Champion Runhappy was represented by his first Oaklawn winner when Joyful Cadence ($6.40) broke her maiden by 8 ¾ lengths in Thursday's seventh race for fillies and mares, 3 and up, under apprentice Joshua Morales. It was her second career start.
Joyful Cadence, 3, is from the first crop of Runhappy, an Eclipse Award winner (male sprinter) in 2015 for colorful owner James “Mattress Mack” McIngvale who now stands at historic Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.
According to a news release from Claiborne, Joyful Cadence was the 11th winner this year for Runhappy to lead the country's second-crop sires. Runhappy got off to a pedestrian start at stud, known more in 2019 and 2020 for a seemingly nonstop marketing push that tied the horse's name to stakes races, a race meet and six-figure bonuses for his progeny breaking their maidens in unrestricted races at a handful of major venues. Joyful Cadence is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Country Grammer, who finished fifth in the $1 million Runhappy Travers Stakes (G1) for 3-year-olds last August at Saratoga.
“I had high hopes for her from the very beginning,” said John Ortiz, who trains Joyful Cadence for WSS Racing (William Simon). “I just thought patience with these Runhappys was going to be a key and that turned out to be correct. A lot of Runhappys that are now running as 3-year-olds, they had a good month. Again, everybody's tracking them. I knew it was going to be an older-horse thing and we're lucky to have one.”
Simon, a former Walmart executive who has a home in Rogers, Ark., purchased Joyful Cadence for $235,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Ortiz said the filly made the short list of WSS's bloodstock agent, Jared Hughes, adding “she was one of the most beautiful yearlings we saw at the sale.”
“She was just athletic from Day 1,” said Ortiz, who has trained for Simon for approximately four years. “That's the biggest investment that we have made so far, in the hopes of finding that nice Grade 1 filly, or horse, period.”
Ortiz said he stopped on Joyful Cadence last summer to give her time to mature for a 3-year-old campaign. Joyful Cadence, in her career debut, finished seventh over a synthetic surface Jan. 15 at Turfway Park. Ortiz said he used the sprint for “education” and “fitness” purposes.
“I was not disappointed in that race at all,” Ortiz said. “That race, actually, showed me what I actually had. She wasn't 100 percent fit to run that day, but she didn't look like a loser. The track was very heavy on the rail. First time, going 6 ½, and on a dead rail, I think, took a lot out of her. Even then, she came back on her toes and I kind of got an idea what she had to do now and I think that's when she put it together. We brought her to Oaklawn right away.”
Racing over a fast track Thursday, Joyful Cadence covered 6 furlongs in 1:09.95 to earn a 93 Equibase Speed rating. Ortiz said Joyful Cadence came out of the race in “great shape” and he'll probably point for a conditioned allowance event and “see where that takes us.” Joyful Cadence, Ortiz said, is the only offspring of Runhappy he now trains.
“If anybody out there has one, send the Runhappys,” Ortiz said with a laugh.
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