Tag: jack sisterson

Jack Sisterson Has Become A Kentucky Downs Regular With Calumet

Calumet Farm's trainer Jack Sisterson is looking forward to the distinctive all-turf FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs, which opens this Sunday.

The six-day season continues on Labor Day Monday, Sept. 8, 9, 11 and 12. First post is 12:20 p.m. Central.

Since he was hired as Calumet's private trainer in May 2018, Sisterson has increased his involvement at Kentucky Downs. He had two starters that first year, seven in 2019 and 10 last year. As this meet approached, Sisterson said Calumet would be well-represented in stakes – including G1 Man o' War winner Channel Cat in the $1 million, Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup – and overnight races. He has four horses entered for the opening-day 11-race program and another two in Monday. That includes In Effect in Sunday's $750,000 Big Ass Fans Dueling Grounds Derby.

Sisterson, who is still looking for his first win at the track, said that Kentucky Downs is a refreshing change of pace from typical American racing and fits the Calumet program. As an aside, Calumet Farm owner Brad Kelley, who grew up in Simpson County, also owned Kentucky Downs in partnership and then outright from 1997-2007. Among Calumet Farm's stallions is 2007 male turf champion English Channel.

“Well, it's obviously intriguing because we have a lot of horses that are bred to run on the grass,” Sisterson said. “We have a lot of English Channels because he stands at Calumet and they really seem to take to that configuration. It is quite refreshing to go down there for a week of racing, just because it is different. It's not the flat oval track. You've got the mile and five-sixteenth, 6 1/2. It's just a great, fun week.”

However, Sisterson said that the undulating kidney-shaped course can be a bit of an adventure for horsemen.

“You've no idea what horse is going to take to it,” he said. “Which horse won't. Which horse will. Full fields. Just a lot of excitement going on down there.”

Sisterson had Channel Cat with him at Saratoga all summer. After Channel Cat finished fourth in the G2 Bowling Green on July 31, Sisterson opted to skip Saratoga's G1 Sword Dancer on Aug. 28 and wait for the race sponsored by Calumet. He thought that the Calumet Turf Cup was a better fit for the speedy horse. Plus there was no need to guess whether the 6-year-old son of English Channel can handle Kentucky Downs: he won the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby while being trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher.

Trainer Kenny McPeek will go after his third victory in the $500,000 Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks Sunday with Susan Moulton's Oliviaofthedesert. The Bernardini filly was fourth in Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Dueling Grounds Oaks on Aug. 7 at Ellis Park. Last year at Kentucky Downs, Oliviaofthedesert finished third in the $500,000 Mint Juvenile Fillies.

McPeek, a stalwart at the track, ranks fourth in career wins with 26 from 153 starts. He said he expects to have at least 20 starters during the meet.

Four-time Eclipse Award winning trainer Chad Brown, perennially the champion turf trainer in America, was the leading money winner at last year's meet with $980,375. A good chunk of that came from Juddmonte Farms' Flavius winning the $750,000 Tourist Mile, which this year was elevated to Grade 3 status, received a purse hike to $1 million and was renamed the WinStar Mint Million.

Flavius will seek to become the first two-time winner of the stakes, drawing post 11 in the field of 11 for Monday's race. In his most recent start, Flavius won the restricted Lure Stakes on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.

Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey has plenty of experience at Kentucky Downs. He has five wins from 13 career starts. He started running more at the track a few year ago on the advice of his son Reeve, then an assistant and now with his own stable. Reeve McGaughey encouraged his dad to re-establish more of a presence in their native Kentucky. The elder McGaughey was a mainstay in Kentucky until relocating to New York in the mid-1980s.

McGaughey entered Joseph Allen's homebred 3-year-old filly Flying Fortress in Sunday's seventh race, a $145,000 first-level allowance. Flying Fortress, a daughter of Uncle Mo out of Dakota Queen by War Front, broke her maiden first-out on Aug. 4 at Colonial Downs. She is a full sister to Allen's Enola Gay, who broken her maiden at Kentucky Downs in 2019 and won the G2 Appalachian during Keeneland's 2020 summer meet. (Enola Gay also won an allowance race Tuesday at Colonial Downs.)

McGaughey said the timing of the Kentucky Downs meet is ideal for New York-based horsemen who face a gap between the end of the Saratoga season and the start of the Belmont fall meet on Sept. 16.

“I think it's a good alternative,” he said. “We leave here on Labor Day and don't run again until the following Thursday. It fits right in there, so why not take advantage of it and take advantage of the purses?”

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Classic-Placed Everfast Sold To Race In Dubai

Everfast, who finished second to War of Will in the 2019 Preakness Stakes, has been sold to continue his racing career in Dubai, Michael Adolphson of Dubai Racing Club reported on Aug. 19.

The 5-year-old Take Charge Indy gelding joined the yard of trainer Doug Watson for owner Kildare Stud.

Everfast previously raced for Calumet Farm, trained by Dale Romans and Jack Sisterson, after the operation purchased the horse as a short yearling for $47,000 at the 2017 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale.

He started in the Romans barn, winning on debut as a 2-year-old at Ellis Park. At three, he finished second to Harvey Wallbanger in the G2 Holy Bull Stakes at odds of 128-1, then finished out of the money in the G1 Florida Derby and G3 Pat Day Mile Stakes.

That brief spike in form had become rather distant when he was announced as a candidate for that year's Preakness Stakes, and the betting public was just as confounded, sending him off with the field's second-longest odds at 29-1. Under jockey Joel Rosario, Everfast closed from the back of the field to finish 1 1/4 lengths behind War of Will.

That effort led to Everfast becoming a regular in the biggest 3-year-old races of the summer, where he finished off the board in the Belmont Stakes, Haskell Invitational Stakes, and Travers Stakes.

Everfast was moved to the Sisterson barn for his 4-year-old season, which started with runner-up efforts in an Oaklawn Park allowance and the Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs, before he was moved to the turf and finished ninth in the G1 Maker's Mark Stakes, which was won by familiar rival War of Will.

The horse returned to the dirt and scaled back to one turn after the Maker's Mark, and won a seven-furlong Saratoga allowance in his comeback start. He was then returned to stakes competition, where he ran off the board in the G1 Forego Stakes, G3 Ack Ack Stakes, and black type Lafayette Stakes. His most recent starts came in December 2020, when he finished third in a pair of allowance optional claiming races at Gulfstream Park.

Frankie O'Connor's Kildare Stud is based in central Kentucky, but the owner regularly sends runners to Watson in the U.A.E.

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Lexitonian’s Spa Challenge: Back-to-Back Victories

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–When he goes to the post Saturday for the GI Forego S., Lexitonian (Speightstown) will try to do something new: follow a win with a win.

Lexitonian picked up his fifth victory in 19 career starts July 31 in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. as the longest shot in the field of nine at 34-1 and paid $70. It was his second graded stakes win and pushed the Calumet Farm homebred's earnings to $687,682, but was it just a one-off at the historic Graveyard of Favorites?

Trainer Jack Sisterson figures that even with his Vanderbilt score, Lexitonian will be price once again in the seven-furlong $600,000 Forego.

“He's got to prove himself that he can produce another performance like he did a few weeks ago,” Sisterson said. “As a barn, as a whole, we think he can do that. And we were just happy that he was able to show the public that he was capable of winning a race of that caliber because he's had some near-misses before in some Grade Is with maybe not the luckiest trips in those races. It was nice to finally win a Grade I with him and show the public that he is capable of winning a race like that.”

Sisterson said that he wasn't surprised that Lexitonian–who was put into the race early by jockey Jose Lezcano–was able to win the six-furlong Vanderbilt against a gang of graded stakes-winning veterans.

“If you really diagnosis his form–I'm obviously going to be biased–he should be a multiple Grade I winner,” Sisterson said. “It's unfortunate that he just missed in the Bing Crosby last year. He had everything going against him. He scratched in the Vanderbilt last year. We shipped him across country within a few days to Del Mar and he ran a great second in the Bing Crosby, just got beat a nose. Then in the Churchill Downs [a GI on the May 1 Derby program], he's horse 12 of 12, he's wide the whole way, he presses fast fractions and gets beat a head there.”

Following the Churchill Downs, where Lexitonian was 46-1, Sisterson tried him in the GI Met Mile June 5. He had a troubled trip and was eased.

Lexitonian was sent back to Sisterston's base at Keeneland, where he worked four times before being shipped to Saratoga. He turned in a very sharp half-mile breeze over the main track, :47.01, fourth-fastest of 113 at the distance, the weekend before the Vanderbilt. Sisterson decided it was time to try some different tactics training his 5-year-old.

“He's a horse that is very workmanlike in the morning. He knows what his job is and he knows to show up in the afternoons,” Sisterson said. “We've been working him down on the inside just to get a little bit more pressure to try and get a little bit more out of his workouts. It was actually the luck of the draw that we drew the one-hole because we've been working down on the inside.”

Lexitonian won the Vanderbilt from the inside | Sarah Andrew

Sisterson said that he broke from his normal policy and gave Lezcano some instructions before the race.

“I said to Jose, 'let's really change it up here and be aggressive and send him from the one-hole. Hopefully, somebody goes and engages with you. We really think that Lexitonian is a horse that when he feels pressure he will engage and respond,'” Sisterson said. “And he did, everything, that and more. When he was headed, he fought back. It couldn't have worked out any better.”

Lezcano will be back up for the Forego and Sisterson said they will stay with what was a winning formula.

“We'll definitely do the same tactics there on Saturday, be aggressive, jump out, go forward with the intentions of making the lead and see how the race turns out,” Sisterson said. “If anyone else wants to go with us they are more than welcome to. If no one wants to, we'll jump out and see how we go.”

Lexitonian won't surprise anyone this time and he and Lezcano are likely to have plenty of company up front. If form holds, he won't get much respect from bettors. He has never been the favorite in any of his races and the average of his odds in the five wins is 17-1.

“Yeah, I think he's always going to be a price,” Sisterson said. “People may say that was a fluke. He's obviously got to back up a performance like that, which he's never really done.”

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Channel Cat Plots Return Trip To Kentucky Downs For Calumet Turf Cup

Trainer Jack Sisterson likes the idea of Calumet Farm homebred Channel Cat taking home the top prize in the Calumet Turf Cup on Sept. 11 at Kentucky Downs.

“It would be pretty cool to win a race like that for the farm,” he said.

After considering the Grade 1, $750,000 Sword Dancer at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, Sisterson said the 6-year-old chestnut son of Calumet stallion English Channel will wait a few weeks for the $1 million, Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup. The all-turf FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs, which offers the richest purses in America, runs Sept. 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 12.

“He's doing great,” Sisterson, the former University of Louisville soccer player turned private trainer for Calumet Farm, said in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “He could have run in the Sword Dancer, but I think the most logical spot would be to bring him home. He's won at Kentucky Downs in the past, so he handles that sort of configuration. It might come up a touch lighter than the Sword Dancer and it's a million dollars and it's a 'Win and You're In' for the Breeders' Cup. It makes more sense to us to go down there.”

The winner of the 1 1/2-mile Calumet Turf Cup, which will be broadcast on NBC, gets a fees-paid spot in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf at Del Mar near San Diego on Nov. 6.

Channel Cat, then trained by Todd Pletcher, picked up the first stakes win of his career in the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby. He won the G2 Bowling Green at Saratoga last summer and earned the prized Grade 1 victory in the Man o' War in May at Belmont Park. In his most recent start, he was the beaten favorite, finishing fourth in the Bowling Green.

Sisterson said that Channel Cat, who he has trained since last year, will breeze on Sunday and will ship back to Kentucky on Monday or Tuesday. As usual, Sisterson said Calumet Farm is aiming to run for the big purses offered at Kentucky Downs.

“We'll kind of try to be aggressive in the entry box. If we get in, that's a different question,” he said. “I'm sure multiple guys are doing the same thing. We've still got a lot of 2-year-olds to run down there, horses with conditions. We'll try a couple of stakes races. We will try and support the meet as much as possible.”

Calumet Farm is owned by Brad Kelley, the self-made billionaire from Bowling Green and Franklin, Ky., who owned Kentucky Downs in partnership or outright from 1997 until 2007.

Calumet's American Derby winner Tango Tango Tango is also headed to a Kentucky Downs stakes, the Grade 2, $600,000 Franklin-Simpson — one of five graded stakes on the track's blockbuster Sept. 11 card. In his most recent start, Tango Tango Tango was second in the G1 Bruce D. (formerly the Secretariat) at a mile at Arlington Park.

“I don't think he will get the mile and 5/16ths for the Dueling Grounds Derby, so we're going to cut him back in trip,” Sisterson said. “Sometimes that 6 ½ might lean more towards a mile with the uphill incline finish. We'll give him a shot in the Franklin-Simpson.”

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