Trainer of the Year. Hall of Fame. Pepsi North America Cup?
Good things happen in threes...so perhaps the trifecta that Dr. Ian Moore will hit in 2024 still hasn't happened yet, and that third piece of the puzzle awaits him this June at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Moore, who was named Canada's Trainer of the Year this past February at the 2023 O'Brien Awards, was recently announced as the Trainer inductee for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame's Standardbred Class of 2024.
Sporting an elite resume coming into stakes season, Moore will look to add to those accolades next month as he prepares highly-touted Clever Cody and Storm Shadow for the 2024 Pepsi North America Cup.
Clever Cody was ranked at No. 3 with 5-1 odds while Storm Shadow was ranked at No. 9 with 19-1 odds in TROT Magazine's 2024 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.
Owned by Clever Cody Stable, the three-year-old The Panderosa-Cams Van Go colt has made 12 career starts, returning with a record of 7-1-2 and $460,331 banked. His career highlights include success throughout the Ohio Sires Stakes (OHSS) circuit with a win in the $300,000 Ohio Sires Stakes final for two-year-old colts. Clever Cody won his Metro elimination, then finished third in the $970,000 Metro final in 1:49.4. The colt has returned in two starts this year with a win in the OHSS at Miami Valley Raceway in a career best 1:50.1. His second start on the year faced a mishap with broken equipment.
Storm Shadow has tallied a record of 4-1-5 in 13 career starts. The son of Bettors Delight and the Shadow Play mare Fade has not missed a cheque in any of his starts, bankrolling a sum of $393,394. R G McGroup Ltd., Serge Savard, Mac Nichol and Bolton Farms LLC co-own Storm Shadow. As a freshman, he kicked off his career with a victory in a freshman class with his next three victories as a hat trick in a leg of the Ontario Sires Stakes Gold, the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final and in the Breeders Crown elimination. His win in the $300,000 OSS Super Final was his career best appearance in 1:51.1. Storm Shadow has raced twice this year to date with two show finishes, and looks for his first win of the season in OSS Gold action on Saturday, May 25 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
"With Clever Cody and Storm Shadow there's excitement and anticipation," said Dr. Ian Moore. "I hope both of them can build off their two-year-old season especially the way they finished off. And because a lot of two-year-olds struggle going up to three. And there's always some three-year-old that did not race or raced very little as a two-year-old and always some of those that show up, too. It's a very interesting division for three-year-old pacers, so we just hope for the best."
Trot Insider caught up with the O'Brien Award winner and Hall of Fame inductee to discuss the pair of sophomores in TROT's top 10.
When did you start back with them?
(on Clever Cody): "His last race was the Metro in September and I started back with him mid-January. Around the 12th of January he started."
(on Storm Shadow): "Around the 19th [of January] he started back. I gave him a little longer time off."
Have you noticed any changes in them from last year to this year?
(on Clever Cody): "He is a late foal and he took a growth spurt later in the season, like late August, early September and just kept going. He got very tall and very long like I never saw a horse elongate as much as he did. He's actually not done yet because hind end is still higher than his front end so he's got a little catching up to do. But, he just turned into a beautiful looking colt, beautiful animal. He acts the part. He's hollering at everybody on the racetrack, never did last year. I had a 56-inch hopple on him last year...but I did let them out to 57 the last couple starts. This year, his hopples are out to 62-63. They are out as far as they could go. That's the most I've ever let them out. Cody's got at least five inches out from the end of his two-year-old year."
(on Storm Shadow): "Not a whole lot. He was not a big colt to start with and he was a typical Bettors Delight. He hasn't changed a whole lot other than he's bulked up. A little bit more muscular here and there, but hasn't really grown a whole lot in my eyes. I ended up putting the same headgear and bits and things in his mouth that I had last year. His hopples are longer than last year, but not a whole lot."
What will the schedules look like leading up to the Pepsi North America Cup?
(on Clever Cody): "I usually plan based on the horse. Cody [had] the Ohio Sires Stakes on May 4 and then, there isn't another one until the night of the Somebeachsomewhere so that's going to be a decision there for him."
(on Storm Shadow): "He [had] the SBOA, Sires Stakes on the 25th. Hopefully he'll be there for the Somebeachsomewhere."
What happened with Clever Cody and the equipment issue on May 18?
"He did have two broken pieces of equipment. The first caused a recall, and the second caused a refund of about $97,000...which is why they only bet about $1.7 million with that huge crowd there.
"He was all worked up in the paddock...and I'm not sure why. The piece of equipment that broke is a split Martingale, which is a bit heavy, attaches to his head halter and then underneath. It broke underneath, and was swinging all over the place in front of him."
What does the tentative schedules look like after the North America Cup?
"Both are paid up to the Meadowlands Pace and Cody is paid up to all the big ones down there. There were some conflicts with the OSS, but I can't remember which ones we left out."
At what point last year did you think these horses were North America Cup material?
(on Clever Cody): "Cody just kept getting better and better throughout the summer and the way he ended off his season there that last month in September, he won the Ohio final, that's when it all started."
(on Storm Shadow): "Storm Shadow was a very difficult colt to read. Training down he certainly wasn't any Niatross or anything like that training down. He had some talent, you just had to chase him to get it out of him. He put some impressive races in there. The first race he ever went, he won that in 1:52 and that kind of surprised me a little bit right off the bat because we did rush him a little bit to get him going. Then, the Gold final was a big mile plus he went two great races in the Breeders Crown. He got boxed in in the final, but who knows, he might have got more there if he had gotten there a little bit earlier."
If you were to describe each of these colts in one word, what would that word be?
(on Clever Cody): "Awesome."
(on Storm Shadow): "Exciting."
Any other North America Cup eligible colts in the stable?
"At Ease Hanover (also in to go in the first race on Saturday, May 25 at Mohawk) was doing fantastic, he was training with Cody, but he had lots of time off. He grew, he filled out a lot. I was very hopeful for him, too, and then he jogged perfect for a month. First time I trained him, he got a respiratory noise. It looked like it might be what's called the Left Laryngeal Hemiplegia, which in horsemen's terms is left flap paralysis in the throat region, something that is quite common in Standardbreds and yet the reasons are often idiopathic, like unknown. He never had anything happen to him that we are aware of, for unknown reasons this has developed. There's lot of theories about why. I had to get throat surgery done."
As someone who hasn't won this race before, how does it feel to have not just one, but two legit shots at the North America Cup?
"It's always exciting. We've always paid up colts pretty well every year to that and I noticed that in their write ups and some of the things I saw there that neither one of them are in the top, but that's going I like being the underdog. Less pressure that way. We're looking forward to it. I am probably prepping both of those colts for that race. That'd be one I'd love to win. We won a lot of the other major stakes in Canada, but not that one."
Previous Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book Profiles:
- Captain Albano - #1 // 4-1
- Legendary Hanover - #2 // 9-2
- Captains Quarters - #4 // 8-1
- Gem Quality - #5 // 11-1
- Funtime Bayama - #7 // 13-1
(Standardbred Canada; photos courtesy New Image Media and Conrad Photo)