Tapeta has been installed at Turfway Park in Kentucky and at Gulfstream Park in Florida, Golden Gate Fields in California and Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania, as well as facilities in Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

“I am honored and flattered to receive the Galbreath Award,” Dickinson said. “The safety of the horse has always been a long-term goal of mine ever since I was a child when on small ponies I had to keep up with my mother, who was on a Grade A international show jumper. We used to jump post and rail fences, some with ditches and drops, and stone walls. Since then, I've always felt very grateful and indebted to all the horses I rode.”

A native of Yorkshire, England, Dickinson is perhaps best known as the conditioner of 1996 and 1998 GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner Da Hoss (Gone West). He was a champion steeplechase jockey before becoming a trainer, is a member of the Steeplechasing Hall of Fame and has four listings in the Guinness Book of World Records, including the record for the most racing wins [12] in one day. Dickinson owns and operates Tapeta Farm training center in Maryland.

“We are excited to present the 2022 Galbreath Award to Michael Dickinson for his contribution to the sport of racing through the creation of Tapeta and synthetic track surfaces,” K. Amy Lawyer, assistant professor and chair of UofL's Department of Equine Administration, said. “The nature of the Galbreath Award is to recognize innovation and business efforts that move the equine industry forward. Mr. Dickinson's business achievements added a new element to a sport that had been largely unchanged for centuries.”

The Galbreath Award is named for the late John W. Galbreath, a self-made man who distinguished himself in both business and as a horseman. The Darby Dan Farm founder was honored with the 1972 Big Sport of Turfdom Award and in 1974 he won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Breeder. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2018 as one of its esteemed Pillars of the Turf.

For information on the award presentation dinner to honor Dickinson to be held Mar. 30, contact Kimberly Spear at kimberly.spear@louisville.edu or 502-852-7727.

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“We will miss Da Hoss greatly. He was a fan favorite as he proved that spirit can triumph over adversity,” said Nicole Rivera, Interim Deputy Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park. “I would like to extend a special thank you to Rob Willis and the Hall of Champions staff for the great care and affection they showed Da Hoss during his time here at the park.”

Sired by Gone West, out of Jolly Saint, Da Hoss was foaled on January 18, 1992. Wall Street Racing bought the lowest priced Gone West foal, Da Hoss, as a Keeneland September yearling for $6000 that same year. After racing as a two-year-old for trainer Kevin Eikleberry and Wall Street Racing, an 85 percent interest in Da Hoss was sold to Prestonwood Farm. He was immediately shipped to Fair Hill training center to start training with Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield.

Da Hoss is one of only five horses to win the Breeders' Cup Mile twice, and the only horse to win twice in non-consecutive years. Between the 1996 and 1998 Breeders' Cup Races, Da Hoss was injured three times and did not race for nearly two years. His inspiring finish in the 1998 Breeder's Cup Mile produced one of Tom Durkin's most memorable race calls, as he exclaimed: “The greatest comeback since Lazarus!”

“He was our horse of a lifetime,” said trainer Michael Dickinson of Tapeta Farm. “We all loved him. He brought us so many highs, even with his problems, we knew he would never let us down. He gave his all and loved to win. He was spoiled but deserved to be. He loved going out in one of his grass fields with his best friend Boomer for two or three hours every day. He knew he was special. It was comforting to know he was always well looked after by everyone at the Kentucky Horse Park where he enjoyed a wonderful retirement.”

Da Hoss shared the Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions with other Champion horses including Thoroughbreds Go For Gin, Funny Cide and Point Given, Standardbred pacers Western Dreamer and Won the West, and Standardbred trotter Mr. Muscleman.

Like the other great Hall of Champions horses that died in retirement at the park, Da Hoss will be buried in the Memorial Walk of Champions.

The post ‘Horse Of A Lifetime’: Two-Time Breeders’ Cup Mile Winner Da Hoss Dies At 30 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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“We will miss Da Hoss greatly. He was a fan favorite as he proved that spirit can triumph over adversity,” said Nicole Rivera, Interim Deputy Executive Director of the Kentucky Horse Park. “I would like to extend a special thank you to Rob Willis and the Hall of Champions staff for the great care and affection they showed Da Hoss during his time here at the park.”

Foaled on Jan. 18, 1992, Wall Street Racing Da Hoss as a Keeneland September yearling for $6,000.  After racing as a 2-year-old for trainer Kevin Eikleberry and Wall Street Racing, an 85% interest in Da Hoss was sold to Prestonwood Farm. He was shipped to Fair Hill training center to start training with Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield.

Only one five horses to win the Breeders' Cup Mile twice, and the only horse to win twice in non-consecutive years, Da Hoss annexed the turf test in 1996 and 1998, the second after returning from an injury. His inspiring finish in the 1998 Mile produced one of Tom Durkin's most memorable race calls, as he exclaimed: “The greatest comeback since Lazarus!”

Added trainer Michael Dickinson of Tapeta Farm, “We all loved him. He was our horse of a lifetime. He brought us so many highs, even with his problems, we knew he would never let us down. He gave his all and loved to win.  He was spoiled but deserved to be. He loved going out in one of his grass fields with his best friend Boomer for two or three hours every day.  He knew he was special. It was comforting to know he was always well looked after by everyone at the Kentucky Horse Park where he enjoyed a wonderful retirement.”

Da Hoss shared the Kentucky Horse Park Hall of Champions with other Champion horses, including Thoroughbreds Go For Gin, Funny Cide and Point Given, Standardbred pacers Western Dreamer and Won the West, and Standardbred trotter Mr. Muscleman.

Da Hoss will be buried in the Memorial Walk of Champions.

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Given that it was only last year that he relegated Smart Strike to third, at $151 million, the Gainesway phenomenon is plainly going to set a pretty daunting record by the time he is done.

Having turned 20, admittedly, he is now at an age that prohibits complacency. But his nearest active pursuers are all older still, with zero chance of closing the gap, and we will have to wait and see whether fate favors the 16-year-old Into Mischief–himself at a significant landmark, with his stock almost simultaneously breaking $100 million in earnings–with sufficient opportunity to maintain his freakish output.

Spendthrift, of course, are maximising quantity along with quality in Into Mischief's books. He covered 248 mares last year, and presumably a further advance in his fee from $175,000 to $225,000 will not have prevented continued exploitation of his fertility and libido this spring. Tapit, in contrast, was confined to 96 mares in 2020 after a book of 111 the previous year; and, though he evidently performed with undiminished virility this time round, Antony Beck has disclosed to TDN that traffic will be even more rigorously controlled henceforth.

“He's never bred really huge books but even at his age he had better fertility, breeding over 100 mares, than he did the year before,” says Gainesway's owner. “But going forward, definitely, I think we want to be very responsible. I think we've always respected his abilities, and [most years] didn't breed him to much more than 140 mares. His libido remains excellent, so we're very excited about what he can still do. But he is our golden goose and they don't last forever. We're going to trim his book back quite significantly from now on.”

This sounds typical of the temperate way Tapit has always been managed by Beck and his team. Apart from anything else, of course, their clients have always been confident that there won't be a glut of Tapit on the market, where his progeny has long performed as consistently as on the racetrack. Since he is also coveted by the elite breed-to-race programs, his yearlings have sometimes had no less value as “collector's items” than even War Front, whose conservative output is so familiar.

In 2017, for instance, this pair finished first and second in the domestic yearling averages with virtually identical offerings: Tapit sent 38 into the ring, War Front 37; and they sold 24 and 23, respectively, at averages of $791,458 and $678,980. (Food for thought, perhaps, for those who view stallions with larger books as somehow more “commercial”!)

To be fair, even stallions under restrained management today cover far bigger books than those commanded by breed-shaping stallions like Danzig or Mr. Prospector. And when judged purely by progeny earnings, of course, inflation has set giants of the past at an even more obvious disadvantage (above all since the emergence of the modern megaprizes).

But there's no doubting the substance of Tapit's achievement, as one whose hallmark has long been consistency. His three consecutive titles, between 2014 and 2016, have been followed by finishes in the general sires' list of fourth, sixth, third and third; and his lifetime ratio of black-type performers to named foals exceeds an extraterrestrial 19%. He is, moreover, a paragon of the old school in terms of recycling the ability to carry speed through two turns, this summer becoming the only modern sire to match Lexington with a fourth winner of the GI Belmont S.

We have become so accustomed to his sturdiness, as a noble white pillar supporting the modern breed, that it's worth reminding ourselves how very precarious were some of the moments in his rise.

For one thing, Tapit really had to earn his stripes at stud. He was launched in 2005 at just $15,000, and took a trim to $12,500 to help keep him in the game in his third and fourth years. But stay in the game he did.

“I don't think he was ever close to really slipping through the cracks,” Beck recalls. “He'd been enough of a 'talking horse' as a 2-year-old to keep breeders really interested. I remember being slightly dissatisfied with his fourth book of mares, that was probably his worst one, in their physicals. But he still got Grade I winners even then.”

No, the moment when the tightrope had become a perilous thread had already come and gone: during his track career, when it took all the skill of Michael Dickinson to permit breeders an adequate glimpse of his attributes.

That is quite a paradox, given that the soundness and toughness he has imparted to his stock was never doubted, in Tapit himself, by his trainer. Misfortune, however, permitted a deceptive impression of fragility: plagued by a lung infection at three, Tapit managed only six career starts; and three of those were disappointing. But Dickinson explains that only a horse as tough as Tapit–only a horse, in fact, with the kind of heart that breeders should want to recycle–would have managed to add the GI Wood Memorial to the brilliant performances he had produced in both juvenile starts.

As such, the Wood was probably the most instructive moment of Tapit's track career. Having given him time to nurse the lung infection diagnosed after a dispiriting comeback in the GI Florida Derby, Dickinson knew the horse was nowhere near fit enough to be running for his place at Churchill on the first Saturday in May.

“My emotions that day were all over the place,” Dickinson recalls. “Before the race, as usual, I was filled with anticipation and nervous energy. During the race, I could barely watch; and afterwards I had feelings of both relief and elation. I was so proud of him, and the team for the job that they did in getting him there.”

Very possibly he had not absorbed the generosity of his Aqueduct performance when running ninth in the Derby. As Dickinson says: “The slop may have been a problem but his herculean effort in the Wood definitely affected him.”

They tried to get him back for the GI Haskell Invitational, had to sit that out, and an attempt to regroup in the GII Pennsylvania Derby ultimately only hastened his retirement.

“Unfortunately we never managed to totally clear that up,” Dickinson says of those bad scopes at three. “We don't know how good he might have been. It was such a shame as he was probably one of the soundest horses I have ever trained.”

Tapit's stock is sometimes credited with high mettle but Dickinson argues that his Wood performance was instructive of the willpower that has become a far more uniform trademark.

“His personality and attitude, not just that day but every day, I'm sure played a huge part in him being so successful,” Dickinson says. “He loved to train: he just loved getting out there and showing off. Tapit was a very relaxed horse at home, although he always loved the fillies. He was a beautiful mover and loved to strut his stuff.”

His record as a two-turn influence, not least in the Belmont, has perhaps made people forget how Tapit sparkled as a 2-year-old, when his talent remained uninhibited by these pulmonary problems. He opened with an eight-length romp over a mile at Delaware Park in October.

“When he was training on the farm, he did not show blazing speed as he was always relaxed,” Dickinson recalls. “In fact Ramon Dominguez, who had been working him in the morning, was booked to ride him but took off the mount to ride a hot shot in the race. Obviously raceday woke Tapit up. Afterwards he was more aggressive. In his next start, the [GIII] Laurel Futurity, he did try to get a little rank but teaching him to settle was always a priority.”

It was his performance in the Laurel, exploding clear after being forced to wait for racing room, that gave Tapit his chance. This wasn't the conventional route to the top of the juvenile division, but on the speed figures that was exactly where Tapit now found himself. The excitement he generated that day would, for many mare owners, absorb all moments of deflation at three.

“Fortunately for Tapit, Michael Hernon at Gainesway Stud had watched the Laurel Futurity and made a mental note of how impressive he was,” Dickinson recalls. “When he came on the market the following year he remembered and went back to revisit. He saw something in him and was convinced he would be a star at stud. How right he was.”

Hernon's employer was especially intrigued by a rare brand of fecundity in Tapit's family.

“His 3-year-old career was not nearly as good,” Beck concedes. “While he was a Grade I winner in the Wood Memorial, it was a very weak field in hindsight. But his 2-year-old form was outstanding and I hoped that he'd be a stallion because the female family is one of the few stallion-producing families in the whole world; certainly in America there aren't many. It had not just produced stallions, but horses that were better stallions than runners. With Tapit also being out of an Unbridled mare, and by Pulpit who was a fantastic racehorse–and an incredibly well-bred one, too–we were thrilled to be able to bring him to the farm.”

The people who had brought Tapit into the lives of Dickinson, and then Beck, were part of what made the horse's rise so special. Bred by Oldenburg Farms and consigned by Fred Seitz, he was bought for $625,000 at the 2002 Keeneland September Sale by Verne Winchell and his son Ron, backed up by their advisers, farm manager David Fiske and veterinarian David Lambert, as well as Dickinson himself. The team had identified the gray as their premier target of the auction, and Verne Winchell stretched accordingly.

Poignantly, he would be claimed by a heart attack two months later–but for precisely that reason the whole Tapit journey has taken place with an unseen hand resting benignly on Ron Winchell's shoulder. (And how proud he should be, of his family's contribution to modern Turf history, after already seeing trainer Steve Asmussen to a parallel summit this summer!)

For the rest of us, however, it feels necessary to account less subjectively for the magic of Tapit. What is it that has set him apart—and what does he tell us to seek in other young stallions, entering so competitive a market?

On paper, Beck has already identified one key indicator: dam a half-sister to one stallion, Rubiano; second dam a half to another, Glitterman; third dam a full sister to another, Relaunch. But how does that potency play through, in the flesh?

“They tend to have incredibly good cardiovascular systems,” Beck notes. “And very good actions to go with it. As well as that mental will to win. He seems to impart these to a few good ones every year. He's a remarkable horse in that he has a quite relaxed way about him, quite sensible in many ways, but he's one of the few stallions I've come across that knows he's a star. He has that star power. I know it sounds crazy, but he knows that and is relaxed about it. He has such confidence in himself.”

The sparks of temperament that sometimes emerge from the Tapit forge Beck attributes to Pulpit's dam Preach, who was so notoriously aggressive in protecting foals that they had to be raised by nurse mares. On the other hand, his damsire Unbridled was cherished at Gainesway–and likewise Unbridled's son Empire Maker–as “an absolute gentleman”.

Indeed, Beck feels that Unbridled has contributed much to the overall package. “He also had fantastic speed and cardiovascular capacity,” he stresses. “Don't forget how he beat Housebuster over seven furlongs at Gulfstream Park. He was one of those phenomenal horses who had that kind of speed but could also get 10 furlongs very well. I think he's an essential part of Tapit's success.”

Even in the evening of his career, it feels possible to argue that Tapit's own versatility has not yet been fully tapped. Certainly he has been culpably neglected in Europe, despite perfectly respectable dividends on turf in the U.S. Only a limited Tapit, after all, will typically even be tried away from the main track.

It was a famously patient migrant from European racing, of course, who showcased Tapit's gifts in the first place. It's worth remembering that Dickinson won a Grade I on the same card as the Laurel Futurity with A Huevo (Cool Joe), brought back only that summer from an absence barely two months short of four years! Yet this unique horseman was able to adjust his sights to test a brilliant juvenile's eligibility for the Classics.

“I'm very proud of Tapit himself, as he was a wonderful horse to be around and had so much personality,” Dickinson reflects. “I think we did a great job [with him] as a 2-year-old, giving him the time to mature yet still making him a graded stakes winner. Unfortunately the gods weren't with us for his 3-year-old career. And this has always left me wondering, 'What if?'”

The fact that he clearly didn't fulfil his potential in his own Derby gives a corresponding edge to the one unrequited ambition shared, on his behalf, by so many people around Tapit. It looked like he might nail the race this spring, but Greatest Honour was injured and Essential Quality had a messy trip.

“Oh yes, it would be wonderful if it could happen,” Beck acknowledges. “They say Essential Quality ran 68 feet more than the winner, and he was beaten just over a length. I think he will be proven a superior horse to the one that passed the post first. Any Derby is a bunfight, 20 horses going as fast as they do. But I'm sure Tapit's very best years are still head of him.

“Whatever happens he's already been a game-changing, breed-changing stallion, and only likely to become still more important and influential with his sons and daughters going to stud.”

And if Tapit trademarks an entire epoch at his historic farm, then Beck believes that the momentum he has created will exceed the span of the horse's own career.

“One thinks of all the horses that have stood on the farm–going back to the early Whitney days, Peter Pan, Equipoise, right on through the John Gaines era–yet now I think Tapit must be the best horse in over 100 years to reside there,” he observes. “So yes, definitely, we're enormously proud of him. But I truly can't express how excited I am by the future of Gainesway. I feel it to be absolutely boundless: whether with our racing stable; the broodmares we have; the lovely young stallions like Tapwrit, who had a really excellent first crop of yearlings. It's a great farm, great land, with a most wonderful, devoted team caring for it. And we're all custodians of a great legacy.”

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As a trainer, Dickinson is probably best known for winning the 1996 and 1998 Breeders' Cup Mile with Da Hoss. He also is responsible for developing the year-round Tapeta training surface.

Tapeta Farm offers 30 acres of paddocks, including turnout paddocks covering 20 acres, two movable round pens, organic grazing areas, and two sand pens. Also, the property provides six different season turf tracks, a 4,500 sq. foot main house and a Performance Centre, which includes equine equipment such as a cold saltwater spa, salt room, vibrating platform, and three examining stalls. The performance centre also houses the auxiliary energy system as well as a covered eight-horse Euro-Cizer, and the synthetic track surface research lab. Adjacent to the Performance Centre is the swimming pond with central dock. Other features of the farm–a 40-stall barn, offering a well-water treatment facility, six-air-changes-per-hour ventilator system, three hay steamers, organic fly-spray system and a hay storage area.

For more information, click here.

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“We encourage not only track supers to attend, but also those from training centers as well as farms with training surfaces,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand.

Registration, free to track supers and staff, is now open for the event. For more information, go to www.tracksupers.com.

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Among the speakers on the agenda are Joe Morris, senior vice president of racing for Caesars; Mike Ziegler, senior vice president and general manager of Churchill Downs, Dr. Michael DePew, an agronomist/soil scientist and industry-leading leading soil expert; trainer Michael Dickinson, president of Tapeta Footings Inc.; Dr. William Farmer, equine medical director for Churchill Downs Inc.; and Eric Hamelback, CEO of the National HBPA.

“There is nothing more important to horsemen than the safety of horses and jockeys, so I'm looking forward to interacting with the men and women who work tirelessly to make our racing surfaces as safe as possible,” said Hamelback.

Registration is now open for the event, and there are no registration fees for track supers and staff thanks to the support of sponsors.

“We are excited to have such a distinguished list of speakers this year and think this will be one of the best gatherings we've ever had,” said Roy Smith, founder of the event and track superintendent at Indiana Grand. “We encourage not only track supers to attend, but also those from training centers as well as farms with training surfaces.”

For more information, go to www.tracksupers.com.

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During the Jan. 26 Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund (KTDF) advisory board meeting, Tyler Picklesimer, Turfway's director of racing and racing secretary, was asked to update the board on how the new Tapeta surface was performing.

Picklesimer told the board members via teleconference that, “We've had no complaints. Everybody's been happy with the surface. It's performed well within the cold, actually better than the Polytrack did in severe cold weather. But no, so far so good–everybody's happy.”

Bill Landes III, the chairman of the KTDF advisory committee, then asked Marty Maline, the executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (KHBPA), if that assessment squared with the general consensus of his organization's membership.

Maline responded by saying, “The horsemen are just elated with the surface [and] its drainage. It's running really true to form.”

But then Maline added: “We had a little hiccup about a week or so ago. A horseman actually brought a couple of rocks [from the racing surface] in to the office, and it, of course, started a panic of sorts.

“But right away the [Turfway] track man explained that when they were actually getting the surface into the front-loader [when installing it], they actually had chopped off a couple of pieces of blacktop,” Maline said. “And so it was a very limited situation.”

Maline said that right after the discovery, KHBPA board member Bill Connelly walked the circumference of the one-mile oval to inspect it, adding, “at about 15 F degrees, [he's] a stronger man than I am.”

Maline said after that inspection, “there was about two or three of these pieces of blacktop, and they were taken care of. [Tapeta Footings executives Michael Dickinson and Joan Wakefield] came in and reviewed it, and explained it wasn't the bottom, because the bottom is all [a different type of uniform-sized] rocks. And so everything died down. There wasn't any real problem with it.”

Maline closed out the subject by reiterating his overall positive impression that the Tapeta track has “been a godsend, really. It's a great surface.”

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“That was just a phase,” he said, a lilting English accent giving away the Manchester native's heritage. “I was kind of disheartened when I left, but eventually I missed getting on the horses and the thrill of it all. This is what I was born to do; it's in the blood.”

Wyner spent four years in Florida working as a “cable guy,” but by 2010 the horses were pulling him back to the sport he'd loved since childhood. In fact, Wyner left school early to work for a steeplechase trainer in England, learning to groom and ride the racehorses from the ground up, and even tried his hand as a jumps jockey.

Wyner earned a job with champion trainer Michael Dickinson in England, and followed the renowned conditioner to the United States in the late 1980s. Wyner spent a year working for Dickinson at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, then he and his new wife moved up to Delaware and became freelance exercise riders.

The jockey bug hadn't quite given up its hold on Wyner, though, and after whittling his weight down from 140 to 119 pounds, Wyner started riding flat races in the United States.

“I'll tell you, I wasn't very good at it,” Wyner said, laughing. “It just wasn't a good fit, because I was always too weak from reducing to keep my weight under control.”

After a three-year career spanning 14 wins from 462 starts, Wyner went back to exercise riding in 1992. He moved around a bit over the next dozen years, learning as much as he could from a number of different trainers including Sam Cronk, Terry Huiet, John Scanlon, Mark Hennig, and James Bond.

By 2004 Wyner was ready to step out on his own, and he launched his stable with two horses at Philadelphia Park. Unfortunately, things didn't take off the way he'd hoped; Wyner saddled just two winners that first year and four winners the second.

It just wasn't enough to make a living, so Wyner stepped away from the game to regroup. When he returned to Philadelphia in 2010, it was with a renewed drive and passion for the sport.

“You know, you have to be in the right place at the right time,” Wyner said. “I'm grateful to Mr. Ted Hoover, who gave me a shot then, and I made Philly my home base because I knew the people there and it felt like home.”

That right place, right time axiom may have felt disingenuous about this time last year. Wyner trained the talented Ny Traffic through his first four starts, then watched the colt achieve multiple graded stakes placings under the care of Saffie Joseph in 2020.

Wyner had helped co-owner John Fanelli select Ny Traffic at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old sale, making a deal at the barn after the colt RNA'd at $27,000 in the ring.

“We decided to send him to Florida to Mr. Saffie and thank God we did because COVID hit,” said Wyner. “I told Mr. Fanelli [co-owner of NY Traffic] then that he was a Derby horse.”

Wyner cheered as Ny Traffic finished eighth in the delayed 2020 edition of the Kentucky Derby, but the blue collar trainer was already looking forward to another bargain purchase preparing for his first start.

Wyner (at right) in the winner's circle with Capo Kane after his win in the Jerome

At the same sale in 2020, Wyner watched as a big, good-looking son of Street Sense failed to make his reserve in the ring. He was the first foal out of the unplaced Hard Spun mare Twirl Me, though his dam's half-brother was a multiple stakes winner and his third dam was the millionaire Grade 1 winner Tuzla.

“He had great big size, this big shoulder and big hip, and he looked like the kind of horse that needed to grow into himself,” Wyner recalled. “He RNA'd at $26,000, and I told the owner we should go back and look at him to see if we could make a deal.”

Though the colt had cost $75,000 as yearling at the Keeneland September sale, COVID meant a buyer's market by the time he'd turned two. Wyner made a deal for $26,000 — just below the colt's reserve price of $30,000 — and was thrilled to bring him home.

“He always had a kind attitude,” the trainer said. “He showed a little talent in his breezes, staying head-to-head with everything we worked him with, and trying to get ahead of them at the finish. He has such a long stride; I'd seen it before with Mark (Hennig, in the early 2000s), how those good horses go, and he's one of them.”

Capo Kane was second on debut, but won easily by 4 ½ lengths in his second career start despite drifting out late.

“He was kind of a big baby, really green, but from that maiden win it was like the light bulb went on his head,” said Wyner. “Now, he's a little tougher to gallop.”

The trainer would know, as he rides the colt himself almost every day. Of his 24 head based at Parx, Wyner gallops seven to 10 horses each morning, rotating through the string so he sits on each horse at least a couple days each week.

“I train every horse a little bit different, and I can feel what is going on with them better than I can see it from the ground,” he explained. “I guess it's kind of a European style of training, with longer, slower gallops that finish up a little stronger from mid-way through the turn to the wire. That's where the races are won, after all.”

Capo Kane showed he'd been paying attention to his morning lessons in the Jerome, leading the field by just a half-length early on and pulling away in the stretch to win by a dominant 6 ¼ lengths over the muddy track.

“I really didn't know how to feel when he won,” Wyner said. “I had goosebumps, it was just so incredible. I was like a kid in a candy shop.”

Up next for Capo Kane should be the Feb. 6 Withers Stakes and then on to the Gotham and the Wood Memorial. He hopes to keep the colt close to home, on the New York Road to the Kentucky Derby, but is also willing to ship him around if a different schedule proves wise.

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The victory also marked the first stakes score for Capo Kane and his Manchester, England-born conditioner Harold Wyner.

“I was happy with how he ran,” said Wyner. “Dylan rode an excellent race and he followed to what I told him in the paddock. I told him to break sharp and if you find yourself on the lead to just ride his race. This horse will dictate where he wants to be.”

Wyner noted following the Jerome win that Capo Kane drifted out a bit in his Nov. 25 maiden score at Parx when traveling a two-turn mile and seventy yards. On Friday, Capo Kane drew off to a 6 1/4-length score in the one-turn mile Jerome, while again using the center of the track down the lane.

“We'll work on it. I asked Dylan if he was drifting out and he said, 'No. I put him out there in the middle of the track,'” said Wyner. “But when I watched the head-on and Dylan switched to his left-hand stick and showed it to him, that's when he shied away. When he hit him right-handed, he straightened up again. So, we'll have to work on that with him. It's just green stuff. He's just learning and I don't think we've seen the full potential of this horse yet.”

Wyner, who gallops many of his own horses in the morning, said he will continue to work with the lightly raced Capo Kane, who has a record of 3-2-1-0.

“I try and get on all of my horses two or three times a week, but I get on him about four times a week,” said Wyner. “When he was a 2-year-old he was very playful and laid back to gallop. When he came off his maiden victory he got to be very tough to gallop and he wanted to find his own speed to gallop in the morning. When a horse came up alongside him, it was game on for him. He just wanted to be in front of that horse.

“He has a high rate of speed when he gallops and a big, long stride,” continued Wyner. “I usually take a long hold and let him dictate to me how he wants to do it. In the morning, the further we gallop the stronger he gets. He just doesn't know when to stop. He wants to run.”

Wyner was previously a steeplechase rider for trainer Michael Dickinson in England. When Dickinson moved his base to America in 1987, Wyner decided to make the journey as well, working as a groom and exercise rider.

“I won a couple races over jumps and then moved over here with Michael and worked for him at Fair Hill,” said Wyner. “I got my weight down to become a flat jockey and I rode on the flats.”

Equibase statistics report that Wyner posted a record of 14-24-27 through 462 mounts from 1990-92.

“I rode at Delaware and I actually rode in a couple races at Belmont against Angel Cordero, Jr., that's my claim to fame. He beat me obviously, but I did get to ride against him,” said Wyner.

Wyner eventually became an assistant trainer for Mark Hennig in New York and also worked with conditioner Jimmy Bond before hanging his shingle at Parx.

The veteran conditioner, who oversees a stable of 24 horses at his Parx Racing base in Pennsylvania, said Capo Kane will look to make his next start in the nine-furlong Grade 3, $250,000 Withers on February 6 at the Big A, which offers 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers.

“I was talking with the owners this morning and that's the step we're going to push him to,” said Wyner. “I ran him two turns at Parx going a mile and seventy in his maiden win and he did it so easy. The further he goes the better.”

Wyner has demonstrated a good eye for selecting potential Derby prospects having picked out Capo Kane for $26,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

“I liked the size of him. He was a big boned horse,” said Wyner. “He had size and substance to him and that's what I look for in a 2-year-old. He was very well built.”

He was also the initial conditioner of Ny Traffic, who finished eighth in last year's Kentucky Derby for trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr.

Ny Traffic made his first for four starts for Wyner in 2019, including a second-out maiden score at Parx ahead of a fourth in the Parx Juvenile and a fifth in the Notebook at the Big A.

Wyner said he spotted Ny Traffic at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale where the horse didn't meet his reserve and arranged a private purchase for $22,000. Ny Traffic, who shipped to Joseph Jr.'s care in Florida on the cusp of the COVID-19 pandemic, has now banked $565,470.

“After the sale when he RNA'd, we negotiated and they took $22,000 for him. He was a little lighter framed than this horse,” said Wyner. “Capo Kane is a lot bigger boned and heavier than what Ny Traffic was, but he was still a nice horse. I got lucky. You need a little bit of luck in this game.”

A day removed from his first stakes win, Wyner said he is appreciative of the opportunity to train Capo Kane and is looking forward to a run on the Kentucky Derby trail.

“I knew Capo would run real well, but I didn't expect him to win by the margin he did. It was a very impressive win for him,” said Wyner. “Things are going great, let's hope they keep up. It's a long road to the Derby and anything can happen. Hopefully, we keep moving forward.”

The post Withers Next For Jerome Winner Capo Kane On ‘Long Road To The Derby’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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