Mama Strong provides emotional win for connections

What might have seemed like an ordinary win to most when Mama Strong won a $16,000 claimer on Feb. 5 at Gulfstream Park was actually very special for the filly's connections.

Mama Strong is a 3-year-old daughter of Awesome Slew whom the recently deceased Kerry Duplessis had suggested be named after Mike Barker's wife, Melissa, who has battled cancer.

Duplessis was a veteran of stable areas in New York and Florida, and Barker is a Columbus-based handicapper who did work for Beulah Park and AmericaTab and now provides Brisnet's Chalkbuster report. They became friends via one of Mark Casse's assistant trainers, Nick Tomlinson.

"Kerry said, 'For her spirits, we've got to keep her lifted up; let's get a horse named after her," Barker said. "I just thought that was so kind to think of her like that. Kerry was a great guy."

Just a week prior to Mama Strong's win, Duplessis died in his sleep at the age of 42. It was Tomlinson who found Duplessis.

"When (Mama Strong) hit the sixteenth pole I was already crying," Tomlinson said of the filly's win. "Even saddling her, I was trying to hold it together. It was so special. I definitely felt that he was there with her. It was an extremely emotional but special, special race.

"I’ve been very fortunate to have been around a lot of nice horses working for (Casse), but that is definitely going to go down as one of the greatest victories or accomplishments that I’ll ever have, for her to cross the wire first days after his passing."

Friends describe Duplessis as a lifelong racing fan "who didn't know a stranger" and "had a sharp sense of humor." Melissa Barker is a warrior who through her fight against breast cancer has undergone a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Duplessis had been good friends with Tomlinson for 10 years. When they approached Quintessential Racing about naming the filly after Melissa Barker, the filly's owner readily agreed.

"They wanted it to be a Florida-bred, so that she would be down here with me,” Tomlinson said. Mama Strong had been a $20,000 purchase for Quintessential at the 2021 Ocala Breeders' Sales Company October Yearling Sale. Out of the Bertrando mare La Belle Dame, she is a half-sister to stakes-placed Mad Luther and a granddaughter of stakes winner Lily La Belle.

When Tomlinson saddled Mama Strong for her recent score, he had hopes for a big effort as she went to the post in a field of seven. The filly had been training well and had broken her maiden over the Tapeta surface. Tomlinson then watched as Mama Strong stalked the pacesetter early under Luca Panici through lively fractions of 22.96 and 46.36 seconds, rallied down the stretch to take the lead inside the sixteenth pole and edged clear under Panici’s right-handed urging to score by 3/4 length as the favorite in 1:04.46.

Tomlinson started a Gofundme fundraiser to assist with funeral costs and supporting the two young daughters of Duplessis. Donations may be made to the fundraiser at www.gofundme.com/f/kerry-duplessis.

Megan Grant is a South Carolina-based freelance writer. Follow her @Starine85.