Chris McGrath | Horse Racing Free Tips

Pessin Savors an Honorable Success

She's the one, all right. The one and only, in fact–at least up until now. Who knows? Perhaps Neil Pessin's exemplary achievements with Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) might yet reward him with another Grade I winner or two. But after a lifetime in the game, and 36 years since saddling his first winner, he's neither expecting nor even desiring to transform the intimate scale of his operation.

“You know, I don't get jealous of anybody,” Pessin says. “I'm very happy with where I'm at. I've been successful with the numbers I've had. And I take my hat off to the big guys. I mean, I couldn't do what they do. I couldn't have hundreds of horses and keep track of it all, take care of it all. And I don't want to. I'm very happy with 10 to 16 horses. Yes, it is a numbers game. And the more horses you have, the better your shot of getting one like 'Bell'. But I also know you go through a lot of horses doing that. Some of those guys have 200 2-year-olds-and if five of them can run, those five will make a name for you. But I wouldn't like doing it that way. That wouldn't be me.”

As it is, the GII Honorable Miss H. success of Bell's the One at Saratoga last week took her trainer to a new high in year earnings (currently $724,298, the work of 11 winners from just 58 starters), with five months still to go; and keeps her on track for a return to the Breeders' Cup, where she made the podium last year after winning the GI Derby City Distaff S. on the postponed Kentucky Derby card.

Moreover you have to wonder whether a mare like this–now a stakes winner at two, three, four and five; and a graded stakes winner at three, four and five–might have got lost in a factory system.

In principle, Pessin is too modest to accept that proposition. “Good horses overcome a lot,” he says. “I don't want to say I've made her a good horse, because she's made me look like a better trainer. I think good horses run wherever they are. I can't take a lot of credit for her ability, because I think it's just natural with her. I think it's 90% the horse, and 10% the trainer.”

That said, he concedes that Bell's the One has always had her idiosyncrasies. Yes, she won her first four races, but her preparations had hardly been those of a point-and-press professional.

“A well-measured neck” victory in the Honorable Miss | Sarah Andrew

“The last two weeks before her first start, four different times she just pulled up galloping and we had to lead her off the racetrack,” Pessin recalls. “But we've gotten to where we can manage her quirks now. Going to the racetrack in the morning we'll let her stop and look and decide when she wants to go. It's an extra 15, 20 minutes every day, just to get her to the racetrack. But that's also because I allow her to do that. We're in no hurry. We can take our time with them.”

Pessin was talking from his summer base at Arlington, where he had just been lamenting with fellow horsemen the looming desecration and destruction of one of the jewels of the American Turf. But then you might argue that Pessin, raised and apprenticed in the pre-industrial era of horsemanship, is himself no less representative of a precious, threatened heritage. For his father was that most accomplished of veterinarians, Dr. Arnold Pessin, while his professional mentor Ronnie Warren had rounded off the input of names as storied as LeRoy Jolley and Woody Stephens.

Old school stuff, right? “Yes, and I'm still pretty old school myself,” Pessin says candidly. “So I take the horses first, and me second. And I've never asked a client to send me a horse. If they want to call me, then if I have room I'll take the horse. But I've never actually hustled to get horses. Just one of the ways I was brought up.”

And that upbringing was hands-on throughout. His father was such a highly regarded diagnostician that even people who weren't clients or friends would tend to consult him about their better horses. And Pessin was at his side through boyhood, watching and learning. He would run X-rays through all the various solutions before putting them in the dark room. With appropriate supervision he could even perform castrations.

“So I learned a lot about soundness,” he says. “And also why you don't do a lot of things that people do… I can only speak to my experience. I can't speak to what other people do. But my vet bills are very low. My dad was always of the view that the less you can do, the better. If a horse has a problem, we'll look at it, see what we can do, but nine times out of 10 he'll end up at the farm. You know, 90 days cures a lot. The other things you can do are usually temporary fixes. And then you have to give them 90 or 120 days, and you blew 90 days trying to get them right.”

Pessin and his star mare | Coady

Though just into his 60s, Pessin is also well placed to corroborate a suspicion that the modern breed is less robust than it was formerly. His late father's remarkably diverse portfolio–he is best remembered, perhaps, for building the Kentucky Training Center (now The Thoroughbred Center) and the Dueling Grounds Race Course (now Kentucky Downs)–also embraced Winchester Farm, where he stood the likes of Olden Times, Candy Spots and Prove It. And Pessin feels that the 21st Century Thoroughbred, whether through inbreeding or mass commercial support of unproven sires, has suffered much physical dilution.

“We used to breed for conformation, pedigree and disposition,” he remarks. “Now they correct foals with surgery, so you don't know what you're breeding. You might think you've got two correct horses, when actually you got two horses that toe out so bad they'd trip you if you walked by. I think that's part of the problem with so many horses not making it to the races.

“And then, on top of that, cannon bones are half the size they used to be. The stallions we stood, I couldn't fit my two hands round their cannon bones. Now I can easily touch my other hand with my fingers. So I think between those things–foal surgeries and bone density–you can't train a horse as hard, or run as many times, as they used to. The major prep for the Derby used to be the Derby Trial, five days before. And they used to run in between the Derby and the Preakness. They'd run some of those 2-year-olds 20 times! Do that today, you'd go to jail.”

This was the environment Pessin so loved that his father told him to work the backside before he went to vet school, just to get it out of his system. (“It's almost out now,” he jokes. “But there's still just a little bit in there.”) In New York he hotwalked for Stephens, groomed for Jolley, watched nights for Joe Canty; and then he was appointed assistant to Warren, “an excellent horseman and good caretaker who did quite well all over the country.”

Nowadays, everything has become about volume. Unproven rookies cover five times as many mares as breed-shapers like Danzig, while “super trainers” corral more horses from a single crop than did Hall of Fame trainers past across a decade. Pessin, as we've already heard, feels no resentment on his own behalf. But he does feel that many others are wanting only in opportunity.

A nose win in last year's Derby City Distaff gave Bell's the One her Grade I | Coady

“There are a lot of horsemen out there, young and old, who nobody's ever heard of because they never get the chance of a good horse,” he says. “You can't take a bad horse and make him into a good horse. You can take a good horse and make him into a bad one, but you can't improve a bad one that much.”

So while he accepts that the idea is impractical, not least after seeing legal challenges to The Jockey Club's attempt to limit stallion books to 140, he does think wistfully back to the days when a trainer would be confined to 40 horses at one track, and for the most part obliged to saddle them in person.

At the same time, those limits did allow trainers to test the resilience of what Pessin has just identified as a stouter breed anyway. So now we instead have mega-trainers, with huge slack in their numbers, nonetheless suffering high attrition.

“Back then, horses were a little more sturdy,” Pessin reflects. “And they were trained hard. If a horse stood up to it, fine; if he didn't, you moved him out and another one was waiting to come in. The philosophy of those trainers was if you can't train, you can't run. And with good horses, that's pretty much true. And good horses were what they were looking for. They weren't looking for a maiden 10. But if you were to train like that today, you wouldn't have anything left in the barn. At least, I wouldn't. The big guys probably could do it, but I'd need to watch a little more closely.”

By the same token, nobody has more appreciation for the endeavor of cheaper horses. “If they're giving 110%, you can't ask them for any more whether it's a $5,000 claimer or a Grade I stake,” he says. “You got to respect that horse and love that horse because they're laying it on the line for you.”

Bell's the One Sunday at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew

But the horses with physical capacity to show that desire tend to cost more. Pessin has due gratitude, then, to the owner of Bell's the One, Bob Lothenbach, as a model patron who has also given him the chance with improved raw materials. Pessin was in the Minneapolis businessman's scouting team when drawing his attention to a filly in the Brereton C. Jones draft at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale of 2017.

“She wasn't the most correct horse in the world,” Pessin admits. “But I think that's why we got her for $155,000, instead of $400,000. But she was just very athletic, in the way she moved, and that's what drew me to her.”

Bell's the One has since become a suitably old-fashioned achiever, with a nine-for-19 record in banking $1,126,825. Pessin feels she has seldom been adequately recognized, but you can absolutely set your clock by her. In her last nine works, she has been clocked behind only three horses out of an aggregate 437 others over the same half; and she is unbeaten over six furlongs. For once, however, she was top of the bill as odds-on favorite for the Honorable Miss.

“Her whole career, she's hardly ever gotten respect, no matter what she does,” Pessin says. “But at Saratoga I was very confident in her, and I stated going into the race that she was the best horse. If there was any pressure, it was pressure I put on myself. But she'll usually back me up, and she did.

“The first quarter-mile I was hoping she wasn't too far back, because they didn't go that fast and she was about 10 or 12 off of it. But when they got to the three-eighths pole, she was about five or six off, and I felt as long as he could get the outside I could be pretty confident. Because once she gets in a head duel, it's hard to beat her. She's very gutsy. So while she only won by a neck, I felt it was a well-measured neck.”

So let's salute this admirable mare, and the man who has drawn out her talent–especially as, typically enough, the Grade I prize they shared last year could not really receive due public celebration.

Arlington Park | Horsephotos

“It would have been nice to have the crowd there,” Pessin says. “But it really wasn't bittersweet at all: it was still a Grade I, still at Churchill, still on national television. And I was just very happy to have won. Normally I can call photos, but that one I could not and nor could Tom [Amoss, trainer of runner-up Serengeti Express (Alternation)]. I just felt lucky to come out on the right end of it.”

Bell's the One will now rest for two or three weeks at Chesapeake Farm, Lexington, before training up to the GII Thoroughbred Club of America S., at Keeneland in October, as a springboard to Del Mar. By that stage, sadly, Pessin may have left Arlington Park for the final time.

“It's hard to believe there's even a possibility of a wrecking ball going through that grandstand,” he says. “But give up? Hell, no. You don't give up so long as there's any flicker of hope. It's such a beautiful place, it would be such a shame to see it go by the wayside.”

So much more than bricks and mortar, after all, has already been smashed in our Turf heritage. Let's just be grateful, then, for the remnants that endure in sturdy horses like Bell's the One, and self-effacing horsemen like her trainer.

The post Pessin Savors an Honorable Success appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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This Side Up: Haskell Throwbacks to the Future

So the big question is whether the out-of-town jocks, in the heat of a $1-million battle for the GI TVG.com Haskell S., can master the instinct to reach for the whip?

If any lifelong flagellants are anxious of their self-discipline, then they need only play back the 1988 running and remind themselves how Laffit Pincay, Jr. coaxed Forty Niner home, in withering heat, by a nose from Seeking the Gold. The whip is unsheathed, for sure, but so seamlessly with the horse's own efforts that the overall effect is like watching St. Francis of Assisi helping a fledgling back into its nest.

If only wider standards of horsemanship had maintained similar levels of empathy, then our house might never have become so divided against itself. As it stands, any hope that people might someday look back at Saturday's race after an equivalent interval of years may depend on the outcome of the experiment being boldly embraced this year, in defiance of some aggressive lobbying, by the New Jersey Racing Commission.

Like it or not, a first Grade I race without recourse to the whip feels like a big moment in the story of the American Turf. Our community has to remember two things. One is that we tend to be inured to the shock experienced by the layman who comes fresh to the ugly coercions of cruder riders. And the other, closely related, is that public policy in these matters will always be driven by mass perception, rather than any informed mitigations grasped by those inside the business. As one leading driver has wisely acknowledged of harness racing: “It doesn't matter if it's real or perceived. In our game, once it's perceived, it becomes real.”

Forty Niner prevails in the 1988 Haskell | Equi-Photo

As it happens, pretty much the same might be said of the damage done to our sport by the charges against the Derby winner, which loom over the Haskell even in the absence of a trainer who last year won it for a record ninth time. For these leave the Derby runner-up Mandaloun (Into Mischief) striving awkwardly to live up to his potential promotion, and the burden of the accompanying asterisk; while Following Sea (Runhappy) has meanwhile defected from Bob Baffert's barn after Spendthrift “hit the pause button” on their association.

Whatever the ultimate determination of due process, in this particular instance, overall it seems fair to ask Baffert to understand that you can't push regulatory boundaries without doing the same to public confidence. He would not be the only trainer to view a veterinary toolbox rather as many jockeys do the whip, as somehow combining their own competitive interests with those of the horse. (Precepts of health and safety certainly seem usefully flexible.) But it is a wider failure to deal adequately with more flagrant offenders, whether with the crop or pharmaceuticals, that has only encouraged the wider world in judgements, however superficial, that authentically menace our sport's survival.

Races like this one, as cherished staging posts in our calendar, remind us that we are only ever passing a baton from one hand to the next. Pincay and Forty Niner are part of Monmouth Park heritage–and so, too, is the Virgil “Buddy” Raines Distinguished Achievement Award conferred on Baffert in 2015 for his commitment to the Haskell. Devised to salute integrity and professionalism in the service of New Jersey racing, this is exactly the kind of honor that should reinforce in its recipient an obligation to take no risks with the reputation of his community.

Buddy Raines, after all, was the incarnation of the fine character that can be drawn out of humankind by the Thoroughbred. His 80-year Turf career began when a trainer passing through rural Illinois was given hospitality by his parents. Gazing at so many hungry brothers seated round the table, the guest wistfully remarked that he could do with a strong young helper to help around the barn. “Well, hell, take that one,” said Mr. Raines, pointing at Virgil.

Buddy Raines came to mind this week on the passing of Hall of Fame jockey John L. Rotz, with whom he shared a career pinnacle in the 1962 GI Preakness S. won by Greek Money. Rotz had an exemplary career, working his way up from hotwalker to Midwest fairs to the George Woolf Memorial Award, and the manners that earned him the soubriquet “Gentleman John” also extended to his mounts, gaining him a particular reputation for the management of difficult temperaments.

Greek Money's Preakness is remembered best for Joseph di Paola's iconic photograph of Manny Ycaza on Ridan apparently trying to elbow Rotz as their tumultuous stretch duel neared the line. (Nor was Ycaza done, then having the temerity to lodge an objection for interference.) Rotz later absolved his rival of any contact, but also wondered whether Ycaza might have won had he confined himself to riding his own horse, rather than trying to control both.

Rotz rode enough good horses virtually to guarantee that you'll find his fingerprints somewhere behind the Haskell winner. In Mandaloun himself, for instance, the second dam of his sire is by Stop the Music, famously awarded the Champagne S. after Rotz took exception to a brief deviation in Secretariat's march to greatness; while Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) is by a grandson of Relaunch, whose sire In Reality and damsire The Axe II were both partnered by Rotz.

Midnight Bourbon arriving Thursday at Monmouth | Bill Denver/Equi-Photo

It's a fascinating race, pitching three Classic runners-up against the flagship of Runhappy's brilliant revival after a disappointing freshman campaign. Trying a second turn against elite opposition will certainly tell us what substance may underpin the dazzling style of Following Sea, but many neutrals will be hoping for a merited Grade I success for Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow). As has been widely celebrated, “Chuck” set the fastest opening quarter in the long history of the GI Belmont S., and a :46.49 half bettered only by Secretariat, yet retained the reserves to pull 11 lengths clear of the rest in harrying crop leader Essential Quality (Tapit) all the way down the stretch. Perhaps the sport might have been spared much of its present embarrassment if he had been ridden with similar aggression in the Derby, instead of gifting control to Medina Spirit (Protonico), but the notion that he can eyeball a rival even better without blinkers (as well as without the whip) looks an intriguing gamble.

However things play out between them, the fact that all three of the Triple Crown protagonists converging here completed their springtime preparations in the GII Louisiana Derby means that there is already one guaranteed winner. And that's the Fair Grounds management, for having the enterprise to stretch out a race that has come to seem too close to the first Saturday in May–too close for the trainers of today, at any rate–to permit equivalent grounding with another rehearsal in between.

We credit much of “Chuck's pluck” to Oxbow, whose ardent Triple Crown campaign so shames the current crop–not one of whom contested all three legs this time round. True, the Mid-Atlantic stalwart Raines chose to sit out the Derby to bring Greek Money relatively fresh to the Preakness, but that didn't stop him running in the local prep race the previous Saturday. Who knows? Even as a son of Oxbow, Chuck might not have been able to dig so deep in the Belmont had he also contested the Preakness. But he's certainly made of the right stuff.

That, and an ownership team that transcends generations, gives us plenty of optimism for the future of the game. A precious commodity, right now, but this is a race (and racetrack) that has always engaged dynamically with challenges. That's how we can try a Haskell without whips; a Haskell with a $1-million bonus backed by the operators of a pioneering venture in fixed-odds wagering; a Haskell headlining a meet of boosted purses and turnstiles clicking cheerfully once again.

So, if it can also be a Haskell that honors the memory of “Gentleman” John Rotz, and indeed that of Buddy Raines, then people out there might once again start to accept our claims that we treat every horse right–not because of rules and regulations, nor because of cosmetics, but because it wouldn't even occur to us to do anything else.

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Meah Adding Horsepower to Chrome Finish

She's still only 28, and it isn't three years since she started training. Yet a first graded stakes success for Anna Meah last weekend was welcomed with a depth of perspective extending both forward and back.

On the one hand, she has always been a woman in a hurry: however crammed the automobile she drove south from Washington in December 2012, her heart set on finding a backstretch job in California, the years since have been no less packed with experience. Indeed, the veteran trainer of a small string at Hollywood Park who hired Meah as assistant the following April also launched another career that very same month: a Cal-bred chestnut by Lucky Pulpit, name of California Chrome.

Even since starting to train, however, Meah has been through enough–a terrifying trackwork smash, for one thing, not to mention a barn reboot in Kentucky on the very eve of a global pandemic–to view the success of Abby Hatcher (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) in the GIII Chicago S. at Arlington as a boost to the morale of her small, dedicated team, but otherwise only as a first milestone on what remains a long and challenging road ahead.

“When I started training, I had some funny luck,” she says. “I don't want to say bad luck, because I know things can always be worse. But, yeah, funny luck. I thought I had my first winner in a stakes race at Del Mar. What a fairytale that would have been! But he was disqualified. It was one of those that could have gone either way, depending who you asked, but they took him down.

“Between starting out that October, and the end of the year, I had 16 runners. Eight finished second. I was thinking, 'Man, this horse-training business is not all I was hoping… Am I ever going to win a race?' That was a humbling experience–but it's also how this whole game is. So, yes, winning my first graded stakes felt amazing, and nothing will take that away. But at the same time, it's a reminder to stay humble. There's still so much to be done, so many goals to accomplish.”

As such, Meah has found nearly as much satisfaction in the less conspicuous breakthroughs that assure her, in quiet increments, that she's heading the right way.

Jungle Juice (right) winning at Churchill last week | Coady

“I don't know what it was about June, but we hit a ton of milestones,” she notes. “We finally won first time off a claim, having bumped up from $30,000 claimer to maiden special weight; then the following week we won with a first-time starter, also for the first time; and I believe Jungle Juice (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) [a Churchill optional allowance winner last week] is the first to win three times for me. And then of course the graded stakes. So we had a huge month. We're not a huge crew but the staff work so hard, some of them traveled across the country to stay with me, and I'm so thankful to them. It's been really rewarding for everyone.”

That migration from California, early last year, was a huge decision so early in Meah's training career. Logically, there was no point bringing her Cal-breds. Leaving them behind, however, reduced the string to 11. But she now has 27 in the barn, and was able to build up support even after the shock that awaited her in Lexington.

“I have a lot of clients along the East Coast that were very supportive of the idea,” she explains. “California was undergoing a bit of scrutiny at the time, and not many people wanted to send horses there. That was sad to see, I'd had a great run out there, but for a young trainer getting started, it was really hard to give it an honest go. You could enter a horse and if the race didn't fill you might be looking at another month. We have so many more options here.

“But yes, it was a bit alarming to move our stable from Santa Anita to Keeneland and be told, after our first day training, that they were cancelling the meet. 'What have I done?' I said. 'I've shipped my horses all this way for one day of training!' Obviously I soon saw that this wasn't a Kentucky problem but a global one. And we made do with what we had. We shipped over to Oklahoma and won a race, for instance. But even during the pandemic I was given a chance by a lot of new people, which just goes to show how Kentucky has helped my business thrive.”

That Oklahoma winner, at Will Rogers Downs, was very dear to Meah. For it was Vallestina (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}) she was riding round Santa Anita one morning in June 2019 when the pair of them were badly lacerated in a freak accident. The vets candidly doubted whether Vallestina would make it.

Meah with Vallestina and her Midnight Storm foal | Courtesy David Meah

“But long story short, she ended up pulling through,” Meah says. “And she not only came back and won at Santa Anita but also became the first to win for me after we moved out here. It's been a bit of a fairy tale–she has just had her first foal by Midnight Storm, and the plan would be to bring him into training someday–so let's hope it keeps panning out that way.”

After that horrible drama, Meah reluctantly acknowledged that it was neither sensible nor necessary to continue riding trackwork herself. So began a new chapter in her relationship with the horse, which had first evolved in a backwater of Thoroughbred racing–Meah was born in Oregon and raised in Washington–and initially devoted her to rodeos. Her ultimate vocation would only gradually come into focus.

In adolescence, she began shadowing Dr. Solomon Benneroch, the veterinarian who tended her rodeo mounts but also had clients with a Quarter Horse barn. “I begged them for a job for two years,” Meah recalls. “I just bugged them until they finally called and said, okay, this summer.” She went on to study Animal Science at Montana State but her real education would come in grooming and exercising at places like Portland Meadows, Emerald Downs and Grants Pass. A world away from Keeneland–her current base, though she's excited to be moving back into a renovated barn at Kentucky's Thoroughbred Center in October–but a perfect environment to learn the nuances of equine care.

“Working at those smaller racetracks, you learned a lot about what you can and can't do with horses,” she says. “It was exciting to be a part of it, and I'm glad I was. You could really build a foundation that way, and I feel that's so important for everything in life.”

The graduation ceremony awaited in the new, life-changing journey Meah began in tandem with California Chrome. Her four years with Art Sherman would span two Horse of the Year campaigns.

“Honestly, I have been so blessed,” she reflects. “Coming into this game, and landing that job with Art, and becoming part of Chrome's entire career. The Shermans are still like family to me, to this day. They were the first people to really take me under their wing. And Art is one special horseman. Chrome wasn't a difficult horse–very sound, great mind–but Art is such a wonderful person, and loves his horses so much, I know he did everything right by that horse and gave him the very best opportunity to succeed. Maybe in some bigger barns, little things may have been overlooked. Every small detail needs to come together to make big things happen.”

California Chrome | Horsephotos

Just as when she had first cut her teeth on the racetrack, however, Meah feels that she learned as much from the lesser horses.

“Art trusted me to run the barn when he wasn't there,” she explains. “At the time, I felt I was missing out on the fun a little, like when Chrome went out to Dubai for three months. But with a 12-hour time difference I couldn't call about every little issue. I had to figure things out.”

Nonetheless Meah was also privileged to have a regular, hands-on connection with the champion.

“I breezed Chrome all the way into most of his races, unless of course Victor [Espinoza] was out for it,” she says. “That was quite an adrenaline rush. It's not anything I could put into words. I just let him do his thing, he knew what he needed to do and how to do it, but the way he traveled, the way he covered the ground, he just had so much class about him. And it's not like his pedigree was outstanding: he just had such a big heart.”

That elusive grail, so hard to identify, remains ever in mind when stocking her own barn from limited resources. Likewise for husband David, as a bloodstock agent whose transatlantic partnership with Jamie Lloyd often targets horses off the track in Ireland or his native Britain. David has also had a fertile association with Richard Baltas, with whom Meah rounded off her apprenticeship after the retirement of California Chrome.

“Baltas probably had over 100 horses,” she recalls. “So it was a totally different experience, and more demanding, both physically and in terms of time. More runners, more problems. Again, he trusted me, for instance to travel east with horses like Gas Station Sushi (Into Mischief). She was such a star to deal with, and that was also how I really fell in love with Kentucky as Horse Country.”

Abby Hatcher, winner of the June 26 GIII Chicago S. | Coady

David–who bought that filly, winner of the GIII Beaumont S., as a 2-year-old–can these days sometimes encourage clientele toward his wife's barn and indeed heads up the partnership that races Abby Hatcher, herself an Irish import.

“We'd actually been eyeing that race for a long time,” Meah says. “As you know, in horseracing things rarely go to plan, but for once everything worked out. We thought we'd be happy just to get her some black type, but to actually go up there and win was unbelievable. When she first came over here, I put some works into her and knew she had ability. But then I turned her out, gave her a bit of time to adjust and be a horse for a while. And that has really paid off. David has provided me with a bunch of horses from Europe that I've had success with, so it's really nice to have his support and his eye.”

Her first debt, however, remains to parents with zero horse connection who nonetheless indulged their daughter's obsession. “Rodeo was obviously very different, though maybe suggested that I have a very strong competitive edge!” Meah says. “It was every weekend, so I'm very thankful that I was sometimes allowed out of school early, or to miss a day for traveling. I always knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with horses. But I didn't come into this business with the mentality that I wanted to be trainer. It's just how the stepping stones laid out until it became a no-brainer not to give it a try.

“I did try to make sure I had that foundation before branching out. I didn't want to start out with two or three horses, with me as owner, and piece things together as I went along. I had people ready to give me a chance. I don't run into too many young trainers, male or female, and I feel there are plenty of people out there who want a trainer that's young and hungry. I have put in a ton of work, but a lot of people do the same without having a graded success so early in their career. So when all that work pays off like this, I do feel very blessed.”

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A Mighty Day for Woodbine Fans

What a singular coincidence, and literally so, that two of the best horses recently bred in Canada–and that has never been a negligible distinction–should both have only one eye. True, the origins of Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun) and Mighty Heart (Dramedy) could scarcely be more diverse. The 2019 GI La Brea S. winner, who was retired a few weeks ago, graduated from one of the most admired breeding programs in North America, which routinely sends yearlings to Keeneland as coveted as any making a shorter trip from the storied Bluegrass farms. Much like the pioneering E.P. Taylor, indeed, Anderson Farms rebukes any condescending misapprehensions about raising top-class Thoroughbreds in “ice and tundra”. The way Mighty Heart has defied their shared adversity, in contrast, confounds the odds in a fashion–out of the only mare then in his breeder's ownership, by a sire since exported from Oklahoma to Saudi Arabia, and named for the eyedropper-fed runt of a Sphnyx cat litter–that nourishes hope for smaller operations everywhere, from Ontario to Ocala.

After a promising spring south of the border, Canada's Horse of the Year resumes his domestic career Thursday in the most auspicious of contexts. He not only lines up for the GIII Dominion Day S., but does so on a Canada Day when fans are finally restored to the Woodbine stands after a second lockdown trauma that brought the local racing community to its knees. Mighty Heart's return to the scene of his runaway success in the Queen's Plate last September, then, serves as the perfect tonic. Even before the pandemic, after all, the Ontario industry had been through years of crisis following the abrupt loss of slots. For all those who have been striving to rally investment, and all those who have resisted fresh despair during the past year, the big heart of this one-eyed wonder has become an inspiration.

“I find it so funny that he got the name he did, before all this,” says his trainer Josie Carroll. “Because it just sums up this horse. Like in his last race, at the head of the lane, I thought: 'Okay, he's going to run a good race.' But he just dug in. He's just a scrappy little horse.”

That was in the Blame S. at Churchill last month, where Mighty Heart refused to be denied in a three-way photo finish. Having previously made a promising return at Keeneland, he has laid a solid foundation for his second campaign after exploding onto the scene last year, winning the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. Carroll had always planned to get him rolling again in the U.S., but his peregrinations from Florida to Kentucky obtained a melancholy background as the news from the home front became ever more frustrating.

Woodbine finally reopened for business on June 12, albeit behind closed doors, with a jackpot carryover that had been gathering dust ever since Nov. 22. That was when the meet came to a premature end, despite an exemplary record of functioning within COVID protocols in 2020, while a resumption scheduled for Apr. 17 had then been thwarted by government orders that permitted training but not racing. The ensuing limbo became an excruciating new test for the demoralised backside community and its patrons.

Josie Carroll with Mighty Heart | Michael Burns

“You know, I have such a great appreciation for our owners,” says Carroll. “They stuck it out. They had the opportunity to race elsewhere, every other major track was open, but they left their horses here to race. We're all very appreciative, and it makes me so happy to see them coming back to the races, and back to the backside. Some of them haven't even seen their horses for a year and a half, yet they've been hanging in there.”

As Carroll acknowledges, that can represent the entire span of a horse's evolution into a measurable talent. There will certainly have been many a Woodbine project that has run its course in the meantime. And the excitement for many owners, as such, will often be the journey sooner than the destination. “For the majority of owners, half the fun is in the participation,” Carroll confirms. “That's what makes the relationship between the people and the horses.”

But it's a parallel relationship that has been under no less painful strain: the one connecting the morning toil of backstretch workers with the fulfilment available in the afternoons.

“It's been very hard for them, to keep their spirits up,” Carroll says. “Because the fun part, when you have put all that work into your horse, is going over there and seeing them run a big race. That's when you see the excitement on all your people's faces. So just to sit for months and months, without getting the opportunity to run, was very tough on them. And we all know that your basic pay rate, for backside help, is not that strong. They supplement their income with their percentages, from the horses' earnings, so it's a dent in their income too.”

Mighty Heart's Queen's Plate | Michael Burns

Fortunately times of trial will draw the best out in people, too, and fortify a sense of community. “I tell you, everybody in this industry has been great,” Carroll says. “I think we were all shocked when we got shut down at the end of November. Everybody had done such a great job, I think we had two cases out of the thousands of people back here. The same people that were working with these horses in the mornings were also handling them in the afternoons, so it didn't really make a lot of sense. It just felt like we got grouped with a whole lot of other sports and activities, without being looked at individually.

“Since then, everybody has worked so hard together. To get everyone on the backside vaccinated, for instance, so that when we presented to the government we could show them that the majority of people had had their shots. Woodbine did pop-up clinics, for people who live here and don't have a lot of access to transport, so that when Ontario began to open it would have been very hard to deny us, when we could show such a rate of coverage.”

For trainers, of course, the uncertainty created a particular challenge: how do you train up to a target, if the target keeps moving? After all, judging that fever pitch for race day is perhaps the key to their whole profession. But Carroll showed just why she was inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame in 2019 when priming Boardroom (Commissioner) to win the first graded stakes of the Woodbine calendar, the GIII Whimsical S., after a seven-month absence.

“It's been a very challenging year for all the Woodbine trainers,” she says. “Every other jurisdiction was open. We were aiming for an April start, and getting horses ready for that. But it's very difficult when you haven't got an exact date, and things keep moving, and you're trying to keep horses ready to peak: you don't want to go over the top but you don't want to back off them too much, either.”

Mighty Heart himself was always going to have to regroup, regardless, having disappointed behind barnmate Belichick (Lemon Drop Kid) in the final leg of the Triple Crown before running fourth in the GIII Ontario Derby. Belichick, second that day, will again be in opposition Thursday after an excellent comeback run of his own when beaten a nose in a Churchill allowance.

Michael Burns

“Mighty Heart is not a big horse but he's well put together, very athletic-looking, and he's definitely rounded out into a much more mature shape than he had last year,” Carroll reports. “Mentally, he's always been pretty uncomplicated–for a one-eyed horse! He's got a few little quirks, but if you can deal with those, he will just soldier on.

“I had always intended one start before we got up here, and initially we were going to do that at Gulfstream. But a race didn't come up when he was ready, so we had our one start at Keeneland. The intention then was to come home but when things got delayed, and he was doing so well down there, I just said that now is not the time to backtrack.

“Belichick I sent back down to Kentucky when racing didn't reopen, and he ran a nice race. We're looking at the Niagara S. on the grass [July 25] but he's been 50 days without a run, he needs a race and he's good enough to run in this one.”

Even at 25% of capacity, the return of fans on such a resonant occasion will represent another psychological breakthrough as Woodbine horsefolk seek to put a nightmare year behind them. “We've gotten so used to it being quiet over there!” Carroll says. “But yes, the energy of the fans is part of what makes any sport.”

It feels only fitting, then, for this particular race, on this particular day, to be dignified by the participation–besides three runners trained by another great ambassador for Woodbine, Mark Casse, who this summer receives his postponed induction to the Hall of Fame in Saratoga–of a horse who so captured the hearts of the Canadian horseracing public. Nobody could have predicted what lay ahead after Mighty Heart lost his left eye in a paddock accident when just two weeks old. Carrying the silks of breeder Larry Cordes, he won the Queen's Plate by 7 1/2 lengths in the second-fastest time since the race arrived at the new Woodbine racetrack–the opening of which in 1956 was, of course, one of the many benedictions to the Canadian sport owed to the drive of E.P. Taylor–before following up in the Prince of Wales S. on dirt at Fort Erie.

With so many skilled Canadian horsemen doing their utmost to build on Taylor's legacy, they could have no better model for the underdog spirit than Mighty Heart.

“Our breeding numbers are down but if you look at racing in North America, for the foal crop we have, a lot of very good horses come out of Canada,” Carroll says. “I just hope things pick up and our industry starts to grow, because we breed such nice horses here. I think that's what made me really proud, going down there with Mighty Heart as our Horse of the Year. He showed he could really do it on the North American stage, and I just hope that helped showcase Canadian racing, and the quality of the breeders we have.”

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