Win Win Win shut down for 2019 to 'maximize next year'

Looking back on this year, Michael Trombetta will remember Win Win Win as a horse that took him to both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. But the starts that bookended a now-completed season also have the trainer hopeful for what’s next.

Trombetta said Win Win Win is out of training and "on vacation" at Live Oak Plantation’s Florida farm, where he headed as a last-out victor of Belmont Park’s Manila Stakes in his turf debut. The son of Hat Trick also set a seven-furlong track record on dirt when making his 3-year-old bow in Tampa Bay Downs’ Pasco Stakes.

“He didn’t get injured,” Trombetta said. “We’re looking at a situation where the horse has been in consecutive work for in excess of a year — just trying to take a look at the best schedule to get him back on so we can maximize next year.

“We thought now would be a great time to take a step back, give him a proper break and get ready for, if not the very end of this season, the beginning of next season.”

Win Win Win raced nine times between November and July at six tracks. In the spring, he bounced from Tampa Bay to Keeneland for a runner-up in the Blue Grass Stakes (G2) that qualified the colt for the Derby. He was placed ninth in the Churchill Downs slop, and Trombetta then made the short ship from the Fair Hill training center in Maryland to be seventh in the Preakness.

The Manila score earned Win Win Win an invitation to next weekend’s Saratoga Derby, the second leg of New York’s Turf Trinity for 3-year-old males. Connections declined.

That said, the successful run on turf “opens up a lot of potential options” for 2020. Trombetta expects Win Win Win to run on dirt and grass as an older horse.

“I hope next year I’ve got a bigger, stronger 4-year-old on my hands with a whole lot of choices in front of me,” the trainer said, “and a horse that’s ready for a challenge.”