Not many horses make a successful return to the track after taking a breeding break. And even less, if any, bank more money (and smash more records) than they did during their first go-around.
After a minimally successful season of attracting mares – he only bred 73 – aged pacer Shark Gesture returned to the track in 2008 with a vengeance, and has arguably made 2010 his best season yet. Over the next few months, his first – and thus far only – crop of yearlings will cross the auction block. Thanks to their dad’s box-office worthy past few seasons, they’ve become a hot commodity. And with just 43 of them in total, there’s no doubt fans of this tough horse (both old and new) will be clamoring to bring one home.
Story by Keith McCalmont
Photos by Diana DeRosa
In Hollywood, sequels rarely live up to the billing of their predecessor. Too often the follow-up lacks a gripping story, paling in comparison to the thrill of the original. In October of 2006, harness racing fans were enthralled with the actions of Shark Gesture as the colt recovered from a nasty accident to win the Breeders Crown at Woodbine for three-year-old pacing colts in dramatic fashion. Fast forward to 2008, and following a foray at stud duty where he covered just 73 mares, the Shark returned to the track. Now, after a slow but steady buildup to 2010, he arguably has the aged pacing division clenched firmly in his jaws.
With a solid two-year-old season behind him, Shark Gesture put together a spectacular three-year-old campaign, including wins in The Simpson Memorial, Bluegrass and Tattersalls. The story arc of this young colt’s career was on the upswing and the Breeders Crown was to be the apex of his achievements. Until disaster struck.
In the closing strides of his Breeders Crown elimination, Shark Gesture’s front hoof nipped the wheel of Total Truth, who bore in just at the wire. Shark Gesture collapsed just past the wire with immediate effect and the closing Scootin Delight, driven by John Campbell, smashed into the leaders. Campbell was hospitalized with a severly broken leg. Scootin Delight was euthanized on the track. Shark Gesture was moved up to second place (from third) in a race won by Mister Big. “I was in that race and know I was listed on Shark Gesture but I was committed to Armbro Deuce at that time,” recalls driver George Brennan. “I was lucky enough to avoid the accident at the finish line.”
That bit of fortuity allowed Brennan the opportunity to drive Shark Gesture to glory a week later and add his own twist to the story, turning a pocket horse into a front-running fanatic. “That was the first time I put him on the lead,” recalls Brennan. “I looked over (out of the gate) and I had the six or seven hole and nobody was leaving. I got him to the lead and walked down the half in :57. He pretty much ran it off up there. There were no horses he had to fight off. He was just special that night.”
The courage of the horse they call the Shark was on the tips of everyone’s tongues. “You would never have thought the horse could race the next week,” grins Brennan. “But lo and behold he was there the next week and won the Breeders Crown and that’s something special right there. I don’t know any other horse that could do that.”
That luck -- or maybe just his sheer guts -- lifted Shark Gesture into the limelight, but as co-owner Norm Smiley recalls, his ticket to ride was soon to run out. “When he was a four year-old, after we won the New Hampshire Derby -- beating Artistic Fella and Total Truth -- he started getting off a little bit,” remembers Smiley. “We found he had a twenty percent suspensory tear and the vet said he might be able to go on with it so we tried him one time. When we saw it was only going to get worse, I said ‘we’re not gonna do this to this horse. He’s too good a horse.’ And we quit with him then.”
Just like that, the promising on-track career of the Shark seemed to be over. The colt, they thought, was retired to a life of love and leisure with a bevy of leading ladies. But his journey, it turned out, had barely reached intermission. “When we put him to stud in Ontario with Kentuckiana, we announced him early and after we announced we had three more stallions that went out,” says Smiley. “We only got 73 mares.
“The next year we checked him out,” he shrugs, “and he was very sound. ‘Let’s take a shot and have some fun,’ I said, ‘and see if we can get him to race.’”
And so the scintillating sequel was launched into production.
What goes around comes around, and when it came time for the Shark to circle the track once again, Quebec-native Smiley matched him with a pair of fellow Canadians, Larry and Ray Remmen. That partnership would soon enough become box office gold. “I had horses with the Remmens 25 or 28 years ago and I wanted a trainer that doesn’t have too big a stable, that has the experience, who’s honest and who’s not going to just send you bills,” says Smiley. “These guys are top notch guys. They haven’t trained a big stable. They have 35 horses and they train 10 babies a year. They don’t really get a lot of well-bred horses to train as babies and we just thought it was a good match. We tried them and we’re really happy with them. They’re good guys. We talk a lot and come to agreement with what we’re going to do and how to manage the horse.”
Larry Remmen was only too happy to direct Smiley’s pacing protégé, who returned to the set in fine form. “He was in great shape,” says Remmen. “He wasn’t carrying extra weight and as far as mannerisms go, he couldn’t be a nicer animal to work around. You could just clip him on the bottom of his halter and walk him around. He has tremendous manners for a horse that was bred to seventy-something mares.”
And the injuries that hampered Shark’s four year-old season appeared to have healed. “I honestly can’t see where he had been injured,” says Remmen. “He’s got a few marks on his hocks but he’s a nice, big, strong horse. He does have a little white mark where the stitches are (from the Breeders Crown tumble).”
In the immortal words of Keanu Reeves: pain heals, and chicks dig scars... but glory lasts forever -- and Shark Gesture had some unfinished on-track business to take care of. The horse made his return debut in November of 2008 in a qualifying race, marking the beginning of a year-long montage of highs and lows as he worked his way back into shape through 29 starts in 2009. “It was a long time getting him ready,” admits Remmen. “We had to race him into shape to get him up to the top level. You work so hard to bring a horse back after a year just to race at that level, and it took him a while to come around. He won the big race here (The Graduate at the Meadowlands) and then we went to Hoosier and didn’t have any luck there as we got interfered with.”
But it was only a matter of time before Shark Gesture rediscovered his chops. “It took awhile,” agrees supporting star George Brennan. “He raced 29 times last year but it took him ten or eleven starts to find his feet. I raced him a bit early. He raced good a couple times and then he tailed off. Then he got down in class and that certainly helped him out a little bit. Then he came back to win the William Haughton.”
It wasn’t until Shark Gesture captured the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk in September of 2009, however, that he finally earned the accolades he’d been seeking. The Campbellville, Ontario track is well suited to his big-gaited style, and he punched out an opening quarter in :26, and a half in :53.4, while putting away first Art Official and then the favoured Won The West. The Shark continued to pour it on, reaching three-quarters in 1:20.3 -- leaving the finest older pacers on the continent in his wake. He arrived at the wire two lengths in front of Bettor Sweet and defending champion Mister Big, equaling the track record of 1:48.1 in the process.
That Canadian Pacing Derby showdown put a grin on the face of Norm Smiley, but after a less than impressive final start that season for the Shark, critics awarded year-end honours to Won The West in the U.S. and the Ontario-based Bigtime Ball in Canada -- putting a damper on the comeback which saw Shark Gesture put up more than $900,000 in earnings. “Last year they (the owners) were disappointed with how he ended the year with a break in Chicago,” says Remmen. “It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you know. He could have won over a million dollars had he won there and then Won The West took home Aged Horse of the Year. They’d have liked to have had it all -- like anyone would.”
That season ending loss, though, predicted nothing about what has been a remarkable 2010 for Shark Gesture. Remmen gives credit for much of his recent success to the horse’s partnership with the aptly dubbed ‘Minister of Speed.’ “The horse has confidence and the driver has confidence in him as well,” shrugs Remmen. “George is aggressive and the horse likes being driven aggressively. Anyone that’s ever driven him has liked him but George is more aggressive than a lot of drivers.”
Brennan’s confidence was key to Shark Gesture’s defence of his Graduate title at the Meadowlands this past May when pressing leader (and rival) Won The West before the half to hit the mark in a swift :53.3. As the two foes sprinted down the stretch, Lisagain rallied along the outside and offered Shark Gesture every opportunity to call it quits. With Won The West pounding up the pylons on the inside and Lisagain still at his throat, the Shark battled back in the final strides to score a half-length victory in 1:48.4. The win put his earnings beyond the $2 million mark.
And that hard-earned win sent a clear message to his opponents: this shark, he’ll swallow you whole.
“Knowing the horse we weren’t concerned he was going to give it up,” says Brennan. “If a horse does beat him they earn it.”
“I think ideally he’s a big track guy,” adds Remmen. “Last year at Hoosier they sprung out of the gate at 25 and a piece and everyone was worried about the surface but he handled it fine. A half-mile track wouldn’t suit as he’s big gaited, but at five-eighths he can handle it.”
Not only did Shark Gesture “handle” the five-eighths track at Tioga Downs, he owned it -- capturing the $228,000 Bettor’s Delight by a neck over Hypnotic Blue Chip in 1:48.3 and racing the fastest mile on the books at Tioga Downs, demolishing the previous mark of 1:49.4.
In his next start, Shark Gesture would win the $200,000 Dan Patch Invitational Pace at Hoosier Park, setting yet another track record of 1:48.1. The seven-year-old sped gate to wire, winning by 10 and one-half lengths over rival Won The West. The victory set the biggest win margin in the 17-year history of the race. The time also equaled Shark Gesture’s career mark of 1:48.1, set in last year’s Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk Racetrack.
He’s certainly done his supporters proud. The impressive record-smashing the Shark has managed has Kentuckiana Farm’s Bob Brady all aflutter, as his establishment is the proud owner of seven of Shark Gesture’s limited progeny. “It’s one of the very few times a horse has gone to stud and come back better than before he retired,” admits Brady from his Kentucky home. “I can’t think of any and I’ve been around 35 years. I don’t remember anyone who has gone on to a stallion career and then come back to be better than they were when originally racing. You have to look at it and think that some of that is the Cam Fella blood. That Cam Fella line is so tough. You guys have been blessed up there with Camluck; they’re just tough horses and they race forever. That’s what this horse is doing.”
With Shark Gesture performing as well as he is, there’s certain to be a feeding frenzy for his minnows come sale time. “It’s gonna be fun having these yearlings to sell,” agrees Brady. “I was apprehensive when he went back to the track with all these mares in foal, but he’s enhanced their value now.”
And with Shark Gesture returning to stud life at the end of 2010, it creates an odd plot twist for stud farms. “It’s different from going to stud when you’re four,” says Brady. “Now he’ll be entering at eight. The second crop of yearlings will be sold when he’s ten years old. You’ll have his first crop hitting the track next year at age two when only his second crop of mares are gettling bred. They’ll be three when those mares are foaled, and four when you’re selling those yearlings.”
It’s all a bit confusing, but essentially, horsemen will have an appetizer of Shark Gesture’s progeny to taste before the next fish are ready to fry. “That’s why he’s an interesting horse to try and value,” says Brady.
“It’s tough to evaluate a first crop that only has 40 some odd yearlings. It’s not a very big number. From everything I’ve been told and what I’ve seen with mine, they’re very nice and will have the size and conformation to give them a chance. And if they have anything from him, that’s an added bonus.”
For now, Shark Gesture’s connections are committed to winning races and hopefully pocketing some post-season awards. “He’s got a shot at it,” nods Remmen. “He’s won some big money races and he’s healthy right now. He’s not going to go undefeated. He’ll get beat again some time this year. Hopefully, not any time soon. But as long as he gets a chance to race he’ll accredit himself well.” ***
Remmen is melancholy at the realization that his part in the story is soon to come to an end. “I’d like to have him forever, but Norm has said this is the last year,” he admits. “He wants to give him another shot in the breeding shed and I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t want to breed to him. He’s got a great demeanour about him and a great gait.”
Smiley confirms Remmen’s ruminations. “He’ll be at stud next year for sure,” says the horseman. “This is it and this time when he goes back, he’ll have a full book, no doubt.”
Oddly, it’s one of Shark Gesture’s potential suitors that might miss the colt’s on-track exploits the most. “It’s been fun to watch him race because he’s just a tough SOB,” laughs Brady. “George just sits out in the racetrack and wears everybody down. He doesn’t know where the end of the mile is and when you watch him race he just overpowers his opponents.”
And should the Shark continue his winning ways through 2010, we might offer Smiley and his co-owners a word of advice for their sail home from the awards banquets this year...
You’re gonna need a bigger boat.
***Editor's Note: After this writing, Shark Gesture was defeated in the final of the Ben Franklin at Chester – just a week after winning his elimination in 1:49.1. He did indeed accredit himself very well, though, as he was parked two and three wide for most of the mile before clearing and just getting run down by Vintage Master in 1:49.