If there was a Standardbred horse whose name epitomized his season in 2019, Brian Brown would surely and begrudgingly have the 1-9 favourite with pacer Workin Ona Mystery.
The son of Captaintreacherous - Dragon Tale was a force to be reckoned with before last summer. He went five-for-six as a freshman, took a mark of 1:49.3 at The Red Mile as a two-year-old and started his sophomore season with back-to-back wins against solid PASS competition. The next test was the Grand Circuit's best in his 2019 Pepsi North America Cup elimination at Woodbine Mohawk Park, and he was a convincing winner in a lifetime best 1:49. He went off as the public choice in the final, finishing a respectable third to Captain Crunch and pacing his mile in 1:47.3.
In retrospect, Brown looks back at that stakes event as the start of his colt's decline, although it didn't look that bad at the time. In his next start he was second in his Meadowlands Pace elim by a half-length and just a head back of Best In Show in the 2019 Meadowlands Pace Final, individually timed in 1:48.
"In the North America Cup he was parked to the half in :52.4, bled over Lasix. He shouldn't have got a cheque, and he got beat a length and three-quarters," stated Brown. "He got beat a head in the Meadowlands Pace and was no good that night. He was really good in his elimination and then he was no good in the final and still only got beat a head. Then our problems really started after that."
The next scheduled start for Working Ona Mystery after the Meadowlands Pace came on July 20 in the eliminations for the Delvin Miler Adios at The Meadows. Many had pegged the colt as the horse to beat in the event, but he was scratched on race day due to a high white blood cell count. It was the start of a frustrating stretch.
"He had some trouble with bleeding over Lasix. The horse was really good his first two starts and then we went to Canada," said Brown. "Up there, you can only use five CCs which is all he was on down here at the time, and he was good. But as soon as he went to Canada he bled more. We blamed it on allergies causing problems, we tried to do all kinds of things for him, sent him to the oxygen chamber a couple of times -- he was actually there several times throughout the year. After that race in Canada, the North America Cup, he would come up with a temperature and his white count would go high and we'd wind up missing a race here or there.
"We got him really good at the end, he went to Hoosier, raced great that day even though he was fourth, and then he went to Lexington and was real good. And then about three days later, he came up with a temperature again. We sent him to Rood and Riddle since we were in Lexington, and they really didn't have a lot of answers for us. We quit with him, sent him to Hagyard Equine in Lexington, and actually found that he had e. coli in his lungs. We think that came from the time he bled so bad up in Canada."
Workin Ona Mystery sports a summary of 9-1-2 from 17 lifetime starts with $463,591 in earnings. Now four, he's preparing for a return to the races but one thing will be different this year: he won't be headed north of the border for any stakes events.
"The latter half of last year we had the bleeding under control but we kept getting this white count and a temperature problem," said Brown from his Florida base of operations. "He probably isn't going to a stakes race until early August, as long as everything goes good, and then we'll race on from there. It's such a big step this year for him from three to four. So we'll just bring him along slow and hope that he can stay healthy and that he can have a normal, solid year of racing."
Brown expects that if everything goes according to plan he'll qualify Workin Ona Mystery around the start of June and start his older campaign with all of his past issues in mind.
"It's just taking care of him, trying to get him ready, and trying to get some racing in him so that we can have him ready for the bigger races. You know he'll miss a couple of legs of the Graduate, even though we're going to put him in it...that way he can have a couple of races against four-year-olds. We'll try to tackle the older horses after that but it's all going to depend on how healthy he is. I know he's tough, I know he's fast, it's just keeping him healthy so he can race weekly. Last year, he didn't have a lot of starts and there was so much time in between each race and when he was good, he was really good. I know he's got the ability, it's just keeping everything right."
One thing Brown doesn't have to worry about is pressure from those that have a stake in the horse. He credits Workin Ona Mystery's owners -- Diamond Creek Racing, Stambaugh Leeman Stable, Alan Keith and the Wingfield Brothers LLC -- for providing him with a stress-free environment that's solely focused on the welfare of the equine athlete.
"Through all of the disappointments, all the owners have understood and always wanted what's best for the horse. I've got a good bunch of guys here that understand what the goal is this year...it's just to take care of the horse."