Barn Tour: Stidham on Proxy, Catnip, 5 of his other standouts

Michael Stidham might not have the flashiest statistics among Thoroughbred trainers, but you can count on him to have at least a couple of horses in the graded-stakes mix.

It’s a trend that continues this year with Proxy, winner of the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap in April and the Clark (G1) last fall, and Catnip, who got his first graded win June 17 in the Monmouth (G3).

Stidham is based at Fair Hill and keeps a string at nearby Delaware Park. He said Monday that he has about 90 horses in training.

“This is the busiest time because all the 2-year-olds come in,” he said. “And so that's when we bulk up the most, right about this time of the summer.”

About 20 of those horses were sent to him by Godolphin, including Proxy.

“We get such nice 2-year-olds from Godolphin every year,” Stidham said, “and you just never know what they're going to be bringing in the barn because they're all bred so well that you could have any kind of horse coming.”

Stidham discussed his stakes runners and other top horses for the latest in Horse Racing Nation’s Barn Tour series.

Proxy. The 5-year-old son of Tapit is entered in Saturday’s Stephen Foster (G1) at Ellis Park. “We're hoping for a big race,” Stidham said. “He's had good timing. Since his last race, he's had several really, really good works at Fair Hill. And we're excited to be running in a million-dollar, win-and-you're-in race.”

He acknowledged that it’ll be a difficult test.

“Anytime you run for a million dollars, it's going to be a tough spot. Kenny McPeek's got two really good horses with Rattle N Roll and then Smile Happy. Stilleto Boy, who we've been battling it out with, he beat us a neck and then we came back and just beat him in the Oaklawn Handicap. So we're pretty evenly matched. And a lot of it has to do with the trip. I wasn't very happy that the race was originally going to be run at Churchill, where we had already won the Clark, a Grade 1, and now we're switched over to Ellis Park, which is more of a kind of a speed-favoring type racetrack. There's more of a speed bias there, which doesn't help us. But we have to play the cards the way they're dealt. That's where we're going to run.”

Catnip. The 4-year-old Kitten’s Joy colt brought his record for the year to 3-for-3 with his win in the Monmouth. “Catnip is really exciting because he's a half to Princess Grace, who was one of our really good horses. … Catnip was always very talented. But as a colt, as a 3-year-old, he had his mind more on on being a boy than being a racehorse. And so we ran him in the Virginia Derby and he wasn't really quite up to that at the time. And we decided after the Keeneland race in October, where he ran fourth, we decided to give him a little time off and geld him. And since he's come back as a 4-year-old gelding, he's 3-for-3. And then that last race, it was crazy run race. He was laying second behind the speed and looked like he was in a perfect spot. And a couple of horses made an early, middle move. And he kind of got shuffled back to the back of the pack and looked like he was done. And then (Joel) Rosario got him out to the outside in the stretch and he came rolling down the middle of the racetrack, and he got up and won it by half a length. Very exciting. And that was a Grade 3, his first stakes win, and we're looking for big things the rest of the year.”

His next start hasn’t been determined. “We've got a free berth into the United Nations, but that's a mile and three-eighths, and I don't know for sure that will run him at that distance. So basically what we're going to do is we're going to nominate around and look at some different spots and and then decide which is the best spot for us, and we haven't decided that yet.”

Jubilee Bridge. The 5-year-old Flintshire mare won an optional-claiming allowance at Delaware Park on June 10, bring her record for the year to 5: 2-2-1. “Jubilee Bridge is a filly that the Jacksons (of owner Lael Stables) bought her over in Europe and brought her over, and she took a little bit of time to adapt over here and ran OK, seconds and thirds and fourths. And then we took her to Turfway this past winter and she won an allowance race there on the Tapeta. And then came back here at Delaware and ran a really big race the other day, a one- and two-other-than So we'll have our eyes on some different stake races, try to get some black type. I think she's good enough to do it.”

Pixelate. The 6-year-old son of City Zip, winner of two graded stakes for Stidham, hasn’t raced since finishing fifth in the Fair Grounds Stake (G3) in February. “We gave him some time off. He's actually due to come back into the barn. … He hadn't had any real time off his whole career. He's started 28 times, over a million in earnings. But he's due to come back to us. We just spoke to Godolphin the other day, and he's just about ready to come back to us. So he'll be one that we'd be looking at end of summer and into the fall.”

Nelson Avenue. This 4-year-old filly has had only four starts, with two wins. “He's an Into Mischief owned by Godolphin that we've always liked a lot. And I think he'll do some good things when he comes back. … He had he had a little injury, nothing serious, but just needed some time. So we gave him the time, and he'll be coming back.”

2-year-olds

Rum Tum Tugger. The 2-year-old Into Mischief colt debuted last week at Delaware Park with a fifth-place finish in a maiden special weight. “He had worked pretty well in the mornings. But I think he's going to be one that will probably be better when we go a little further with him. And we're going to also consider trying the grass for him. But I think he's got some talent. A little disappointing first start, but look to hopefully improve off of that.”

Ursuline. The 2-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro had her first start June 17, finishing third in a maiden special weight at Delaware Park. “We actually trained her mother, Ursula. We trained her, and we liked her quite a bit. And we think this filly has quite a bit of talent. And she's another one going further and possibly grass with her too.”

And Stidham has more in the pipeline.

“We've got some of our 2-year-olds in for Godolphin – we don't get the Godolphin babies in until the middle of May,” he said. “So they're coming along, but they're not really that far along yet. A few of them look like they've got some talent. One is called Maycocks Bay.” The colt is sired by Speightstown.