Quindici Man a Blue Collar Horse
Five-year-old, 33-race veteran Quindici Man isn’t the best-mannered horse in the stable. But that doesn’t change the level of respect that trainer Craig Lewis has for the runner he has entered in the 22nd Wickerr Stakes, featured event when racing resumes on Wednesday.
“He’s a really nice horse. Gives everything he can give every time,” Lewis said Sunday morning at his Barn G stable, an area where Quindici Man is handled with caution.
“He’s as tough as they come,” Lewis said. “He’ll try to kill ya, but it doesn’t bother us because in the afternoon, he’ll go over there and run his race. He’s very tough, but I’m happy to have him. Loves to train, loves to run. He really doesn’t have that much ability, but he doesn’t know it. He’s a blue collar horse, my kind of horse.”
The record for Quindici Man is 7-6-7 for those 33 career starts with earnings of $492,316. He has topped 90 in Beyer Speed Figures his last five starts with three third-place finishes, most notably in the Grade II San Pasqual in January and the Grade I Santa Anita Handicap in March, in which he was beaten only a half-length by Game On Dude. His most recent start produced a fourth-place finish in the turf-marathon San Juan Capistrano Handicap on April 17 at Santa Anita.
So is the Wickerr a particularly good spot for him?
“Not really, no,” Lewis said. “It’s too short for him and not his preferred surface. Other than that …
“We just have to get him started somewhere. We thought about the race on Friday night (Cougar II Handicap) but he’s not ready to go a mile and a half and I don’t want to knock him out.
“You always want to win, but this is just a get-started race for him and he could get a piece of the money. We gave him the whole Hollywood meet off because he really ran hard in the Santa Anita Handicap and the San Juan Capistrano. He never missed a dance, so we gave him a rest and now we’re trying to re-invigorate him.”