Beer Can Man Ready For His Close-Up After Cecil B. DeMille Victory

The 2-year-old colt Beer Can Man made his West Coast debut a winning one when he tracked the leaders early, then fired late to capture the seventh edition of the $103,000 Cecil B. DeMille Stakes Sunday at Del Mar.

The bay son of Can the Man scored by half a length under rider Juan Hernandez in the mile on turf run in 1:34.75. He had been competing at Indiana Downs in the Midwest where he'd won two of four starts, but was purchased privately and shipped to the barn of local trainer Mark Glatt.

Beer Can Man is now owned by the racing group called Little Red Feather Racing with their partner Sterling Stables. He picked up $60,000 as his share of the winning purse in the Grade 3 feature and now has a bankroll that reads $100,580.

Finishing second in the juvenile grass test was Sarah Kelly's Caisson and running third was Nguyen or Tran's Commander Khai.

“One jump out of there he came (back) to me,” said Hernandez. “He settled real well. I just found me spot tracking the leaders and I was happy. At the quarter pole I asked him to go and he did. He really fired. He didn't want to let horses go past him, either. He's a nice horse.”

The winner, an outsider in the 11-horse lineup, returned $41.20, $14.80 and $10.60 across the board. Caisson paid $6.20 and $7.20 and Commandeer Khai returned $10.40 to show.

“We've had him about six weeks,” said Glatt. “We entered him the first weekend of the meeting, thinking we could run then and then come back in this race. But that race didn't go. So (the owners) told me to get him ready to go a mile. I was a little skeptical to be honest, but the horse relaxed great, Juan (Hernandez) put a nice ride on him and he got the money.”

The stakes win was the third of the meet for rider Hernandez, but his first in the Cecil B. DeMille. He now has seven stakes wins at Del Mar.

The stakes win was the first of the meet for trainer Glatt and his first in the Cecil B. DeMille. He now has 11 stakes wins at Del Mar.

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Can the Man Colt Upsets DeMille

Beer Can Man, making his first start for Little Red Feather Racing and Kevin Bogart’s Sterling Stables and trainer Mark Glatt, reeled in pacesetting Commander Khai in the final strides to win the GIII Cecil B. DeMille S. at Del Mar Sunday. Sent off at 19-1 in his first try at a mile and away from Indiana Grand, Beer Can Man settled in third along the rail as Commander Khai took the field through fractions of :22.53 and :46.84. Commander Khai attempted to shake loose in upper stretch, but Beer Can Man was tipped out and bound past that foe while before holding off Caisson to the wire.

“One jump out of there he came [back] to me,” said winning rider Juan Hernandez. “He settled real well. I just found my spot tracking the leaders and I was happy. At the quarter pole, I asked him to go and he did. He really fired. He didn’t want to let horses go past him, either. He’s a nice horse.”

Racing for breeder Ron Patterson and trainer Thomas Short, Beer Can Man graduated going five furlongs over the Indiana Grand turf Aug. 31 and he was purchased privately following an allowance win over the same Sept. 30.

“We’ve had him about six weeks,” Glatt said. “We entered him the first weekend of the meeting, thinking we could run then and then come back in this race. But that race didn’t go. So [the owners] told me to get him ready to go a mile. I was a little skeptical to be honest, but the horse relaxed great, Juan put a nice ride on him and he got the money.”

Pedigree Notes:

Ron Patterson purchased Beer Can Man’s dam, Cheesecake, as a 3-year-old for $30,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale. The winner’s third dam, Classic Value, produced multiple graded winner Class Kris (Kris S.), dam of Grade I winner Student Council, as well as the dams of graded winners Gulch Approval and Don’t Get Mad.

Beer Can Man is the first graded winner for his sire Can the Man, winner of the 2014 GIII Affirmed S. The stallion’s three stakes winners include Spectacular Gem, a two-time stakes winner on the turf last year and winner of this year’s Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile S. He has also been represented by Truck Salesman, second in this year’s G3 Al Shindagha Sprint at Meydan.

Sunday, Del Mar
CECIL B. DEMILLE S.-GIII, $103,000, Del Mar, 11-29, 2yo, 1mT, 1:34.75, fm.
1–BEER CAN MAN, 120, c, 2, by Can the Man
1st Dam: Cheesecake, by Dynaformer
2nd Dam: Lemon Meringue, by Lemon Drop Kid
3rd Dam: Classic Value, by Copelan
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($9,500 RNA
Wlg ’18 KEENOV). O-Little Red Feather Racing & Sterling
Stables, LLC; B-Ron Patterson (KY); T-Mark Glatt; J-Juan J.
Hernandez. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 5-3-0-0, $100,580.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
   Rating: A.
2–Caisson, 120, c, 2, War Front–Curvy (GB), by Galileo (Ire).
($340,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP). O-Sarah Kelly; B-Rhinestone
Bloodstock (KY); T-Richard E. Mandella. $20,000.
3–Commander Khai, 120, c, 2, Twirling Candy–Walloon, by
Alphabet Soup. ($80,000 Ylg ’19 KEESEP). O-CalvinNguyen &
Joey Tran; B-Stonehaven Steadings (KY); T-Richard Baltas.
$12,000.
Margins: HF, 1, HD. Odds: 19.60, 6.10, 16.00.
Also Ran: Ebeko (Ire), Big Fish, Party Game (Ire), Royal Prince, Cotopaxi (Ire), Harlan Estate, Coastal Kid, Wootton Asset (Fr).
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

 

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Baker’s Patience Paying Off With ‘Spectacular’ Bargain

In the 1979 Belmont Stakes, it was hard not to root for Spectacular Bid as he attempted to become the 12th horse in history to complete the Triple Crown.

Even James “Jimmy” Baker had a ton of respect for the 'Bid,' entering the paddock for the race as the groom of Coastal on behalf of trainer David Whiteley. Racing fans may have been disappointed when Spectacular Bid ran third that day, but Baker found himself smiling when he met Coastal in the Belmont Stakes winner's circle.

Baker has never forgotten that day. Fast forward to 2018, when he and his wife, Candie, were trying to name a handsome colt they'd purchased for $20,000 as a yearling at the previous year's Keeneland September sale.

“I always liked that name, Spectacular Bid,” Baker said. “We were trying to name this horse, and Candie has always liked the name 'Gem,' so she came up with Spectacular Gem.”

The 4-year-old son of Can the Man might not be running in the Triple Crown, but Spectacular Gem has proven himself a perfect purchase for the Bakers. Last Sunday, the colt earned the third stakes victory of his career in Ellis Park's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile in Henderson,  Ky., boosting his overall earnings to $307,281.

Spectacular Gem's connections following his win in the Tourist Mile Preview

“He's been a big, big surprise,” Candie Baker said after Sunday's win. “Jimmy has done a great job with him. He's been a really, really nice horse. He's a diamond in the rough, just hope he can keep on going.”

The Preview Tourist Mile is an automatic qualifier for the $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs in Franklin, Ky., and Jimmy Baker said that would be the next “logical spot” for Spectacular Gem. He'd like to try for a graded win with the colt as well, but the veteran trainer is primarily grateful to have Spectacular Gem in his barn.

“I had a lot of good years in the 1990s, and we've been piddling the last 12 years buying horses, most of them fillies — a lot cheaper, $5,000, $10,000,” Baker said. “We're just really lucky to get a horse like this. It means a lot to us because we're in the game to run. To have a horse to run in these kinds of races is just a bonus for us.”

The son of New York-based trainer George M. Baker, Jimmy Baker grew up around Thoroughbreds. His father trained a top handicap mare named Politely in mid-to-late 1960s for Allaire duPont; she won 21 of her 49 starts for earnings over $550,000.

When his father got down on horses in the 1970s, the younger Baker decided to go across the street and ask trainer David Whiteley, son of Hall of Famer Frank Whiteley, for a job.

“He looked at me and said, 'You get a haircut come and see me,'” Baker remembered. “You know, I was growing up in New York in the '70s! Well, I went right across the street and got a haircut and came right back, and he hired me.”

During the six years with Whiteley, Baker became friends with co-worker Shug McGaughey. After returning to his father's barn for a short period, Baker went to work for the future Hall of Fame trainer.

Baker was present for the careers of Hall of Fame runners Personal Ensign and Easy Goer, spending a total of five years under McGaughey's employ.

“The coolest thing for me was when Easy Goer won the Gotham,” Baker said. “He came off the van and into the stall, and you just knew he was an unbelievable horse. He wasn't acting up but he just had that demeanor about him. It was unfortunate that he came around during a tough year, with Sunday Silence.”

Baker decided to make his own path in 1989.

“Going on your own after working for people for a long time is a big change,” Baker said. “Shug sent me my first few horses, and he was instrumental in helping me get started.”

Baker's father also went to work for owner/breeder George Steinbrenner, who started to send him horses as well. One of his earliest graded stakes winners was for Steinbrenner: Spinning Round in the G2 Alcibiades at Keeneland in 1991. That filly took Baker to the Breeders' Cup as well.

Owner Robert E. Hoeweler took Baker to the Kentucky Derby a few years later with Mahogany Hall. The Woodman colt ran third in the 1994 Blue Grass Stakes, then finished ninth in the Run for the Roses. As a 5-year-old, however, Mahogany Hall really came into his own, winning the G1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.

“You know, when one door closes, another one opens,” said Baker. “I did really well in the '90s, then okay in the early 2000s.

“Nowadays there are a lot of young trainers out there, and everything's about stats. We're so worried about stats all the time; it should be about the horses.”

For the past six years, Baker has averaged just over 75 starts per season with between seven and 13 winners. He keeps a string at Churchill Downs and spends winters in New Orleans, and usually trains one or two of his own at a time.

“I thought about doing something else, just haven't come up with the right idea,” said Baker, laughing good-naturedly. “I tease my wife all the time that I'm gonna quit, but I love the horses. I learned that from my dad. I also have great help, they're a lot of fun to be around. At the end of the day it makes you a better horseman.”

While Candie Baker helped out at the barn every single day in the early years, she has since developed her own successful bookkeeping business with nearly 25 clients that keeps her occupied six days a week.

“We stepped up our spending a little bit and got lucky with Starlight Express ($22,000 filly who earned $104,026), and we used a little bit of that money to shop for a pricier horse,” Baker said.

Baker approached the 2017 Keeneland September sale with a top budget of $30,000, but he kept getting outbid. Candie had instructed her husband to buy a big, ugly colt, as a way of turning around their luck with nicer-looking fillies. Baker couldn't find one that fit the bill.

“I was like, 'Just find me one,'” Candie Baker remembered.

Finally, her husband called back.

“He said, 'Candie, I found you one. It's not probably what you want. It's by nothing out of nothing, but he's a good-looking colt.' I said, 'That's fine.' He really liked him, and we got him.”

Spectacular Gem is sired by Can the Man, a Grade 3-winning son of Into Mischief.

“I'd never even heard of him before that day,” Baker said. “I just knew he was by Into Mischief, who's obviously just an incredible sire.”

Baker started the colt's career in a maiden claiming race for a tag of $30,000, debuting him at Ellis Park in September of his 2-year-old season.

“I just tried to put him in the easiest spot possible first out since we owned him,” Baker explained. “Any day you come into the barn, a horse can have something wrong, you never know, so I try not to go too fast with them. That's what I learned working for Hall of Famers, you have to take your time and pay attention.”

Spectacular Gem won that first race, a six-furlong dirt contest, by 2 1/4 lengths, but he didn't win again until January, when Baker finally switched him to the grass.

With three turf stakes victories and a total of six wins from 16 starts, Spectacular Gem has more than paid his way. In return, all the colt expects is his fair share of the barn's candy stash.

“He just demands those peppermints, he'll stand there and holler for them all day long,” Baker said, admitting, “He's a little spoiled.”

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‘We’re In The Game To Run’: $20,000 Colt Proving A Diamond In The Rough For Jimmy Baker

To change up their luck in buying an inexpensive racehorse for themselves, Candie Baker told her husband to get “the biggest, ugliest colt you can find.”

Trainer Jimmy Baker kept getting outbid at the 2017 Keeneland yearling sale — “They sold so fast that I didn't get to raise my hand,” he said — so he settled instead for small and good-looking. Baker paid $20,000 for that colt. Today Spectacular Gem has proven a diamond in the rough, bringing earnings of $248,571 into Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park.

The race is part of Ellis' third annual Kentucky Downs Preview Day: five $100,000 turf stakes positioned as launching pads into big-money stakes at the all-grass track in Franklin, Ky. The winners of the Ellis stakes races get a fees-paid berth in the corresponding race at Kentucky Downs. The Preview Tourist Mile is an automatic qualifier for the $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7.

Normally Candie Baker wants to buy fillies, saying, “I just think they have a bigger heart than colts. And Jimmy always did good with fillies.

“But this time I said, 'You know what, let's change our luck a bit. I need the biggest, ugliest colt you can find,'” she recalled. “Then we kept getting outbid, outbid. I was like, 'Just find me one.' He said, 'Candie, I found you one. It's not probably what you want. It's by nothing out of nothing, but he's a good-looking colt.' I said, 'That's fine.' He really liked him, and we got him.”

Good-looking horses who sell for $20,000 tend to come up short as far as fashionable bloodlines. Spectacular Gem was sired by the unproven Can The Man (who actually is a son of the popular stallion Into Mischief), and out of a mare by Malabar Gold, a $1 million yearling whose biggest accomplishment was a Grade 3 victory. Jimmy Baker said he'd never heard of Can the Man when he bought Spectacular Gem.

“He looked fantastic,” he said. “He wasn't a big horse but he was athletic-looking.”

“Jimmy has a really good eye for yearlings. I mean, cheap horses. I never want to get hurt in the business,” Candie said. “You can get a $500,000 horse that can't win for maiden $10,000. We had another filly, Starlight Express, and she made us money. I said, 'I got $20,000 that we can spend, and I know we're going to have to spend another $20,000 to get the horse to the races. We were just using those other horses' money, not my money.”

Spectacular Gem actually won his first career start at Ellis Park in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race. Five starts later, the colt earned his second victory the first time Jimmy Baker tried him on turf. He's raced on grass pretty much ever since.

The colt has lost a stakes on a disqualification and won a stakes on a disqualification. In between Spectacular Gem captured Churchill Downs' $125,000 Jefferson Cup in what's become his trademark style of taking the lead early. That's what the 4-year-old did in his last race, dominating a graded stakes-quality field in a Churchill allowance race off a 4 1/2-month layoff.

“He's not very big. He's long. He looks like a grass horse,” Candie said. “But he has a big heart and he loves what he does.”

To prepare for the Ellis stakes, Spectacular Gem worked a sparkling five-eighths of a mile in 59 1/5 seconds, which he followed up with a comfortable half-mile in 48 2/5 seconds, going the last three-eighths in 35 2/5 seconds under jockey James Graham Tuesday at Churchill Downs.

“Last week he worked exceptionally,” Jimmy said. “He's never worked like that before. I know the track was fast, but he just seems to be on top of his game this year since his break…. His workouts lately are much better than the last two years, so he's definitely on the improve.”

Baker has been training since 1989, having such quality horses as Grade 1 Whitney Handicap winner Mahogany Hall, multiple graded-stakes winner Spinning Round for New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes winner Elite Squadron and Grade 1-placed Pretty Prolific.

“I had a lot of good years in the 1990s, and we've been piddling the last 12 years buying horses, most of them fillies — a lot cheaper, $5,000, $10,000,” Baker said. “We're just really lucky to get a horse like this. It means a lot to us because we're in the game to run. To have a horse to run in these kinds of races is just a bonus for us.”

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