One of The Assembled, Bobby G., has a lifelong friend who has been in the ownership side of the game in racing as well as breeding. Richie (Hayward) Pressman has owned a horse or two for decades, generally New York State Breds who win perhaps two, maybe three races before being retired.
He's used a mare Danville to bred some of these horses. He has raced Sweet Moving D, Mighty Tuff, Mighty Reward, Animal Posse, Sir Frost, and others. He's won at Saratoga, perhaps the hardest place to win a race as an owner.
He's also the owner I have won the most money on. His horses are never favorites, and when they win they do so at a price. On Derby Day at Belmont in 2010 his Mighty Tuff freight-trained his way down the turf stretch to win by a neck at 33-1. No one ever bets enough on a winning horse, but the Benjamins and Grants in my pocket came in handy when I had to pay an ER co-pay later that month. Damn, I hated to give those bills up.
I've met Richie in the paddock at Belmont and at his box in Saratoga. But for the last few years his Saratoga attendance has not coincided with mine, so I wasn't there on Saturday when his latest horse, Cassies Dreamer, suddenly came alive in the stretch of the Grade I Spinaway Stakes to finish a very decent third, just missing second place by a neck and finishing a solid length in front of the fourth place horse.
The Spinaway is 7 furlong race for 2-year-old fillies for a purse of $350,000, with the added prize of being a Win-and-Your-In race for the winner to get expenses paid for being entered in their Breeders' Cup category, this year to be run at Churchill Downs in early November. Going from a one-turn 7 furlong race to a two-turn mile and a sixteenth affair is a natural progression for a developing horse, filly or colt.
With ownership of a Grade I stakes-placed filly, Richie is no longer plying the conditions of New York Breds. For now, he's a major player in the 2-year-old filly division.
There is no thoroughbred race that is not multiple stories. The Spinaway was Cassies Dreamer's second race. This is not unusual for a juvenile stakes race at Saratoga. Colt and fillies have not run many races yet. The entrants in the Spinaway had all at least run a race, but most were only running their second race after breaking their maiden races first time out. Unlike the Kentucky Derby which is for three-year-olds and has a series of awarded point prep races required for entry, the Spinaway is guided by a nomination fee and then the usual fees required to pass the entry box, and then to start. I haven't seen the full conditions of the race, but I have little doubt it cost at least $10,000 in be in the starting gate.
The story behind Cassies Dreamer includes one of The Assembled who in effect is the de facto stable manager. Bobby G. entreated Richie to get himself a more expensive horse, notably a filly he could keep and use for breeding. I once asked Bobby G., a retired surgeon, why didn't he go into ownership with Richie on his horses? Bob replied, "it's bad enough one of us has the disease,"
Richie's trainer Carl Domino was retiring. I don't know the full circumstances of how Richie came to approach Barclay Tagg to be his trainer, or how they both set their sights on Cassies Dreamer, who was running for its first time at Saratoga on August 3rd in a $50,000 maiden claimer.
It is unusual for a firster to be placed in a claimer. Generally, they descend from protected maiden special weight races if they have trouble competing against that class of horse. I didn't see The Form on August 3rd, but I can tell from the chart that Barclay Tagg, and Richie and Rusty Jones combined forces to claim the horse for $50,000. I do not know what led them to place a claim in for the horse.
Putting a first-time starter in a claiming race is either a calculated maneuver or an act of desperation to unload a horse that has already been given up on. It hasn't raced, and the owner says it is for sale. It is a car on the pre-owned lot that hasn't been driven. Talk about unknowns. What's behind the door, the lady or the tiger?
Cassies Dreamer's breeding is more than decent, being sired by Flatter, from a War Front mare Chilbolton. The stud fee for Flatter is $35,000. Whether the horse was a home bred or sold at auction, I do not know. Generally, yearlings are sold at auction, very often way above $50,000. The week we were at Saratoga there was a similar maiden claiming race where Robert LaPenta (Catholic Boy, winner of this year's Travers) and his partners put a $435,000 auction horse, Our Honor, into a $30,000 claiming race after two starts in maiden special weight races, finishing a decent third and second in its second race. The horse was claimed by Linda Rice. Our Honor did not hit the board.
So, for whatever reason Cassies Dreamer is placed in a maiden claimer for $50,000, along with four other horses that also have not yet started a race, and whatever attracted the Barclay Tagg,
et al interest, Cassies Dreamer was claimed from the trainer Anthony Quartarolo and went to Tagg's barn.
The claiming race was a dirt five and a half furlong race run over a sloppy/sealed track. Cassies Dreamer must have been heavily tipped by good workouts, or word-of-mouth, because it went off as the $1.35 favorite and won easily by two and a quarter lengths.
So what's next? Generally, after a maiden win a horse either enters a non-winners of one, or a non-winners of two lifetime. The progression to better races is usually in small doses.
Whatever Cassies Dreamer was showing to the experienced Barclay Tagg, it was enough for her to be entered as a main-track-only entrant in Thursday's P.G. Johnson Stakes, to be run at a mile and a sixteenth. If the race comes off the turf, Cassies Dream goes in the gate in a race that will be run at a mile and an eighth on the dirt track.
Enough rain didn't happen, so the P.G. Johnson race goes as carded, on the turf, and Cassies Dreamer is scratched. I don't know if the nominations for the Spinaway were already closed when the new ownership took over, but the horse was eligible to have the current owners pony up what surely must have been $10,000 or more to start in Saturday's Spinaway. There was either irrational exuberance at work, or some well-founded knowledge about ability, but whatever it was, Cassies Dreamer goes into the Spinaway and draws the dreaded one post for the 7 furlong race. Crap.
One posts are difficult, because you get sandwiched back there if you don't break well, or, you have to run faster than you want to clear the field that will be closing in on you as you run down the backstretch. To say Cassies Dreamer is lightly regard in the Spinaway is to vastly understate the public's lack of confidence in the horse. There are others, particularly a Bob Baffert/Mike Smith horse, Chasing Yesterday coming in from Delmar with an impressive maiden score in a seven horse field that gets bet down to $1.70 in the 11 horse Spinaway field. There is Ken McPeak's Restless Ruler, who goes as second favorite at $2.85.
Cassies Dreamer's odds start at 30-1 morning line, and goes up like a thermometer in the desert to a crest at 68-1. Only two other horses have higher odds. The high odds are understandable, because nothing looks more impossible that a claimed maiden claimer firster, winning at a shorter distance over a sloppy track, when today's track is fast (even if it is over the same track), taking on better connected horses who are coming out of maiden special weight wins, or next level races. If it wasn't for the vicarious connection, my few dollars would go elsewhere.
But, like I said, I have made more off Richie's horses than from any other ownership in all my 50 years of betting. So, the few dollars I sprinkled across the board were not going to change my lifestyle, even at 68-1, but they they sure were going to provide some excitement if his horse even came in the money.
Cassies Dreamer breaks badly, bouncing off the gate and trails the field. Last place is hers right to the first quarter pole. But Junior Alvarado gets her going, and she's picking up horses on the backstrctch, threading her way through the field. At the half she changes last place with Sippican Harbor and progresses to sixth place at the top of the stretch. She's now four lengths behind the leader, Noble Madeline. At this point, I lose track of where she is because all the horses and jockeys are covered in dirt, their colors becoming hard to distinguish.
A lot usually happens in a large field juvenile race with no outstanding horses between the stretch call and the finish line. And this Spinaway was no exception. Sippican Harbor emerges from the scrum and wins by a decisive two lengths under Joel Rosario at 16-1. Restless Ruler and Cassies Dreamer suddenly see or smell the finish and burst forward from the throng, with Restless Ruler finishing second, and Cassies Dreamer finishing a neck behind. Cassies Dreamer is third! In the money, stakes placed. Richie, you're no longer in New York Bred conditions.
The payoffs are generous since Baffert's Chasing Yesterday is out of the money. Jerry Bailey, astutely pointed out before the race that Chasing Yesterday's win was from the seven hole in a seven horse race, therefore outside of everyone, and by taking the lead did not have dirt thrown in her face. In today's Spinaway, breaking from the seven hole, she's going to have a different experience. Mike Smith in his post-race interview looked the part of a boy who played in a hole, confirmed the dirt-thrown-in-her-face-for-the-first-time story and said she'd do better next time.
My show bet that was part of a $14.20 payoff did not alter my financial statement, but it did alter any mood I was in, which wasn't bad to start with. The needle went to pure excitement.
Whether Richie and his entourage decides on a Breeders' Cup entry will remain to be seen. My limited understanding of the ability to enter any of the Breeders' Cup races is the sire has to be nominated. Since Flatter is a top sire these days, my guess is his breeders have kept up with the nomination monies. As the cliche word goes these days, I'm sure his possible entry is in the "conversation." Third place in the Spinaway was worth $42,000, probably equaling a win purse in a New York Bred maiden race.
Sam Spade explains to the flatfoot Tom Polhaus in 'The Maltese Falcon' that the falcon is "the stuff dreams are of." So is a thoroughbred.
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Your reference to "piece of tail" raised my eyebrows.
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