New York Sire Stakes Harness Racing

Champions Heston Blue Chip, Coraggioso

Wednesday, 24 April 2013 10:27

Ready for 4-Year-Old Debuts

By Bill Heller 

        Kenny Jacobs’ Heston Blue Chip was last year’s Dan Patch North American 3-Year-Old Pacing Colt Champion. Joe Spadaro and Tom Durkin’s homebred Coraggioso was the New York Sire Stakes

 

 Champion 3-Year-Old Trotting Colt.

        Both were great advertisements for the New York Sire Stakes last year, and their connections are hoping they continue in that role as 4-year-olds this year when they race exclusively in open company.

        “Heston’s coming back real good,” Jacobs said. “He was born in May, so right now he’s still a 3-year-old.  I don’t want to race against 5- and 6-year-olds now. We’ll take our shots at the end of the year. I’ll pick my spots.”

       Asked to characterize Heston’s 3-year-old season, Jacobs said, “It was pretty nice.”

       Heston Blue Chip’s trainer, Linda Toscano, who was both the Dan Patch North American and New York Sire Stakes Trainer of the Year in 2012, agrees. “’Heston’ is a very talented horse,” she said. “I don’t

 think people realize how good he was last year.”

          He was no slouch at 2, posting 11 wins and two seconds in 13 starts. At 3, he won 14 of 18 starts, including the $550,00 Breeders Crown, with one second and one third. “He had one bad race last year,

and he came out of it sick,” Toscano said. “Until then, he was only beaten three times in his whole life.”

His lone poor race last year came in the $225,000 New York Sire Stakes Final at Yonkers to Major Bombay on a sloppy track. When he was scoped the next morning and found to be a bit sick,

 

Toscano and Jacobs gave Heston Blue Chip a freshening. He returned to the races better than ever.

 

“The rest really jump-started him again,” Toscano said. “He was able to beat the best of the best at the end of the year. Look for him returning in May.”

 

A son of American Ideal, out of Togo Bluechip by Cam’s Card Shark, Heston Blue Chip was bred by Blue Chip Bloodstock. 

         Like Heston Blue Chip, Coraggioso will celebrate his actual 4-year-old birthday in May. And Joe Spadaro, a former trainer at Roosevelt and Yonkers, can’t wait. He’s still getting warm vibes from

 

Coraggioso’s victory in last year’s $225,000 New York Sire Stakes Final at Yonkers. “We’re very lucky,” Spadaro said. “We bred one mare and she turned out this horse. There’s nothing like luck. Breeding is

not an exact science.”

        You could tell that Spadaro’s partner, famed racetrack announcer Tom Durkin, enjoyed his experience by the jig he did in the pouring rain after Coraggioso won the NYSS Final.

“He’s been involved in partnerships before,” Spadaro said. “He’s never had this kind of success. Oh my God he had fun.”

         Coraggioso, which means “courage” in Italian, tipped off his ability as a 2-year-old, posting four wins, two seconds and one third in nine starts. At 3, the son of Conway Hall, out of Electra Hanover by Lindy

 Lane, was even better. He won seven of 14 starts with four seconds and one third. The day after the New York Sire Stakes Final, Coraggioso was given the rest of the year off for a job well done.

        Spadaro spent the winter with Coraggioso at the Pinehurst Training Center in North Carolina. He was delighted with Coraggioso’s physical development.

        “He’s gotten bigger,” Spadaro said. “He’s filled in. He’s full of himself.”

Read more: Champions Heston Blue Chip, Coraggioso

2012 NYSS Champs Set For Title Defense

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 15:16

By Bill Heller

         Each and every year, there are only four horses in New York State that can repeat as New York Sire Stakes Champions. They are, of course, the previous year’s 2-year-old champs.

      All four of last year’s championship quartet are gearing up for their first starts as 3-year-olds on the way to competing in this summer’s rich Sire Stakes.

        New York was blessed with a trio of outstanding 2-year-old colt and gelding trotters in 2012. Jules and Arlene Siegel’s Fa shion Farms’ home-bred Champion Fashion Blizzard eked out a head victory over Tirade Hanover in the $225,000 New York Sire Stakes Final at Yonkers Sept. 22,, nine days after Tirade Hanover beat Fashion Blizzard in a $57,780 NYSS division, also at Yonkers.

     Fashion Blizzard is nearing his first start back.

    “He’s two to three weeks away,” trainer Jim Campbell said the other day. “I’m very happy with the way he came back.”

      After winning his NYSS Final last fall, Fashion Blizzard traveled to Lexington to race in open company. After finishing third in a $101,000 division of the Bluegrass Stakes, Fashion Blizzard won an $81,750 division of the International Stallion Stakes in a lifetime mark of 1:54.3. Off that effort, Fashion Blizzard raced in the $600,000 Breeders Crown at Woodbine, but he didn’t do well.

       “He made two breaks,” Miller said. “It was pretty disappointing, but overall, it was a good year.”

      Fashion Blizzard, a colt by Credit Winner out of Fun and Strokes by Donerail, had five wins, three seconds and two thirds from 12 starts, earning $302,439.

     “He’s going to have to improve, because there will be new ones, and the ones from last year were good,” Miller said.

      He made a good point. Tirade Hanover posted seven wins, two seconds and one third from 11 starts, earning nearly $200,000. Royalty for Life, who won a separate division of the International Stallion Stakes and finished second in the Breeders Crown, had seven wins, two seconds and one third from 14 starts, making $334,588.

************************************************

      Kelley Racing Stable’s 2-year-old trotting filly and NYSS Champion You Want Me began her 2-year-old season slowly, posting one second and two thirds from four starts. Then the daughter of Credit Winner, out of Annette Hall by Valley Victory, who was bred by Valley High Stable, won five straight, culminating in a neck decision over Isabella Gal in the NYSS Final. That pushed her earnings for her first season to $220,980.

      “Last year, she certainly exceeded my expectations,” trainer and co-owner Paul Kelley said. “She was a real nice filly. Her greatest asset, besides the fact that she’s good-gaited, is that she’s a very smart filly and a very relaxed filly.”

       That’s an admirable trait for any young trotter, but what probably helped You Want Me’s championship campaign even more was the absence of New York-bred superstar To Dream On, last year’s Dan Patch 2-Year-Old Filly Champion Trotter after posting seven victories and a second in eight starts last year, all in open company.

    “We could meet her in the Empire Breeders Stakes,” Kelley said. “If we’ve got to tangle with her, it’s probably a little bit of a pipe dream, but my filly might be competitive.”

     That’s later this spring for You Want Me. Right now?

     “She’s doing great,” Kelley said. “She’s been back in training since the first of February. She’s on schedule to qualify in the first part of May to get ready for the first leg of the Sire Stakes and the Empire Breeders.”

 

      

 

        

 

       

 

 

2012 NYSS Champs (cont.)

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 15:26

       Burke Racing Stable’s 2-Year-Old Filly Pacing Champion Summertime Lea nearly put together an undefeated first season in 2012, winning eight of nine starts. The lone blip was a second by three-quarters of a length to Free Time, a filly she beat in three other races, including the NYSS Final. Summertime Lea earned just under $300,000.

      The daughter of Lislea out of Donna Summer by Life Sign, who was bred by Tim Rooney, is raring to begin her 3-year-old season.

     “She’s super,” trainer Ron Burke said April 8th. “She’ll qualify next week.”

       Last year couldn’t have gone much better.

      “She was a total surprise last year,” Burke said. “We bought her as a throw-in to put on the truck. We had five yearlings. She turned out to be the best of all of them. She just got better and better.”

Burke is planning on starting Summertime Lea in open company for the first time for her 3-year-old debut.

         “She’s in the Courageous Lady Stakes at Northfield Park,” Burke said. “She’ll probably go right into the stakes from a qualifier. She has a couple other open events later.”               

*****************************************************

       Owner Kenny Jacobs was doubly blessed last year. Not only did his Heston Blue Chip win the Dan Patch Award as North America’s Champion 3-Year-Old Pacing Colt or Gelding, his 2-year-old pacing colt Doctor Butch was almost as sensational.

        And he could do something Heston Blue Chip didn’t do: a repeat as an NYSS Champion. Heston Blue Chip lost just four of 17 starts last year, but one of them was in the NYSS Final to Major Bombay.

       Doctor Butch posted eight wins and four seconds from 12 starts last year, earning $344,411.

      “He might be another Heston,” Jacobs said. “I’d love him to repeat as Sire Stakes Champion. I’d like to win the Dan Patch Award, too.”

     It’s not out of the question.

Read more: 2012 NYSS Champs (cont.)

Forever Just Scores in Levy Division

Wednesday, 10 April 2013 10:41

 

By Bill Heller

       Stake Your Claim Stable and Fred Wallace’s 4-year-old New York-bred Forever Just made the most of a dream trip to capture a $50,000 division of the George M. Levy Memorial Series at Yonkers Raceway Saturday night.

        With Tim Tetrick driving for trainer Linda Toscano, Forever Just used Post 2 to his advantage as Little Michael B, a 16-1 longshot from the rail, left extremely hard to make the front. Tetrick was fine with that and took the pocket with Forever Just, who went off the 5-2 third choice in a field of seven.

        After a quarter in :27.4 and a half in :56.1, Shoobees Place, the 7-5 favorite driven by George Brennan, went after the leader and seemed poised to pass him after three-quarters in 1:23.4.

       But Little Michael B wasn’t done and held off Shoobees Place and the other closers until midstretch.

             Tetrick had Forever Just poised to pop up the passing lane and Forever Just burst past the front-runner with enough momentum to hold off Shoobees Place by a length in 1:52.3.

        In his previous two starts in the Levy, Forever Just had drawn the rail and finished second.

“He’s been drawing the rail and the two post,” Toscano said Sunday morning. “I hope he isn’t using all his luck up for the year.”

        Toscano said that she and Forever Just’s owners considered retiring him to stud, but elected to race him another year. “We brought him back,” Toscano said. “We thought he’d be better as a 4-year-old. I thought this would be a fun horse to race at 4.”

        It’s been a lot of fun so far. Forever Just’s first victory in five starts this year pushed his career earnings past $400,000. “He’s just an absolute pleasure,” Toscano said.

        The Levy Series continues with legs on April 13th and 20th before the $200,000-added Final and $100,000 Consolation April 27th.