March 21, 2006
BELMONT STAKES BECKONS FOR NEW 3YO TEAM VALOR PURCHASE,
AWESOME AGAIN COLT WILL ESSAY FINAL JEWEL IN TRIPLE CROWN,
FRENCH-BASED PROSPECT WILL RUN “OFF THE PLANE” IN FINAL CLASSIC
Oh So Awesome has a dirt pedigree, and is bred for distance.
(click on photo for larger image) |
Team Valor will have a runner in the Belmont Stakes, final leg of the American Triple Crown.
Bought this week in France, Oh So Awesome was bred in Kentucky, exported to France where he was an impressive winner earlier this month and will be repatriated in an attempt to win the Belmont Stakes.
“With Oh So Awesome, our stable is returning to the type of daring plays for which we were known when Jeff and I first began importing racehorses from Britain and Europe,” said stable president Barry Irwin.
“As with Martial Law, a $60,000 Sheik Mohammed reject with whom we won the $1-million Santa Anita Handicap at odds of more than 50 to 1, and My Memoirs, a colt that should have beaten A. P. Indy in the Belmont Stakes at odds of 18 to 1, there was no evidence before we bought and imported them that either one had the class or quality to achieve what they did at the highest level of the sport.
“We spent $40,000 of our clients’ money to get Martial Law into the 1989 Big’ Cap and $50,000 of our partners’ dough to supplement My Memoirs to the 1992 Belmont. (It will cost $6,000 to supplement Oh So Awesome to the Triple Crown this week.)
“Instead of generating enthusiasm and interest from anybody in racing other than our own clients, the supplementing of these two horses served only to focus attention on how dumb everybody told us we were.
“Our own trainer didn’t want to run Martial Law. As for My Memoirs, D. Wayne Lukas responded on the morning of the race when I asked him how wet the track was by saying ‘What’s the difference—that 50 to 1 shot you guys are running is going to get beat 100 lengths.’
“Well, Canani took all the credit for winning the Santa Anita Handicap and Lukas was the first trainer after the Belmont to ask me if he could train My Memoirs.
“Listen—we are far from stupid. We realize that when we do imaginative stuff outside the box like this our reasons are not readily apparent. If some of the plays we have fashioned over the last 3 decades were so easily transparent, everybody else would be doing what we have done and not just us.”
Barry Irwin hightailed it above buildings and across the pond yesterday and will not be available for questioning, as he is spending the week in Dubai. So to make this exercise as easy as possible, he has created a bunch of FAQs (frequently asked questions) that might be asked of him if he were still in town. So here goes:
So what is the Dynamic Duo up to this time?
Well, sports fans, with a horse that took 5 races to break his maiden, who only has form on heavy turf and who has never raced on ground other than turf, they plan to attack the Belmont Stakes over 1 ½ miles on the sandy main track on Long Island.
Are these guys nuts?
The front legs of Oh So Awesome. |
Well, apparently not, because in three attempts to win the Belmont Stakes, their record shows a) a second with 18 to 1 My Memoirs, who was trying dirt for the first time in the Belmont, b) a third with Thomas Jo, a reformed $25,000 claimer who gained a measure of notoriety when the gelding was voted Horse of the Year and Champion Male at 3 in Texas, and c) the mistreated Dr. Greenfield, who was not prepared properly by a stubborn young trainer and lost any chance before he entered the starting gate (which took about 4 gruesome minutes in what Barry Irwin described as the most trying episode of his career in racing).
Why this colt?
Oh So Awesome has a pedigree that reflects parentage with a strong proclivity for dirt racing in America. Awesome Again is awesome as a sire of dirt horses in North America and moderate at best as a sire of grass horses. Team Valor reckons if the new colt has form approaching Group class on turf, he must have a chance to win Graded races on the dirt.
Oh So Awesome has already won going more than a mile and a quarter on heavy turf, indicating that the 1 ½ miles of the Belmont Stakes will be well within his grasp.
Why this year’s Belmont?
It is common in most years for seasoned observers of the Turf to decry a lack of quality in the Classic crop. Shouts of “This has got to be the worst bunch of bums yet” are heard virtually every year. But there is mounting evidence that 2006 may actually be the worst!
Barry Irwin and Jeff Siegel agree that the current Classic crop based in North America is pathetic in its lack of talent, perhaps the worst since Gato del Sol crawled home 24 years ago in the 1982 Run for the Roses.
Barry Irwin said he has barely seen a legitimate Grade 1 horse in the crop, let alone a horse up to normal Classic standard. He thinks the only true Classic horse in the crop could be Discreet Cat, who has run but twice and currently is training in Dubai.
Jeff Siegel, who hosts a television program on which he follows the progress of the Classic crop, is just as down on the current group of horses as his partner.
“Can you imagine what will be left of this bunch by the time the Belmont Stakes is run?” they opine.
How will the new colt be prepared?
The stable has sent two horses over from England for the Belmont Stakes, one resulting in a fabulous effort that just fell short behind a winner in A. P. Indy who went on to become the Champion at 3 and Horse of the Year, while the other ended in an embarrassing disaster.
Jean-Claude Rouget
will train the colt
through the Belmont. |
Both horses were trained and prepared the same way in England, with the
difference being that My Memoirs was schooled extensively in an American-style gate
with a bell by veteran conditioner Richard Hannon, whereas Dr. Greenfield was ill-prepared
by a stubborn young trainer who did not see the necessity for America-style gate training.
In Jean Claude Rouget (Profile at France-Galop), the 2006 Belmont assault will be orchestrated by a consummate horseman and leading trainer in France.
Before second-generation trainer Rouget came on the French scene, all top horsemen from the French Provinces made their way to Chantilly, as exemplified by Breeders’ Cup-winning trainer Alain Royer Dupre who has led The Aga Khan forces since departing the provinces more than 25 years ago.
However, Rouget changed the landscape in France, proving that good horses could indeed be conditioned in the country, where he prefers to live and stable his stock. Several times Rouget has led the nation’s trainers in number of wins and he has gained a reputation as the land’s leading trainer behind perennial kingpin Andre Fabre. He trained for leading owner Jean Luc Lagardere before his death 2 seasons ago and currently numbers among his cliente The Rothchilds, The Aga Khan, Gary Tanaka and several American owners.
Where will the colt be trained?
Oh So Awesome will be trained at Rouget’s private training facility in Pau, a 45-minute plane ride and 8-hour van ride from the center of racing in Paris.
As in Chantilly, all of the day-to-day training is done on deep sand. Breezes normally are done on a grass track. Rouget will employ an American-style dirt track to ready the colt. He will also do considerable work at the gate with the Kentucky-bred colt.
Has the trainer run horses off the plane in America?
Jean Claude Rouget has not sent a lot of horses to run off the plane in America, as most of those trained by him that come to America go to new trainers like Bobby Frankel and Julio Canani.
However, in 1995 Rouget prepared and showed up at Belmont Park with Gary Tanaka’s Milkom, with whom he proceeded to win the Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes in near American-record time for 1 3/8 miles.
Two seasons ago, also for Tanaka, Rouget brought his French-trained Eleusis to New York for the 2004 renewal of the Grade 2 Long Island Handicap, which she proceeded to win.
Who, pray tell, will train the colt in America?
This decision will not be made until after the Belmont Stakes, but it will be a horseman who races in New York and Florida in the winter. Team Valor has given its clients a lot to think about in his presentation and it does not want to add too much information to confuse the mix any further. Barry Irwin said that he would like to learn more about the colt before making a final decision as to the identity of his future trainer. He did reveal that neither Kristina Dupps nor Juan Serey were among those being considered.
Why is so much being gambled on the pedigree?
There are two main reasons why Team Valor has decided to proceed with the plan to bring Oh So Awesome for the Belmont Stakes.
One is that he is a wonderful mover, even on heavy turf, and he has the steady style of a dirt horse in that he keeps on keeping on, instead of laying way back and blasting home. Belmonts are won by horses with his style.
Secondly, of course, is the pedigree.
Adena Springs' stallion Awesome Again
is the sire of Oh So Awesome. |
Awesome Again won 9 of 12 starts, with all of his major victories coming on the dirt in races going long, including the 10-furlong Breeders’ Cup Classic, the 12-furlong Queen’s Plate, the 9-furlong Whitney at Saratoga and the 9 furlong Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs.
The $4,374,589-earner stands for a fee of $125,000 based on a phenomenal record from 4 crops to race, which include horses that also want to run long on dirt. He has 4 Grade 1 winners in his first 3 crops.
Awesome Again’s best runner is Ghostzapper, a $3,446,120-earner who retired as Horse of the Year, Champion Older Horse and winner of the 10-furlong Breeders’ Classic among his four Grade 1 wins. He retired to stud with a fee of $200,000 this season.
No better example of how much better runners by Awesome Again are on the dirt versus the turf can be found than Wilko, who was often the bridesmaid but never the bride in England, but won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when switched to dirt in his first start in the United States. He followed up his major score with placings in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby and Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity. Wilko was foaled by a daughter of Indian Ridge, an Irish stallion whose offspring are best on the wettest grass possible.
Other offspring of Awesome Again to ring the bell in major races going long on dirt in North America are Toccet (Grade 1 Champagne Stakes), Round Pond (Grade 1 Acorn Stakes) and Spun Sugar (Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes).
Barry Irwin said “Just because a colt is by a sire like Awesome Again, it doesn’t necessarily have to follow that the offspring will favor his sire in type and conformation. We see this all the time.
“This, however, is not the case with Oh So Awesome, who is virtually a dead-ringer for Awesome Again, shoring up our confidence that we are on the right track with this purchase.
“In fact, if anything, the son looks more like an American horse than the sire, because he has shorter cannon bones in front and a better hip than his sire.
“Finally, as a matter of personal taste, I like the fact that the son is over at the knee, a feature many old-time horsemen cherish for its positive impact on soundness.
“Oh So Awesome has a large, round eye, and an overall look of quality. In temperament, he is extremely laid back. Even when he runs, he is in complete control of the situation.”
The dam—could she run and how far could she go?
Well, Oh So Awesome’s dam raced mostly in Ireland, where she was a stakes winner over colts. She won at 10 furlongs and placed at 12 furlongs.
Dermot Weld, her trainer, even took her to Austria for the rich Magna-sponsored Derby, in which she ran third beaten 1 ½ lengths going a mile and a half.
Hey, yo, what is the rest of the pedigree like?
Persian Bold, a scion of the Bold Ruler (8-time leading sire in the United States) line, managed to sire a tremendous 60 stakes winners in an era when he probably never had more than 45 foals in a crop.
The broodmare sire of Oh So Awesome, Persian Bold for years was the leading Irish sire in terms of earnings gleaned outside of the Emerald Isle, especially in America.
He sired 8 Champions among his 60 stakes winners and, as a broodmare sire, already has been represented by 4 Champions.
Among his American performers have been the following:
- Kings Island won the Grade 1 Sunset Handicap at Hollywood Park.
- Ventiquattrofogli won the Grade 2 Col. F. W. Koester Handicap at Santa Anita, after being a Champion in Italy.
- Brave Act won four Grade 2 and three Grade 3 stakes in California.
- Falcon Flight was a Grade 2 stakes winner at Santa Anita and course-record-breaker at Arlington Park, while placing in Grade 1s as well.
- Princess Tiara won 5 Graded races in America, including the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay in New York, and more importantly placed against all-comers in the Grade 1 Washington, D. C. International at Laurel and the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park.
- Sopran Mariduff won the Grade 2 Black Helen Handicap for Bill Mott in Florida and was placed in the Group 1 Italian Oaks.
- Persianlux won the Grade 2 San Luis Obispo at Santa Anita and placed in the Grade 1 San Juan Capistrano Handicap.
- Penine Walk was a Group 2-winning Miler in England who ran third in the Grade 1 Arlington Million.
- Baba Karam was a stakes winner and multiple Grade 1-placed, including in the Hollywood Invitational Turf Handicap.
- Persian Mews won the Arlington Park Breeders’ Cup Stakes.
- Persianalli won the Relaunch Stakes at Del Mar, where he also placed in the Grade 2 La Jolla Stakes.
- Felon was a stakes winner at Del Mar and Graded placed at Santa Anita.
Persian Bold—did he sire anything that ran well on the dirt in America?
The Bold Ruler blood came to the surface in several of Persian Bold’s offspring, as follows:
- Bold Arrangement ran well enough at 2 in France to be the Co-Champion. He came to Kentucky to run third in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and followed up with an historic second in the Kentucky Derby.
- Anshan won the Grade 2 San Bernardino Handicap on dirt at Santa Anita and was second in the Grade 1 Californian Stakes at Hollywood Park for trainer John Gosden.
- Kings Island won a Grade 1 on turf in the U. S., but he also ran third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup on dirt and equaled a track record for 1 ½ miles at Golden Gate.
Any other American dirt-type breeding in the pedigree?
Oh So Awesome’s grandam was sired by Horage, a son of Tumble Wind.
Tumble Wind was one of the most versatile horses of the post-war era to race in Southern California.
Brilliant at 2 sprinting, he went on at 3 to win the Hollywood Derby going a mile and a quarter on dirt in 2:00 1/5 and run second in the Santa Anita Derby.
The next season at 4 he set a new track record for 1 ½ miles at Santa Anita.
Is it a disadvantage to train abroad for an American Classic?
Photo of the colt taken Monday morning
in France by agent Gordian Troeller.
(Click for larger image.) |
Au contrere mon ami! Just the opposite is true.
Barry Irwin said “No American-based horse can be trained hard enough or fast enough to be as fit as any horse that arrives dead fit from abroad, because there are much superior training facilities in Britain and Europe than in America.
“What happens usually is that a horse from abroad will run its best race right off the plane, then regress gradually until their superior fitness wears off and they find their place in the scheme of things in the United States.”
Irwin also said he likes the fact that Oh So Awesome does not show even a hint of a rib in his girth.
“This tells me that there is a lot more to come from him, because they haven’t gotten close to the bottom of him yet. French horses that win usually are wafer thin. This guy is like a medium-sized Sherman tank right now.”
What is he like as a European racehorse?
Oh So Awesome was a late developer at 2, according to Jean Claude Rouget. In three starts a month apart in September, October and November, over 8, 9 and 10 furlongs, the colt placed third, second and fourth.
Typically, French trainers will start their Classics prospects in this fashion toward what they refer to as the “back end” of the season.
Rouget had the colt ready for an early start to the 2006 grass racing season in France. This year blinkers were added to the colt for his two starts, which resulted in a one-length loss when second in mid February and a 1 ½-length score three weeks later.
Oh So Awesome is the type of colt not to get flustered, either by his rivals or his jockey. He knows his job and does it, whether he is bumped around early or urged on by his rider. He gives the distinct impression that he will run on as far as horses are asked to go in the United States.
Rouget says the colt was backward and babyish last season, but the penny has dropped at 3 and he is now all business.
So, like, what is the game plan with this guy leading up to the Belmont?
Team Valor envisions Oh So Awesome running 3 more races prior to the Belmont Stakes. Although a race will be sought on the all-weather it is most likely that the colt instead will race on grass prior to his departure.
France does provide excellent facilities on which a horse can be prepared for an American invasion and Rouget will use them.
Rouget is a thorough professional and can be counted on to do his usual fine job with Oh So Awesome.
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