Chelsea Hackbarth | Horse Racing Free Tips

Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I’ve Always Thought He Was A Star’

Trainer George Weaver has long believed that Vekoma is capable of big things on the racetrack. The 4-year-old son of Candy Ride has delivered on that faith in a major way this season, earning back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the seven-furlong Carter Handicap and last Saturday's Runhappy Metropolitan Mile Handicap.

Vekoma defeated Network Effect and Code of Honor by 1 ¼ lengths in the Met Mile, leading throughout the one-mile contest.

“I actually did think he could be on the lead,” Weaver said after the race. “I thought we had the most natural speed of the horses in the race. I knew the outside horses liked to show speed, but at the end of the day I thought if we broke well, they might just be caught chasing. When I talked to Javier in the paddock, he was non-committal, and I said the whole time that I know Javier understands this horse and feels what he can and can't do, and I left it in his hands.

“At the quarter pole, it seemed like all comers were coming and I thought 'Man, does he have anything left in the tank or not?' When they got to the eighth pole and I saw him rebreak and keep going, I got excited. It was fun.”

The big wins have increased Vekoma's career earnings to $1,245,525, making him Weaver's highest earner since the trainer took out his license in 2002.

“I was so proud of him,” said Weaver. “Physically he's matured and filled out, and I really couldn't be any happier with him.”

The Met Mile was Weaver's fourth top-level win as a trainer, following Saratoga County's win in the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in 2005 and Lighthouse Bay's win in the Grade 1 Prioress in 2013.

Still, the Louisville native grew up with dreams of the Kentucky Derby. He made his inaugural Run for the Roses in 2015 with Tencendur, but that horse faded to finish 17th.

Early last year, Weaver had gotten excited that Vekoma might give him a stronger chance in a second trip to the Derby. The colt won the G2 Nashua as a juvenile, and made his 3-year-old debut a third-place finish in the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes. In April, Vekoma dominated the G2 Blue Grass Stakes by 3 ½ lengths, securing his spot in the starting gate for the Kentucky Derby.

Unfortunately, Vekoma disappointed on the day, up close early and fading to finish 12th, and the colt was sent to the farm for a break that lasted the remainder of 2019.

“He did not perform well on Derby day, and I don't know if it was the (sloppy) track or if it just wasn't his day,” Weaver said. “He's a terrifically talented racehorse, and I've always thought he was a star. Obviously, we were hoping to do better in the Derby, but history shows that a lot of really nice horses don't run well on the first Saturday in May.”

Bringing the colt back to the races involved a lot of dedication from both Weaver and his wife and business partner, Cindy Hutter. The couple first met in 1991 when they were employed by D. Wayne Lukas, but didn't date until they both made the move to trainer Todd Pletcher's team.

Pletcher, also employed by Lukas early in his career, left the Hall of Famer to go out on his own in 1996, and Hutter went along as his assistant. Weaver made the move to Pletcher's barn in 1997, but as assistant trainers, he and Hutter had to work at separate locations for much of the year.

In 2002, the couple made the decision to stick together and work for themselves.

“We decided to make a go of it and do everything all at once,” Weaver explained. “We went into business for ourselves, we bought a house, had a kid; we didn't hold back and did it all at once.”

Today, 18 years later, Hutter is very hands-on with the horses while Weaver is able to handle many of the business aspects like communicating with owners and planning races.

When it came time to bring Vekoma back to the races early in 2020, Hutter was on the talented colt's back nearly every morning.

“She's gotten on him most of his career,” Weaver said. “I have confidence when she tells me they're doing well. She's a great horseperson and knows our horses very well.”

In late March, Vekoma made his first start off a nine-month layoff a winning one in Gulfstream's listed Sir Shackleton Stakes, dominating the seven furlong-contest by 3 ¾ lengths. Though his next start was delayed a bit by the coronavirus pandemic, Vekoma didn't miss a beat and celebrated his first Grade 1 win with an impressive romp in the Carter Handicap, a Win and You're In Challenge Series race for the Breeders' Cup.

With a 7 ¼-length win and a final time of 1:21.02 for seven furlongs, Vekoma earned an automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup Sprint. The Met Mile win earned the colt a slot in the Dirt Mile, so there are plenty of options leading up to this year's World Championships.

“Nothing's written in stone, but we'll probably focus on a mile or under going forward,” Weaver said. “We're going to nominate to the Whitney for sure, but he's run two huge races back-to-back. The most likely scenario, to me, is that he would come back in a race like the Forego. We want to plot a campaign to get us to the Breeders' Cup, so we'll take a look at the calendar and go from there.”

“I think he's the best older horse in the country,” co-owner Randy Hill told NYRA publicity. “The horse will tell us. He's such a warrior.”

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Triple Crown News Minute Presented By Kentucky Equine Research: Blue Grass In July

If anything is stranger in American horse racing than a Kentucky Derby in September, it's a Blue Grass Stakes in July. But that's where we find ourselves in this year of the coronavirus pandemic: nothing is normal, and we're grateful that racing, unlike most other sports, has been able to continue along a slightly erratic path.

The Grade 2 Blue Grass, with a $600,000 purse, is run at its traditional 1 1/8 miles and will offer 100-40-20-10 qualifying points for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby. It's drawn a field of 13, including a well-traveled filly, multiple graded stakes winner Swiss Skydiver from the barn of Kenny McPeek. She's run at five different tracks in her five starts this year, winning her last three.

In this edition of the Triple Crown News Minute, Ray Paulick and news editor Chelsea Hackbarth take a look at the leading contenders in the Blue Grass,including the up-and-coming Art Collector, a 3-year-old by Bernardini making his return to graded stakes following a pair of impressive allowance victories at Churchill Downs.

They also analyze the field for the G1 Ashland Stakes, a qualifying points race for the Sept. 4 Kentucky Oaks. Despite only drawing a field of six, the Ashland Stakes has a solid field of contenders ready to take on the 6-5 morning line favorite, Venetian Harbor.

Watch the latest Triple Crown News Minute below:

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘100 Percent Country Boy’ Savors Graded Win At Belmont

Last Saturday, June 27, trainer Todd Beattie sent out his first graded stakes winner since 2014 when Victim of Love upset the Grade 3 Vagrancy at odds of 27-1. While her victory may have been a surprise to the bettors, Beattie has long believed that the 4-year-old daughter of Speightstown had the talent to play on the big stage.

“She's really just a hard-trying filly, that's the biggest thing you can take your hat off to her,” Beattie said. “She's a late foal (May 27), so she's been playing catch up a little bit, but her age isn't making such a difference right now. She's been steadily getting a little better, and I can see things where her maturity is really helping her.”

Usually, Beattie prefers to start his own runners as 2-year-olds, doing the groundwork himself and giving his wife, Amanda, a leg up for the babies' first rides. One of his most famous runners was Taris, whom he saddled for a nine-length triumph in the 2014 G2 Raven Run at Keeneland before selling her privately to Coolmore. The mare would later win the Grade 1 Distaff at Churchill Downs in 2016.

Conversely, Victim of Love is a homebred for Tom Stull's Tommy Town Thoroughbreds. The filly began her career in New Mexico, breaking broke her maiden in her third start by 11 3/4 lengths when conditioned by Henry Dominguez. She won the listed Island Fashion Stakes in her next start, in February of 2019, but after finishing off the board in her next two outings, Stull decided to make a change.

“I do a lot of work with Tommy Town, I'm kind of their outlet out here on the East Coast,” explained Beattie. “They wanted to send her here because there would be some more opportunities, and the competition wouldn't be quite as tough as in their California base.

Victim of Love after her Vagrancy win

“We've been figuring her out and what distance suits her. Her very best might be that middle distance, 6 1/2 to seven furlongs, and obviously the wet track didn't hurt her, but she can run on a dry track too.”

From his private barn at Penn National, Beattie slowly began teaching Victim of Love to get into her races a little earlier. She won an allowance race at Laurel in October, and two starts later captured the listed What A Summer Stakes at the Maryland oval.

In the Vagrancy coming off a three-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic, Victim of Love broke a bit slowly. She was sent up into the race, then took over at the head of the lane and pulled away to win by 1 3/4 lengths under jockey Jose Lezcano.

“The trainer [Todd Beattie] told me to break and try to keep her busy,” Lezcano said. “She broke a little bit behind, but with a tap on the shoulder, she jumped right there on the bridle. When I asked her, she really took off. My filly kept going the whole way around and never stopped. She gave me everything she had.”

The filly's success suggests she appreciates the quiet, laid-back atmosphere of Beattie's private barn at Penn National.

“I'm 100 percent country boy,” Beattie said. “I've never lived in the city, but I always felt blessed because I get to see it in my rearview mirror when I'm leaving. I live on a mountain and I have a small farm, about 15 minutes away from the racetrack, so I can train on the track and come and go as I please. A guy that really likes the countryside appreciates that kind of lifestyle.”

Born and raised in Antigo, Wisc., the same hometown as Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, Beattie learned to appreciate Quarter Horses as well. He doesn't train them to race, however. Instead, he and his wife enjoy competing in cutting horse shows, and they use the Quarter Horses as ponies at the track to keep them fit during the week.

“The nice part about training horses at the track is that I always ride a pony and watch the horses train,” Beattie explained. “It works out good that I don't have to go work my cutting horses when it's real hot in the afternoons!”

The entire Beattie family is involved in the horse industry, as well. Of six children, five are full-time with horses, and the sixth enjoys riding cutting horses after her day job. Beattie's sister, Holley, is married to 2-year-old trainer Bryan Rice, and the couple founded Woodside Ranch in Florida. They've developed racehorses like millionaires Hollywood Wildcat and War Chant, and more recently Breeders' Cup Champion Storm the Court, among many others.

After living in Wisconsin during the winters for his entire childhood, Beattie was quick to follow his brothers and sisters to Pennsylvania for year-round racing. Like his family, he particularly enjoys the early stages of training, from the first ride through the first race on the track.

The trainer has saddled over 1,700 winners, but Victim of Love was just Beattie's eighth graded stakes victory. His best horse was millionaire and Grade 1 winner Fabulous Strike.

“I really like to watch the young horses progress, and we start right from scratch,” Beattie explained. “We'll have unbroke horses and I like to develop them and see them get to the next stage. In the past I've had 60-80 horses, and I ended up being a business manager rather than a horse trainer. I prefer to do the training myself, so I try to keep my numbers down within reason, so that way I can have a little bit of a life.”

Of course, coronavirus has made that life look quite a bit different over the past several months. Pennsylvania was one of the last states to get horse events started again, and Beattie is grateful to be able to resume more normal operations. He and his wife have been to three cutting horse shows in the past month, and they've started shipping horses around to run once again.

“Who would have imagined this would have happened in our lifetime?” Beattie said of the pandemic. “It's been really tough trying to hold on, and you're trying to manage your horses. Yeah, you're training them, but you don't have a target you're aiming for, so you try to maintain a little conditioning, but you don't want to tighten them down. Now we feel a little better about getting our horses ready.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Andrew Cary Quarterbacking For Breeders Of No Parole

Last Saturday, No Parole became just the eighth horse bred in Louisiana to win a Grade 1 race when he dominated the Woody Stephens at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y. That the colt did it in particularly impressive style was just the icing on the cake for first-time Grade 1-winning breeders Keith and Ginger Myers.

The proprietors of Coteau Grove Farm in Sunset, La., may not have watched the race live, but they were beyond thrilled to see their years of patience and faith in good people rewarded at the sport's top levels.

One of those good people is bloodstock agent Andrew Cary, employed by the Myers' since 2014. In fact, No Parole's dam, Plus One, was only the second mare Cary purchased for the couple, plucking her out of the 2014 Keeneland November sale for $67,000.

“I actually spotted her in the back ring, and it was just kind of one of those things when you see a horse and they blow you away with how they look,” Cary explained. “She had a lot of presence, and I love fast, hard-knocking stakes mares. I also liked Bluegrass Cat as kind of an under-the-radar broodmare sire, and she was out of a good family of just good, hard-knocking race mares.”

The stakes-winning Plus One was in foal to Violence at the sale, and her colt born the following spring brought $85,000 as a weanling back at Keeneland. Subsequently named Violent Ways, the colt won a trio of allowance races in Louisiana.

Plus One was bred back to Songandaprayer in the Louisiana program the following spring, but Cary and the Myers' had liked her first Violence colt so much that they bred her back to him for 2017.

Maggi Moss, a long-time supporter of the Louisiana racing program, purchased the yearling No Parole for $75,000 at the 2018 Keeneland September sale.

“We were thrilled Maggi bought him, because we knew she understands the Louisiana program and he'd be given every chance to succeed,” Cary said.

No Parole as a weanling

His first few starts were particularly impressive, winning by double-digit lengths in Louisiana-bred company at the Fair Grounds in December and January.

No Parole stepped up to win the Louisiana-Bred Premier Night Prince Stakes at Delta Downs in his third start, but struggled in the step up in distance when tried in the G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn, finishing eighth. Trainer Tom Amoss immediately took the colt back to sprint distances, and he won an allowance race at Churchill before winning the G1 Woody Stephens by 3 3/4 lengths.

“It's pretty special for me personally,” Cary said. “It's the first Grade 1 winner I've had where I purchased the mare and picked the mating, so it's very gratifying to see her go on and produce a horse like this. I would go see him in Louisiana every five to six weeks, and my best friend Jay Goodwin prepped him for the sale in Lexington, so I really got to see him grow up.

“After Maggi bought him, he was started by my friends the Gladwells before he went to Amoss, so there have been a lot of really good people associated with this horse all the way through.”

As for Plus One, she foaled a filly by Connect that will head to the Keeneland September sale this year, and she is currently pregnant to the cover of Curlin. Cary and the Myers are definitely looking forward to what she can do next.

“It's just so cool to see her become a big-time producer,” Cary said.

The Myers had previously enjoyed good success in the state of Louisiana since launching their racing and breeding program in 2008. Their homebred Little Ms Protocol is one of the top 20 Louisiana-bred earners in history, racking up $731,290 over her 30-start career, and another homebred, Harlie's Dreams, earned just shy of $400,000 in their colors.

But it was another home-grown project that changed the trajectory of the Myers' racing interests. Their LHC Group, which Ginger Myers launched in the couple's Louisiana kitchen in 1997, was growing exponentially, and they found themselves with less time to enjoy making it to the races to watch their horses run.

Enter Louisiana legend Jake Delhomme. The Louisiana-born NFL quarterback is a friend of the Myers family and a fellow horse racing enthusiast. Cary ran into Delhomme at the sales about 12 years ago and developed a friendship as well, so when Keith Myers was looking for an agent to help transition his program in 2014, Delhomme made the connection to Cary.

“Mr. Myers called and we hit it off,” said Cary. “They'd had a lot of fun with racing, but they were getting to a point with their business that they were just getting busy and couldn't go to the track as much. He wanted to get more involved with breeding; they really enjoyed seeing the babies born on the farm and wanted to do more of that.

“We talked about where his program was, where he wanted to go, and how to get him there. I flew down and looked at the 15 horses in training and 10 mares, evaluated them. We started by selling off some racing stock and adding better mares, and now we're up to 30 mares and had 25 foals this year.”

Primarily, the Myers breed commercially, though they'll keep and race a promising filly or two if they own the female family to be able to take advantage of multiple updates.

“They really want to do everything the right way, and they put a lot of time and money into the business so it's good to see that rewarded,” Cary said.

Cary had also seen Grade 1 success prior to No Parole, but it wasn't quite as personal. As a founding partner in Select Sales, Cary was involved with horses like Tepin, Sharp Azteca, and Promises Fulfilled, but the now-solo bloodstock agent's association with No Parole is just a little bit sweeter.

“He's such a talented horse,” Cary said. “It's so awesome to watch how fast he can go, and he makes it look pretty easy. I'm excited to see what he'll do next.”

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