It’s too early to know how Beau Jangles will do once he dances with the greats in his division, but there’s no denying the legend of the precocious, undefeated Ontario-sired two-year-old pacer is growing at a rate commensurate with the horse’s confidence.

Through five perfect starts – all in Ontario – the imposing son of Cattlewash out of Mrs Major Hill already has earnings of $382,125. He has posted victories in three $140,000 Ontario Sires Stakes (OSS) Gold events, plus the $227,100 Battle of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway and the $117,150 Nassagaweya in his last start on Aug. 23 at Woodbine Mohawk Park where he is scheduled to contest a fourth Gold event on Friday night (Aug. 29).

Beau Jangles’ trainer, Hall of Famer Dr. Ian Moore, is trying to keep all this in perspective. He’s had horses before that have been positively meteoric early, only to watch them come back to earth as both their starts and the competition increased.

Still, there’s something about this guy that’s undeniable.

“He's filling out really nicely – a really thick neck and thick shoulders; very powerful looking,” Moore said. “Before, he looked like a big, half-awkward two-year-old. But now he's starting to change, body wise, and mentally, he's getting kind of cocky here at the farm… When I go to jog him, he'll stand there. It's a funny thing. I've had the good fortune to have a lot of good horses over the years, and a lot of those horses, when you hook them and go to the track, they'll stand and look around. I never see that in the five claimers, but I have seen it in the horses like [$3.2 million winner] Tattoo Artist… And [Beau Jangles] does the same thing, which is interesting. Then, when he gets on the track, he bucks a little bit and swishes his tail.”

The day after his Nassagaweya win – a six-length laugher in a career-best 1:50 – Beau Jangles was feeling so good he dragged his caretaker, Riley Noble, to the paddock.

The colt’s driver, Bob McClure, hasn’t been the least bit reserved when speaking about Beau Jangles.

After Beau Jangles’ very first start – a 1:50.1, three-length score in a Gold on July 5 – McClure told Woodbine Mohawk Park broadcaster Chad Rozema: “This colt, he’s exceptional. He can leave the gate, he’s perfect-gaited, great mouth. You can sit him in the three-hole, move him to the front and he melts for you… He’s got gears that I haven’t seen many two-year-olds have. It’s surprising because horses [that large] usually are not perfectly gaited. They’re usually growing into their legs. But this guy is an athlete.”

After winning his third Gold (and fourth start) on Aug. 14, McClure told Woodbine’s John Rallis: “I haven’t even had to test him or try him. He’s doing it so easily. Obviously, the big tell will be when he gets tired and we’ll see what he’s got, but he’s absolutely incredible. He’s got a lot of class, and he’s an absolute pleasure to sit behind. He’s got a feather of a mouth, a great gait… He’s just waiting for you to tell him what to do, and he’s happy just to do it. You don’t really have to ask him to go. You don’t have to tell him to slow down. He’s just absolutely perfect. It’s like driving a robot that’s really fast.”

The colt’s part-owner, Jonathan Roberts, a leading driver at Ocean Downs in Maryland, said he’s pumped hearing McClure talk like that about Beau Jangles.

“It actually makes me feel really good, because I know Bob doesn't talk too many horses up,” Roberts said. “If he's talking up a horse, it means a lot because, generally, Bob's more of a ‘Yeah, he's all right’ type of a guy.”

While Moore and majority owner Adam Ainspan of Virginia have been loath to jinx themselves by heaping too much praise on the young colt too early, Moore said he loves McClure’s unfiltered admiration about the pacer.

“I like to have my driver confident; that's for sure,” the trainer said. “I don't want the confidence coming from me telling him how well [the horse] trained and how good he seemed. I want the confidence coming from the horse, because that's a lot better than me telling [the driver]. I always try to be humble about it. You can be a trainer of a good horse and you can be a humble trainer of a good horse, and I prefer the latter.”

As for McClure, he’s lucky to be in Beau Jangles’ sulky, Roberts said.

Louis-Philippe Roy qualified Beau Jangles and was set to drive in the colt’s pari-mutuel debut. Instead, that race came the same night Roy was driving at The Meadowlands. Roberts, a winner of nearly 5,000 races and $40 million in purses, offered to come to Canada to drive Beau Jangles himself the first time out and then turn the reins back over to Roy. But Moore asked if it was okay if he asked McClure to drive Beau Jangles first. Roberts and McClure agreed and the rest is history.

“I've never gotten an opportunity to sit behind [Beau Jangles], but he looks like a very mature horse for his age,” Roberts said. “He'll leave and then he'll sit right down and go slow if you want to. When you move him out of a hole, he'll come right on and go really fast if he needs to, or he'll ease right around a horse. It's something that is very difficult to teach. Horses either have that or they don't. Sometimes, if you stir them up early, you can't wrestle them back down. It's like an on/off switch. Once you flip it on, you can't flip it off again. And this guy looks like you can flip it on and off as many times as you want, and that's extremely valuable in a big race, because you never know how it's going to go, and you might have to go to plan B or C. If you don't have that option, boy, that can really be to your downfall.”

FROM BO TO BEAU

Bred by Tara Hills Stud in Port Perry, ON where Cattlewash also stands stud, Beau Jangles was originally named TH Bo Jangles – the TH for Tara Hills.

Farm owner David Heffering said, “As a yearling, [Beau Jangles] ruled the roost in the paddock. He was a big boy and I know from talking to [farm manager] Matt [Harrison], he was a little apprehensive towards how he was going to be as a yearling.

"When we brought him into the barn, Matt was thinking that he may lose a battle or two with him. Matt said [Beau Jangles’] personality was that he knew he was king, but he didn't just know how big a horse he was and what he could do."

Ainspan, who like Moore is a veterinarian, owns both Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds. He said it was Beau Jangles’ yearling video that caught his attention.

“He just looked so athletic and folks were telling me that the Cattlewashes were looking good,” Ainspan said.

He asked Roberts and Moore to look at him in the Preferred Equine consignment at the Standardbred Horse Sales Company yearling sale in Harrisburg, Pa. – Roberts because the two of them campaign $1.3 million winning trotting mare and Maple Leaf Trot finalist Call Me Goo together, and Moore because he once took Call Me Goo for them when she was first sent to Canada to race.

Moore said he first looked at Beau Jangles on the Monday the sale started. His major concern was the colt might be too big to keep sound as a two-year-old. So far, that hasn’t been an issue. “We’ve never done any work on him at all, veterinary-wise, and that's one of his attributes,” said Moore.

Moore predicted Beau Jangles would sell for between $40,000 and $75,000 U.S. The final price was $65,000 U.S.

Ainspan believed the athleticism he had seen from Beau Jangles in his yearling video would overcome the fact the colt is larger than most.

Though Moore is listed as the buyer, he doesn’t own a piece of Beau Jangles who is officially owned by:

• Ainspan and Mary Beth Roberts under the Graham Grace Stables LLC of Clifton, V
• Anne Hooper and Jonathan Roberts under the Kiwi Stables LLC of La Plata, Md.
• Ed, Garth and Philip Bolton, plus John Draper of the Bolton Stables of Clermont, Fl.

Despite being owned by Americans that can’t see Beau Jangles race in person as easily, Roberts said the fact that the colt is eligible to the Ontario program was a huge bonus.

“It was actually a plus, because I've always liked the Ontario Sires Stakes program,” Roberts added. “It's a phenomenal program. If it's not the best in North America, it's top two or three the way it's structured. If you don't end up with a Gold colt, per se, you have options to race in another level to make money with a horse. So, it gives you a lot of outs. Fortunately, this colt ended up being a Gold colt. But if he wasn't, we would have two or three other levels and different options to race him and still make a lot of money. They all race for pretty good money.”

For Ainspan, the first order of business was changing the horse’s name.

“We have a dog named Beau that we jokingly call Beau Jangles,” Ainspan said. “When I saw [the colt’s] name, I said, ‘Let's just change it a little bit… and name him after my dog. I do that mainly for my kids. They bond over it. My daughter names almost all of my horses. She's very clever doing it.”

At first, Moore wasn’t sure he would have enough help to take Beau Jangles, but fate intervened when the trainer was approached for a job by one of his former grooms.

Roberts said it was a perfect match – particularly between Ainspan and Moore.

“Vets are like a club,” Roberts said. “They all kind of get along.

“Not only is Doc Moore a fantastic trainer, he's a fantastic vet on top of it. So having him train your horses is like having them under 24-hour vet care. He can find little problems before they come and become big ones. That's a gigantic advantage.”

KEEPING GROUNDED WHILE AIMING FOR THE CROWN

As Beau Jangles gears up for Friday’s Gold start, to be followed, health willing, by starts in the Metro, OSS Super Final and Breeders Crown – all at Woodbine Mohawk Park – his connections are excited, but trying to stay grounded.

“I don't get too high on them,” Roberts said. “All winter long, Doc Moore said [Beau Jangles] was in his third group [in Florida], he wasn't in the top group training down. He worked his way up there. When we were doing stakes payments, Doc Moore had the Metro and Breeders Crown on there. I said, ‘Do we really need to pay for these? Is he really a Metro or Breeders Crown colt? He said, ‘Well, I can't tell you he's not that.’

“I watch horses all over creation, in Tioga and Lexington and Indiana. I’m constantly on the computer looking for horses to buy to race either here in Maryland or at Plainridge. I watch all the other two-year-old colts around the country… and they're not doing anything this colt can't do… So, I'm cautiously optimistic.”

Today, Beau Jangles is definitely looking worthy of being competitive at the Grand Circuit level, but, again, Moore has seen this before with mixed results.

“We've had a lot of babies come along in the last 15, 20 years that have won their first five, six, seven races and then get beaten at six or seven right when they meet their match,” Moore said. “Eventually, they'll all get beat, and they'll meet their match with another horse, another baby. The Burkes have a nice one [Al Papi] that went in [1]:49.1 at The Meadows and that's a pretty good mile over The Meadows for any class of horse, because that track is not that fast, in my opinion.”

Ainspan said he learned the hard way not to start thinking a horse is invincible.

The third horse he ever owned was a trotter named Great George Two that went on to earn nearly $500,000. In 2005, Great George Two set a Canadian record of 1:52.1 in the eliminations for the Goodtimes Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack.

“I was much younger – it was only my third horse – and here I was racing as the odds-on favourite [in the $342,100 final], and he broke stride and came in last,” Ainspan said. “So, I learned early on what it can feel like to get too high. Now, I keep it pretty level and I’m keeping it level with [Beau Jangles]. I know it all can happen. I know he has potential, and we try to be smart with him by not racing too much, but I know nothing is guaranteed, so I’m just enjoying the ride. And that's what I tell everybody else.”

Naturally, he’s also fielding calls to purchase Beau Jangles. For now, he’s considering partners, but not selling the colt outright.

“If he keeps on going and has the potential to become a sire, we’ll have to bring in somebody,” Ainspan said. “I don't have a farm with broodmares and I don’t have those connections… We need more time. The money’s not really the big issue… It’s just thinking longer term, if there is a longer term. I understand what can happen. Just because he's been great for five races doesn't mean too much of anything. I know there is potential there, but we’ll just have to see.”

Moore said after Beau Jangles’ third Gold win, “The colt wasn’t even blowing after… He’s developing a lot of class now on the track. When I go on the track with him, he’s a totally different horse. When he’s at home he wants to play with you a little bit, but when he comes here, he’s all business and knows what we’re here for.”

Roberts said, “I get excited every time I watch [Beau Jangles] race, just like I get excited every time I watch Call Me Goo race. I really don't think we've seen the best of this guy yet. Hopefully, in about a month from now, we'll see what he's actually made of.

“So far, it’s been absolutely wonderful… It really couldn’t be any better.”

(Ontario Racing)