Barn Tour: With first graded win, Synnefias is on the rise

Peter Synnefias became a bit of a sensation at Monmouth Park this summer when he won the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup with Surface to Air at 19-1 over odds-on favorite Just A Touch.

Not only was it the first graded win for the 27-year-old Synnefias, it was his first stakes win. “It was awesome,” he said Tuesday.

And Surface to Air followed that up with a win in the Philip H. Iselin, also a Grade 3, also defeating the odds-on favorite. This time, it was First Mission.

So Synnefias is a sensation but not necessarily a surprise.

“My grandfather and my father and my mother, they were all trainers. I was basically born into it,” he told Horse Racing Nation. “It’s just in my blood.”

Growing up, he worked as a hot walker, groom, just about everything until he became an assistant trainer for his father, Dimitrios Synnefias, at Penn National. “School was not my thing. I dropped out.”

Synnefias bought a couple of horses out of claiming ranks and then took out his license in 2021, when he had four starts.

His career has picked up considerably from there. In 2022, he had 11 wins from 39 starts and a 69% in-the-money rate. This year, he has 25 wins from 134 starts, finished fourth in the trainers standings at Monmouth Park and crossed the $1 million in earnings for the first time.

Along the way, he moved his operation to Monmouth Park. And this week, he was preparing to move a string to the Belmont at Aqueduct meeting for the first time. “A new adventure,” he said.

Synnefias, who has 26 horses in training, provided updates on some of his top runners for an HRN Barn Tour feature.

Surface to Air. Synnefias claimed the 5-year-old son of Midshipman for Brian Shyda’s Premier Stable when the colt broke his maiden at Keeneland in April 2024. He went 3-for-6 the rest of the year, and he crossed the finish line first in the Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs but was disqualified for interference. He returned in June with a third-place finish in the Salvator Mile (G3), but “we got hit with a really nice horse and a sloppy track, which he does not like,” and he finished third, with odds-on favorite Bishop’s Bay getting the win. Then came the victories in the Monmouth Cup and Iselin. Now he’s going to take time off, and Synnefias hasn’t chosen a spot for his next start.

Top Gun Rocket. The 4-year-old Into Mischief colt was claimed after a 28-way shake at Keeneland in April. He got his second career win in that race and followed that with two allowance wins, including Synnefias’s first victory at Saratoga in the race that followed the Belmont Stakes. Top Gun Rocket was third and then seventh in his next two starts, optional-claiming allowances at the Spa. He “has a lot of maturing and a lot of growing to do.” He’ll continue through his allowance conditions and most likely will make his next start at Keeneland.

Pogi. This 7-year-old gelding by Daaher “is probably one of my barn favorites,” Synnefias said. “You would have to see him to understand why. He's just a big, chunky, dappled-out little chestnut horse, Jersey-bred, put together like a tank. You know, not supposed to be a horse.” He came to Synnefias in the spring and has had six starts for him, with a win and two runner-up efforts. Last out, he was “a good fourth against good horses” in the black-type New Jersey Breeders’ Handicap. “I love everything about him,” Synnefias said. “He’s a project really, like an old classy car that you're trying to just kind of put back together. And when you put it back together, you’re obviously always stoked about the results.” His next start will “probably just be a claim or something at Parx or Penn National or something like that, where he can win. Older horse, so you've got to keep his confidence up.”

Cathedral Beach. This 6-year-old gelding by Gormley was claimed at Keeneland in October and was 0-for-3 for Synnefias at Churchill Downs, Laurel Park and Penn National. He got his first win in his new barn in March in an allowance at Penn National. His rider pulled him up in his next start in May, thinking he was injured. He wasn’t hurt, but he had to miss time while he received medical attention and cleared the vet’s list. “It was really tough to get him back into a race … but once we got him in he was just able to rack up the wins and kind of go up the ladder.” He has had three wins at the claiming level since Aug. 15. 

Wild Jaime. This 4-year-old gelding by Micromanage came to Synnefias’s barn with Pogi. He lost his first first two starts for his new stable after switching to dirt “so he could get a race under his belt. … And then when we did get him on the turf, it was successful right off the bat. He won two races in a row for us.” In his next two starts, he finished off the board in optional-claiming allowances. 

Blame the Banker. The 3-year-old Goldencents filly has been with Synnefias since the start after Brian Shyda bought her last year. “She was a little bit of a head case starting off so it wasn't you know exactly how we planned,” and she lost her first two starts at Monmouth and Keeneland. “Then we gave her the winter off, worked on her a little bit, got her in the gate, she matured and obviously got it put together,” breaking her maiden in May at Monmouth. Then, after two losses, she has finished second in her last three starts, all allowances at Monmouth. In her most recent start, “she ran the race of her life that time, 80 Beyer, did really well. She's a complete turnaround of a horse. I loved her from the start, but now she's actually putting everything together so it's way easier to manage her, handle her.”