to gallop him! He was literally the horse that when you went in and looked at your set list and had him, everyone else went, 'Oh man, you got Ninety today!' Everybody wanted to ride him because he was such a lovely gallop. He was very easy. Everybody got along with him.”

Ninety One Assault thrived on his annual trips home to Louisiana. He won seven times during his five seasons in NOLA, including two editions of the Louisiana Champions Day Turf S. and the 2020 renewal of the Dixie Poker Ace S. The bay made his final start at Pimlico in April of 2021.

“He developed a little bit of a suspensory issue when he was coming back in 2021,” Wolfendale said. “He had already had ankle surgery at that point too. Tom decided that he wasn't going to push on him to get him back as a 9-year-old [in 2022], so that is when we decided to retire him.”

The lifelong horsewoman continued, “It is very expensive to keep horses in Long Island and we didn't live where we do now, which is 10 minutes from the farm. So at first, we sent him to Kentucky with Jamie Hernandez. She turned him out for six months to recover from the suspensory issue. She started him back in early March of this year and did a lot with him. She took him to shows and took him to lessons every week, so he got a nice, well-rounded start and education. I figured I could afford to keep him in Saratoga and, weirdly, have the time there because we had a split schedule with the [NYRA] T.V. [show]. Then we moved to the North Shore and Boo got to come with us.”

Ninety One Assault has been as much of a pleasure to handle in his new career as he was on the racetrack and has transitioned beautifully, according to Wolfendale.

“I've mainly had the war horses throughout my career,” she said. “It is so individual and depends on their personality as to whether the transition will be easy or not. He was an easy racehorse to handle and ride, so the transition was pretty easy for him. The things it sometimes takes a while for racehorses to get used to, like cross ties and mounting blocks, he took to with no problem.”

She continued, “As far as riding him, he is so smart and wants to please. He loves when you tell him he's a good boy. If you show him something once and he messes it up, he is not likely to mess it up again. He's just that kind of horse. Tom and I always joke that he may not come from much pedigree wise, but he is the star athlete, straight A student, prom king-type. Boo has a lot of class to him and he makes all of us happy. The girls can go out and graze him and stuff like that and he is very respectful to them too.”

As for what's next, Wolfendale hopes to take her trusty mount to the show ring, if she can find the time between assisting her husband with his racing stable and working as one of NYRA's on-air analysts.

“I've been taking lessons,” Wolfendale said. “He has been responding so well to that. I think we could get to the point where maybe next spring we could go to shows and be competitive in jumpers or eventing.”

The post Where Are They Now: Ninety One Assault appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Clear Vision Gives 23-Year-Old Trainer First Graded Stakes Win In Tropical Turf

Not quite two years ago, Matthew Brice O'Connor registered his first career win as a trainer at Gulfstream Park. The 23-year-old did himself one better Saturday, sending out MeB Stables' Clear Vision to a front-running upset victory in the $100,000 Tropical Turf (G3).

The 44th running of the one-mile Tropical Turf for 4-year-olds and up on the grass served as the headliner on an 11-race program that was capped by a mandatory payout of the 20-cent Rainbow 6.

Clear Vision ($23.40) completed the distance in 1:35.36 over a firm course under jockey Julien Leparoux to give O'Connor, a native of New Hyde Park, N.Y., his first graded-stakes victory with his first starter of 2022.

It was also the first graded triumph for MeB Stables, the nom de course for Mary Ellen and Anthony Bonomo, fellow native New Yorkers who got into racing in 2006. Though not related by blood, O'Connor has considered the Bonomos family since a young age as his father and Anthony are best friends.

“It means the world to me. I've been working since I've been 8, 9 years old just to follow the path to here,” O'Connor said. “To do it for my Uncle Anthony and Aunt Mary Ellen, it means a lot.”

Clear Vision is one of four horses O'Connor has stabled at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County. O'Connor claimed the gelded 6-year-old son of Grade 1 winner Artie Schiller for $25,000 out of an Oct. 16 win at Belmont Park, and ran him for the first time in the Claiming Crown Emerald Dec. 4 at Gulfstream, finishing second.

Leparoux had Clear Vision on the lead quickly from Post 2 in the field of seven, where he ran an opening quarter-mile in 23.62 seconds pressed by Belgrano on the outside and Flying Scotsman between horses. Belgrano forged a short advantage over Clear Vision, racing on the inside, as Flying Scotsman checked back to third after a half in 46.97.

“I told Julien to just play the break. We thought Flying Scotsman would go and it looked like he broke a little slow. We wound up on the lead and Julien went on with it,” O'Connor said. “That's the way he runs his best races. Those two wins he had in New York back-to-back he got loose on the lead. He just got brave out there and kept going.”

Clear Vision ran six furlongs in 1:10.94 to take the lead back and straightened for home in front as Value Proposition and 3-5 favorite Largent rolled into contention. Leparoux kept Clear Vision to task through the lane and he was able to edge clear to win by two lengths, while Value Proposition rallied up the rail to take second over Belgrano.

Largent, a Grade 2 winner making his first start since being beaten a neck in last January's Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) by stablemate Colonel Liam, wound up fourth followed by Call Curt, Flying Scotsman and Phat Man.

“When they came to the quarter pole I saw Largent making his run,” O'Connor said. “[Clear Vision] is a gritty horse. He knows his job, he loves what he does and he dug in and turned away the competition.”

O'Connor credited his former boss, Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, with giving him the confidence to run Clear Vision. O'Connor worked two years for Zito before going out on his own in 2020, and he won his first race with Duellist April 4 of that year at Gulfstream.

“I have to thank Nick Zito. He's known for winning big races with long shots and he always told me, 'If you think you can run fourth in a stake, take the shot,'” he said. “We followed that method here today, and it worked.”

O'Connor grew up five miles from Belmont Park, where his father owned horses with trainer Dennis Brida, and knew early on that he wanted to make a career with horses. He now has four wins from 57 lifetime starters.

“From the time I was an infant even before I could walk I was in the barn area. My Uncle Anthony got into racing in 2006 and at that point I was more into it,” O'Connor said. “Crazy as it sounds, at that young an age I knew I wanted to train or do something like that. I started working for Dominic Schettino, where my uncle had his horses, and went from there.

“I worked for Robert Falcone Jr. for a year before going to Nick Zito,” he added. “While I was working with Nick I went to the University Racetrack Program at the University of Arizona and kind of plotted the course to get to where we wanted to be, and here we are.”

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Mandate Earns 94 Beyer Speed Figure, First Stakes Victory In Saturday’s Artie Schiller

Mandate rallied three-wide under Andrew Wolfsont to secure a 44-1 upset in Saturday's $150,000 Artie Schiller, a one-mile inner turf test for 3-year-olds and up at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

The victory marked a first stakes win for both Mandate and his 48-year-old conditioner Robert Johnston, who is based at Penn National as private trainer for owner Bruno Schickedanz.

“When I saw him make his move at the three-eighths pole, my wife and I were screaming,” Johnston said. “The further he came down the lane I could see he had found his best stride and was kicking on.”

Johnston said the victory was made all the more special given the company he was keeping in a field with horses trained by Hall of Famers Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, and Shug McGaughey as well as four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown.

“When you come up from Penn National, you're the underdog,” Johnston said. “Going up against those guys was a little overwhelming. You need everything to go right – and it did.”

The victory also continued a lucky streak for the trainer-jockey combo that Johnston said he is hopeful will continue in Mandate's next start in the $95,000 Claiming Crown Emerald on December 4 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

“Andrew has rode four horses out of town for me and won all four,” Johnston said. “Hopefully, we can keep that going. He won two at Delaware, one at Laurel, and one at Aqueduct now.”

Mandate exited the outermost post in the Artie Schiller and although last-of-9 at first call, he was handled confidently throughout by Wolfsont as Rinaldi led a closely-bunched field through moderate splits over good going.

Wolfsont edged Mandate closer through the final turn and rallied outside of graded-stakes winner Tell Your Daddy to notch a 1 3/4-length win, garnering a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Once they straightened up on the backside, everybody grouped up and it was probably only six lengths from first to last,” Johnston said. “He said he was dragging him there and he had a lot of horse. He's just a good, happy horse right now.”

Mandate made his stakes debut in the Artie Schiller out of a rallying starter allowance score on October 10 traveling 1 1/16-miles over firm turf at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md. That score, at odds of 16-1, was also accomplished from the outermost post 9 with Wolfsont at the helm.

“We had him six weeks up until to that Laurel race and Andrew breezed him twice and both times were like, 'Wow,'” Johnston said. “He won that race at Laurel and then he breezed him before the Aqueduct race about 10 days out and he came off the track and said, 'This is the best horse I've worked in my life.' He had a lot of confidence in the horse and how well he was doing. He gave him a great ride.”

A 4-year-old son of Blame out of the Empire Maker mare Bonnie's Empire, Mandate was purchased for $200,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Initially campaigned by Pletcher, Mandate was claimed by trainer Wayne Potts for Schickedanz for $25,000 out of a runner-up effort in May at Belmont. Mandate made five starts for Potts before Schickedanz sent him to Johnston for a freshening.

“When he came to my barn we gave him a couple weeks of downtime before we got him back training. He's for sure the best horse I've ever had in my barn,” Johnston said.

Johnston said Mandate is more than just the star of his 18-horse stable.

“This horse was a $200,000 baby and meant to be good, but he's also a barn favorite,” Johnston said. “He's in the first stall and my wife's first two steps into the barn each morning she has to go cuddle and hug him. He's just that kind of horse and he's cool to be around.”

Johnston entered Mandate in the Laurel race in preparation for the Claiming Crown, but he credits Schickedanz with the vision to try their luck in New York.

“I thought if he was competitive at Laurel he could go down there [for the Claiming Crown] – but he won it. So, Bruno said, 'Let's look for a stakes in New York,' – and that's why he's the boss,” Johnston said, with a laugh.

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Johnston, the son of Woodbine and Fort Erie-based trainer C.R. Johnston, launched his career under his father's tutelage before expanding his horizons under Woodbine-based conditioner Mike DePaulo.

“I always say that from my dad I learned the old school and from Mike I learned the new school,” Johnston said. “I worked for Mike for years and went to a lot of tracks for him. He was the first one to call me yesterday when he went by the wire.”

Johnston said Mandate traveled home to Penn National on Saturday evening and was in good order Sunday morning. The newly-minted stakes-winning trainer said he will follow the advice of his mentor and ship Mandate to Florida in the very near future.

“Mike has spent a lot of winters in Florida and he told me shipping 10 days before isn't enough time,” Johnston said. “You need to go early to adjust to the weather, so I'd rather go sooner than later and be there.”

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From The Racetrack To The Super Bowl, Thoroughbreds Can Do Anything

A horse with Kentucky roots was scheduled to attend Sunday's Super Bowl, but not to watch the game — he was to assist with crowd control at the event. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported on the story of Track Shill, a former racehorse who finds himself patrolling crowds these days instead of running before them.

Track Shill was foaled at Brookdale Farm in 2014. By Artie Schiller, the dark bay won his one start at Gulfstream Park before owner William Sorren retired him. The gelding's career ended when he broke a sesamoid in his right front leg during training.

Sorren wanted to ensure the horse found a good home once he retired from racing, so he enlisted the help of William and Lyn Rainbow, who broke the gelding. The Rainbows suggested that Track Shill be sent to Track to Trail Thoroughbreds, a program in Naples, Fla., that focuses on taking injured racehorses directly from the racetrack or training farm, rehabilitating them and finding them homes in Lee and Collier counties.

At Track to Trail facility, Track Shill was introduced to Corp. Aaron Eubanks, a sheriff's deputy for Lee County who had recently lost his patrol horse to colic. Eubanks fostered Track Shill for a month and then adopted him, renaming him Deputy Maverick.

Eubanks believed Maverick would make a quality police horse and the gelding was deputized once he completed mounted patrol training. Maverick has his own badge, which is the same one Lee County detectives wear.

The gelding was part of a fleet of officers invited to assist with crowd control outside the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, where the Super Bowl will be held on Sunday, Feb. 7.

Though a last-minute injury to his left front leg will keep him from attending the actual event, the gelding has raised awareness as to what racehorses can do once they retire from the track.

Read more at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

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