East
Rutherford, NJ - When the notion to keep
Harness Racing’s brightest stars on the racetrack beyond their three-year-old
season was being considered by Jeff Gural as far back as 2010, it was the lure
of having a "marquee" horse to promote that
fueled his campaign to change the conditions of stakes to that end. Known as
the “Gural rule” and currently in place for most of the major stakes, that
vision is coming into focus as the 2015 Grand Circuit season gets underway in
earnest.
To succeed, this
initiative requires that rare equine athlete with talent and charisma
enough to hold the attention of existing fans and pique the interest of new
ones. Those qualities may well be embodied in the remarkably gifted
trotter, Father Patrick. Crowned as the leader in his division at both two
and three, Father Patrick has been touted by no less an authority that his Hall
of Fame trainer Jimmy Takter as “the best horse I have ever trained”. The
career winner of more than $2.5 million boasts a long list of accomplishments
and just may possess the necessary "Star Power”.
Father Patrick was bred
by George Segal’s Brittany Farms and purchased from the Lexington Selected
Yearling Sale for $100,000 by Jimmy Takter for a group that included Brittany,
Brixton Medical, John Fielding, Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld, Sam Goldband and
Christina Takter. Adam Bowden came in after his freshman season to secure the
breeding rights for his Diamond Creek Farm.
With his Dan Patch
award-winning sophomore season complete and faced with another year on the
track, members of the Father Patrick Stable contemplated how they
might make the best of it. The group ultimately chose to implement a
practice that is commonplace in Europe but heretofore untested in the US. Their
decision was to breed Father Patrick to a limited book of top mares while
he was being prepared for and embarking upon his four-year-old campaign; a
decision that creates a new realm of possibilities if successful
and the dual-purpose use of top horses in the US should become a viable option.
As winter turned to
spring, Takter trained Father Patrick at his East Windsor, NJ farm and shipped
him to nearby Walnridge Farm a few times each week to be bred. Throughout the
course of this "double-duty" Father Patrick responded brilliantly on
both fronts. By late April he was ready to race.
After three impressive
qualifiers, Father Patrick had his baptism by fire in the $150,000
Maxie Lee facing the best older trotters around. Chief among the competition
was 2013 Horse of the Year Bee A Magician, a five-year-old mare that was coming
into the race off a pair of dominant performances in the Arthur Cutler
Memorial.
The match-up of Father
Patrick vs Bee A Magician, billed as the “Race of the Year” to that
point, could not have been possible without Father Patrick’s return
to the track at age four, which would have to be considered unlikely if not for
the Gural rule. Father Patrick’s ability to compete with that group was proven
out by his effortless 1:52.1 wire-to-wire romp in the Maxie Lee.
Yannick Gingras knows
the horse well, having driven Father Patrick in virtually every race since the
start of his career and spoke of his impressions on the physical and mental maturation
from age three to four.
“I think breeding him
has had a positive effect, he’s definitely changed from a boy to a man
this year,” was Yannick’s take. “He is a smart horse that allows you to
race him any way and the gait and athletic ability were always there for
him, but this season he is more aggressive in a good way. I trained
him several times this winter and could feel a difference, more power and
determination.
“To be honest he was a
tired horse by the end of last season. It was a lot of racing and shipping
around for him and he won the Breeders Crown pretty much on talent and
instinct. Knowing that, I was concerned how he might come back but he’s
been so good I’m now wondering what he might be able to do even beyond this
year. Granted it is very early but I feel he’s the kind of horse that
could compete with the best International horses if the owners were to continue
racing him. Personally, I’d love a chance to race him against the Europeans and
test them with the very best we have when he's at the top of his game.”
With the world's fastest
trotter Sebastian K's return to racing imminent, expatriate Maven rumored to be
state-side this fall, TVG champ Intimidate sharpening his game in Canada,
Natural Herbie rounding into form in the Midwest, European invader Mr Picolit
qualifying tomorrow at The Meadowlands and Elitlopp winner Magic
Tonight reportedly headed this way the possibilities for a fantastic
trotting season right here in the good old US of A are intriguing, to say the
least.
There are many
components to advancing the "Gural Rule" and when asked by the
industry to provide racing opportunities for the newly minted four-year-olds to
gain seasoning as they prepare to compete with the older set, Gural responded
by resurrecting the Graduate Series restricted to horses of that age. The four
race series will provide over $1 million in total purses for the group with
$250,000 Finals for both trotters and pacers set for early July at The
Meadowlands.
The second leg of the
Graduate comes up this Saturday at The Meadowlands and Father Patrick will
participate in the eleventh race, facing six rivals for a purse of $56,250. His
presence adds luster to the Belmont Day live program, offering customers a
chance to see the best both breeds have to offer in one day.
There are four Graduate
races on the Saturday night card, two for pacers with the finest of that group
set to slug it out and a pair of trots with 2014 Trotter of the Year Shake It
Cerry headlining the other division.
