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‘He Looked At Me Like I Was Crazy’: Gatsas Looks Back At Shadow Caster’s Forego Upset

When owner Mike Gatsas runs four-time stakes winner Funny Guy in Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Forego presented by America's Best Racing, he will be reminded of his first graded stakes triumph 20 years ago when Shadow Caster pulled a 50-1 upset in the prestigious sprint at Saratoga.

The native of Manchester, New Hampshire, who operates under the moniker Gatsas Thoroughbreds alongside his brother Ted, had only owned horses for about five years and had just made the transition from former trainer Charlie Assinakopolous to John Terranova, who also conditions Funny Guy.

Shadow Caster arrived at the Forego with 28 starts under his belt but still appeared to be overmatched against the likes of multiple graded stakes winners Richter Scale and Successful Appeal.

“I remember saying to John, 'Let's get into the Forego' and he looked at me like I was crazy,” Gatsas recalled. “We took a leap of faith. I had just moved my horses to Terranova's barn at the time a month and a half prior to the Forego. But he went in there and outraced himself for sure and beat a very, very good field.”

Shadow Caster recorded a 113 Beyer for his upset victory in the Forego, which was a Grade 2 contested at 6 1/2 furlongs in 2000.

“That was a good field of sprinters and he had never faced anything quite like that, but he pulled it off,” Terranova said. “The following year, they changed it to a Grade 1, otherwise that would have been [my first Grade 1 win].”

Funny Guy won't be arriving at the Forego as quite as big an underdog as Shadow Caster, but the 4-year-old Big Brown bay has still yet to prove himself against open graded stakes company. However, the versatile New York-bred has defeated some of the best the Empire State-bred program has to offer, like multiple stakes-winner Mr. Buff, who was second to Funny Guy twice this year in the Commentator and John Morrissey.

“He's another good New York bred coming up. He's certainly in top form right now and the best of his life so far,” Terranova said. “We'll see how he goes from here. It seems as if he looks to be running the better races of his career whereas some of the top ones have maybe run a little bit less than what they've run before, but it's hard to say for sure.”

Funny Guy, who Gatsas owns in partnership with R.A. Hill Stable and Swick Stable, has displayed versatility from several different standpoints. In addition to winning stakes races at distances ranging from 6 ½ furlongs to 1 1/8 miles, he also has found the winner's circle when demonstrating different running styles.

In the Commentator, he came from off the pace under a well-timed ride by Rosario to record a 101 Beyer and followed up with a stalk-and-pounce triumph in the Morrissey, where he tracked just a length off the pace to draw off to a two-length win.

Jockey Joel Rosario was aboard for both efforts and Gatsas praised the jockey for executing well-timed rides in his last two starts.

“He has multiple gears and if you get into a little traffic, Joel can take hold and let him out a bit and he responds to Joel when he does that,” Gatsas said. “He's a very smart horse. On days of the race, he rests because he knows he's going to war. But he has those multiple gears and we've seen that in the morning with him, too.”

Gatsas also owned multiple New York-bred champion Gander, who finished a game second to Lemon Drop Kid in the Woodward just two weeks after Shadow Caster won the Forego. He also currently co-owns Vekoma, winner of the Grade 1 Runhappy Carter and Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile, with R. A. Hill Stable.

Despite having not yet won a graded stakes race, Gatsas still holds Funny Guy in high regard and said that he is already one of the best horses that he has owned.

“We've had some real nice horses and it looks like Funny Guy might rise to the top of the list,” Gatsas said. “We had Shadow Caster and Gander with John as well. I think Funny Guy is going to surprise a lot of people. It's a bigger and tougher field but no bigger or tougher than Shadow Caster's field. He's doing great now and Joel staying on shows how much confidence he really has. We're lucky to have such a jockey on him as Joel, he has tremendous confidence in this horse.”

For the past two decades, Terranova has been one of the go-to trainers for Gatsas, who also has horses with George Weaver.

“I've been in the business almost 25 years and all trainers have been gentleman and excellent horsemen. I brought a bunch of horses to John and [wife] Tonja and we've become family,” Gatsas said. “My daughter and son and John and his whole family have become friends. We've done a lot together and had some real good horses. We had [Grade 1 winner] Negligee, who was owned by my son [Matthew Gatsas of Sovereign Stables] and went to the Breeders Cup with her.

“We've done quite well over the years with he and Tonja; they are hard-working, great people. They care about their horses and they care about their owners. To have a relationship this long is pretty unique.”

A big run from Funny Guy could mean a trip to Keeneland for the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships.

“I'm not faint of heart to run in the Breeders' Cup,” Gatsas said. “I supplemented Gander for a lot of money to go to the Breeders' Cup in 2000. If he comes out great and John says 'Hey let's take a shot' I'm sure we'll be in Kentucky. I'm thinking he'll run really well on Saturday. He's that good right now.”

Terranova also would be in favor of taking a shot in the Breeders' Cup.

“If he were to show up and everything went well, it would be something for sure we would give great consideration to,” Terranova said.

The post ‘He Looked At Me Like I Was Crazy’: Gatsas Looks Back At Shadow Caster’s Forego Upset appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘Jersey Racing’ At The Forefront For Trainer Pat McBurney This Sunday At Monmouth

Though trainer Pat McBurney estimates that only “30 percent or so” of his barn consists of Jersey-breds that group of horses will have 100 percent of his attention on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Of the 10 races scheduled for the 18th New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival on Sunday – with $743,125 up for grabs in purse money for state-bred runners – McBurney has nine horses entered in seven races, including defending champion Golden Brown in the $125,000 Charles Hesse III Handicap.

The all Jersey-bred card also features the $100,000 Eleven North Handicap and the $100,000 New Jersey Breeders' Handicap.

“I have three or four clients who have Jersey-breds, so this is always a big day for them and the barn,” said McBurney.

Golden Brown, coming off a 2¼-length victory in the Irish War Cry Stakes on July 25 at Monmouth, will be the prohibitive favorite against five rivals (including the McBurney-trained Ashley's Hope) in the Charles Hesse III Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth on the dirt. The 5-year-old son of Offlee Wild has won eight of 22 career starts, capturing three state-bred stakes races at Monmouth a year ago.

“I think against Jersey-breds going long on the dirt, with Sunny Ridge on the sidelines, he is at the top of the heap,” McBurney said. “His starts have been spaced out a little more than usual but I thought we'd take advantage of more Jersey racing with him this year.”

The start will be Golden Brown's third of the year after he made his seasonal debut in the John J. Reilly Stakes at six furlongs on July 5, finishing third. Had the Monmouth meet started as originally scheduled on May 2 he would have been ready then, McBurney said. COVID-19 forced Monmouth's opener to be pushed back to July 3.

“He's not a great `doing' horse and he is tough to get along with, so I kept him in New Jersey all year,” said McBurney. “He was up and training in February and was ready for the (original) start of the meet. We ran him in that Jersey-bred sprint but that's not really his distance. But he was ready to race.”

McBurney, who says he has never started nine horses on a card before, is optimistic he will have a good day.

“To me, looking at the races, I expect Golden Brown to win. I expect Crafty Don and Amazing Cat (both entered in an allowance optional claimer) to turn in the next-best performances,” he said. “Jingo (who goes in the second race) disappointed in his first race back last start but (jockey) Paco Lopez said he kind of got away from him the first quarter mile and ran himself into the ground. So we're looking for a good race from him.”

“Three wins (on the day) would be fantastic. I'm hoping for at least two.”

McBurney will also send out Powergirl in the first race, Lucky Jaime in the third, first-time starter Wild Czar in the sixth and Holy Guacamole in the 10th.

Overall, McBurney is having another solid Monmouth Park meet, with eight winners from 53 starters entering the weekend.

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‘Solid Guy’ Matt Chew Off To A New Life Outside Racing

He didn't think he'd ever do it, but now he knows he will. Matt Chew, a man born and bred to be a racetracker, is going to walk away from the racetrack when the Del Mar meeting ends on Labor Day.

It's his choice and he's good with it.

“The last while it's just become clear to me that the time is right,” says the 60-year-old trainer who has been getting up at 3:30 in the morning for more than 40 years to greet racehorses in barns up and down California. “I'm not fully sure what I'm going to do – the racetrack is so consuming you don't get a chance to think about anything else – but I've got some ideas and I'm willing to try new things.”

To say the racetrack is in his blood is like saying that seals have slick on their backs. His father, Richard, was a horse trainer all his life. His grandfather, William, the same.

He grew up in Arcadia with Santa Anita as a backdrop. The siren's call was strong early on: he remembers climbing over the racetrack fence at age 15 when the track was closed and the horses were away just so he could walk among the barns and fantasize. When he'd finished high school he headed north to the Bay Area for his first job/love: assistant trainer to his father.

He watched, he learned, he experienced. Yup, this is it, he thought. And in 1982 he took out a license, hung out a shingle and started a life as a conditioner of Thoroughbreds.

That first year he had 90 starters, saw 18 of them win, 16 finish second and 10 run third while earning $172,032 in purses. Not bad for the new kid on the block, not bad at all. Almost four decades later he has sent 4,023 horses to the post, has seen 399 of them win, 417 finish second and 442 run third with purses totaling $9,374,621.

Those are good, steady numbers, the kind that reflect what Matt Chew is and has been over the years: one of the racetrack's solid guys. He's a backbone type. Folks like Chew – and those like him at any racetrack – are why those racetracks run. Without the “small” trainers – men and women handling four, eight, 12, 16 head – racing secretaries could not fill cards and the show would grind to a halt.

Right now, for instance, he has a dozen horses and they'll all go to other trainers and have good homes shortly. He wouldn't let it be any other way.

“The best part of this game is the mornings with the horses,” Chew offers. “I love coming to the barn and seeing each one of them. They're not there trying to sell you anything; they don't have agendas. They're honest. How they present themselves is how they are.”

He says he's liked nothing better than working with a horse who had some problems, getting them “right” and allowing them to run to their best ability. “That's especially rewarding,” he notes.

He's had several exceptional horses along the way and one that's close to his heart is a filly named Singing Kitty that he claimed for $32,000, then guided through a campaign that saw her win a trio of stakes and almost $400,000. “You remember those kind,” he says.

He's also had owners that have stuck with him through thick and thin. He mentions a Northern California lady named Lyn McDonald who raced horses with him for more than 30 years. He notes the Nicolas family – the father named Pierre and the son Matt – who have sent the Chews – both his father and himself – horses for 50 years. He was especially pleased when he won a straight maiden race on the turf earlier in the current meet for the son with an Irish-bred named Tallien.

Another who has stuck with him is a lady named Candace Coder-Chew. She was working for the Anderson Ranch near Sacramento where he used to send horses on occasion when he was training up north. They actually met over the phone, finally got to dating six months later, then wound up getting hitched. Ten days ago they celebrated 35 years of being married.

Candace, known as “Candy” to many, is an exceptional graphic artist and was offered a job at Santa Anita in 1993. It was an excellent opportunity and she and Matt decided – even though they were living and working in the Bay Area — they had to go for it.

“It was too good a situation for her – and us – to pass up, so I dispersed a barnful of horses at Bay Meadows and returned 'home' to Santa Anita,” Matt says. “Went from 25 head to rubbing one on my own.”

The switch has worked out well for the Chews. Candace is now director of print and graphics for Santa Anita and Matt went from one horse to a regular rotation of 10 to 20 runners each year in Southern California.

And it appears their next steps will work out well, too.

Along the way the Chews acquired a four-bedroom home on 18 pristine acres alongside Hayden Lake in Idaho, just a couple of miles north of Coeur d'Alene. There's a barn going in for horses and plans for it to be Matt's headquarters for a special program he has in mind.

“I've seen how exceptional it can be for kids with special needs to interact with horses,” he says. “For veterans suffering with PTSD, too. That's what I want to get involved in up there. I'll either join up with someone doing that or start my own program.”

There should be no problem getting the horses. Candace, a passionate horsewoman, last year was elected president of the board of CARMA (California Retirement Management Account), a program that has facilitated the successful efforts in the state to retrain, rehome and retire thousands of racehorses.

So shortly, Matt is headed north and Candace will stay steady with her work at Santa Anita and CARMA. He'll have regular chances to head south and take in the old stomping ground. She'll have her chances to head north and escape to the woods. They think it will be a nice blend.

As he prepares to head off to a new life, Chew was asked what he considers his “best moment” during his years at the racetrack. His answer is a beautiful one and tells you all you need to know about the man he is.

Chew has always been the “go to” guy when racetracks have needed a horse for something outside of the usual. When a TV station asked for a horse for a news piece or a feature or a backdrop, he was there with one of his. If you needed to take some visitors on the backside to see how it works, you went to the Chew barn. He would readily stick one in a trailer and take it downtown somewhere to be part of a special event.

So it was around the time when they were filming the movie “Seabiscuit” at Santa Anita in the early 2000s and the Chew barn was involved in providing horses for the various scenes. He had one horse they nicknamed “Fred” who was one of “Seabiscuit's” stand-ins.

“'Fred' was bulletproof; wouldn't hurt a fly,” Chew recalled. “We were working then with a group from Pasadena called Ability First that aided the developmentally disabled. They'd bring their people over and let them interact with the horses. Candy and I brought 'Fred' into the paddock one morning and when we did I saw this young boy – maybe 11 or 12 – looking at him real hard. So I went over and handed him the shank. He took it and started walking with the horse, talking to him and telling him how pretty he was and what a great horse he was; he was just having a total conversation with him.

“Candy meanwhile looks over and sees three adults in the middle of the walking ring and their jaws are dropped; they look almost horrified. She realizes that they are with the young boy and she begins to apologize. 'I'm sorry,' she says. 'My husband does these kind of things. We really should have asked permission before he gave him the horse.'

“One of women – it turned out to be the boy's mother – was sobbing. She finally told Candy that 'Austin doesn't talk.' It turned out her son was technically what they call non-verbal autistic. He had been through a traumatic incident several years back and since then had not said a word – until that day.

“So winning races is great, of course, but something that powerful is beyond special.”

Del Mar – and racing in California – is going to miss Matt Chew. His kind of solid is the foundation that all good things are built on. But Matt Chew is off to a unique new life that is going to be full of new challenges and new rewards.

And racetrackers everywhere salute him for it.

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Sprained Ankle Will Keep Trevor McCarthy Off Mounts At Laurel This Weekend

Unseated when his mount War Lance stumbled during Thursday's third race at Laurel Park, jockey Trevor McCarthy was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and will not ride this weekend's cards, reports racingbiz.com.

Thursday was McCarthy's first day back in the saddle since Aug. 5; he missed the past several weeks of racing due to testing positive for the coronavirus. Prior to testing positive, McCarthy had been leading the standings at Colonial Downs with a 42 percent win rate.

He was named in all nine races on Friday and eight more on Saturday's card at Laurel Park.

War Lance was uninjured in the incident.