West Saratoga has Demeritte smiling about Breeders’ Futurity

Lexington, Ky.

There are not too many more welcoming sights on a backstretch than the Larry Demeritte barn at Keeneland. Especially since the trainer himself has a megawatt smile that nothing can wipe away.

“That’s my life,” he said. “Who could read you if you have a big smile?”

A big laugh followed, the soundtrack perhaps for a unique poker face.

If his newly minted, graded-stakes winner West Saratoga should pull off an upset Saturday in the Grade 1, $600,000 Breeders’ Futurity, that triumph would carry Demeritte to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita. It also would take that smile to Hollywood.

“It’d go from a smile to a grin,” he said.

More food for thought from a trainer who moved to America 47 years ago from his native Bahamas. His stable is small. He has just nine horses who he manages from his home base at The Thoroughbred Center, a 12-mile drive from the six stalls he has at Keeneland.

Since winning last month’s Iroquois (G3) at Churchill Downs, West Saratoga became the unrivaled star of the barn. He was just a few steps away when Demeritte did an interview Thursday for Horse Racing Nation’s Ron Flatter Racing Pod. The gray-roan Exaggerator colt who cost Demeritte’s friend Harry Veruchi only $11,000 was munching on the grass while assistant trainer Donté Lowery held his rein.

“He’s moved forward I think again since the Iroquois,” Demeritte said. “He’s training very well. I’m looking forward to this run, because you’re going to see some Derby horses come out of this field. It’s a really good bunch of horses in this field.”

Morning-line maker Nick Tammaro gave odds of 20-1 to West Saratoga. Todd Pletcher’s $425,000 Gun Runner colt Locked is the 7-5 favorite in the field of nine 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles Saturday. He broke his maiden with a 7 1/4-length win Sept. 1 at Saratoga and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96, according to Daily Racing Form.

“I only can talk about my horse and how he’s moving forward,” Demeritte said. “I don’t know what the other horses are doing. Win, lose or draw, I know this horse has improvement to make because of the way he’s training, the handling in the barn. He’s eating up everything. He’s holding his weight very well, so I’m excited for this one, and that will tell us where we’re at with him after this race.”

West Saratoga is an exception to Demeritte’s usual business model. If he were a realtor, he would be the guy who buys a house, fixes it up and flips it at a much higher price to the next buyer. He does the same thing with horses. But not now. Demeritte said he and Veruchi would hold onto this guy who they came perilously close to losing before they ever had him.

“I just was fortunate and blessed to pick him up when I did,” Demeritte said. “I was close to the end of my ropes on how much I could spend.”

That was about 200 yards away during last year’s Keeneland September yearling sale. West Saratoga was hip 4146. After him, only 15 more horses went through the ring before that 12th and final day of the sale was done. Demeritte’s budget was nearly spent.

If the price for West Saratoga had gone higher than 11 grand, “I had 12,” Demeritte said with another big laugh.

It turned out to be money well spent. With a record of 6: 3-2-0 this year, West Saratoga has rung up $276,815 in purse earnings. His Iroquois victory also made Demeritte the first Black trainer to win a Kentucky Derby prep since the current points system was established 11 years ago.

If West Saratoga were to pull off the upset in the Breeders’ Futurity or perhaps make a strong showing in defeat, Demeritte could become the second Black trainer based in the U.S. to get a horse to the Breeders’ Cup, which is about to have its 40th annual running. George Arnold was believed to have been the first when he took California Angel to the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“That means a great deal, because I always tell my staff we represent a race of people,” Demeritte said. “When some trainers win, they win for them. I feel like when I win, I win for a country. My whole country. My country celebrates, and that’s the way we do it for our athletes in the Bahamas. ... We take a lot of pride in where we’re from, representing people.”

Demeritte has been asked about this before. Not just after he won the Iroquois. A web search turned up a 1978 story from The Associated Press about owner Archie Donaldson and trainer Oscar Dishman, two Black men based at Hialeah in Florida. Also quoted in that story that was picked up by The New York Times was a young groom by the name of Larry Demeritte.

This week he preferred not to reveal his age, but Demeritte could not hide the wisdom and perspective he has gained in the 45 years since that story was written. In short, he has refused to be stymied by the 120 years of barriers in racing that have been built on race.

“We have enough negatives in the world,” he said. “I don’t dwell on negatives. It’s all about positives, and there’s a lot of positive that we hope will come out of this to encourage not only so much people of color but people who need a break in life. I hope my life could be an example for them. That there’s a chance, but you have to dedicate yourself to it.”

Demeritte said it was his grandmother who taught him to make himself better on his own terms.

“My grandmother always told me as a kid, ‘Larry, you have to be twice as good to be equal.’ That’s what I strive for all the time through my entire life.”

That rings of an unjust, double standard, but Demeritte would have none of that. He said it was absolutely fair.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he said. “Because my grandmother said it, and she’s the smartest woman I’ve ever known in my life. My grandmother’s mother was a white lady, and this is back in the day. My grandmother was born in 1900. She’d give us things to ground us properly, so it’s OK to be twice as good to be equal. It makes you walk around with a smile on your face.”

Demeritte is a man of faith. He called himself “a praying person” who has been fortunate to have found a good life in horse racing.

“I have been blessed coming over here,” he said. “I always set goals for myself, like when I left the Bahamas and a leading trainer to come here. I said if it’s the Lord’s will, He’ll bless me within the first five years. I gave myself time to have success, not overnight success.”

Those early years working for Dishman exposed Demeritte to the modest accomplishments of Florida-bred horse Silver Series, who won the Hawthorne Derby, Ohio Derby and American Derby Handicap in a four-week span of 1977.

On his own since 1981, Demeritte’s previous biggest splash came with Kentucky-bred gelding Memorial Maniac, who won the 2010 Stars and Stripes (G3) at Arlington. That was his only graded-stakes winner until West Saratoga last month.

There may have been 13 years between those triumphs, but Demeritte said they were just part of the journey.

“There’s a lot of bumps in the road,” he said. “Life is like a blacktop road. It’s very long but very shallow. Sometimes you hit potholes. When you hit a pothole in life, what do you do with it? That’s where my faith comes in, right there.

“I’ve seen a lot of trainers come and go. People with a lot of money come and go, but God still sustains me in this business, and I look at it as being a platform for Him. That’s why I have so many people pulling for me, and I’m so grateful for it. I really, really appreciate that more than anything.”

No matter what happens Saturday in the Breeders’ Futurity, Demeritte said he would be happy to have another chance to have a visitor return and catch up with him.

“Hopefully you could come back again after the race, and we go from there. You know, it’s one race at a time,” he said. Beaming.