The start to Warrawee Vital’s racing career might have been a bit slower than his accomplished siblings, but the son of Captaintreacherous started to blossom and roll in late summer of last year and he will now carry that momentum into the 2021 racing season.
Warrawee Vital was late to hit the track, having not made his first start until December of 2019. He produced a couple of victories in overnight and late-closing action before a bout of lameness sidelined him through most of spring 2020. Trainer Rob Fellows then pointed him off just one start to the North America Cup, where he took “a shot and a wish” but missed making the final. Yet, the regally-bred colt rebounded promptly, uncorking powerful miles in the Simcoe and Somebeachsomewheres — the latter in which he broke a nearly decade-old stakes record — and followed those efforts with a 1:47.1 mile in a Bluegrass division at Lexington.
“This is by far the best horse we’ve ever had,” co-owner Blair Corbeil told Trot Insider. “I’ve never had the privilege of having anything better than this. We’re always hoping we get one every year, but it’s nice to have one that turns out and hopefully he takes that next step and gets us to where we want to go with him.
“Last summer, when he was starting racing again there in August, he looked pretty damn good,” Corbeil also said. “But now he looks even better. He didn’t have to grow, but now he’s filled out and sports even more muscle now. As long as he carries that same speed we’re expecting bigger things this year.”
Despite the mid-season setback, Warrawee Vital capped his sophomore campaign with seven wins from 14 starts and pushed his career bankroll to $246,428 for Corbeil and co-owners Yolanda Fellows and M&S Racing Stable Inc., all while being a $32,000 yearling purchase from a family which has produced such horses of longevity as Warrawee Needy ($1,255,384; 1:46.4M) and Warrawee Ubeaut ($1,948,175; 1:48.3M).
“He’s lightly raced. [Rob] dictated that a little bit because he was a little bit late maturing,” Corbeil said. “The way he looks now was not the way he looked when we got him. He was a little underdeveloped, a little immature and stuff like that. After the [Lexington] sale when we got him, we looked at each other and then five minutes later we were back at the stall looking at him again saying ‘What the hell did we miss?’ But he was all there; conformation-wise he was perfect. He stood nice and straight in the front.
“I mean I’ve been buying yearlings for a lot of years, and that’s as nice of an individual conformation-wise that I’ve purchased. For the owners like me who don’t go out and spend a hundred or two-, three-hundred thousand dollars on horses, this is a horse of a lifetime.”
Fellows has Warrawee Vital pointed towards the second preliminary of the Graduate Series at Woodbine Mohawk Park, which is currently scheduled to take place on June 5.
“We’ll likely give him at least a start and a couple of qualifiers before that Graduate at Mohawk, that’s kind of the schedule we’ve got him on. And then from there, it’s not a real busy start but we’re figuring about 14 or 15 stake races. There might be the occasional tightener in there or whatever, depending on where we are and what’s going on. I don’t want to jinx the horse right now, but we definitely think he’s got a lot more speed than a [1:]47.1 mile.”
The late start for Warrawee Vital’s four-year-old campaign comes as a result of a brief stint performing stallion duties in Ontario. Corbeil said Warrawee Vital has attracted a solid first limited book.
“We’re very happy with it,” Corbeil said. “We’ve got some real nice quality mares. I’m actually surprised by the quality we’re getting, so we’re very happy with that. From that family...you know, it certainly would be nice to have a Captaintreacherous out of that family that could go on to a great breeding career. I think the horse is just an absolutely perfect fit for Ontario.
“We’d all love to have half a dozen go on and be great, but on a small book like that if we can get a few of them we’d be ecstatic with that,” Corbeil continued. “You have to be realistic about these things. The pedigree and the maternal side of this horse, he’s got every opportunity to do great things.”