Tag: Connections

The winner's circle at Saratoga after Saturday's fifth race was filled with all kinds of emotion, even before the winning filly Vallelujah returned from the gallop out. There were tears of joy, endless hugs, and shouts of celebration all the way around that hallowed enclosure.

“This is just incredible,” said trainer Robbie Davis. “The only thing better than this is the Travers!”

It was a win for the little guys: the first Saratoga win for jockey Jacky Davis; the second Saratoga win (and first since 2013) for her father, the filly's trainer and a former jockey himself; and the first Saratoga win for the 18 partners of East Ave Racing Stable.

Managing partner Jeff Deet explained that the partnership came together during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group of fans and photographers, professional and amateur alike, would meet outside the fence of the Saratoga training track on East Avenue every morning. Wearing masks and sitting in folding chairs with their cameras held aloft, the group would watch the horses train and get away from the pressures of an uncertain world.

Robbie Davis would ride by every morning, and usually stopped nearby to strike up a conversation. The trainer suggested everyone get together and buy a horse, so that they could watch the morning workouts from the other side of the fence.

Several of the group members latched onto the idea, and Deet, the only one with any significant horse ownership experience, was nominated to become the managing partner. All they needed was a horse.

Several days later, Carolyn Karlson happened to walk by the group. Deet had met her via a previous racing endeavor, and waved Karlson over to say hello.

“The stars lined up that day,” Deet said. “She is the breeder of Vallelujah. Well, one part of the conversation led to the next and we ended up talking about a horse she had.”

The filly, a New York-bred daughter of Teuflesberg, was just a yearling at the time, but Deet put out a few feelers and decided she'd be the right one to take a chance on.

Deet also knew that the minimum ownership percentage required to gain a New York State Gaming Commision license is three percent. He set up the deal so that he and each of his 17 partners could own the requisite three percent of Vallelujah, making up majority ownership overall. Karlson worked with Deet on a price, and a deal was made.

When Vallelujah, named for a combination of “Hallelujah” and the day of her birth, Valentine's Day, was ready to be sent to a trainer, Deet and his partners knew exactly where they wanted to send the filly.

“We were not going to settle for anybody but Robbie and his family,” Deet said. “They embrace you as a family, and we could not ask or find anybody to take care of our horse like Robbie has.

“I can't say enough about him as a trainer and as a man.”

Vallelujah broke her maiden in her sixth career start on the dirt at Belmont Park in May of 2022, and entered Saturday's race, a first-level allowance for New York-breds, as a 24-1 longshot after a pair of off-the-board finishes on the turf.

“We take blame for putting her on the turf,” Deet said. “We had to get a race in her and there was nothing in the immediate future. So her strong suit is definitely dirt; she's only run twice on the dirt as a 3-year-old, and she's won both of them.”

Saturday's win was accomplished in rail-running fashion, despite the trainer's instructions to his daughter to remain off the rail.

Jacky Davis explained to the owners that she'd felt the footing on the rail prior to the race, and discovered that while it had been deep for the entire meet, on that day it was finally fast.

“This means the world to me because it's my first race at Saratoga and for my dad especially,” Jacky Davis told Horse Racing News' Andrew Capone. “I know he won a lot of races here as a jockey, but us together – I'm beside myself, I'm so happy. I didn't know if I was going to cry, laugh or fall off after the wire.”

Deet echoed those sentiments.

“We hoped for the best, but we were thinking, 'Let's enjoy the ride and we get what we get, as long as she comes back safe,'” he said. “We didn't think winning was really on the table, so we have just been on such a high. To be in Saratoga and to watch our horse win an allowance race was surreal to us.”

Even before Saturday's win, Deet acknowledged that the East Ave adventure has been incredibly satisfying for everyone involved.

“It's been the most wonderful thing,” said Deet. “To have that many people getting together for two years and they get along every day, the friendship that has been forged is just priceless. It's just an absolute blessing because we've had people come out of their shells and move past the issues in their lives; it's been incredible to watch the partners grow. Of course, the most galvanizing element of this is our trainer.”

Robbie Davis has a stable of just three horses, and rides them all himself each morning. His wife Marguerite is especially involved in the barn, and two of their six children are currently jockeys (a third is a former jockey).

“They embrace you as a family,” Deet said.

A former jockey, Davis rode the winners of 3,300 races and is a member of the Idaho Hall of Fame.

“With all the things he's accomplished in horse racing, he's got every right in the world to kind of put his chin up a little higher, but that would be the last thing he would do,” Deet explained. “It's amazing how humble any one person can be, and it's truly sincere.”

It was perhaps especially fitting that Vallelujah's win came just one day after the presentation of the Mike Venezia Memorial Award at Saratoga. The award is presented annually to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who won more than 2,300 races during a 25-year career cut short by tragedy.

Davis and Venezia were among the leading riders in New York in the fall of 1988. On Oct. 13, during the fifth race at Belmont Park, the horse Davis was riding was unable to avoid a fallen Venezia when he was dislodged from his own mount. Disaster struck: Venezia was killed instantly when Davis' mount's feet struck his skull.

The horrific accident forced Davis out of the sport he loved for months, eaten up with guilt. With unending support from his family and a trip back home to Idaho, Davis was finally able to move past the trauma of that day.

“I think about him, not every day, but every once in a while,” Davis told Sports Illustrated in 1989. “I don't dwell on it. I still feel a little hurt over it, but there ain't nobody on earth who can change it.”

More than 30 years later, Davis has become the kind of man who is respected by his peers for more than just his skill with the horses.

“I know that day weighs heavy on his heart, and he still has a difficult time talking about it,” Deet said. “Something like that is never put to rest in his heart, but that's just a tribute to the individual that he is.”

Venezia must have watched that Saratoga winner's circle with a smile, seeing Davis' pure joy at sharing such a moment with his friends and family.

“This is what we work for,” Davis told racing media. “This is what we pray for. Everybody come back healthy, and this is why we do this. It's just the energy; you cannot get enough of this energy and electricity. It's like a home run in the ninth inning of the World Series.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Stars Lined Up’ On Saratoga’s East Avenue appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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It isn't every day that a former claimer enters a Grade 1 race. It's even less often that such a horse runs well at the sport's top level, but that's exactly what the flashy Kneedeepinsnow accomplished when he finished second behind reigning sprint champion Jackie's Warrior in last weekend's Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap.

Trainer Matt Shirer, who dropped the claim for $80,000 on the 6-year-old in April of this year, watched the Vanderbilt from the Saratoga horsemen's lounge where it was quiet. For the minute and 10 seconds it took to complete the six furlongs, time slowed down as Shirer's entire focus narrowed on one big-screen television.

“I thought at the time he was a little bit flat out of the gate,” Shirer admitted, “but that was also somewhat our race strategy. Everybody thought this horse was all speed and that he would be part of the pace, but this horse does whatever you want. I told Ricardo (jockey Ricardo Santana, Jr.), 'Don't try to go for the lead, don't use him, just try to get one run and see where he ends up.'

“Obviously we were at the back of the field early, and the pace didn't seem crazy fast up front, so I thought that could spell trouble for us. He also took a bunch of dirt early in the race, and I didn't know how he would handle that, either. Finally he started to make a little move around the three-eighths pole. Then Ricardo took him outside and got him a clear run, and he switched leads a little late, but that's kind of been his M.O. for a while. Then he really hit another gear and finished strong, passing the rest of the field except for Jackie's Warrior.”

The second-place finish was Shirer's first graded stakes placing, coming seven years into the training career of the Ohio native who fell in love with the sport watching the Kentucky Derby on television.

“Nobody in my family has anything to do with horses or racing,” said Shirer. “I wasn't that kid who grew up around horses or snuck his way into the racetrack. I actually got interested in horse racing by watching the Kentucky Derby. I don't know what it was, it just really got my attention. I specifically remember the year Nick Zito saddled five horses in the Derby (2005). I started following racing then.”

Shirer attended Ohio Wesleyan University to play on the division three basketball team, and took the opportunity to enter the school's animal science program. During the summers, he got a job walking hots at Thistledown near Cleveland.

“I had never been to the racetrack before, let alone the backside,” Shirer said. “I had no clue what I was doing, I just wanted to learn. I did that for a few summers, and when I graduated, I went back to the track and worked full-time.”

Student loans caught up to him, however, so Shirer opted to work for his brother-in-law's roofing company where he could make more money. Still, the lure of the backstretch never disappeared.

When Shirer came across trainer Kenny McPeek's website years later, he took a chance and sent an email describing his experience. McPeek responded immediately and offered Shirer a job at Churchill Downs.

For the next three years Shirer served as foreman and assistant trainer for McPeek's stable, working with horses like Grade 1 winners Pure Fun, Rosalind, and Golden Ticket, as well as Kentucky Derby participants Frac Daddy and Java's War.

In late 2015, Shirer decided to take the trainer's test and set out on his own.

“I learned a lot from Kenny, but I wanted to be able to train my own horses,” Shirer said. “There comes a certain point, I guess, where you want to control your own life, to be the boss.

“I told Kenny what my intentions were, we ended on good terms, and I literally went to take my trainer's license (test) the next day. (Kentucky steward) Barbara Borden asked me why I wanted to take the test if I didn't have any horses to train, and I told her my plan was to claim a few. That was October of 2015. I passed the test and it was time to start claiming. I was really green. I had never dropped a (claiming) slip before. Everything in this business I've just had to learn from the ground up. I claimed a horse at Churchill and won my first race in December at Turfway.”

The path Shirer has carved out for himself has never been an easy one. There were certainly times that money got tight and horses grew scarce, but he was determined to make his way in the business and never gave up.

“I feel like I don't want to come off as arrogant, but I work hard, and I can out-work a lot of people,” Shirer said. “I'm pretty dedicated to what I do. I think that comes from not growing up in the business, not having big connections. Sometimes those things help people progress, but for me it wasn't an option so I had to lean on my work ethic. A lot of what I did in the beginning was claiming, so I was looking at as many forms as I can, doing as much homework and as much work as I can, and I think that sets me apart a little bit.

“Every so often, you catch a break. An owner notices that you're doing well and will ask you to claim a horse for them. My first few years of training, I was almost never sent a horse, I always had to claim something, so I had to find horses that I wanted and had a plan for. I think that probably helped my percentage. When you get sent a horse, you don't have any input. You just have to do the best with what they give you. As a claiming trainer, I was at least able to pick out the horses I wanted and run them where I wanted.”

It was one such claiming owner, Marshall Gramm of Ten Strike Racing, that picked out Kneedeepinsnow when the horse was entered for an $80,000 tag at Keeneland. Gramm sent the horse to Shirer, and asked him to take a look.

“I thought he looked good on paper, but the replays of his races are what really put me over the top,” Shirer said. “He just had a couple excuses for his races, like traffic problems, and that's just racing luck.”

Luck certainly plays a role in the claiming process. After Kneedeepinsnow dominated that Keeneland field by 3 ½ lengths, Shirer learned that one other party had dropped a claiming slip on the gelding. Which claim goes through is left up to the luck of the draw.

“The way he ran that day, obviously you think this could be a good horse here,” Shirer said. “So the two-way shake was so much more nerve-wracking than a 10-way shake! Luckily we won it.”

Jeremy Sussman, Marshall Gramm, and Cory Moelis are now the three owners behind Kneedeepinsnow, who has covered his purchase price with earnings of $100,810 in just three starts, never finishing worse than third.

Interestingly, Kneedeepinsnow had been entered in a stakes race at Ellis Park the week before the Vanderbilt, but Shirer and the owners discussed skipping that race in favor of taking the shot at Saratoga.

“He trains so well and he's so classy in the mornings,” Shirer said of Kneedeepinsnow. “Those specific owners, they all come up to Saratoga for the races. We decided to take a shot since it would be a small field and Jackie's Warrior was likely gonna scare everybody off. There were other good horses in there but we felt we fit with those, so we scratched at Ellis and entered at Saratoga and he ends up running second!”

It could be the kind of effort that gets Shirer noticed. With a 20-horse stable and 11 wins from 57 starts in 2022, Shirer is poised to develop his operation even more successfully in years to come.

“A lot of people kind of get that one big horse and it kind of makes their career, helps them move up in the business a bit,” he said. “Hopefully a horse like this does that for me, but you never know!”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Shirer’s Gamble Pays Off With Former Claimer Kneedeepinsnow appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The winner's circle was filled with family and friends after Beren's triumph in the $150,000 Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park, but the day's biggest winner was not a person or a horse. 

Co-owner and breeder Chris Feifarek donates 10 percent of Beren's earnings to Itineris, a Baltimore-based non-profit dedicated to empowering adults on the autism spectrum to live meaningful lives throughout their lifespan.

Feifarek's 37-year-old son, Scott, is autistic. When Scott aged out of the state's educational program at 21, Feifarek and his wife struggled to figure out what Scott might want to do next.

“Scott is non-verbal,” Feifarek explained, his voice tinged with emotion. “If he could only give you three-word sentences, we'd be at a whole different level of understanding. You don't even know what kind of food he prefers. We do something for him because we think he likes it, but we really don't know. You're left doing the best you can with the information you have.”

The lack of autism-specific adult programs in Baltimore led Feifarek's wife, Ellen, and several other local families to band together to form Itineris. It took several years to get the program off the ground, but today Itineris serves 100 autistic adults via life-building and goal-reaching services.

“We've been closely involved with Itineris for a long time,” Feifarek said. “It wasn't just for [Scott] that we went into this; all the people with autism are going to need this. Currently they have over 100 clients in the program, and there's a waiting list too. 

“Itineris proves the services and they get so much government funding, but because of the high staff-to-client ratio, more funding is needed. Especially after COVID, now that the program is resurfacing again as things move back toward normal, funding is still a challenge. 

“I knew [Beren] was looking like he was potentially gonna do well, and then when he started to do well, I said, 'Why don't we take 10 percent of our share of the winnings and pay them to the Itineris organization.' So I hope we do really well!”

With career earnings now over $600,000, the Pennsylvania-bred Beren has continually delivered for the Feifarek family. The 4-year-old son of Weigelia has already won six stakes races under the care of trainer Robert “Butch” Reid, Jr., and Feifarek hopes to keep Beren in training for as long as the horse wants to run.

Feifarek's love of horse racing was nurtured by his father, an avid racing fan who took him along to the track every Saturday throughout his childhood. After graduating from college and beginning his career as a radiologist, Feifarek felt the time was right to try his luck in the ownership game.

A chance connection wound up sending Feifarek's first yearling purchase to the St. Omer's Farm of Susan and Steve Quick, and the two couples have been partners ever since. Shortly after their initial meeting, the Quick-bred and -owned Kattegat's Pride began to have success on the racetrack.

“She was the first horse they ever bred that was at the races,” Feifarek said. “I'd never known somebody who had a horse, so it was a whole new level of excitement. Within a few months I was at the races when the horse won her first stakes race, and then she won four or five in a row. In total she won 10 stakes and over a half-million on the track, and this was in the '80s when a stakes race might be worth $50,000. It was intoxicating seeing how well they were doing, and I was her biggest fan.”

Feifarek's first racehorse, the aforementioned yearling, did wind up winning 19 races over his career, mostly for a $2,000 tag at Charles Town. It didn't matter; Feifarek was hooked.

When Kattegat's Pride retired to the breeding shed, Feifarek decided to partner with the Quicks on a foal. Though the first generation wasn't able to reproduce their dam's talent, a daughter from the second generation went on to earn over $1 million on the track.

Silmaril, named as a nod to an item of lore from The Lord of the Rings, won 16 of 36 starts including the Maryland Million Distaff, the Grade 3 Endine, and the Pimlico Breeders' Cup Distaff Handicap (G3). 

Also named after a character in The Lord of the Rings, Silmaril's son Beren has continued to build on the family name. The colt's latest success was made all the more special since Scott was able to enter the winner's circle with his parents.

“It was definitely an exciting win, one of the more exciting ones,” Feifarek said. “Now that we're focused on breeding one or two mares each year, and racing the foals, it's even more exciting to get a few good ones in there that can more than pay their way. We go through slack periods and good periods; in racing you get plenty of both.”

Of course, the best part of this recent upswing is that Beren's success will support the continued growth of the Itineris program. That means continued support and opportunities for an aging population which continues to expand as more knowledge about autism becomes readily available. 

The Itineris vision is thus: “A world where adults on the autism spectrum can fully share in the life of their communities, with the dignity to choose their own path as they strive to achieve their dreams and goals.”

Every step on the road to that vision is important, from Beren's stakes victory to Scott's everyday triumphs. Last fall, for example, Itineris was able to match Scott up with a local company for his first paying job.

“It's a supported employment program, so his Itineris staff member goes with him to the restaurant,” Feifarek said. “He'll work for three hours one day, two hours another; he's wrapped up 555 silverware packets in a three-hour shift. He does a really good job there, and he really seems to enjoy it.”

Learn more about the Itineris program at their website (click here).

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