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‘Side By Side’: Fever Temple’s Half-Brother, Even Fever, Ponies Him To The Gate At Indiana Grand

Fever Temple and DeShawn Parker stepped onto the track for the afternoon's fourth race Tuesday, July 28 and were greeted by a familiar face. The pony horse assigned to take them to the gate was none other than half-brother Even Fever, a retired racehorse who recently joined the pony horse team of Liz Klopp at Indiana Grand.

“I knew Even Fever was being used for outriding at Ellis Park, but I didn't know he was here at Indiana Grand until a few weeks ago,” said Brandi Steele, trainer of Fever Temple. “Liz (Klopp) came up to me and told me she had just bought him (Even Fever) to add to her pony horses. It was pretty cool to see them side by side on the track today.”

Although Even Fever is grey and Fever Temple is dark bay, Steele sees the family resemblance in the two geldings. They all hail from her owner Jim Edgar's mare, Cecilia's Fever, and with six foals of racing age, four are currently or have been under the care of Steele. Even Fever was trained by Tom Dorris in Illinois for Edgar.

“We have had four in the barn by Jim (Edgar's) mare Cecilia's Hope and they are all dark bay and all look the same in the face,” noted Steele. “Looking at Even Fever, even though he's grey, he has the same facial features as all the others.”

Even Fever completed his racing career in 2018, racing primarily in Illinois. The now 10-year-old son of Even the Score won 10 races during his career and earnings in excess of $167,000. He is now excelling as a pony horse in his second career on the track.

Fever Temple, Lucky Fever, and Cecilia's Hope are all part of Steele's barn and currently racing. Fever Temple finished fourth in his start Tuesday. Lucky Fever has had four starts this year. Cecilia's Hope, a two-year-old, will make her racing debut Monday, Aug. 3 at Indiana Grand in the afternoon's third race.

Steele has been training for Edgar, former Governor of Illinois, for the past three years. Edgar has been a longtime proponent of horse racing and still owns part of a Standardbred, but his main focus these days is in the Thoroughbred industry.

“Jim has a farm around the Springfield (Illinois) area, but he breeds here in Indiana and his horses stay over here,” said Steele. “He has seven or eight brood mares right now.”

Although retired, Edgar is still actively involved on numerous boards and lends his expertise as a consultant. He was inducted into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois as Laureate and awarded the Order of Lincoln in 1999, the state's highest honor. He also has a state park named in his honor, the Jim Edgar Panther Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area located in central Illinois. The stakes winning owner remains passionate about horse racing and attends the races frequently to watch his horses compete at Indiana Grand. His best horse to date was Fighting Fever, who won in excess of $276,000 before her retirement to the brood mare ranks in 2006.

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‘Thankful To Not Be Sick’: Florent Geroux Out Of Quarantine, Resumes Riding Friday At Ellis

Jockey Florent Geroux was getting on horses at Churchill Downs Tuesday morning for the first time since a positive test for COVID-19 put him on the sideline for two weeks until he tested negative. Geroux resumes riding races Friday at Ellis Park.

“I never had any symptoms, I'm thankful for that,” he said. “I was not sick. You can see in our country and the rest of the world, some of them, it's not very pretty. I was just thankful to not be sick. I missed a couple of weeks of racing, but that's the way it is, and I had to stay home in quarantine.”

Several of Geroux's scheduled mounts won in his absence at Ellis Park.

“It's never a good time, but it's better last week and two weeks ago than happening Kentucky Derby Week,” he said. “And I have some good mounts coming up now.”

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Joint Toppers at Doncaster Day 2

Two 3-year-old gelding stores, by Diamond Boy (Fr) and Soldier of Fortune (Ire), respectively, both brought £80,000 in consecutive lots to top the Goffs UK Summer Sale at Doncaster on Tuesday. Lot 25, named Boy Adely (Fr) and consigned by Lakefield Farm, was snapped up by Twiston-Davies Equine to briefly hold sole topper honours. His dam is a Bering (GB) half-sister to MGSP hurdler Monsieur Lecoq (Fr) (Diamond Boy {Fr}).

The next lot in the ring, lot 26, from Ballincurrig House Stud, equaled that price on the bid of Shaun Brookhouse. A grandson of the listed hurdler Afarka (Ire) (Flemensfirth), the bay is out of a half-sister to Grade 2 hurdle winner Younevercall (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}).

A filly consigned by Battlefield Stud and purchased by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock was both the priciest of her sex and the second dearest lot overall at £70,000. Lot 35, by Midnight Legend (GB) and out of the listed hurdle winner Annie’s Answer (Ire) (Flemensfirth) is from the same family as fellow listed jumps winners Basilea (Ire) (Strong Gale {Ire}) and Grand Slam Hero (Ire) (Anshan {GB}).

After Monday’s Supplementary Store session, Tuesday’s Spring Store session grossed £3,535,000 for 145 sold from 192 offered (75.5%). The average settled at £24,379 and the median was £20,000.

The sale concludes with a session of stores, horses-in-training and point-to-pointers beginning at 10 a.m.

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‘We’re In The Game To Run’: $20,000 Colt Proving A Diamond In The Rough For Jimmy Baker

To change up their luck in buying an inexpensive racehorse for themselves, Candie Baker told her husband to get “the biggest, ugliest colt you can find.”

Trainer Jimmy Baker kept getting outbid at the 2017 Keeneland yearling sale — “They sold so fast that I didn't get to raise my hand,” he said — so he settled instead for small and good-looking. Baker paid $20,000 for that colt. Today Spectacular Gem has proven a diamond in the rough, bringing earnings of $248,571 into Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park.

The race is part of Ellis' third annual Kentucky Downs Preview Day: five $100,000 turf stakes positioned as launching pads into big-money stakes at the all-grass track in Franklin, Ky. The winners of the Ellis stakes races get a fees-paid berth in the corresponding race at Kentucky Downs. The Preview Tourist Mile is an automatic qualifier for the $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7.

Normally Candie Baker wants to buy fillies, saying, “I just think they have a bigger heart than colts. And Jimmy always did good with fillies.

“But this time I said, 'You know what, let's change our luck a bit. I need the biggest, ugliest colt you can find,'” she recalled. “Then we kept getting outbid, outbid. I was like, 'Just find me one.' He said, 'Candie, I found you one. It's not probably what you want. It's by nothing out of nothing, but he's a good-looking colt.' I said, 'That's fine.' He really liked him, and we got him.”

Good-looking horses who sell for $20,000 tend to come up short as far as fashionable bloodlines. Spectacular Gem was sired by the unproven Can The Man (who actually is a son of the popular stallion Into Mischief), and out of a mare by Malabar Gold, a $1 million yearling whose biggest accomplishment was a Grade 3 victory. Jimmy Baker said he'd never heard of Can the Man when he bought Spectacular Gem.

“He looked fantastic,” he said. “He wasn't a big horse but he was athletic-looking.”

“Jimmy has a really good eye for yearlings. I mean, cheap horses. I never want to get hurt in the business,” Candie said. “You can get a $500,000 horse that can't win for maiden $10,000. We had another filly, Starlight Express, and she made us money. I said, 'I got $20,000 that we can spend, and I know we're going to have to spend another $20,000 to get the horse to the races. We were just using those other horses' money, not my money.”

Spectacular Gem actually won his first career start at Ellis Park in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race. Five starts later, the colt earned his second victory the first time Jimmy Baker tried him on turf. He's raced on grass pretty much ever since.

The colt has lost a stakes on a disqualification and won a stakes on a disqualification. In between Spectacular Gem captured Churchill Downs' $125,000 Jefferson Cup in what's become his trademark style of taking the lead early. That's what the 4-year-old did in his last race, dominating a graded stakes-quality field in a Churchill allowance race off a 4 1/2-month layoff.

“He's not very big. He's long. He looks like a grass horse,” Candie said. “But he has a big heart and he loves what he does.”

To prepare for the Ellis stakes, Spectacular Gem worked a sparkling five-eighths of a mile in 59 1/5 seconds, which he followed up with a comfortable half-mile in 48 2/5 seconds, going the last three-eighths in 35 2/5 seconds under jockey James Graham Tuesday at Churchill Downs.

“Last week he worked exceptionally,” Jimmy said. “He's never worked like that before. I know the track was fast, but he just seems to be on top of his game this year since his break…. His workouts lately are much better than the last two years, so he's definitely on the improve.”

Baker has been training since 1989, having such quality horses as Grade 1 Whitney Handicap winner Mahogany Hall, multiple graded-stakes winner Spinning Round for New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes winner Elite Squadron and Grade 1-placed Pretty Prolific.

“I had a lot of good years in the 1990s, and we've been piddling the last 12 years buying horses, most of them fillies — a lot cheaper, $5,000, $10,000,” Baker said. “We're just really lucky to get a horse like this. It means a lot to us because we're in the game to run. To have a horse to run in these kinds of races is just a bonus for us.”

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