'Fans really like it'; Breeders' Cup contenders got modest starts

The Breeders’ Cup was designed to bring the best horses both in the U.S. and around the world together, and this year's championships are no exception. Top connections such as trainers Bob Baffert and Aidan O’Brien, along with owners like Coolmore and Juddmonte Farms with horses around the world, have horses destined for the top tier of racing from a young age.

But you don't have to be a blue blood to compete, proven by a number of trainers gathered this week at Equestricon, the horse racing convention that kicked off Breeders' Cup week in Louisville, Ky. Tom Amoss, Tim Glyshaw, Chad Summers and Ron Moquett each shared stories of horses once thought of as underdogs getting to the championships.

Amoss

Of the five horses discussed at the contenders panel, Amoss-trained Lone Sailor was the most expensive, costing G M B Racing $120,000 from the Keeneland September sale. While he competed in the Kentucky Derby, Lone Sailor had just one career win until his last start, the Oklahoma Derby (G3).

Next is the Breeders' Cup Classic.

“The thing I would say in Lone Sailor’s defense is he showed a will to win finally, that he’s getting it,” Amoss said. “We deal with all kinds of horses and all kinds of situations in problems that we’re trying to overcome with horses. His has always been mental. And for him to show that kind of fight to us, is an indication that he’s stepping forward.”

Lone Sailor has made 14 starts now, with $873,237 in tow, but is still one to holler in the paddock. Amoss has figured out ways to help keep the nerves away from the colt, including placing cotton in the ears and leaving them in through the race.

“He’ll be on my tickets,” he said, “so we’ll see what happens.”

Amoss will also have Serengeti Empress, a $70,000 purchase for Joel Politi, as the 7-2 co-second choice in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies following her 19 ½-length romp in Churchill Downs’ Pocahonas Stakes (G2).

Summers

Mind Your Biscuits, winner of the Malibu Stakes (G1) and twice the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) victor, was originally purchased by Summers as a pinhook prospect but never caught enough interest to sell. Machmer Hall purchased him as a short yearling for $47,000 and he failed to meet his reserve at Fasig-Tipton’s New York-bred sale in Saratoga and the Ocala Breeders’ Sale for 2-year-olds in training.

Summers purchased half of Mind Your Biscuits for $30,000 in Saratoga and then bought out Machmer Hall after he breezed two furlongs in 10.3 at OBS and caught little attention. Summers figured the horse could race in the New York-bred program, but Mind Your Biscuits hinted at greater things to come when he won the Amsterdam Stakes (G2) showed his talent when winning against open company in graded stakes.

Summers, who took out his trainer’s license and began conditioning the training of Mind Your Biscuits as a 4-year-old in 2017, found a unique way to handle the horse’s quirks.

“He’d freak out routinely just because he could. I think because he liked to mess with me more than anything else, because on the track he was never a troublemaker and I never rode him, so I think we’re OK. Probably he’s thankful for that,” Summers said.

“But one day I just happened to be playing some music and he went from rearing up in the shedrow the whole time I was walking him – nobody else even wanted to walk him, I walked him myself from the time he was a 2-year-old – he’d just kind of listen to the music and kind of walk along to the beat until he saw a turducken at Calder, but otherwise he was OK.”

The $6 million Classic could be the last start for Mind Your Biscuits before he heads to Shadai Farm for stud duties in Japan. He’d retire as the richest New York-bred and has over $4.2 million in earnings heading into the Breeders’ Cup.

The horse won his first route distance in the Lukas Classic (G3) at 1 1/8 miles after running second in the Met Mile (G1) and Whitney Stakes (G1) behind the lone speed.

“That was our goal always all along to stretch him out,” Summers said. “And when you do something so well for so long, it takes a lot of courage to just kind of break that mold.”

Glyshaw

Another horse developed through a state-bred program is the Glysaw-trained Bucchero, the lone Indiana-bred in the Breeders’ Cup. Buchhero, the repeat Woodford Stakes (G2) winner, was fourth by less than a length at last year’s World Championships at Del Mar. This year he’ll tackle the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in his own backyard.

Bucchero sold at the OBS June sale for $43,000 as a 2-year-old and has bankrolled $937,936. He won multiple stakes at Indiana Grand before upsetting his first Woodford at 26-1. He also took owners Ironhorse Racing to Royal Ascot this summer and ran fifth in the Kings Stand (G1) against some of the best turf sprinters around the world. Following the Breeders’ Cup, the 6-year-old will retire to Pleasant Acers Stallions in Florida.

“I’m from Indiana and graduated from (Indiana University), and to have an Indiana-bred for the second year in a row in the Breeders’ Cup is sort of a big deal to me,” Glyshaw said.

“We get a ton of support. The people up there are very proud of him and what he’s done on a national stage. Anytime you can get attention for horse racing, that’s great.”

Moquett

Breeders’ Cup Sprint contender Whitmore, a modestly-bred horse by Pleasantly Perfect, was a 2016 Kentucky Derby contender before becoming a standout sprinter. Moquett purchased the horse after he refused to work at the OBS 2-year-olds in training sale.

Despite the bad sales page and refusal to breeze, Moquett thought Whitmore had all the right parts to make a good racehorse, so he brought him back to his stable where the work with his wife and assistant, Laura, began.

Moquett recalls being on his way to Saratoga when Laura called about Whitmore, asking, “What the hell was this?” Whitmore had frozen up on the rail with Laura, who also gallops horses, and kicked the outrider that came to assist.

“He was an attitude,” Moquett said, “and we got him back and I think he was gelded maybe a day later.”

Whitmore continued to be a gamble that paid off. Moquett figured he could sell the horse after his first race and he was right. At 15-1, Whitmore drew away by 7 ¼ lengths before Robert LaPenta and Harry Rosenblum bought in. Moquett, LaPenta and Head of Plains Partners currently own the 5-year-old gelding.

The same day Whitmore made his debut, a for sale sign went up in front of a house Moquett drove past every day.

“I don’t gamble a lot,” he said, “but I bought that house on that gamble.”

Whitmore continued to the Kentucky Derby before hitting his stride as a sprinter. Moquett remembers Whitmore working great ahead of the Run for the Roses, but on a day where cameras followed Whitmore to watch him, the gelding refused to work on TV.

“We just dealt with him and figured out a way to make him happy,” Moquett said. “He’s obviously talented and he’s got a lot of guts and grit and defiance and we play to those strengths.”

Whitmore now has over $2 million in earnings and picked up his first Grade 1 this summer in the Forego Stakes. From 23 career starts he has 11 wins, six seconds and two thirds.

The four trainers, all the first in their family to work in horse racing, shared a sentiment that if you keep your eyes open and train them right, you can find a horse to carry you to Breeders’ Cup without spending million.

“I think a lot of people like the stories of the horses like ours,” Glyshaw said. “The fans really like it. Don’t get me wrong. Like Ron said, we’d all love to have people with more money than God go to the sales and buy us horses, but at the end of the day, as for a storyline to the racing public, they appreciate seeing horses like the ones trained by the guys up here today. Bucchero was $43,000 and an Indiana-bred, although he has no clue he was bred in Indiana.”

No matter the level of competition, these trainers enjoy the thrill of the game and for Moquett, it’s fulfilling to be heading into the Breeders’ Cup with a horse no one thought would be anything.

“That’s why I admire these guys,” he said, “because they took something a lot of people didn’t expect to be good and made it good. We take a lot of pride in that.”