Remembering Foiled Again’s Early Days

Barbara Matthews has no difficulty remember Foiled Again as a young horse

.

“He was very beautiful,” she said, with emphasis on the word 'very.'

Then she chuckled, followed by the type of pause indicating a 'but' was certain to come next.

“But,” she said following the silence, “he had quite an attitude. He was quite difficult. He was really tough.”

Matthews bred Foiled Again, who was named the Dan Patch Award winner as best older male pacer Tuesday by the U.S. Harness Writers Association.

Foiled Again, who earned $1.40 million (U.S.) this season at the age of seven, became the oldest pacer in history to have a million-dollar campaign. He won 14 of 28 races, including the $335,000 Quillen Memorial, $306,000 Molson Pace and $246,000 Graduate, and was second in the Haughton Memorial, Breeders Crown and Allerage. The total margin of defeat in those three runner-up finishes was slightly more than half a length.

For his career, Foiled Again has won 58 of 145 starts and earned $3.41 million (U.S.), a total that ranks seventh in harness racing history.

“He’s been an amazing horse,” Matthews said. “It’s truly an honour to have bred a horse of that caliber.”

Matthews and trainer Hermann Heitmann were two of the primary players in Foiled Again’s life before the horse became a national presence in the stable of Ron Burke.

“He’s amazing right now,” said Heitmann, who trained Foiled Again from the start of his career until the horse was sold to Burke in the middle of his four-year-old season. “He deserves (the Dan Patch Award). I thought he would be better later on as an aged horse, but I didn’t expect him to improve like that. I thought he would get a little bit better, but he improved a lot.”

Matthews, who has lived in South Carolina for six years, had a training centre and breeding farm in central New Jersey when Foiled Again was born. A son of Dragon Again, he was the second foal out of the mare In A Safe Place. Heitmann, who trained and raced In A Safe Place, bought Foiled Again for $20,000 for owner Patrick Lacey at the 2005 Standardbred Horse Sale.

Soon after getting the horse, Heitmann decided Foiled Again needed to be gelded.

“He was playful and didn’t focus at all,” Heitmann said. “I tried to train him and he tried to pull up. You have to get him to the races and you don’t know what you’ve got at that point. It was no choice. When we gelded him it changed completely around. Who would have thought he would be that good? Now you wish he would be a stud, but who knows if he would have even raced then.”

Matthews agreed.

“Had he been left a stud I don’t think he would’ve made it,” she said. “He was just a big bull, even as a weanling. He was very muscular and had a mind of his own. If you wanted to go left and he wanted to go right, all of a sudden you were going right and that was all there was to it.

“If they have an attitude like that and you can focus it in the right direction, if they have athletic ability and are built to do it, hopefully they can go on. But I never thought he would turn into this. He’s kind of become an iron horse. It worked out for the best.”

As a two-year-old, Foiled Again did not race until the middle of October. He won three of five races and finished second in the other two, earning $7,525 (U.S.). He raced into January, winning twice, before winning two legs in the Hopeful Series at Yonkers. He finished second in the final on his way to $52,015 (U.S.) for the year.

Foiled Again earned $42,269 (U.S.) by late June of his four-year-old campaign and then was sold to Burke, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and JJK Stables.

Heitmann had purchased Foiled Again’s full brother Spoiled Again for $25,000 the previous fall and thought it was time to focus on the younger horse. Plus, Foiled Again had banked a total of $101,809 (U.S.) already. Unfortunately, Spoiled Again was later discovered to have a heart defect that prevented him from racing.

“In one way, I’m proud,” Heitmann said about his association with Foiled Again. “Some people say how could you sell him? I’m supposed to make money for my owner. We made some good money with him and made some good money selling him, too. We had the full brother and we were hoping he was going to race good too. That was what was disappointing.

“I’m the kind of guy that always wishes (the new connections) the best of luck,” he added. “You always want to see them do good if you sell one. I’ve always followed him. I think he can do it again.”

Matthews, who is still involved with show horses and owns part of a two-year-old trotter with trainer Noel Daley, bred only 23 horses but managed to come up with one for the ages.

“I consider myself extremely lucky,” Matthews said. “He obviously loves what he does and he has a wonderful home. Good for him and good for them.

“You can only hope you do your best for them when they’re young, like your children, and that they go on and be something. He sure went on to be something. Something very special.”