Trainer Joe Poliseno went out for a walk on Monday morning with 1,000 pounds on the end of a rope – Breeders Crown three year-old pacing contender Bettor Sweet.
The slightly temperamental winner of the Progress Pace on November 9 at Dover Downs can’t quite be trusted with the freedom of a paddock, says Poliseno. “I haven’t put him a field because I don’t want him to get hurt, but I’m out walking him right now. It took me a while to get him out to walk because he was crazy when I first got him (in September of this year). Now I’ve got him to where I take him out for a half-hour or forty-five minute walk every day and grass him. Probably right after the Matron, I’ll get him home and get him out in a field. I turn all my horses out, but he’s such a spunky horse that I know he’s going to go crazy and I didn’t want him to hurt himself. “
Poliseno got a long hard look at Bettor Sweet before he entered his stable, as he was in the barn of trainer Joe Caraluzzi, also based at Gaitway Farm. “I bought him [for $175,000 for owner Joe Cancelliere of Clark, NJ] in probably the middle of September,” says Poliseno. “He was a very fast horse, but making breaks at the time [he has made breaks in two qualifiers and one stakes race this year]. I actually had been looking at the horse for probably a month or two months prior. I was going to buy him when he raced at Tioga but he made a break [in a New York-sired race on August 16] that night. Then he raced him a couple more times and I bought him. I wasn’t sure what it [the breaks] was from, greenness, I’m still not sure.”
Poliseno, who works with his wife Ellie Sarama, a trainer who has also served as commentator on dozens of Breeders Crown telecasts, embarked on some trial balloons with the horse’s equipment. “He was sound enough; it was just a matter of him making breaks. I trained him the first time and he was cross firing (striking his front foot with his back foot) so I changed his shoes. I actually took his hopples in a little bit the first time and then changed his shoes and then his bridle to a screen.”
Poliseno said Bettor Sweet exhibited an unusual skill when he got unsteady in a race, “He was jumping things with his back feet. He’s pretty handy,” he laughed. “Eric Goodell drove him and he won that day [his first start for Poliseno on September 25] for me at Chester, but he said, ‘Joe, he’s jumping things with his back feet.’
“In the race, going to the half, he started putting steps in and jumping things. So I switched him to a screen, a mesh screen, like a fly mask. You can see clearly through it but it kind of distorts it a little bit. It seems to be working really well. Cat’s [driver Cat Manzi] gotten along with him real well. He’s funny, too, when you ask him for speed, he tries to go too fast when you ask him. If you let him know what you want him to do before he does it, he seems to be a lot better. He’s got a tremendous amount of speed this horse; he’s very, very fast. He raced really well at Dover [in winning the Progress Pace on November 9]. When I watched him come four-wide [from sixth at the three quarters] off that turn at Dover, he was making up ground and I haven’t seen too many making up that kind of ground. We need some luck [in the Breeders Crown] but he can go with the rest of them [after Somebeachsomewhere and Shadow Play].
Poliseno admits his colt, even with a :25.4 last quarter in the Breeders Crown elimination, needs plenty of luck on Saturday. “Tom Charters [president of the Hambletonian Society] wounded me mortally when he drew me the nine-hole. That’s a tough spot, when we entered that race we figured we were racing for third anyway [after Somebeachsomewhere and Shadow Play]. He’s really versatile, he can leave or come from off the pace, and he’s a well mannered horse – on the track in a race. That’s a tough spot for any horse. Cat knows him well enough and he knows not to try to attack them too fast and let him get rolling. He’s really pretty much self destructive around the barn, kicks the walls, bounces around, he’s just goofy around the barn. He’s nice to be around – but to himself, he’s dumb. For his own personal well being, he’s not too smart. He eats good, he lays down and sleeps, but he hurts himself in other ways.
Poliseno says that Bettor Sweet has a sweet treat ahead, getting some paddock time for the first time in months, “Probably right after the Matron [elims December 8, final December 8), I’ll get him home and get him out in a field. I turn all my horses my out, but he’s such a spunky horse that I know he’s going to go crazy and I didn’t want him to hurt himself.”
This will be the first Breeders Crown for owner John Cancelliere, who owns a construction supply company. He’s advised by his brother Tommy, who is married to trainer NJ horseman Armando Vocaturo’s daughter. Tommy Cancelliere says their purchases are usually made after some deliberation and sometimes, too much, “We're constantly looking for nice horses. We don't buy just anything. We scrutinize them (so long) the deal has usually gone past us. We love our animals. We're at the track every race,” says Cancelliere.
So whether Saturday night turns out bittersweet for the owners or sweet for the bettors, their horse has already earned back $220,940 against the $175,000 they paid for him. And if he wins the Crown? Priceless.
(HRC)