Trainer Ron Burke is thrilled with three-year-old pacer Cattlewash. He feels that the world record holder has more in the tank and thus the connections are planning on bringing the speedy sophomore back to the track as a four-year-old.
But before that he has to finish off what has been an up-and-down three-year-old season that has seen plenty of ups in recent weeks.
“I think the horse is a very good horse,” said trainer Ron Burke. “Last year, he did the same thing, he got good at the end of the year. This year, with Covid, it really screwed him up because even though we were training, he needed to race. Basically since the Jug, he’s been incredible. Since then, he’s been just great and I expect him to finish the year up big The next two starts (Matron and Progress) I expect that he’ll be good and he’s going to race good.”
In the weeks leading up to this month's pair of Grand Circuit stakes at Dover Downs, Cattlewash has proven himself well on the national stage. He most recently tallied a 1:48.3 score in the $160,000 Monument Circle at Harrah's Hoosier Park. This season, the son of Somebeachsomewhere has won five of his 14 starts and has banked nearly $400,000 for owner and breeder Bill Donovan.
When asked to put his finger on why the pacer has blossomed near the end of the season, Burke believes it’s all about having him on his toes.
“He kind of races himself into shape,” said Burke. “He’s not the best trainer at the beginning of the year, but at the end of the year he’s sharp and he’s like a different horse. I don’t think at the beginning of the year he was bought in on being great. He was a little bit doing his own thing. The horse can do things most horses can’t.”
The things Burke was making reference to was earning a sub-1:47 record in Lexington, and then following it up with another mind-boggling mile in a road trip to Indiana.
“It wasn’t a fluke that he came back and put up the 1:47.2 mark at Hoosier, that’s even a better mile than the 1:46.4 mile at The Red Mile,” claimed Burke. “It’s a seven-eighths oval and not a mile and it’s the night time and not the day time. And he could have gone more that night. David (Miller) said he had plenty left in that Hoosier mile. That was Sweet Lou’s all-age track record he tied that night. When you start doing that stuff at three, you’re special.”
With a set of significant stakes still on his dance card, Cattlewash and the rest of the Glamour Boy division will catch a break with the absence of the sure-to-be divisional champ Tall Dark Stranger, who is heading to the breeding shed.
That all being said, Thursday's $179,600 Matron Stakes at Dover Downs won't be a sure thing for Cattlewash, despite his having been installed the 2-1 morning line favourite from post 5 with usual driver David Miller once again in the sulky. Among his seven foes are the likes of Ontario standout and Pepsi North America Cup runner-up Tattoo Artist (Yannick Gingras, post 1), Little Brown Jug winner Captain Barbossa (Joe Bongiorno, post 2) and the rapidly improving Nancy Takter trainee No Lou Zing (Dexter Dunn, post 3).
“The money part of me was glad that Tall Dark Stranger quit, but the ego part of me would like to have raced him on a five-eighths-mile track to see who was best,” admitted Burke. “I know my horse can go around turns pretty fast, and that horse has never had to do it. I think it would have been interesting to see. Maybe we would have got our ass beat, but we were getting closer to him and on a smaller track we might have been even closer. But Tall Dark Stranger is ‘the man’ right now and he retired ‘the man.’
“I’m competitive; I’ll try to step up and go with him,” he added. “I don’t want to be second to anybody, so I want to race and try to be the best. They did what’s best for their horse, but I would like to have raced against him another time or two.”
Burke was confident his sophomore star could step with Tall Dark Stranger, but an even bigger compliment was doled out by Burke when asked about tackling horses in the aged ranks.
“I don’t know if right now Cattlewash can be beat in the older group, and I have four of the best six invitational pacers right now,” stated Burke. “It’s never more satisfying than winning against the aged horses.”