Tag: Connections

In 2001, Geoff Mulcahy took out his trainer's license in the United States, having spent the past few years working in Ireland, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia for an array of trainers. A few years later he and his wife Sandra started their own breaking and pre-training business as well at their farm in Lexington, Ky. 

Around the same time Michael and Liz Campbell purchased the historic Cambus-Kenneth farm from the Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation, eager for a change of pace from their lives in Massachusetts working in academia. They began a small Thoroughbred breeding program after their move. It would be another 16 years before they crossed paths with Mulcahy and began their partnership. 

Mulcahy has now been in the business of breaking Thoroughbreds and getting them ready for the track for a little less than 20 years. While he currently has around 65 horses in his program at the Thoroughbred Center, the heart of his operation is a 5-year-old Lemon Drop Kid mare named Henrietta Topham. Owned by the Campbells, she is the lone horse that Mulcahy trains to race.

After 21 years of training mostly claiming and allowance level horses while also running his breaking business, Mulcahy decided that Henrietta Topham would be the last horse to run under his name. He goal is to shift his focus exclusively to working with young horses after one more racehorse of his own.

A little less than a year after breaking her maiden, Henrietta Topham gave Mulcahy his first graded stakes win in the Grade 3 Old Forester Mint Julep Stakes at Churchill Downs.

“I went hoarse,” Mulcahy said. “All I could say was 'Go on Henri, go on Henri.' I was roaring and shouting. It was great because coming off two weeks [since her last race] I was sort of second guessing myself. I basically left it up to Ricardo [Henrietta Topham's long time exercise rider]. I asked him after the final breeze before the race if she felt good and he said yes, so that made up my mind. We went into the race after the late scratches thinking we could definitely get graded stakes-placed, but then she went on and won and just what a day.”

It was also the first graded stakes win for the Campbells, who bred the mare as well as the prior two generations of her female line. Henrietta Topham is out of the Cozenne mare Miss Silver Brook, who raced 21 times over the span of four years, during which time she ran against the likes of Zenyatta and Stardom Bound. Henrietta Topham's female line eventually traces back to her third dam Secondfromthetop. Secondfromthetop was one of the first mares in the Campbells' broodmare band and had been left from the original owners of Cambus-Kenneth farm. She has produced the likes of G2 winner Why Change and stakes winner Jimmy Z, who were both sold as yearlings.

“Luck is the main ingredient, but you have to position yourself to take advantage of the luck,” said Michael Campbell. “My wife and I are very interested in pedigrees and breeding. We got right into analyzing pedigrees and calling on people who are experts on this. It's taken a long time. Most people aren't going to wait four generations, but there was so much talent that we knew about in these horses that had excuses for not showing up. We knew there was talent in that particular mare line.

“The keyword is patience. You really have to immerse yourself in the history and tradition of Thoroughbred breeding and learn the pedigrees, learn about the animal. I wish more people were horse people and they would really get to know the individual horses and how they behave and what they need. If they spent more time getting to know the horses that they own it would help them determine the next best step for that individual.

“You don't have to be fabulously wealthy, but you do have to be patient, which can be expensive.”

The Campbells' thought process, dedication, and patience seems to have paid off in the case of Henrietta Topham. The same can surely be said for Mulcahy. 

Originally from Ireland, Mulcahy started spending his summers getting experience working with Thoroughbreds at the age of 13. Mulcahy had worked with yearlings, broodmares and foals, and 2-year-olds by the time he decided to make his way to the United States for the first time in 1995 to work for Garret O'Rourke at Juddmonte Farm in their breaking division. When he arrived, O'Rourke told Mulcahy that their yearlings wouldn't be ready to get started for another few months and he sent Mulcahy to work for Jimmy Corrigan, formerly of Pin Oak Stud, at the Thoroughbred Center starting their 2-year-olds. 

Six years later after completing his equine science degree in Ireland, working in South Africa, and working as an assistant for Niall O'Callaghan and Bob Baffert in the United States and Saudi Arabia, Mulcahy decided he was ready to settle down in Kentucky and go out on his own.

“I started out with one horse, then went up to two, then up to three, and just gradually went on from there,” Mulcahy recalled. “I remember having three horses in three different barns at one point. I remember having two feed tubs and having to wait for the first horse to finish eating so I could feed the third horse because I didn't have the money for the new feed tub. I just worked hard and made the contacts and built it up from there.”

Henrietta Topham is the icing on top of a two-decade training career that has often involved getting horses ready for other trainers to take over. As ever, Mulcahy has managed her with his trademark patience.

Following a productive 2022 that saw the mare break her maiden after four tries in 2021 and win her first stakes race, Henrietta Topham started out her 5-year-old campaign with a fifth place finish in an allowance race at Keeneland. Undeterred by the result, Mulcahy pointed her towards a start in the G3 Modesty Stakes at Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. Fate, however, intervened when Henrietta Topham came up slightly unsound with a small cut on the bulb of her heel the day before the race so Mulchay rerouted her to an allowance race on May 21 at the same track. Henrietta Topham won the allowance race by a neck before going on to win the Mint Julep two weeks later. 

It took a lot to get there – four generations of breeding for the Campbells, 22 years of training for Mulcahy, and four tries for Henri – but Henrietta Topham's team is convinced now more than ever that the wait for something great can be worthwhile.

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Henrietta Topham Shows That Good Things Come To Those Who Wait appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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It had been nine long years since Randy Morse had last saddled a graded stakes winner, leaving the trainer to walk into the Pimlico saddling paddock with plenty on the line for the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

He was preparing Taxed, the 3-year-old filly Morse had claimed on behalf of owner Richard Bahde for $50,000 last fall. She had failed to draw in for a start in the Kentucky Oaks two weeks prior as the first also-eligible; on Black-Eyed Susan day, Taxed was an 11-1 chance on the tote board.

“Her last work was fantastic, but you know, when you look up and see a filly like Baffert's, it's hard to say you're going to beat her easily,” Morse said. “Normally a filly like that doesn't run in the Black-Eyed Susan, and the race doesn't come up nearly as tough, but this year was different.”

Besides undefeated Baffert trainee Faiza, other promising Black-Eyed Susan entrants included the well-regarded Grade 2 winner Hoosier Philly, stakes winner Merlazza, and G2 Gulfstream Park Oaks runner-up Sacred Wish. 

“It's hard to compete with these guys who go in and spend millions of dollars on young horses,” Morse added. “I'm not knocking them; I'd like to be in their position. It's pretty hard for the average guy these days. Most of the better young horses in the country are pretty much going to five or six guys, so it's very hard to get a top quality horse.

“The bottom line is that horses make trainers. You gotta have the horse.”

In the Black-Eyed Susan, Taxed proved her trainer's confidence was well founded. Approaching the far turn, he saw that the jockey aboard Faiza was already having to ask for a run, and he wasn't getting much of a response.

“I thought we had a serious chance at that point, because I could see (Taxed's jockey Rafael) Bejarano hadn't moved,” Morse remembered. 

Hoosier Philly led at the top of the lane, but Taxed was able to run that filly down to win by 3 ¾ lengths on the wire.

“When Taxed switched leads, she really finished up well,” Morse said. “It was just pure joy; that's why we do this every day.”

Morse, 61, grew up on the racetrack working under his father, W.R. “Charlie” Morse, who was a Thoroughbred trainer on the Southwest circuit. As a young boy in El Paso, Texas, the horses were all Morse ever wanted to think about. 

Even before he was old enough to take his horses to the paddock for their races, Morse was 100 percent responsible for grooming his own charges.

“I can remember my dad won a stake in Omaha with this horse I rubbed, Bye Bye Battle,” Morse said. “I couldn't even go to the paddock to hold her because I wasn't old enough; you had to be 15 for a license.”

Morse's passion for the sport came through both sides of his family tree; his mother worked at the barn as well.

“It was a lot different back then, and there were a lot of kids that grew up on the backside,” he remembered. “There were a lot more families, I think. That's basically all that worked for us was family.”

Throughout his youth at Sunland Park, Ak-Sar-Ben, Centennial, and the Albuquerque state fair, Morse worked various jobs on the backstretch. He was a hot walker, a groom, a foreman, and a stable agent, sometimes all at the same time, and began galloping as soon as he could get a license at age 15. 

“Being around the horses, that's the way I was raised. Racing is all I've ever known,” Morse said. “I didn't want to go to college. I wanted to ride to begin with, but I got too big quickly. I galloped horses for a long time, and then got too big to do that. I just wanted to train horses from the time I was young… I love horses; that's the bottom line.”

At age 18, Morse went out on his own as a trainer. He saddled his first winner just a few days shy of his 19th birthday, on May 1, 1981 at Atokad Downs. 

Over the course of his career, Morse developed a reputation as an outstanding claiming trainer. He has claimed a long list of successful horses, including Morluc, a $50,000 claimer-turned-millionaire who came a nose shy of winning at the Hong Kong International Races two years in a row; Moonshine Mullin, a $40,000-claimer-turned-millionaire who won the G1 Stepen Foster in 2014; Kate's Main Man, a $35,000 claim who would earn $380,600 for Morse with multiple stakes wins; and Prospector's Song, a $50,000 who went on to win three stakes and earn $248,508 in Morse's care.

The latter, Prospector's Song, was owned by the late Robert Mitchell.

“Look, if anybody claims a horse saying they can make it a graded stakes winner, that's a little far-fetched,” Morse explained. “No matter what, though, you gotta have people backing you. Mr. Mitchell was the first guy that gave me a chance to claim horses,and he was with me for a long time 'til he passed. He'd give me free rein if I wanted to claim something. That means a lot when they trust your opinion, and it gave me a real chance to see what I could do.”

Morluc was perhaps the most iconic of those top claiming successes, especially since the horse ran so poorly on the day Morse claimed him at Gulfstream Park.

“I'd seen him before, and he was just a gorgeous horse, a really good-looking horse that always made a middle move in his races and then would kind of flatten out,” Morse recalled. “The owner wasn't too happy that day we claimed him, because he'd run terrible, but we put him on the grass and he was a different horse. I don't think there's any doubt he could have won a Breeders' Cup race, if that kind of thing had been around back then.”

Morluc raced in the early 2000s; the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint was not inaugurated until 2008. Instead, Morse was among the first Americans to take his shot overseas at the Hong Kong International Races, racing for approximately a $1 million purse when the richest turf sprint in the U.S. was worth a comparatively low $150,000.

“You want to see a heartbreaker, watch those two races,” Morse said. “He was second by a nose two years in a row to the same horse from Australia.”

When it comes to Taxed, Morse insists he got lucky.

“I've claimed some bad ones too; they don't all turn out good,” he quipped. “But anytime a 2-year-old yo works a minute at Churchill Downs, they can run a little. So we just got lucky, because we had to win a shake on her, too.”

Following the claim, Morse had hoped to run Taxed in a second level allowance race, but none were drawing enough entries in the racing office. Instead, he entered her in a stakes at Oaklawn that had drawn a short field. Taxed ran fourth in the one-mile Year's End Stakes, leading at the three-quarter pole and just faltering a bit late.

“The way she ran that day, we thought we might really have something,” he said. “She always looked like a horse, going up the backside, like she was gonna run big or gonna win. She just wouldn't relax like you'd like to see one.”

Three starts later, Morse opted to try removing the filly's blinkers to see if she'd settle during the race. Taxed ran second in the G3 Fantasy, beaten just 2 ½ lengths by Oaklawn's leading sophomore filly Wet Paint.

Following that effort, Taxed was tied for Kentucky Oaks points with champion juvenile filly Wonder Wheel. Unfortunately, the latter filly had first preference for the Run for the Lillies due to her higher graded stakes earnings, so Taxed had to be entered for the first Friday in May as the first on the list of also-eligibles.

When she didn't draw in, the Black-Eyed Susan was the next logical spot. 

As for what will come next for the newly-minted graded stakes winner, Morse wasn't entirely sure. Owner Richard Bahde is from Nebraska, so the Iowa Oaks just a couple hours away is among the possibilities. Morse also believes the filly could be competitive in a Grade 1 at Saratoga.

“With the way she ran, she deserves to have a chance in a Grade 1,” Morse said. 

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘I Love Horses; That’s The Bottom Line’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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To the outside world, it may appear as though the winner's circle is the ultimate goal for horse racing participants.

For trainer Jena Antonucci, however, a trip to the winner's circle is just a byproduct of her actual goals. Just a few days after sending out perhaps the biggest winner of her career, 3-year-old Arcangelo in last Saturday's G3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park, Antonucci took the time to set the record straight.

“Goals and success are defined very interestingly, not only in racing but also in life,” Antonucci said. “Without getting overly philosophical, you've gotta be really careful to make sure you're setting goals that represent who you are.

“My goal has always been to do the best we can with the horses that we have, and really, just building good relationships with good people. Then, at the end of the day, whatever that yields is what it yields.

“It's easy to get caught up in the chase for success and lose sight of what really matters. For me, it's about doing what I love, and doing it in a way that I can be proud of. If the winner's circle comes, that's just a bonus.”

Ridden by Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Javier Castellano, Arcangelo won the Peter Pan by a hard-fought head over favorite Bishop's Bay. The Peter Pan has often been used as a prep for the Belmont Stakes, and as a son of the late Arrogate out of a Tapit mare, there's little question Arcangelo should appreciate the Belmont distance. In fact, Arcangelo's third dam, Better Than Honour, produced back-to-back Belmont Stakes winners Jazil and Rags to Riches.

Yet, neither Antonucci nor owner Jon Ebbert are at all ready to commit the colt to the third leg of the Triple Crown. It's a testament to both parties' patience that they're willing to let the horse tell them when he's ready, rather than the other way around.

The owner-trainer partnership between Ebbert and Antonucci, well-established as it is, began less than two years ago at the 2021 Keeneland September sale.

Antonucci recalls that her business partner, Katie Miranda, was trying to get her attention from a short distance away. Miranda whistled, but Ebbert stepped in to respond.

“It was an exchange of sarcasm, to be honest, and we all just knew, 'These are my people,'” Antonucci remembered. “We started talking, and it just developed from there.”

Ebbert had gone to the sale to purchase one yearling; instead, he left with two. Arcangelo was hammered down for a final bid of $35,000, a bargain price considering the fact the colt has now won two of four starts for earnings of $167,400.

“Jon just fell in love with this horse,” Antonucci said. “Clearly Arrogate wasn't hot then, and since he was a May foal, he was kind of a sum of parts. He wasn't flashy or pretty, and there was a lot to still come together. There was nothing offensive, he just needed the time.”

Ebbert liked the colt so much that he gave him a name of great personal importance. Arcangelo means “archangel” in Italian; the colt is named for a former employee of Ebbert's at his farm in Pennsylvania.

“He had this little Italian guy who worked for him,” explained Antonucci. “He was just crazy about the horses, and he had this way with all of them. He's passed on now, so he named this colt after this amazing human being.”

After connecting at the Keeneland sale, Ebbert opted to send Arcangelo to Antonucci's Ocala-based breaking and pre-training operation, which she manages in concert with Miranda. 

Both Antonucci and Miranda have their background in the hunter/jumper realm, so their styles of training are well-matched. 

“I started riding at three years old, having seen horses driving down the road and annoying my mother enough that she finally stopped and signed me up for lessons,” Antonucci said. “My parents thought it would be a good idea to buy me a green horse for my ninth birthday; well, she taught me a lot!”

Antonucci spent a few years pursuing other career paths, but she always came back to the horses. Eventually, she decided to pursue it full time. 

“I grew up doing a ton of retraining of off-track Thoroughbreds, because that's just where you got your horses back then,” she explained. “Eventually, I found that I really wanted to understand the 'why.' As in, I wanted to understand what I was having to fix in these off-track horses, where it was coming from.

“It didn't make sense to me. In the hunter/jumper world, you learn all of the foundation of balance, what it means to create it from the hind end, and what it means to be an athlete. Then you see these horses that are supposed to be athletes, but they're dragging themselves around on the front end and not at all balanced.”

Hired to help start horses for the D. Wayne Lukas program at Padua Stables, Antonucci gained a whole new perspective on the retraining process for ex-racehorses. She then spent four and a half years as an equine veterinary assistant, learning more about horses and their health, before opening her own business at Bella Inizio Farm and expanding into both pre-training and full-time race training.

“One of the most important things to me is that every horse is an individual,” she said. “Yes, we have a base program, but everything is tweakable. Every horse has its own personality, has its own path, and has different things you're tending to. I'm never going to be a 200-horse person. Whatever opportunities I got, I just wanted to try and do the best job I could with those horses. I can't fix them all, and I can't save them all, but if I do my best with what I have, that will reward me down the road. I've tried to stay true to that idea: 'What can I do best for these horses while they're in our hands?'”

Delving deeper into the horsemanship Antonucci has developed throughout her career, she explains that from the very beginning she wants to develop the horse's ability to trust.

“We do a lot of field work, they have the rest of their lives to go between the rails,” said Antonucci. “We ground drive them, make sure they can stop, go, turn right, left, etc. I think you partner up with a horse better, and they build stronger sense of trust in humans in their lives, when you slow down and explain it to them. They'll give you everything they have if they feel safe with you.”

That education of the horse extends to the jockey, as well. 

“We can only do so much in the mornings,” Antonucci said. “I like to develop a relationship with riders, because they understand how horses run for them when they understand how we train.”

For Arcangelo, having an experienced Hall of Famer like Castellano aboard likely made all the difference in the Peter Pan. 

“He's the right kind of rider for Arcangelo,” she continued. “He needs someone that's willing to mentor him a little and make the right asks at the right times: 'I need you to go here, go there.' In the stretch, Javi was super confident that he had enough horse to run back by Bishop's Bay. That's so important, teaching him to look a horse in the eye and then go by him again.”

In the meantime, Antonucci looks forward to whatever the future brings with Arcangelo, whether that's a try in the Belmont Stakes or in one of the other Grade 1's later this summer.

“The horse is just built different. I know that sounds so cliché, but it's my job – our job – to stay out of his way,” Antonucci said. “Mr. Ebbert has done a great job to give the horse time and let him mature. He's a May foal. It's all been about education and him maturing and figuring out who he is. He's still a kid figuring it out. We'll stay out of his way and see how he comes out of this, then make a decision from there.” 

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