Pumpkin Rumble Looks to Roll in Woodchopper
Trainer Gary Scherer has a great deal of respect for his starter for the $60,000 Woodchopper, Al and Bill Ulwelling’s Pumpkin Rumble. Slight in stature, but mighty in his closing kick, the son of champion English Channel enters Saturday’s event with the highest last-out turf Beyer Speed Figure (91) of any of the 10 entrants.
“He’s a little bitty horse who over-excels,” Scherer said. “You get a lot of horses with talent who don’t try – but he’s a horse who has talent and gives it all he has when he runs. This race is a little tougher than I thought it would be for $60,000, but our horse will run as far as you want him to and seems to handle most everything you put him on, surface-wise. He’s coming in really well.”
In his nine starts, the chestnut gelding has finished in the top-four eight times, including a pair of fourths in stakes company in his last two races. In September’s $200,000 Mystic Lake Derby, the winner Long On Value went on to score next out in the Grade II $200,000 Twilight Derby and starts Friday as one of the favorites in the Grade II $200,000 Mathis Brothers Mile. Both of those races are Santa Anita Park fixtures.
In Pumpkin Rumble’s last race – fourth beaten 2¼ lengths in the Grade III $500,000 Hill Prince Stakes at Belmont Park – he ran into multiple graded stakes winner Ring Weekend at his best, but still ran on to finish well on the soft going.
“We claimed him last year at the Fair Grounds and the plan was to put him on the grass,” Scherer reflected. “After he broke his maiden at Arlington, we knew we had a very good horse and we ran him in some stakes against some tough horses. (Trainer Bill) Mott’s Long On Value has turned out to be a really good horse and last time at Belmont they might have gone by him, but he never gave up and stayed on.”
Scherer also hinted that he would not be averse to the weather being a little wet, but the race still staying on the grass. In addition to his fourth in the Hill Prince over soft going, he was second in the $125,000 Toronto Cup at Woodbine in July over good turf.
Pumpkin Rumble will be ridden by Florent Geroux – who was aboard for the gelding’s maiden win – from post seven. His 9-2 morning line makes him the third choice.
Source: Fair Grounds Barn Notes