Johannes Providing a String of Firsts for McCloskeys

After watching the races just across the street from their home in Del Mar, Joe and Debby McCloskey decided to take the plunge into racehorse ownership with the purchase of a filly by Congrats at the 2014 Keeneland September sale. Now, nearly a decade later, Johannes (Nyquist)–the first foal out of that first filly–has become the couple's first stakes winner and the 3-year-old gave promise of more firsts to come in the near-future with an authoritative second stakes victory in the Pasadena S. at Santa Anita last Sunday.

Johannes began his racing career on the main track, but immediately found success on the turf where he broke his maiden by nine lengths at Santa Anita Dec. 31. He overcame a world of trouble to win the Mar. 5 Baffle S. before making his two-turn debut in the Pasadena.

“It was our very first stakes win,” Joe McCloskey, a retired businessman, said of the Baffle. “Obviously, it was fantastic and to be able to back it up with another stakes win, you talk about firsts. Cuyathy was our first horse, and this is her first foal, and now two stakes races back-to-back. There are a lot of firsts with that horse.”

Recalling his first foray into racing, McCloskey said, “We have a condo that is right across the street from Del Mar, so it was convenient to go over and watch the horses. Eventually we got hooked up with a couple of trainers and said, 'Let's give it a shot.'”

The California couple headed to Kentucky with a plan–sort of– and a dream.

“We were pretty naive back then,” McCloskey said with a chuckle. “We put a budget together of $100,000, with $50,000 for a horse. And we thought we would get one out at Keeneland and start there. We thought that was going to be plenty of money.

“So we went out to Keeneland and my wife Debby and I were wondering how we would know if it was the right horse, when will we know? So Debby put it out there and dreamt about and said, 'I know if there is a heart on the horse somehow, a heart comes into my mind, that will be our horse.' We get to our book–when you can get a horse for $50,000–and the first one comes up and the hair on the cowlick kind of looked like a heart, maybe this is it? So we bid on it, but we got outbid. Maybe there needs to be a better heart? Surprisingly when Cuyathy came by, our trainer said what do you think? And lo and behold, we look down at the chestnut and it was in the shape of the heart. And the hammer dropped at exactly $50,000. Our trainer thinks we are nuts at this point, but anyway that's how we got Cuyathy.”

The McCloskeys ended up taking another filly home from Keeneland that year, going to $8,000 to acquire a daughter of Curlin they named Reiki Baby.

Cuyathy went on to win three times in 20 starts, including a third-place effort in the 2018 Kalookan Queen S., and earn $107,923. Reiki Baby, who didn't make it to the races until she was four, was a first-out winner at Santa Anita in 2017 and twice second before being retired after four starts. Both mares, now 10, ultimately became the McCloskeys' broodmare band.

“People told us, if you think racing is tough, breeding is even worse, it's tougher,” McCloskey said. “So we looked at each other and said, 'Let's give it a shot.' We are a micro-breeders, those are the only two mares that we have. But they were our first two horses. Literally, Cuyathy was the first horse we bought and Reiki Baby was the second one.”

The breeding operation got off to a slow start when Reiki Baby's first foal, Lightheart (Blame) failed to make it to the races. But it has picked up steam thanks to Johannes, whose dam was producing her first foal by Nyquist at about the same time Reiki Baby was producing another colt by the GI Kentucky Derby winner.

“We bred both Reiki Baby and Cayathy to Nyquist,” McCloskey said. “People said we were nuts. I said, this whole game is nuts, let's just go all in, let's breed both to Nyquist and maybe one will catch.”

Johannes, along with Reiki Baby's second foal Reiquist, began his racing career back east with trainer Bill Morey, but both suffered some bad luck.

“Billy had both our horses at Churchill and in one day, I get a phone call he goes, 'Joe, Reiquist has a fracture, we have to ship him back to Rood and Riddle in Lexington. And Johannes has some chips. I said, 'You've got to be kidding–this is one phone call and my first two horses. Long story short, we brought Johannes over to Rood and Riddle, took out a few small chips and Dr. Bramlage saw a little issue on the other leg, so they took it out and we gave him time off to come back. And then Rood and Riddle repaired Reiquist's fracture and he's at Santa Anita. He just breezed three furlongs twice already and he's looking really good.”

Both horses are now in the Southern California barn of trainer Tim Yakteen, who McCloskey credits with a slow and steady approach to the races.

“Tim Yakteen is probably one of the best, most conservative trainers there are when it comes to getting your horse back in good shape,” McCloskey said. “People say you have to have patience in this business. In this business with Tim, you have to have glacial  patience. But he knows his business.”

In his first start for Yakteen, Johannes was a solid third behind Fort Warren (Curlin), subsequently third in the GII San Vicente S., and Spun Intended (Hard Spun).

“He was just coming back off a layoff and he came in third, but he really challenged Fort Warren,” McCloskey said of that effort last October. “I was sitting in a box next to Bob Baffert and Bob came down and said you've got a nice horse there. So the dirt looked really good then.”

Johannes took a step back next time out, however, finishing a well-beaten fifth at Del Mar in November.

“We brought him over to Del Mar, but we shipped him in the day before the race and he got very nervous and he was washed out and he didn't perform well there,” McCloskey said. “At that point, we decided to see what would happen if we put him on the turf because his mother had success sprinting over both Tapeta and turf.”

Of that first try on the lawn that resulted in an emphatic maiden score, McCloskey said, “Boom. We put him on the turf and it was like, I guess he likes the turf. He won by nine lengths and he wasn't even asked.”

Making his next start in the 6 1/2-furlong Baffle S., Johannes was mired in traffic down the hill and had nowhere to go turning for home, where things only got worse for the dark bay colt as he was jostled about before ultimately slicing between foes and bounding away once in the clear in the final strides (video).

“I've never seen a horse get into that much traffic, have to steady that much, and then he sliced and diced picking his path,” McCloskey recalled. “I tell you, I would have taken all my money off the table halfway through the race. I thought there was no way this horse could do anything, but he popped out and still won by 1 1/2 lengths. I went up to Umberto [Rispoli] after the race and his head was still shaking. I said, 'You got in a little trouble?' and he said, 'This horse is a freak to be able to come through there.'”

After the drama of the Baffle, Johannes's win when stretched to one mile in the Pasadena S. was somewhat ho-hum. Settled at the back of the pack, the heavy favorite powered to the lead at midstretch and sauntered clear to an easy 3 1/2-length victory (video).

The pair of stakes victories have likely earned Johannes a spot in graded-stakes company, but connections are still weighing their options.

“Right now, we are pointed towards the [GII] American S. [at Churchill Downs] on Derby Day,” McCloskey said. “We know we want to keep him with 3-year-olds at this point. So that's the race that is on screen. But because it's Derby day and because of the way he got a little nervous just shipping in to Del Mar, we might look for some other options, so maybe instead of 75,000 people, we have 10,000. We will get a couple 3-year-old races in him and from there, if he continues to do what we think he can do, we will look at the 3-and-up races. Then, in the best of all worlds, of course, you look at the Breeders' Cup in November. Do we even have a shot at that? We hope so. It's one step at a time in this business for sure.”

The McCloskeys also have plenty to look forward to from their two-horse broodmare band. Reiki Baby has a 2-year-old colt by Mendelssohn and a yearling filly by Practical Joke. Cayathy has a 2-year-old filly named Sea Dancer (Mastery) who is in training with Morey at Keeneland, as well as a yearling filly by Gun Runner. She produced a filly by Knicks Go this year and will be bred back to Mandaloun.

“We are smart enough to know that you can't make a lot of money in this business unless you are super lucky,” McCloskey said. “But with that Gun Runner filly out of Cuyathy, it's giving us cause for pause to think maybe we sell that filly–because you can't keep them all–or do you maybe say, if Reiki Baby isn't doing what we want, do we keep that filly and still have two [broodmares]. But it's not like we are going to have five or six more. We are happy with two, we get to see them, and maybe we would have one more.”

McCloskey said he and his wife have no specific goals for their racing and breeding operation, but are content to enjoy the ride.

“I've seen a lot of smart people lose a lot of money in this business,” he said. “So we will just try to keep it balanced, to have fun and, as long as we are having fun and the horses are helping pay for some of the bills, we are happy. This is a crazy business. It's just a matter of making sure that you're enjoying it every day. And we are right now.”

While they are enjoying the business, they are also very focused on paying it forward.

“We balance everything we do back on the other side,” McCloskey stressed. “We are big supporters of a place here in California called Laughing Pony Rescue, which is in Rancho Santa Fe, and we save a lot of horses there. We donate to CARMA and New Vocations, some of those people have taken our horses. We think it's important that anybody who is in this business balances it out by helping the other side of the equation, the ones that are retired.”

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‘Old-School’ Player, Harvey Pack Disciple David Harrison Wins National Horseplayers Championship

David Harrison of Webster, N.Y., topped a field of 643 entries to win the $725,000 first-place prize and an Eclipse Award as Horseplayer of the Year at this weekend's 23rd annual National Horseplayers Championship (NHC) presented by Racetrack Television Network, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally's Las Vegas.

Harrison amassed a winning score of $342 over the three-day tournament from 53 mythical $2 Win and Place bets – 18 on Friday, 18 on Saturday, 10 in Sunday morning's Semifinal round, and seven at the climactic Final Table presented by Caesars Sportsbook and Global Tote, A BetMakers Company.

The 63-year-old Harrison, who makes his living as a real estate appraiser and collateral analyst, held a $30.30 advantage over A.J. Benton and the rest of the field entering the Final Table.

Despite a tightening of the TVG Leaderboard from the first six of seven Final Table races, Harrison did enough to hold off his rivals late.

“This is an absolute life-changing score,” Harrison said. “I'm a middle-class, middle-income, hard-working guy. This is going to help me hopefully retire a little bit earlier than I'd planned. I'm totally overwhelmed and don't even know what else to say.”

The contest came down to the Baffle Stakes at Santa Anita – a 6 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds – with Harrison $16.60 ahead of Benton and $17.20 to the better of Ryan Patrick Scully. The other seven were at least $44 from the top.

“The guys in second and third only had a few options,” Harrison said. “Don't Swear Dave went up to 4-1 and I thought, 'If I don't have that horse they could nip me. And my name's Dave! I can't let that horse beat me.'”

Even-money favorite Maglev hit the lead in upper stretch and drew off easily. To slam the door shut, Don't Swear Dave closed for second, making it impossible for anyone to catch Harrison. As Maglev opened up Harrison did not wait to see him hit the wire before raising his arms in triumph and leaving the stage to celebrate with his friends in a far corner of the ballroom.

Harrison started the day in 14th and made his big moves in the morning's Semifinals round. At the Final Table, no player moved more than one position.

“My goal was to creep up and I hit my first couple of races,” he said. “Then the one that really got my confidence up was the horse at Laurel – Let Me Finish. Every time I get into a discussion with my wife she's always telling me that – let me finish. That was one of my hunch plays and that's probably the reason I won.”

Harrison has been handicapping since the late 1970s, when he would frequent Belmont Park, and credits the late New York Racing Association broadcaster and handicapper Harvey Pack for teaching him how to handicap. After the trophy presentation, Harrison tossed his Daily Racing Form in the air in tribute to Pack.

“I'm an old-school guy,” he said. “I just use the Form.”

Scully ended up second with $324.80, good for a $200,000 prize, followed by Benton with $321, which was worth $150,000.

The official Top 10, with placing, final bankroll, name, hometown (and prize):

 1. $342.00, David Harrison, Webster, N.Y. ($725,000 + Eclipse Award + BCBC spot)

 2. $324.80, Ryan Patrick Scully, Montgomery, Ill. ($200,000)

 3. $321.00, A.J. Benton, Manchester, N.H. ($150,000)

 4. $293.80, Frank Paros, Jupiter, Fla. ($100,000)

 5. $286.00, David McCarty, San Diego ($75,000)

 6. $260.00, Sally Goodall, Las Vegas ($70,000)

 7. $253.20, Mike Somich, Raleigh, N.C. ($65,000)

 8. $252.30, Shirley Wolff, Holmdel, N.J. ($60,000)

 9. $243.50, Kevin Smith, Coral Gables, Fla. ($55,000)

10. $240.00, Dale Day, Yukon, Okla. ($50,000)

By virtue of his victory, Harrison also earns an exemption into next year's NHC and a berth to the 2022 Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge worth $10,000.

The full NHC and Consolation Tournament standings can be accessed at NTRA.com.

The NHC was held for the third straight year in the historic Bally's Event Center, which for three days was transformed into the world's largest race and sports book. The next NHC in 2023 will be at the same property but it will bear a new name, Horseshoe Las Vegas.

The NHC finals awarded cash prizes to 64 players—the top 10% of finishers—from a total cash prize purse of $2,339,550. An additional $50,000 went to the top 20 in today's Consolation Tournament. Including $355,000 paid out to top finishers in the year-long NHC Tour, NHC Tour travel awards, RTN subscriptions, and the $10,000 Charity Challenge tournament prize, plus $30,000 worth of Breeders' Cup Betting Challenge prizes in the form of entry fees, airfare, and hotel, the aggregate value of payouts this weekend in NHC cash and prizes totaled $3,568,592.

To make the Semifinals cut, the 509 individual NHC players were required to place 36 mythical $2 Win and Place wagers – 18 on Friday and 18 on Saturday. The highest 10 cumulative scores after the Semifinals round on Sunday morning moved on to the Final Table. Bankrolls amassed during Day 1, Day 2 and the Semifinals round rolled over to the Final Table, with the 10 finalists settling the NHC score in seven “mandatory” assigned races.

Final Table participants were relocated to a single table in the middle of the Bally's Event Center that served as NHC headquarters.

Final Table Race Results

Race: Winner ($2 Win, $2 Place), Second ($2 Place)

Gulfstream, Race 10: 8-Skyro ($11.80, $5.60), 5-Mid Day Image ($3.40)

Fair Grounds, Race 7: 8-Citizen West ($7.40, $4.20), 1-Abuelo Nuno ($6)

Sam Houston, Race 6: 11-Red Run ($12.80, $6), 1-Bloodline ($8.40)

Fair Grounds, Race 8: 10-Big Agenda ($6, $3.40), 3-Forever Mo ($3.60)

Sam Houston, Race 8: [Dead Heat] 9-Another Mystery ($23.60, $16.80), 6-Fantasioso ($10.80, $9.80)

Sam Houston, Race 9: 2-Greeley and Ben ($9, $4.60), 10-Mr Money Bags ($5.20)

Santa Anita, Race 9: 1-Maglev ($4.40, $2.80), 6-Don't Swear Dave ($4.40)

NHC Tour winner Kevin Costello advanced to the Semifinals with both of his entries, finishing 19th ($206) with Entry 1 and 53rd with Entry 2 ($173.60), which was the one eligible for a $5 million bonus if he could have won the NHC. Costello was the only player with two entries in the Semifinals round.

Defending champion Justin Mustari checked in at 108th ($137.20).

In a separate Consolation Tournament for players that did not reach the Semifinals round, David Wolff of Holmdel, N.J., husband of Final Table player Shirley Wolff, won the $10,000 top prize with a bankroll of $141.60 from 10 optional races. The Consolation Tournament started with bankrolls reset to zero. Cash prizes totaling $50,000 were awarded, from the $10,000 first prize down to $1,000 for 20th.

NHC weekend concludes this evening with the annual Champions' Dinner, featuring the presentation of prizes and the induction of the 2022 NHC Hall of Fame class: Michael Beychok, Stanley Bavlish, J. Randy Gallo, David Gutfreund, and Paul Matties Jr.  

The 2022 NHC was the culmination of 310 qualifying contests held online and at racetracks and OTBs in 2021. From those contests, there were 44,553 entries played in hopes of making it to Bally's Las Vegas.

In addition to its three presenting sponsors – RTN, Caesars Entertainment, and Bally's Las Vegas – the NHC is supported by official partners Daily Racing Form, EquinEdge, FanDuel Group, Four Roses Bourbon, NYRA Bets, Race Lens, TVG, and 1/ST Bet. The Final Table, where only the top 10 players advance to determine final placings based on seven climactic races, is sponsored by Caesars Sportsbook and Global Tote, A BetMakers Company.

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Earls Rock Shortens Up, Wins Baffle Stakes At Santa Anita

A lights-out maiden winner going a flat mile on turf in his U.S. debut Jan. 9, Irish-bred Earls Rock cut back in distance and further enhanced his status as an up-and-coming star with an impressive three-quarter length tally in Friday's $75,000 Baffle Stakes at Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif.  Trained by Phil D'Amato and ridden by Flavien Prat, Earls Rock rallied from off the pace to cover 6 ½ furlongs on turf in 1:16.15.

Breaking from his number two post position in a field of nine sophomores, Earls Rock was an unhurried sixth, about six lengths off speedy Mac Daddy Too heading into the far turn.  Midway around the turn, Prat began to make up ground and split horses turning for home, just to the outside of the pacesetter.

Although eventual runner-up Beer Can Man loomed ominously three-deep, Earls Rock was up to the challenge in the final furlong and won going away in a manner that suggests he's a colt of considerable quality.

“The distance was a bit of a question mark, it was a little short for him,” said Prat, who was also aboard for the one mile maiden win.  “But he relaxed well behind horses and when I asked him to go, he really cut.”

Second in his career debut Sept. 4 in Ireland, Earls Rock was off as the 4-5 favorite and paid $3.80, $3.00 and $2.60.

“This is about as short as he wants,” said D'Amato.  “The jock rode a tremendous race.  He was very patient and the way he split horses, it made all the difference.”

Owned by Anthony Fanticola, Earls Rock, who is by Fascinating Rock, out of Ajaadat, by Shamardal, is now two for three and with the winner's share of $49,320, more than doubled his earnings to $91,099.

Ridden by Juan Hernandez and trained by Mark Glatt, Beer Can Man, who was attentive to the pace throughout, finished 3 ¼ lengths in front of Mac Daddy Too.  Off at 6-1, Beer Can Man paid $5.00 and $3.60.

Ridden by Abel Cedillo, Mac Daddy Too was off at 26-1 and paid $5.40 to show.

Fractions on the race were 23.06, 45.77 and 1:10.12.

The Baffle win gave Prat a triple on the day, while D'Amato collected his second win.

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