green gratto | Horse Racing Free Tips

Grade 1 Winner Green Gratto Finishes Last In Comeback Race, Will Be Retired

Grade 1-winning millionaire Green Gratto was returning to the races off a 16-month layoff on Sunday at Monmouth Park, but the 10-year-old gelding incurred a superficial wound on his right foreleg at the start and was eased to finish last in the field of seven. Trainer Kathleen O'Connell told the Daily Racing Form that Green Gratto's owners will take him back to their Florida farm for retirement.

“Other than that small mark, he's okay,” O'Connell told drf.com. “He jogs sound, but he is being retired and after resting a few days he is going back to his farm.”

Retired to stud in 2018, Green Gratto was found to be infertile and thus gelded. He had been entered for a comeback last fall at Gulfstream when a social media firestorm forced him to be withdrawn from that race.

Unraced since April of 2018, Green Gratto was under the care of trainer Tamara Levy when his first comeback attempt was spoiled. He returned to owner Norman Wilson's farm, where Wilson said the gelding became listless and unhappy, before he was sent to trainer Kathleen O'Connell in 2020.

Green Gratto recorded three workouts at Monmouth since late June, and shows works at Tampa Bay Downs as early as Feb. 8 of this year. The gelding was listed at 8-1 on the morning line for Sunday's six-furlong contest, which was a $20,000 optional claiming race restricted to New Jersey-breds.

Prior to his unsuccessful stallion career, Green Gratto amassed earnings of $1,149,202 with a record of nine wins, nine seconds, and nine thirds from 65 starts. His graded stakes victories include the G1 Carter in 2017, G3 Toboggan in 2017 and G3 Fall Heighweight in 2015.

Baffert: Distance Won’t Be a Problem for Gamine

The Week in Review, by Bill Finley

As spectacular as Gamine (Into Mischief) was in the GI Longines Test S., the win failed to answer the only question that remains unanswered when it comes to a filly who shows superstar potential. She demolished her opposition, including the talented Venetian Harbor (Munnings) in the seven-furlong race, but will she be able to do the same at nine furlongs in the GI Kentucky Oaks?

Her two biggest wins, the Test and the GI Longines Acorn S., have come at a mile or less and around one turn. In her only start around two turns and racing beyond a mile, she gutted out a win in a mile-and-a-sixteenth allowance race at Oaklawn, albeit over a talented stakes horse in Speech (Mr. Speaker). Therefore the doubts.

But trainer Bob Baffert said Sunday he is not worried about stretching his filly out for the Oaks. In the Test, he saw a horse that not only was spectacular, but won the race the right way. Facing off against another horse with electric early speed in Venetian Harbor, she showed no signs of being headstrong or overeager. With John Velazquez aboard, Gamine set the pace, but did so in comfortable early fractions of 22.70 and 45.14.

“I was worried about Venetian Harbor and whether or not they would go way too fast early,” Baffert said. “Johnny V did a great job. He kept her nice and relaxed. She has always had so much quality and now she is learning to relax.”

Baffert said that he changed bits on Gamine after the Acorn, one that he hoped would help her settle down and be more manageable.

Using a seven-furlong race to prepare for a mile-and-an-eighth event is an unusual move, but Baffert said it was a priority to win major Grade I races with a filly who cost $1.8 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic 2-year-old sale.

“I wasn’t ready to stretch her out,” Baffert said. “It’s very important to get those Grade Is like the Acorn and the Test. Now, when we send her long she will be fresher.”

While Gamine won the Acorn by 18 3/4 lengths, the Test may have been her most impressive win to date. Venetian Harbor is a good horse and Gamine ran away from her with ease. Velazquez did not ask her for anything in the stretch, but she managed to pull away and win by seven lengths. Her time was 1:20.83, considerably faster than the 1:21.63 it took for Serengetti Empress (Alternation) to beat older fillies and mares in the GI Ballerina S. Her Beyer number was a 108.

“What she’s doing is crazy, just incredible,” Baffert said.

She will have to again be at her best in the Kentucky Oaks. Not only will she be running at a demanding distance but she will likely face another star filly in Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil). Another race where she runs away from the field would cement her status as one of the very best fillies of her generation.

“Her last two races have been incredible,” Baffert said. “She does it with ease. She doesn’t look like she’s going that fast. Silverbulletday was that type of filly. It’s fun to have one like that.”

Baffert said the Oaks will be next and ruled out starting Gamine against males. After the Acorn, he brought up the possibility of Gamine running in the GI Preakness S.

The Quadruple Crown

Tiz the Law (Constitution) has a chance to join a small and select group of horses that have swept the Triple Crown and also the GI Runhappy Travers S. Of the 13 Triple Crown winners only one, Whirlaway (1941), has won all four races.

The first to try it was Gallant Fox, the 1930 Triple Crown winner. Before what was then the biggest crowd in Saratoga history, his loss to Jim Dandy, a 100-1 shot, is considered one of the biggest upsets in racing history.

The next Triple Crown winner to appear in the Travers was Affirmed, who crossed the wire first but was disqualified for bothering his rival Alydar in 1978. In 2015, American Pharoah didn’t have his best stuff and finished second.

After finishing second in the Whitney H., Secretariat passed on the 1973 Travers, but was paraded before the fans prior to the race.

While anything can happen, Tiz the Law certainly looks headed for a Triple Crown sweep. He will likely be the shortest priced favorite in the Derby since Chief’s Crown went off at 6-5 when third in 1985. And if he wins the Derby, the Preakness might shape up as one of the easiest Triple Crown races ever. With the race coming four weeks before the Breeders’ Cup and if Tiz the Law has continued to dominate, the Preakness looks like a hard sell to all trainers not named Barclay Tagg.

Green Gratto Done

Things could not have gone worse for 10-year-old Green Gratto (Here’s Zealous) in his controversial return to the races Sunday at Monmouth. A Grade I winner who had not started since April 2018, he was last and eased in a $20,000 claimer for New Jersey-breds. He was not pulled up and eventually crossed the wire, 41 1/4 lengths behind the winner.

Afterward, owner Norm Wilson said the horse would go back into retirement.

“He did hurt himself a little bit but nothing serious,” Wilson said. “He did clip a heel. But I doubt that was the whole reason. Everything else checked out good. We’re just assuming he’s telling us he is done. The indication was that he didn’t want to do it.”

Wilson defended his decision to run the horse, who won the GI Carter H. in 2017.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “I’m not about to go around second-guessing myself. I made the decision and I have to live with it. I was expecting better. He was enjoying training but looked like he didn’t enjoy racing. Training and racing are two different things.”

Wilson said Green Gratto will return to his farm in Ocala, Florida and has promised that that will be his permanent home.

The post Baffert: Distance Won’t Be a Problem for Gamine appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Now 10 and off for 28 Months, Green Gratto Entered at Monmouth

Considering his age and all he accomplished in his career, Green Gratto (Here’s Zealous) would have seemed to have earned a cushy retirement. Instead, he is scheduled to run in a an optional claimer–in for the $20,000 tag–for New Jersey breds Sunday at Monmouth, his first start since Apr. 19, 2018. It’s the latest twist in a controversial story that began when he returned to the racetrack in November, which caused an uproar on social media from critics who felt it was improper and too risky to run the horse again.

During his career, Green Gratto was a feel-good story. He was more or less given away for free to owners Anthony and Gaston Grant, whose only initial financial obligation was to pay the horse’s bills while he was being broken and trained in Florida. The Grants are natives of Jamaica and Gaston, his trainer, doubled as a UPS driver working out of Brooklyn.

Green Gratto was not exactly a star but he kept showing up. He raced 65 times and won nine times, including five stakes. The highlight was the 2017 GI Carter H. He also won the 2015 GIII Fall Highweight H., the 2017 GIII Toboggan S., the 2015 Gravesend S. and the 2016 Hockessin S.

Green Gratto never won again after the Carter, losing 12 straight. He was retired in 2018 and sold, with the plan being for him to stand at stud in New York at Total Bloodstock Farm. It turned out that he was infertile.

According to current owner Norman Wilson, Green Gratto was owned at the time by a partnership. He said the horse wound up in Kentucky before being sent to his farm in Ocala. The plan was for Wilson to look after the horse for a brief time and then put him in a livestock sale in Ocala in order to dissolve the partnership. Wilson said that when Green Gratto arrived at his farm it was clear he had not been given proper treatment and care.

“When the horse was sent to us he was skin and bones,” Wilson said. “He looked awful. His mane was long with knots in it. His tale was knotted. It looked like he had no care whatsoever.”

Not wanting Green Gratto to fall into the wrong hands, Wilson and his wife Liz wound up buying him at the auction held by Florida Horse Sales.

“There were obviously the wrong kind of buyers there, so we purchased him.” said Wilson, who would not disclose how much he paid for the horse. “There was somebody there looking to buy him and turn him out in a field with quarter horse mares. That horrified us. As aggressive as he was, it would have killed him.”

Wilson says that Green Gratto did not enjoy being away from the racetrack and that he was overly aggressive and constantly nervous.

“This is a horse that really enjoys his job,” Wilson said. “After a while we decided to put him in training because he wasn’t a happy horse. He put on 100 pounds when we started training him.”

By November, Green Gratto was back at the racetrack. Trained at the time by Tamara Levy, he had his first recorded workout since 2018 on Nov. 10, 2019 at Gulfstream Park West. The work didn’t go unnoticed and sparked a number of posts on social media critical of the Wilsons and Levy for bringing the horse back to the races. Gulfstream management stepped in and told the Wilsons that Green Gratto would not be allowed to race at Gulfstream or Gulfstream Park West.

“It was after his first published work that social media went nuts,” Wilson said. “That cost us a lot of time and aggravation. Gulfstream caved into social media and let social media run their racetrack. We were told to move our horse even though there were other horses there in almost the same situation and the same age. There were horses down there almost the same age and after long layoffs that were running. They just weren’t as popular as this horse.”

So far, Green Gratto’s entry at Monmouth has gone largely unnoticed on social media.

When asked if he understood why people were upset that he was trying to run the horse again, Wilson said: “Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I just have a different opinion than they do, We are looking to have a little bit of fun and let him enjoy his racing career again. We are 100% for the horse. I just share a different opinion on when it’s time to stop on him.”

Green Gratto was transferred to the barn of trainer Kathleen O’Connell and arrived at Monmouth in June. He’s had three workouts there, all of them at a half-mile. O’Connell is a respected trainer, which played into Monmouth’s decision to clear the horse to run.

“I spoke with Kathleen earlier this year,” Monmouth racing secretary John Heims said. “She advised me she had this horse and the horse was doing fantastic. ‘K.O.’ is a terrific horsewoman and not someone I would ever question. She knows what she is doing. When the entry came in we weren’t concerned because I had spoke to her earlier about this. We have other 10-year-olds that run here. We have a horse, Visionary Ruler (Pollard’s Vision), who is 10 and keeps running and he just doesn’t quit.”

Ten is the maximum age allowed for a horse to run at Monmouth.

The steep drop in class may not be enough for Green Gratto to win Sunday. No doubt taking into account his age and the long layoff, the morning line maker has made him 8-1.

“I don’t know what to expect.” Wilson said. “I would imagine he will perform well. It’s the first back, so you never know. I expect he will do halfway decent. I don’t think we will be embarrassed.”

The purse for Monmouth’s race is $65,265, and the Wilsons stand to take home over $35,000 if their horses wins. It would be a nice payoff for a horse they likely acquired for very little money. But Wilson said the chance to make some money is not all that motivates him.

“I I have said many times that he has a forever home with us,” he said. “People may think we are strictly doing this for profit, but that’s not the case. I am a sportsman and I enjoy the game. I like race horses. He is a good horse and there is nothing wrong with him. He is sound. He may not come back like we want or he may come back better. Who knows? It is a gamble. But I feel it is safe and I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it was a safe bet to try it.”

The post Now 10 and off for 28 Months, Green Gratto Entered at Monmouth appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Off 16-Month Layoff, Grade 1 Winner Green Gratto Entered For $20,000 Tag At Monmouth

Found to be infertile and thus gelded, 10-year-old Green Gratto had been entered for a comeback last fall at Gulfstream when a social media firestorm forced him to be withdrawn from that race. Now, according to the Daily Racing Form, the Grade 1 winner has been entered in a $20,000 claiming race on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

“I know the big uproar it caused the last time he was entered, but I think everyone needs to know that this is best for the horse and he has a forever home here,” co-owner Norman Wilson told drf.com.

Unraced since April of 2018, Green Gratto was under the care of trainer Tamara Levy when his first comeback attempt was spoiled. He returned to Wilson's farm, where Wilson said the gelding became listless and unhappy, before he was sent to trainer Kathleen O'Connell in 2020.

Green Gratto has recorded three workouts at Monmouth since late June, and shows works at Tampa Bay Downs as early as Feb. 8 of this year. The gelding is listed at 8-1 on the morning line for Sunday's six-furlong contest, which is restricted to New Jersey-breds.