It would be difficult to imagine that Ben Wallace could be more connected to another horse than freshman pacing colt Barn One.
The two-year-old son of Sportswriter, who won his lifetime debut on Friday at Grand River Raceway, is owned by Wallace along with Jamie Millier. Millier is the owner and operator of Classy Lane Training Centre, the training centre where Wallace trains that made headlines in January 2016 after the tragic and much-publicized barn fire.
"Barb [Millier, Jamie's wife] took it upon herself, I had no issue with it," Wallace told Trot Insider of the colt's name. "He’s got a little press for us...not that we need to be remembered or beat the story up, but it’s a nice way to have it in mind if you have a nice horse on the racetrack performing credibly, it’s a good way to be remembered."
Barn One has more than a name in connection with Wallace and the Milliers. The colt's dam is Titanic Rose, a former racehorse turned broodmare owned by these same connections. She's also the product of two outstanding Wallace pupils.
"She's by Camotion who made a couple million dollars; he was impressive, he was a great horse. There was the grandmother [Armbro Rosebud], we raced her as well and she won the O’Brien Award at two and made more than $700,000...the point being I guess that I’ve known the family through and through for a few generations."
Despite the accomplishments of her sire and dam, Titanic Rose didn't fetch a large price tag when Wallace purchased her as a yearling in 2005. She was the fifth foal -- and first Camotion -- from Armbro Rosebud, and the four previous foals (two by Camluck, one each by Jennas Beach Boy and Cams Card Shark) hadn't matched the accomplishments of their award-winning dam.
"The filly that we bought we were lucky, I think we only paid only 10 or 11 thousand for her, a very, very correct filly but she hurt herself," Wallace recalled. "I think she won her first or second stakes start, it was a Gold elimination, and hurt herself enough that we couldn’t go on with her so we ended up breeding her and she’s been just like a little money machine for us."
Wallace and the connections held onto the first foal from Titanic Rose, a Jeremes Jet filly named Classy Lane Rose. She banked more than $250,000 for her connections before being sold privately as an four-year-old, and is still racing in the Fillies & Mares Open class. Two days prior to Barn One's maiden-breaking win at Grand River, Classy Lane Rose was victorious in the top class at Buffalo Raceway. That win, her 28th lifetime, lifted her earnings over the $520,000 mark.
"The next one [Classy Hidden Rose] sold for $95,000 at the sale, so she was good for us. The third, we didn’t like that the third was a Mister Big, he just wasn’t a nice horse at all, and the next one was Jewels For Rose; she was a nice filly, she died in the fire. And we had this colt, the first colt that came out of that bunch that we really liked, and we’ve lucked out that he’s sort of proven to be what we thought he’d be. He's a nice horse, we’ll go forward from there."
Barn One had two qualifying efforts over Grand River before his first pari-mutuel start. According to Wallace, having those prep miles over the Elora half-miler is and was part of a carefully-orchestrated campaign by the veteran award-winning conditioner.
"That was by design. In the back of our minds we did a lot of thinking there. I didn’t have him ready to go over to Mohawk and hook onto a couple of American-breds that are going to go around 1:54 or 55 right off the bat. I didn’t have him set up that way. He is now, but a month ago he wasn’t," admitted Wallace. "He needed to get in the flow and the best place to put him in the flow was where they go out in respectable times while he was comfortable, and both times he was very comfortable. So that was by design and it worked out very well.
"Whether he can go fast enough to go with the really nice horses, I couldn’t tell you. But if he can’t it won’t be because he didn’t try," continued Wallace. "And Barb felt as though naming him was appropriate just to keep things in mind of what we did and what we went through 18 months ago. And it’s good, Barb and Jamie own him with me and own the training centre. It’s all come together again a little bit for us."
Wallace couldn't say enough about Barn One's desire to compete.
"His redeeming feature is just his desire to race. He’s going to get beat, there’s lots of nights he’ll get beat. But he won’t get beat because he doesn't try and I think any horseman will tell you that if you can find that quality in a horse that’s a pretty redeeming feature," noted Wallace. "I don’t care if it’s a $4,000 claimer, if it’s a good $4,000 claimer that goes out and races to his level and his ability that’s all you ask for. Or an open pacer, if he goes out and tries hard and there’s lots of nights he gets beat, and lots of nights he wins...and that’s probably the most redeeming feature of this guy, he seems to want to get home. If he has a decent trip tomorrow, I’d be surprised if he didn’t get us good money. It’s how he is. He’s the type of horse everyone would like to have."
After vanquishing his maiden-class rivals last Friday, Barn One steps up to stakes level competition on Thursday (July 20) at Mohawk Racetrack in the second of five Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions for two-year-old pacing colts. The card also features two Gold divisions for freshman male pacers. Barn One has drawn Post 1 and will have Scott Young once again at the controls.
"He’s qualified him well, and he raced him well the other night so we’ll see what he thinks," said Wallace of Young. "I don’t think the horse will race bad, it’s just if he can get himself in a position to get some kind of a trip. That’s what they all need. He’s not a layover kind of a horse where you can do whatever you want with him, I think he needs help somewhere in the mile. If he does that and doesn’t get money for us I’ll be very surprised. He's that type that wants to play."
To view the entries for Thursday's card at Mohawk, click the following link: Thursday Entries - Mohawk Racetrack.