Tag: Marshall Gramm

Flying Start Grad Lindsay Schultz off to a Flying Start

Lindsay Schultz checked a lot of boxes. She is a graduate of the University of Louisville's Equine Industry Program, moved on to the prestigious Godolphin Flying Start program, managed Glen Hill Farm in Florida and worked as an assistant to Tom Proctor and Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. Yet, she admits to being nervous and not knowing what to expect when she decided last fall to go out on her own as a trainer. Maybe she shouldn't have been.

Less than a year after opening her stable, Schultz, 34, is making a name for herself at Monmouth Park, where she has six winners from 22 starters for a winning rate of 22%. Overall in her brief career, she is 11 for 61, good for 18%.

“This is definitely beyond my expectations,” she said. “I have exceeded my goals.”

Schultz rode hunter-jumpers while growing up in Connecticut and enrolled in the racing program at the University of Louisville. It was not, however, until she entered the Godolphin program that she decided she wanted to be a trainer.

“I knew I wanted to be in the industry, but didn't know exactly what,” she said. “When I went into the Flying Start program I got to see every aspect of the industry and decided I wanted to focus on the racing part. Once I started working for Tom Proctor as his assistant, I thought maybe I could do this myself and do a good job.”

Along the way, she caught the attention of Marshall Gramm, who runs the Ten Strike Racing Partnership. Schultz and bloodstock advisor Liz Crow are close friends and Crow has had a long and fruitful business relationship with Ten Strike. Gramm has helped a number of young trainers kick off their careers and, in Schultz, he saw someone he was happy to take a chance on.

“I was talking to her around this time last year and it was clear she was at a stage where she was about to go out on her own,” Gramm said. “We had discussions about it last summer and I told her that if she was going to do it she should come to Oaklawn Park and that I could use her there. I told her that it would be a good place to start and I thought I could really help here there. It's a track I want to win at.”

“That I had the backing of Ten Strike and Marshall was huge,” Schultz said. “It's a good feeling to have someone who is so intelligent put his faith in me and helped me get started. It really meant a lot. The opportunity that he gave me was the biggest reason why I thought it was a good time to try this.”

Gramm didn't exactly hand her the keys to a 50-horse stable filled with stakes horses. Schultz told him she thought she could get by if Ten Strike gave her six to seven horses and she was fine with taking on claimers. Her first winner came with a $10,000 claimer at Oaklawn, Capture the Glory (Scat Daddy). Another winner at Oaklawn came with Tiger Moon (Upstart). Schultz talked Gramm into claiming him for $10,000 out of a maiden claiming race. She bumped him up to a $40,000 maiden claimer for his next start and he won at 29-1. (Gramm, an astute and enthusiastic horseplayer said he did not have a bet that day on Tiger Moon).

What Gramm did give her was the chance to prove that she could make the most of an opportunity.

It was Gramm who suggested that Schultz head to Monmouth after the Oaklawn meet ended.

“She has really blossomed at Monmouth,” Gramm said. “The competition is little bit easier there. We realized we could take some horses who were average horses at Oaklawn who would be be successful at Monmouth. She's really hit her stride there and it's exciting to watch. She works really hard and knows her stuff. I've been very pleased and impressed and I am excited to be part of her burgeoning career.”

Schultz has 14 horses at Monmouth, seven of them for Ten Strike. The stable includes five 2-year-olds, none of whom have started yet this year.

While happy to have accomplished so much so early in her career, Schultz makes no secrets of her aspirations to take things to the next level.

“I'd like to get up to maybe 40 horses to be able to have two strings,” she said. “It would be nice to be able to utilize two different circuits. I'd like to keep improving the quality. Obviously, to get to there you need the horses and you need the owners. All I'm trying to do is to do a good job, go to the sales and go to big race meets, meet people, talk to people. I am not a big self-promoter, but I hope if I keep doing a good job and keep looking for new opportunities they will come my way.”

Can it happen? Gramm believes that it can.

“Lindsay is going to need to find some other owners willing to take a chance on her and she's going to need to get some good 2-year-olds in her barn,” Gramm said. “Claiming is a way to get noticed and get your first set of owners, but, ultimately, you need to show you can develop some nice horses and win some stakes races. That's what gets you more and more noticed. Each year is a baby step. She's gone from five horses to 14 and has some 2-year-olds in her barn. That's a great place to be after a year. Hopefully, she can keep the momentum going and pick up some more owners. She has such a great background and I'm excited for her considering where she's at at such an early stage in her career.”

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Trainer Lindsay Schultz Captures Glory At Oaklawn With First Career Winner

Trainer Lindsay Schultz saddled her first winner on Saturday at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., when Ten Strike Racing's Capture the Glory went wire to wire to score by 3 1/4 lengths under jockey Francisco Arrieta in a $10,000 claiming race.

Capture the Glory was the 10th starter for Schultz, including two starts in 2017 for Ten Strike.

Schultz, 33, grew up in Connecticut and rode hunter/jumpers, then attended the University of Louisville's Equine Business School, graduating in 2010. Among her classmates at Louisville were future trainers Jason Barkley, Will VanMeter and Bentley Combs and bloodstock agent Liz Crow.

Following college, Schultz was accepted in Darley's two-year Flying Start program and learned many facets of the horse industry while traveling the world. Since completing that porgram, Schultz worked as assistant trainer for Tom Proctor and Shug McGaughey. She also managed Glen Hill Farm in Florida.

With the encouragement of Ten Strike Racing's Marshall Gramm, Schultz began putting a stable together last fall and had six starts in November and December and one runner prior in 2022 prior to Saturday's breakthrough win.

 

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Warrior’s Charge Will Target Tinsel Stakes At Oaklawn

Millionaire multiple Grade 3 winner Warrior's Charge is targeting the inaugural $200,000 Tinsel Stakes Dec. 18 at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort in Hot Springs, Ark., for his next start, Liz Crow, racing manager for the horse's co-owner, Ten Strike Racing, said Thursday afternoon.

Warrior's Charge, who is trained by Brad Cox, has recorded two workouts this season at Oaklawn, including a five-furlong drill in 1:00 over a fast track Saturday morning. The Tinsel, for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/8 miles, is among four stakes created to accommodate Oaklawn opening in December for the first time in its 117-year history.

“That's the initial goal of the season, just to get him started down there,” Crow said.

Warrior's Charge has made eight starts at Oaklawn, recording powerful maiden special weights and first-level allowance scores as a 3-year-old in 2019 before finishing fourth in the Preakness. He won Oaklawn's $500,000 G3 Razorback Handicap for older horses in 2020.

A son of Munnings, Warrior's Charge has bankrolled $1,045,690 off a 5-4-4 record from 19 lifetime starts. Although winless in seven starts this year, Warrior's Charge ran fifth in the $1 million G2 Oaklawn Handicap last April at Oaklawn, second in the $600,000 G2 Stephen Foster Stakes June 26 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and third in the $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile Stakes Sept. 25 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn. Warrior's Charge ran second in an Oct. 24 allowance race at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., in his last start.

“We've thought about it (retirement), but I think we're going to run him through 2022, probably, unless we're able to put something together,” Crow said. “But this is a racing partnership that loves Oaklawn, and they aim for Oaklawn every year and so I don't think they want to retire him with some of these lucrative purses that they can aim for this season. Obviously, if the right deal came along, we'd probably consider it.”

Ten Strike (Marshall Gramm and Arkansas native Clay Sanders) won 10 races, solely or in partnership, during the 2021 Oaklawn meeting that ended last May. Ten Strike campaigns Warrior's Charge with Madaket Stables (Sol Kumin).

Ten Strike, which offers fractional ownership to partners, has 20-25 horses at Oaklawn with five trainers, Crow said. In addition to Cox, Ten Strike also has horses with Jason Barkley, Bentley Combs, Randy Matthews, and Lindsay Schultz. A former assistant under Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, Schultz recently went out on her own and had her first two career Oaklawn starters (Pepper Pike and Capture the Glory) Saturday. Both were for Ten Strike.

“Oaklawn's always a main priority for Ten Strike,” Crow said. “We call ourselves like an Oaklawn-based racing partnership, so certainly always the goal is to win at Oaklawn and run at Oaklawn. I think Marshall and Clay like supporting these young trainers and we pushed Lindsay to Oaklawn to start her career, just because we thought that we be another great outlet to have horses there.”

Ten Strike also races several horses with prominent Arkansas businessman Frank Fletcher, including G3 winner Lady Rocket and unbeaten 2-year-old Rocket Dawg, who is by 2017 Arkansas Derby winner and champion Classic Empire. Lady Rocket was the first starter and first winner for the partnership, breaking her maiden in her August 2020 debut at Saratoga.

Cox also trains Lady Rocket and Rocket Dawg, a $375,000 Fasig-Tipton Select Yearling Sale purchase and sharp Nov. 19 debut winner at Churchill Downs.

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“Hopefully, he'll make some starts at Oaklawn,” Crow said. “Really hope he can run in some of those races like the Smarty Jones and stuff, so we'll see. I think that we have some exciting horses that are pointing toward Oaklawn this year.”

Lady Rocket, who ran in two allowances races at the 2021 Oaklawn meeting, was a nine-length winner of the $250,000 G3 Go for Wand Handicap Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y. Rocket Dawg, who broke his maiden by 5 ½ lengths at seven furlongs, returned to the work tab Saturday at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile in :49.60.

Lady Rocket is the first stakes winner and graded stakes winner for the Ten Strike/Fletcher union.

“It's gone well so far,” Crow said. “It's kind of a limited number of horses so far. They have only had like six horses together, but it looks like we have two good ones. Fingers crossed about Rocket Dawg. I don't want to jinx him. I want him to stay sound, but we're pretty excited about him. He ran some big numbers. He ran like an 11 Rag and a 3 ½ Thoro-Graph. He looks like he could be a really nice horse.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Still Hard To Believe That It Really Happened’

When Thoroughbred trainer Michelle Giangiulio took out her license in the fall of 2020, she expected that there would be challenges. Bills, stress, and the general volatility that can come from working with horses are all things that the New Jersey-born horsewoman knows well.

What she didn't expect was just how hard it would be to keep a horse, any horse, in her barn.

“The first starter I sent out in March got claimed immediately,” said Giangilulio. “He was the only horse I had, so it was hard to keep things going. I know it's part of the game, but I didn't know that they would take him out of a one-person stable. But the thing is, you have to have had one starter before you can claim. So, after that, I really started working on claiming. I was just so unlucky.”

Claiming would prove to be another hurdle. Despite her hustle, the fledgling trainer lost shake after shake. Her second horse, sent to her by horseman Marshall Gramm—who had also sent her first starter—was claimed on his first outing. A couple more horses would eventually trickle in, but in the days leading up to her summer move to Saratoga Race Course, Giangiulio's prospects for increasing her stable were still looking slim.

“It was funny how it set up because I was dropping every day on horses, and I was losing every shake every day. I could not get one single horse,” said Giangiulio. “I think I lost 12 shakes in a row before finally, I won two back-to-back.”

One of those horses was Sea Foam, a 6-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro. With him, Giangiulio's claiming woes would be forgotten. Only the sixth starter of Giangiulio's career, Sea Foam delivered the trainer her first victory in the Aug. 11 Evan Shipman Handicap at Saratoga.
Since then, Giangiulio's phone hasn't stopped ringing.

“It's been surreal,” said Giangiulio. “There have been so many podcasts and reporters and I was in the newspaper. It's been such a fun experience.

“To think about it now, it really set up perfectly because if I had won a few other shakes, I probably wouldn't have been able to get Sea Foam. I'm a small stable and I don't have any employees. It's only me. If I'd got up to five or six horses, I couldn't really get anything else, so I think it was meant to be.”

Giangiulio's path to becoming a newly minted stakes-winning trainer has been a winding one. Growing up on a farm in New Jersey where her father and grandfather bred Thoroughbreds, she always knew she wanted to work with horses, but I what capacity, she wasn't sure.

“I really didn't get involved in horse racing until I was out of my teenage years and into my early twenties,” said Giangiulio. “I was in the show world for a very long time really. I got a job on a farm when I was about 13 years old, and I started showing professionally at that age. The issue was that I really didn't get anywhere and showing is very expensive and political. I knew I wanted to be a horse trainer; I just didn't know exactly what discipline I wanted to do.”

Seeking advice, Giangiulio turned to her uncle, trainer Carlo Guerrero, based at Parx Racing less than an hour from her home. Under his tutelage, Giangiulio said she learned everything it took to train a Thoroughbred and acquired the skills, the confidence, and the contacts she needed to move up in the industry.

“It was a great experience at Parx, but it didn't feel like it was where I wanted to be,” said Giangiulio. “I moved to New York and got a job with Chad Brown through a friend and that was a really cool experience to be able to work with really, really nice horses. I then worked for quite a few trainers. I've been here six or seven years now and I've I worked for Joe Sharp, Tom Morley, Horacio DePaz, Kelly Breen … quite a few.”

At the end of 2020 and with the support of client Marshall Gramm, whom she had worked for under Guerrero at Parx, Giangiulio decided it was time to strike out on her own. From there, Giangiulio would play the numbers game until at last, Sea Foam found his way into her hands.

Claimed for the partnership of Ten Strike Racing and Four Corners Racing Stable, Sea Foam was picked up off a July 30 allowance optional claiming race win at Saratoga from the barn of Christophe Clement. A New York-bred who had already banked just over $500,00 in purses, Sea Foam's previous stakes-wining history and forward training style gave Giangiulio the confidence he could win the 1 1/8-mile Evan Shipman.

“It came up as a five-horse field and I had heard that Steve Asmussen wasn't going in with his three nominees,” said Giangiulio. “Sea Foam came out of the race where I claimed him so well and he was doing so good that when I saw this race came up light, I wanted to take a shot. The only horse I was worried about was Mr. Buff because he's a speed horse and Sea Foam only likes to run on the lead. But Mr. Buff didn't show up that day, so we got the lead and when Sea Foam gets the lead, he is tough to beat. He can run all day. That's what he wants, to be on the lead by himself.

“Watching him run I just thought, 'Is this really happening right now? This is amazing!' It's still hard to believe that it really happened. To win your first career win in a stake, off the claim, off a very well-known trainer … the story can't get any better than that.

“One thing that is funny is that the week before Sea Foam ran, I had a horse (Joey Loose Lips) run in an allowance race. He was bumping up in class and we just got beat at the wire. I thought for sure he would be my first winner but the following week, Sea Foam just jumped up and won the stake, so I know I wasn't supposed to win that allowance. I saved my first win for the stake. It was just really, really special.”

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Now stabled at Belmont Park year-round, Giangiulio has six horses in her stable. Sea Foam will likely target a next start in the Sept. 25 Greenwood Cup (G3) at Parx, where he will try his luck at a mile and a half.

While the size of her stable has increased, Giangiulio remains a one-woman show. But with new clients and a renewed goal to claim new runners this winter, it's a status that Giangiulio hopes to change in the coming months.

“I'm grooming, galloping, and hot walking right now. It's been really hard to find help this year so I knew I would have to do it this way,” said Giangiulio. “I also don't have a lot of money to have a full payroll. It's expensive to do this with supplies and tack and everything else. I'm really looking now to start hiring. I have a lot of owners that want to claim, and I have new owners who want to send me horses so once I get back to Belmont and I'm settled in, I'm going to start building up.”

Despite her spotty luck in claiming at the start of her career, Sea Foam's success has proved to Giangiulio that claiming will remain a central part of her operation. The opportunity to provide hands on attention to young and previously trained horses remains central to Giangiulio's philosophy as a trainer.

“I'm always looking for a nice claimer that I can improve,” said Giangiulio. They're good horses and I got started in the claiming game, so I know that I'm good at it. In the spring, Marshall Gramm usually has a lot of nice 2-year-olds and he said that he would send some to me. He usually sends them to Brad Cox, but Brad is growing so big now, so I should be getting some nice 2-year-olds. But for now, it'll be the claiming game for me.

“There are a lot of challenges in being a trainer, but in less than a year I feel like I've come really far. I only have a few horses, but they're all good horses. I'm just so happy with how things have been going and I feel fortunate. I don't want to grow too big. All the trainers I've worked for over the years have told me to take my time and not grow too fast because the expenses are ridiculous when you start having a payroll and other bills. It's already a bit overwhelming now, so I'm happy where I'm at. I have everything organized so that when I do build, I'll know what to do. I also feel like I have an advantage because no one knows these horses better than I do. There is nothing more rewarding that seeing a horse win that you've been doing all the work on. Knowing nobody else has touched that horse but you—it's pretty special.”

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