'Cat' and mouse with Ian Black

Interviewing Ian Black, trainer of Queen's Plate hopeful Incredicat, is always fun.

Sometimes, he's quiet, so I try to ask more questions. Other times, he chooses his words carefully and I bite my lip so as not to interrupt his train of thought.

Usually, there's laughter.

Queen's Plate contender Incredicat makes his move


On Saturday, Black's charge will make his first attempt going two-turns. The chestnut son of Discreet Cat-Lady Auchamore debuted impressively at Woodbine in December, breaking sharply, before allowing Luis Contreras to settle him into third position off a quick early pace in the five and a half furlong main track sprint.

When Contreras allowed Incredicat free rein, the chestnut responded with a strong move to take the lead and held on to win by a length and a quarter over well-regarded Canadian Navy.

Incredicat wore blinkers for that debut, but he'll race unencumbered in Saturday's $100,000 Wando Stakes set for a mile and a sixteenth over Woodbine's Polytrack.

"I put blinkers on him because he used to look around a lot in the stretch," starts Black.

And, with a grin adds, "There was so much hype on this horse first time out, that I thought if I get this horse beat because he's looking at something, I'll look pretty dumb."



Incredicat then shipped to Florida where he continued his education at Payson Park.

"He had a pretty short break, really," said Black. "We started breezing him in January. It's a very slow racetrack, but he had a couple of very good works in company. He ran with Gail's (Cox, trainer) filly (Hard Not to Like) and we worked with a couple of Roger's (Attfield, trainer) so he was pretty fit when he went to Gulfstream."

On March 24, Incredicat made his three-year-old debut in a six and a half furlong N1X at Gulfstream Park.

With Jose Lezcano in the irons, Incredicat once again broke sharply, set a wicked pace of :22.17, :44.59 and 1:09.96 only to be caught in the stretch by Right to Vote. Incredicat would hold on to be third, defeated less than two lengths.

"He probably got a little tired inside the eighth pole, but I thought it was a pretty good effort," said Black.

If Fifty Proof can carry his speed, why not Incredicat?


The goggles were on for the Florida start, but Incredicat has enjoyed his last two breezes, including a swift five-furlong breeze in :59.60 on April 14, without them.

Although the speedy Incredicat is talented, some handicappers might be concerned that the other entrants in the compact five-horse field have all had a try going two-turns.

Which begs the question...

Is Black concerned about Incredicat going two-turns?

"Absolutely," says Black

There's a hint of a smile on the trainer's face. He's been down this road many times before.

"How about Stormy Lord?" offers Black, referencing Incredicat's multiple-stakes winning half-brother. "He can go a mile and a half and he's out of the same mare. This horse (Incredicat) is probably more rateable than he was as a younger horse."

If Stormy Lord can run two turns...


At this point, the interview breaks down into a discussion of distance, blinkers and strategy before Black puts a stop to things by asking, "Where is this stuff going, again?"

"On my blog," I reply.

"Does anybody read it?" he jokes.

"Only if I mention Chantal," comes my answer, which gets both Black and his assistant Skippy Bown laughing.

Some sense of seriousness is restored to the proceedings and Black is ready to talk about strategy and the possiblity of being on the engine first time going a mile and a sixteenth.

"He does relax behind horses and come on and get them," says Black of Incredicat's morning breezes.

But, the fact remains, Incredicat is likely the fastest horse in the field.

"If they're going a half in :49, it might as well be me," starts Black.

And with the familiar wry grin, adds, "And, if they're going a half in :44, it probably will be me."

Contreras, who engineered the maiden-breaking score, will be in charge of Incredicat's fate on Saturday.

"He's going to have to ride the race," says Black. "If I was one of the other four guys, I'm not going to try and run with me on the front end either because it's only going to hurt yourself, but if he was sitting second I'd be happy."

Bowen, who has (uncharacteristically) quietly observed the proceedings to this point, offers the following.

"If he goes two turns, we've got ourselves a serious horse," he says. "He faced a double inside press the whole way (in the Gulfstream race) and got beat by a horse (Right to Vote) who the start before was beat six lengths by, probably, the Derby favourite.

Bowen's reference is well-taken. Right to Vote was a pace-setting third in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont which Union Rags romped by five and a quarter lengths.

It's also worth noting that the Champagne's second-place finisher Alpha, who nipped Right to Vote for place by a neck, has since won the Count Fleet, Grade 3 Withers and was second in the Grade 1 Wood.

Black, with an eye on future two-turn events, is mostly concerned with his own horse.

"What I don't want is for this horse to think he has to have the front end," says Black. "The minute that happens, someone will fix us (with a rabbit for pace pressure). But if he will rate, he has a lot better chance. In this particular race (the Wando), that horse of Pletcher (Big Creek) comes up a winner going :48 or :49 halves. Well, if they go :49 (on Saturday) we'd be very close to the lead, I'd think. If someone bombs off in :47, I'd like to think we could sit off that."

And with that, the interview session is over. The answer to the two-turn question, however, is still to come.

Quote of the Week

"If Ozzie Guillen had spent part of his suspension at Aqueduct yesterday, he would have cleaned up, because Castro (Eddie, that is) won three races at payoffs of $12, $11 and $26.60." - - Ed Fountaine for the NY Post via Equidaily.

Race Call of the Week

"Tu Endie Wei is set down, and with long and powerful strides she kicks away. Tu Endie Wei, last year's two-year-old filly champion, looks sharp in victory. An overwhelming winner of the Star Shoot." - - Track announcer Dan Loiselle was very impressed with Reade Baker's star filly.



Tu Endie AWESOME in the walking ring...just wow.


Tweet of the Week
Did harness driver Billy Davis Jr. and thoroughbred trainer Skippy Bowen go to the Blue Jay's game together?



- - as it turns out, they attended separately, but both borrowed a line from the beer vendor. Anyone else remember the Blue Jay beer guy who would bellow, scarily, "Ice, COLD, BEEEEERRRRRRR!!!!"

ICE COLD BEEEEEEEEEEER


Okay (Okay!) Blue Jays (Blue Jays!) Let's play...horse racing?


This and That

Jen Morrison gets the inside scoop for the Toronto Star - - Todd Kabel back in the saddle:

“I had a lot of stuff going on in my life,” said Kabel about the last two years. “I had an aunt and uncle pass away that I was very close to. Another uncle had a stroke and I was going through a divorce. I got very depressed.”

Kabel spent a lot of time in western Canada with family, including his four children, before returning to Ontario early last year.

With depression came drinking and the bottom fell out when he was charged with a DUI and lost his licence. Kabel stayed away from the track until a chance conversation and hunting trip with Langlais last fall.

More jock talk from Tommy Wolski who notes that Grass is greener on the other side:

Both arrived at sunrise and began exercising horses for the Van Over-schot and Brown Stables. The going pay rate for this job is $10 per horse. The pair would each average approximately 15 horses a morning during the spring.
"Sean [Evans] had been off a few years because of riding accidents," said VanOverschot. "I remember last year he mentioned wanting to go back to riding and if he was able to get his weight down properly, would I give him a chance with some mounts? This spring, after watching him work his butt off, I realized he [Evans] was the type of person I wanted to help out."

Evans and Van Overschot worked out together at a gym seven days a week doing cardio and weight. Evans went from 130 pounds in February to his now riding weight of 115 pounds.

Is this a #humblebrag?...Please to mention this little blog got a mention from Rob Longley in his weekly racing column for the Toronto Sun:

The popular rider remains determined to make a place for herself on the competitive Southern California circuit even though it’s tough getting live mounts with the short fields that plague that circuit.

“It’s hard to go in knowing you’re going to be riding a 20-1 shot, it becomes humbling but I still learn every day,” Sutherland told fine racing website Tripledeadheat.ca. “But if I work hard, I still believe I can do well. It’s feast or famine.”

Still Need More?
As always, keep track of the latest goings on in the world of horse racing by clicking into TripleDeadHeat's Woodbine News page or join in on the conversation by following TripleDeadHeat on witter.

Photo Finish

(Double-left click on the image to enlarge it and use your "BACK" button to return to the Photoblog)

Tu Endie Wei is a beauty


Beeker Street didn't need to stretch for the wire in his debut


Beeker's so sleeeepyzzzzz


Kara's Orientation watching his friends play


Purple skies are going to clear up, put on a happy face


Silhouette, purple silhouette


Carolyn Costigan offers a grin


Happy to be on a horse


My smile is bigger than your smile!


Who wouldn't be happy to ride Kara's Orientation?


I'm pretty happy too, you know!


No tears over here!


Smiles are free


Hi Val and David!


Happy to be working for the Mike DePaulo barn!


Team Tiller feeling good!


Side glance smile


When the morning is as glorious as this, why not smile?


Grin!


Together


Traffic trouble


Leroy leads the workers to the track


@EJWilson81 takes one out for a spin


The Reade Baker barn was busy


Here comes another one!


Just a wee thing


This one's well speckled


Eurico keepin' busy!


Striiiiide


Brian Lynch's familiar kangaroo saddle cloth


Little and large combo


We move like cagey tigers...

Photo Essay: A visit with Fifty Proof, Rahy's Attorney and Wollemi Pine at Kinghaven Farms

Skippy Bowen, assistant trainer to Ian Black, made me an offer I couldn’t refuse when he invited me up to Kinghaven Farms on Friday morning to watch their horses during a winter training session.

Not only was it a chance to eyeball Sovereign Award finalist Fifty Proof as he takes his first steps on the journey back to the races, it also meant I could bring a few treats to retired stars Rahy’s Attorney and Wollemi Pine.

Wollemi Pine remains the Woodbine track record holder at 1M70


Kinghaven Farms is nestled in a gorgeous tree-lined property in King City and I cursed the weatherman, who had predicted zero percent precipitation, for much of the drive from my home in Toronto as rain, then freezing rain and finally snow pelted my car.

Running up that hill...


However, it was well worth the white-knuckle drive upon arrival as the resulting photos look that much better with a little snow on the ground.

Stand up if you like snow!


I found Skippy standing under a heat lamp inside Kinghaven’s covered quarter-mile track, carefully watching a pair of young horses, including a little chestnut filly that seemed familiar to me in both colour and movement.

The little Lady Auchamore filly is named, I believe, Pied A Terre and she is a half-sister of Sovereign Award finalist Stormy Lord and the well-regarded Incredicat.

“She’s by City Zip,” says Bowen. “She’s built for speed and with the way her brother, Stormy Lord, and the now three-year-old Incredicat, have raced there’s high hopes for her. It’s a tough act to follow, but if she has a bit of filly fight in her, good things can happen.”

The little filly asks for a little love


Bowen is cautiously optimistic about the chestnut’s potential.

“She’s built more like Stormy Lord,” he says. “She’s a slender filly, very agile. She’s training well right now, but you never really know until you work them.”

The horse I was waiting to see train, however, was the immense Fifty Proof. As we made our way to the barn, a number of familiar faces poked their heads out of their stalls to say hello. Don’s Folly and Princess Niigon, who sports a long white brush along her nose, occupy stalls that flank the path leading from barn to track.

Looking to the end of shed row, I recognized the familiar long-eared noggin of multiple graded stakes winner Rahy’s Attorney. ‘The Champ’ was dapper in his shiny coat and blue blanket and happily crunched a few mints.

The handsome Rahy's Attorney


He was pleased with the attention, but the moment was interrupted when Skippy laughed, “Keith, you might want to turn around.”

Across the shed row, his neck fully extended out of his stall, was the massive cranium belonging to Fifty Proof. The Whiskey Wisdom gelding is tall, muscular and exudes the presence of a horse that won’t be denied a treat once asked.

Fifty Proof demands attention


As I fed a few mints to the huge-hoofed Grade 3 Eclipse Stakes champ, Bowen went over the details of Fifty Proof’s road to recovery after suffering an injury to his suspensory just prior to the Sky Classic Stakes in August.

“Recommended by Dr. Robert McMartin, we did stem cell and plasma injection,” explained Bowen. “We gave him the proper time off, did some ultrasounds and decided it would be beneficial to do some laser therapy on it.”

As we talk, Fifty Proof is led out of his stall to go for a jog with the filly May Island.

“At the beginning of the year we got the okay to start training him again and on January 16 we started him here again at Kinghaven,” says Bowen. “In a couple weeks he’ll head down to Payson Park to continue his training.”

Too dark in here for pictures!


Fifty Proof and May Island make for an odd, little and large, coupling as they made strides within the shadowy confines of the training track. May Island, sleek and athletic, glides over the surface. Fifty Proof moves with a purpose. His head is forward and he bulls his way through the workout.

He is a physical imposing specimen and the workout seems light, but the connections are being patient in re-building the foundation and fitness of their prized horse.

“The main thing is to get some weight on him and for him to do a lot of jogging,” explains Bowen. “Before he heads to Payson, he’ll have a couple weeks of galloping into him here at the farm and then he’ll go to Florida and be trained, more or less, like any other horse. Of course, we’ll keep a closer eye on him, but all systems are go right now and we’re just looking forward for the season to start.”

Stormy Lord hanging out in his Woodbine stall last summer


Fifty Proof, who won twice and placed twice in four starts in 2011, impressed enough to earn a Sovereign Award nomination in the Older Male category. Bowen is appreciative of the honour, but recalls a time when he thought the 2011 campaign might work out differently.

“It’s bittersweet,” he says. “At the beginning of last year, I really felt like we could have the three finalists for the turf. I felt that Rahy, Stormy and Fifty Proof could be the three finalists. And the little horse, Stormy Lord, is the only one who ends up in that category.”

Fifty Proof and May Island conclude their exercise and the big horse is stopped under a beam of light in the training centre so I can snap a photo.

In the photo, Fifty Proof’s exercise rider Matt Douglas is hidden behind the gelding’s massive frame - - but he offers an insight into the little chestnut filly he previously steered around the track.

“I went from riding the smallest horse to the biggest horse in the barn,” he laughs. “But I think her heart is the same size.”

Matt, somewhere up there, aboard Fifty Proof


If Fifty Proof maintains his current progress, he’ll find an allowance at Keeneland or Woodbine to make his comeback. Along with Stormy Lord, he’s expected to lead a promising stable for Ian Black in 2012 with the now three-year-old Incredicat, the chestnut filly and a two-year-old Pulpit-Lyrically colt named Apostolic.

The Canadian foaled Apostolic is currently in Payson with Black.

“He’s from Lyrically, a very nice mare for us,” says Bowen. “She’s from the Lover’s Talk family. That family means a lot to Kinghaven.”

Lover’s Talk won a Sovereign Award in 2007 as Outstanding Broodmare. The family includes stakes winners Love Grows, Barley Talk, Torrid Affair, Wild Whiskey and the stakes-place Lyrically.

“They’re down there right now at Payson with him (Apostolic) and we quite like him, otherwise he wouldn’t be down there,” says Bowen.

Incredicat, a Discreet Cat-Lady Auchamore chestnut (of course), is the barn’s Queen’s Plate hopeful for 2012. There was a fair bit of backstretch buzz last year about Incredicat who was slated to make his start in the Clarendon, but bucked shins in training, and instead debuted with a sharp victory going five and a half furlongs in December.

“Incredicat was such a physically amazing thoroughbred right from the get go,” offers Bowen. “He was a big, strong, gorgeous two-year-old. He looked like a three year old, really.”

Incredicat breaks his maiden at Woodbine


Distance is the main concern regarding Incredicat’s chances of succeeding on the Queen’s Plate trail. However, Black was impressed with the relaxed manner in which Luis Contreras engineered the debut victory.

Baby it's cold outside


“I thought he ran big because he broke really sharp and Luis was able to settle him and take him back off that,” says Black. “At five and a half furlongs a lot of people would have sent him, but I thought Luis rode him really well.”

Incredicat has continued his racing education at Payson over the winter and Bowen is hopeful the horse will outrun expectations.

“Discreet Cat was a two turn horse,” he offers. “Incredicat will get every chance to prove that he belongs in the Plate.”

While the barn is looking forward to seeing these future stars race, their former war horses are far from forgotten.

Rahy’s Attorney, who earned in excess of $2.2-million in a storied career highlighted by a victory in the 2008 Woodbine Mile, is expected to make it back to Woodbine as a stable pony.

“He’s doing great,” says Bowen of the 11-time stakes winner. “But he hates not having a job. The game plan with him is to eventually make him into our stable pony so he can be at the track, stand at the wire, and back up with the two-year-olds.”

Those who know Rahy’s Attorney will recall how much the horse enjoyed his little moments standing at the finish line in the morning watching the horses go by. The barn is hopeful he can lend his experience to younger horses making their first nervous steps on the Polytrack.

“To have a horse that will back up the younger horses and stand at the wire with them, and if a loose horse runs by and for that older horse not to be afraid really helps a two-year-old,” says Bowen.

Snow kiss!


With my morning visit winding down, there was one more horse I wanted to visit before braving the icy road home - - the speedy, pale-as-pale-can-be, mint-munching, tongue-wagging eight-year-old gelding Wollemi Pine.

We found him in a paddock shared with four other horses including Knightly Attire, Get Down, Colonel Kleeter and a jumper named Al.

I visited Wollemi Pine often during his racetrack days and I’d like to think he remembered me as I walked to the paddock fence. But, truth be told, his pink nose likely caught hold of the minty scent of my outstretched hand as he ambled up for a treat.

Get Down peers between the trees


As I ventured into the paddock, I was swarmed by the grey grifters Wollemi Pine and Get Down. The devilish duo ran an elaborate con, eating the offered treats as a form of distraction, while their paddock mates attempted to pick my pocket and make off with the sweet stash.

Pickpocket!!


With the snow flurries increasing, I bid my goodbyes to the lovable lugs and gave Wollemi Pine one last hug. As I drove my car down the winding farm road away from the paddock, I stopped and took one last look up the hill where the veterans continued to play in the snow.

Three heads are better than one


Knightly Attire, his four legs pointed straight up in the air, was wriggling horse-shaped snow angels in the snow as Wollemi Pine observed. With silent snow falling from the heavens, Wollemi Pine lifted his head in the air, exhaled, and decided this was a game worth playing.