Michelle Hemingway has saddled several Grade 1 winners, but it wasn't until Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., that she was able to celebrate her first training victory in the U.S.
New Town Anner Stud Farm's Manor House ($24.60) overtook favored Financial System nearing the wire to win Saturday's featured optional claiming allowance in Race 9 and provide the Virginia native with her first official training victory with her very first starter.
Hemingway worked for some of the most prominent trainers in South Africa after earning an International Equine Marketing degree at Sweetbriar College in Virginia.
“I was a big-time assistant for Joey Ramsden, Glen Kotzen, and Mike de Kock. I had the opportunity to saddle Grade 1 horses,” Hemingway said. “It was very special, but not like today.”
Hemingway is a new addition to Thorostock, a 40-acre training, rehab, and breaking facility that manages New Anner Stud. She has training, rehabbing, and bloodstock responsibilities at bloodstock agent Nick Sallusto's Ocala, Fla., facility.
“I'm crying like a little girl,” she said in the Gulfstream Park winner's circle.
Formerly trained by Michael Stidham, Manor House won his debut by 12 ¼ lengths at Laurel Park last December before finishing off the board following a bad start in an optional claiming allowance at Fair Grounds in January. The 3-year-old son of Upstart came off a nine-month layoff for Saturday's one-turn mile feature but showed no signs of rust in the stretch, prevailing by a neck over Financial System, whom he closely tracked from the start under jockey Romero Maragh. The Florida-bred colt ran a mile in 1:36.03.
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