Trainer David Donk said Geno will eye a return to state-bred stakes company in the $100,000 Gander on February 12 at the Big A.

“He cooled out really well, it was a pretty easy race on him,” Donk said. “He'll stick around. If he was just a grass horse, I would have turned him out for a bit.”

The Big Brown bay made a winning debut in September at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., against fellow New York-breds, followed by two starts against open stakes company, including a close second in the November 5 Awad.

Donk said he would like to see Geno stretch out in distance in the one-mile Gander.

“I'm not going to shorten him up. I'd rather go longer than shorter,” Donk said. “He'll get a little spacing and we'll go from there. We'll see how he runs there, I could always come back on the dirt or back to the grass in April. It will give me a lot of options.

“I debated first time out whether I should run him on dirt or turf,” Donk added. “He's a very good workhorse and he breezed very well on dirt going into this race. It was a big effort.”

Donk trained Geno's dam Weekend Hottie, a Sun King mare, through her last eight of 27 career starts, all of which were on grass.

“She was an average mare, but this is a pretty good-looking horse. He's big and scopey,” Donk said.

Bred in New York by Pete Martine [Mendham Racing Stable], Geno brought his lifetime earnings up to $337,250 following Saturday's winning effort, which garnered a 61 Beyer Speed Figure.

Donk said Joseph Bucci's Shesawildjoker, winner of the Shesastonecoldfox at Finger Lakes Race Track in Farmington, N.Y., two starts back, will target the $100,000 Franklin Square on January 15 for 3-year-old New York bred fillies going 6 ½ furlongs. The daughter of first-crop sire Practical Joke was a last-out third in the November 21 Key Cents at the Big A.

Donk said five-time winning turf sprinter Big Package, also a New York bred by Big Brown, is currently turned out at Dr. Patty Hogan's Hogan Equine in central New Jersey.

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David Donk's stable has been a fixture in New York for over 30 years. His most notable runners include MGISW Awad (Caveat), plus graded stakes winners Hessonite (Freud), Ordway (Salt Lake), King Kreesa (King Cugat) and Pennine Ridge (Cure the Blues). The easygoing and approachable horseman enjoys spending time developing young horses and takes pride in being one of first ones at the racetrack each morning. Donk is approaching 800 career wins and is represented this year by Shesastonecoldfox S. winner Shesawildjoker (Practical Joke).

KP: How did you first get involved in horse racing?

DD: I grew up in a small town in upstate New York near Finger Lakes Racetrack called Clifton Springs. My dad owned and bred some horses and we were neighbors with the trainer that he used. I got hooked at a very young age and realized, probably when I first got into high school, that it was something that I wanted to pursue.

After I graduated high school, I did train on my own at Finger Lakes  for five years, mainly with my dad's horses, and then I got a break in the spring in 1985. Phil Gleaves left to go out on his own so I got hired as an assistant to Woody Stephens.

I worked for Woody for five and a half years until his health wasn't doing as well and then I went out on my own in 1991. I started out with seven horses. I had a couple for Henryk de Kwiakowski, Jim Ryan [Ryehill Farm] and John and Theresa Behrendt. I was able to stay in New York and gradually have a bit of success, enough to where I was able to stay in New York to make a living. I've been here for 36 years.

KP: How many horses are normally in your stable?

DD: The number has been a little bigger for the last few years. I'm at about 50 over the summer. I try not to have any more than that. In the winter, I try to get to the low 30's. I have a lot of people who are on visas and have to go back, so I try to reduce the size of the stable to make it a little more comfortable and easier on us all in December and January before we gear back up again.

KP: Who have been your biggest mentors throughout your career?

DD: First would be my dad, who is still with us, and then the biggest break of my career was getting a job for Woody Stephens. I like to say that I went to one of the best universities in the country when I worked for him.

KP: What horse was the most influential to your career?

DD: My most influential horse is obviously Awad (Caveat). He made $3.2 million in his career, had over 70 starts and won a few Grade I races. We got to travel all over the country and we went to Japan twice. That's the horse that put me on the map and where I'm at financially. There's no question that he was the horse who is most influential for me.

KP: What do you believe makes your stable unique?

DD: This is a business, so when you are a trainer, you are the president and CEO of your own company. One of the classes I took in high school was bookkeeping. I always knew that if I was going to have a business, I needed to be able to do the financial side of it.         Horse racing today is different from when I was a kid or even from one or two generations ago. There's a lot more to it. You are the president and CEO of your own company and there's a lot of federal, state, immigration and law regulations. Even if you don't do the bookkeeping yourself, you need to understand it. You're the one that's liable and you're the head of the company.

It's not just about training horses. There's also the customer service side of it with clients. I'm a little bit unique in that I like the paperwork and the business side of it. I do most of my own bookkeeping. My dad taught me this as a kid and now I preach it to my kids-it's not a bad thing to be your own boss. The biggest difference is that you work 80 hours a week instead 40 hours a week, but at the end of the day, it's your own.

I've been here a long time, but I've had a number of clients who I've had for 25 years with John and Theresa Behrendt, Charles Marquis, Bill Punk and Bob Spiegel. I've been fortunate that I've had a lot of loyalty and at the same time, they're very successful in their own professions and they've taught me a lot.

Shesawildjoker (Practical Joke) breaks her maiden on debut this summer before running in the money in three stakes, including a win in the Shesastonecoldfox S. | Coglianese

KP: What do you believe are the benefits, for owners, in using a “smaller” trainer?

DD: They're going to run more often. I come from a different era and the game has changed a lot. I sometimes say that owners, to a degree, are brainwashed. Horses can run more than once every two months. Sometimes economics don't come into play for them.

I understand the financial side of it for an owner. In New York, we run for a lot of money. I always say that I don't win enough. Sometimes I don't run my horses quite where they belong because I cater to what a client wants to do. I call it customer service. Maybe it's too far to an extent, but if you're running second or third in New York all day long, it pays a lot of bills for the client and keeps money in circulation. We're not always looking at it by numbers or in percentages. That's where technology has changed things a little bit. Everybody is worried about their numbers.

I enjoy 2-year-olds and trying to educate them to shed a little light onto what their quality might be. Sometimes you might run them a little over their head to find that out and appease someone.

Of course, we live in a democracy so I wouldn't take anything away from the big stables. But at the same time I think those owners should be willing to diversify their stable a bit more and give younger trainers who are up-and-coming an opportunity. There are a lot of really good people out there. We have some in New York now, even some female trainers who I hope are successful because we need 20 or 30 more of them.

KP: Do you think super trainers are bad for the sport?

DD: It's fair to say that it's not good for the sport when we're trying to sell races. Handle is based off of field size. We see it in New York that in the better allowance races, the field sizes are not as big as you would like them to be. That goes back to horses not running quite as often. There are rules in place where a trainer can only run two horses in a race and in New York if a race overfills, a trainer can only run one. So I think the biggest downfall is that it affects field size.

KP: What do you enjoy most about your job?

DD: I have two kids so I do a lot of coaching and I always tell them that in life, if you find something you like to do, you'll be happy. If you find something you love to do, you have a chance to be really successful.

I love what I do. I love the early mornings. I think the greatest part of the day is the first set at 5:30 when it's really quiet and has that serene feeling to it. I'm getting a little older so I try to get away a little bit or a couple of days a week during the winter, but at the same time when I'm away for a few days, I miss it. I'm at an age now where I see people who I went to school with who are retiring. But boy, I don't know if I could ever retire. I love the quality of help that I have and the quality of clients that I have. I love the challenge of training two-year-olds and then continuing to learn and do a better job. I love the human aspect to it as much as the equine aspect.

With Ramon Dominguez aboard, Hessonite wins the Ticonderoga S. for Donk in 2012 | Horsephotos

KP: What is the most frustrating aspect of your job?

DD: The most frustrating part of this industry is getting people to come to the table to make compromise. It takes too long to make changes in our industry. I believe that a lot of common sense heads could come together and make decisions. It's frustrating that as an industry, we seem to be behind the times, even in the U.S. compared to the standards internationally.

KP: Do you have any thoughts on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA)?

DD: Not at the moment, but there was a great comment the other day from [NYTHA President] Joe Appelbaum, who sent out an email to our membership. He said that at the moment, the bill is written by lawyers for lawyers to understand. So right now with the way the bill is written, no one understands it. So it remains to be a bill that obviously needs a lot of input.

So it's far from being done in a way that is understandable and has a common sense approach, but it is needed in our industry. I think we can always do a better job and we need the rules to be the same in every jurisdiction. Again, we're behind the times and I think it's a good thing, but there's a lot more work to be done and hopefully now that the bill is out, a lot more good people will get involved with it.

KP: If you didn't have a career in horse racing, what would you do?

DD: I don't know. I always say that if it wasn't for racing, I'd probably be driving a truck for UPS. I knew what I wanted to do when I was a freshman in high school. I think as I've gotten older, I could have gone into management, but at the same time and more importantly, I love being my own boss.

To nominate a trainer for this ongoing series, email katiepetrunyak@thetdn.com. General criteria: Multiple graded stakes-winning trainer, fewer than 300 starts this year, has trained for over 20 years and accumulated no more than approximately $50 million in career earnings. 

The post Smaller, But Still Super: David Donk appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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After an even break, Silver Fist needed a few strides to get her head in front, striding out to a one-length lead with Makin My Move in second and Classy Edition last after being bumped coming out of the gate. Logging fractions of :22.48 for the first quarter and :46.31 for the half-mile, Silver Fist maintained her advantage into the turn, with Making My Move and Miss Alacrity pressing. After improving to sixth in the backstretch, Irad Ortiz Jr. angled Classy Edition five-wide to find racing room entering the Aqueduct straight.

In the stretch, Silver Fist and Makin My Move were unable to hold off the closers, the field bunching up behind Makin My Move as she weakened. Classy Edition rallied with Shesawildjoker to their outside down the center of the track, the Todd Pletcher trainee's closing kick enough to clear and win by 3 1/2 lengths. Captainsdaughter was able to pass Shesawildjoker late to take second, with Silver Fist hanging on for fourth.

The final time for the six-furlong Key Cents was 1:12.19. Find this race's chart here.

Classy Edition paid $3.90, $3.50, and $2.50. Captainsdaughter paid $21.00 and $8.70. Shesawildjoker paid $9.20.

“It went pretty smoothly. It looked like a race on paper that had plenty of pace. The main thing is we just wanted to keep her clean and out of trouble and Irad [Ortiz, Jr.] was able to do that. We had to sacrifice a little bit of ground, but she was able to get into a good, comfortable rhythm,” trainer Todd Pletcher said after the race.

“We had initially targeted the Maid of the Mist, but she got a temperature just before that, so it set us behind schedule a little bit. This seemed like a logical place to bring her back.”

“She broke a step slow but she put me in the race quick and after that I just waited in the turn. She's the type of filly that needs a little time to get going. She probably wants to go a little farther, but she kept coming and she got there on time. At the quarter-pole, she went by and she just kept going. She's a nice filly,” jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. told the NYRA Press Office after the Key Cents.

Bred in New York by Chester and Mary Broman, Classy Edition is out of the Bernardini mare Newbie. Consigned by Sequel Bloodstock, the 2-year-old filly was purchased by owners Robert and Lawana Low at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $550,000. With her win in the Key Cents, Classy Edition is a perfect 3-for-3 with career earnings of $184,250.

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Joseph Bucci's Shesawildjoker, a 2-year-old daughter of Practical Joke, is targeting next Sunday's six-furlong $100,000 Key Cents for fellow state-bred fillies at Aqueduct Racetrack in Ozone Park, N.Y.

The $80,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase graduated on debut in June at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., besting eventual stakes winner November Rein by a head in a 5 1/2-furlong dash over Big Sandy.

Following an off-the-board effort in the Grade 2 Adirondack in August at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Shesawildjoker returned to state-bred company and completed the trifecta in the seven-furlong Joseph A. Gimma. She enters the Key Cents from a win in the six-furlong Shesastonecoldfox, contested over a sloppy strip on October 25 at Finger Lakes Race Track in Farmington, N.Y.

“She came in from the training center with the reputation that they thought she'd be OK. She trained well early on and ran a pretty good race first time out and was good enough to win,” Donk said. “She was scheduled to run in a New York-bred stake early in the meet at Saratoga but it didn't go, so we ran her open company and it was too tough for her.”

Out of the Speightstown mare Tarquinia, Shesawildjoker was bred by Three Diamonds Farm.

Mendham Racing Stable's Geno, a 2-year-old son of Big Brown bred by Pete Martine, is pointed to the open-company $100,000 Central Park, a 1 1/16-mile turf test on November 27.

A debut winner against state-breds in September sprinting six-furlongs over firm Belmont turf, Geno followed with a narrow nose loss to General Ken in the 1 1/16-mile Awad on November 5 at the same track.

“He ran a really nice race last time. It was a big step forward off of his first effort,” Donk said. “His first race was three-quarters versus New York-breds and he took a good jump into open company. I thought he would appreciate more distance and he ran a really nice race.

“He came out of that race very well,” Donk added. “There's a lot of upside to him and I think he'll go forward even more. He's a very kind horse and a very classy horse.”

Donk said Geno, out of the Sun King mare Weekend Hottie, should appreciate traveling two-turns for the first time.

“I don't think distance will be an issue. He's a big, scopey horse,” Donk said. “There's a route pedigree on the dam's side. I think he'll appreciate stretching out. Even though he won going three-quarters I think he was just good enough to do that. I don't think he's really a sprinter.”

Big Package, owned by Donk in partnership with Sean Carney, is targeting the six-furlong $150,000 Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship on November 27.

The Big Brown gelding, bred by Newtown Anner Stud, has enjoyed a productive 4-year-old season with a record of 7-3-1-2. The late-running bay notched an open allowance win sprinting 5 1/2-furlongs in August at the Spa and last out rallied to a 1 3/4-length score in an optional-claiming event on November 7 at Belmont, garnering a career-best 95 Beyer.

“It was a really good race,” Donk said. “It was a good field the other day. I was hoping he would run well and he ran a big race.”

Donk said Big Package, who will return off 19 days' rest, will take a breather following the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship.

“I'm not afraid to run them and run them when they're good,” Donk said. “Three weeks is plenty of time. It's a big step up in company but with good horses, ideally you get pace, too. It would be his last race of the season regardless.”

The post Donk Prepares A Trio Of Hopefuls For Upcoming Aqueduct Stakes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Joseph A. Gimma honors the late investment banker, political official, and former chairman of the New York State Racing Commission from 1965-76. Born in Baro, Italy, Gimma also served as the governor of the American Stock Exchange from 1952-58.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Classy Edition backed up her heavy 3-5 favoritism in her September 5 debut when breaking her maiden by 6 ¾ lengths over a good and sealed track at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., garnering a 63 Beyer Speed Figure.

The bay daughter of freshman stallion and 2016 Champion Juvenile Colt Classic Empire rated in fourth along the rail down the backstretch and made an aggressive four-wide move nearing the quarter-pole, cruising away to a hand-ride victory under Irad Ortiz, Jr.

“It's back a little quick, but she did it very easily. Irad wrapped up on her in the last part of the race,” Pletcher said. “She had always trained well. I expected her to run well on debut, and she did.”

Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, Classy Edition is out of the Bernardini mare Newbie, making her a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Newly Minted.

Ortiz, Jr. will return aboard Classy Edition from post 4.

Mr. Amore Stable homebred November Rein will attempt a second stakes score following a triumph in the Seeking the Ante on August 27 at Saratoga.

Despite stumbling at the start, the Kelly Breen-trained daughter of Street Boss recovered quickly and commanded the field through every point of call, winning by 1 ¾ lengths.

November Rein arrived at the Seeking the Ante off an even more decisive victory, breaking her maiden going 5 ½ furlongs at the Spa by 5 ½ lengths to garner a field-best 76 Beyer.

Jose Ortiz is unbeaten in two starts aboard November Rein and will have the call from post 6.

D.J. Stable's Adversity, trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, graduated by 2 1/4-lengths at second asking on September 6 over a sloppy and sealed main track at the Spa.

“Her first start we ran her on the grass, and she didn't run very well, but she had always worked really well on the dirt,” said Casse assistant Shane Tripp. “It rained really hard right when the horses were in the paddock, so it was in the slop. She ran great that day and we're looking forward to running her again.”

Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, the daughter of the late first crop sire and 2016 Travers winner Arrogate is out of the Grade 1-winning Roman Ruler mare Artemis Agrotera.

Jockey Luis Saez will ride from post 3.

Stonestreet Stables' Velvet Sister, a half-million-dollar purchase from the Fasig-Tipton March Sale, will attempt to turn the tables on November Rein following a runner-up effort in the Seeking the Ante.

The daughter of Bernardini, trained by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, was a 9 ¾-length winner against open company in June at Belmont before a distant fourth in the Grade 3 Schuylerville five weeks later at Saratoga.

Bred by Godolphin and Michelle Nevin, Velvet Sister is a half-sister to multiple stakes-winner My Boy Tate.

Breaking from post 2, Velvet Sister will be ridden by Joel Rosario.

Joseph Bucci's Shesawildjoker bested November Rein on debut and returns to New York-bred company for trainer David Donk.

The daughter of freshman stallion Practical Joke took a considerable jump up in class following her first-out maiden score when eighth in the Grade 3 Schuylerville. She was bred by Three Diamonds Farm.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will ride from post 5.

Rounding out the field is Our Tiny Dancer – a wire-to-wire winner for a $25,000 tag at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., for trainer Amira Chichakly. Larry Botting bred the chestnut daughter of Union Jackson.

Jockey Erick Lopez will ride from post 1.

The Joseph A. Gimma is slated as Race 8 on Friday's nine-race card which also includes the $125,000 Ashley T. Cole in Race 3. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern.

America's Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Belmont Park, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horseplayers nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.

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