Winning the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup is anything but a boring experience, but trainer Bruce Saunders is hoping Rock N Roll Heaven, the slight 2-1 favourite in the morning line, can do so with as little drama as
possible despite facing a tightly-matched group of glamour boys.
“Somebody said ‘oh, what a great race this is going to be’. I said ‘yes, it’s going to be a great race but I hope it’s very boring if we can win’,” laughed Saunders.
In the week’s leading up to the Cup, the resident of East Rutherford, New Jersey was left scrambling on more than one occasion to put the winning pieces together.
After Rock N Roll Heaven was spooked when the half-mile timer flashed up amidst the fog during his Burlington Stakes division at Mohawk on Saturday, June 12, he made an uncharacteristic break and was forced to qualify before the entry box closed for the North America Cup eliminations the following Tuesday.
“[Driver] Roger Mayotte did a bang up job for me - he was very professional,” Saunders told Trot Insider, who enlisted the WEG-based trainer-driver to sub-in for regular reinsman Daniel Dube for the qualifier. “I don’t care how good the horse is, when you know you’re sitting behind one that needs to have a good clean line to have the opportunity to qualify for a million-five [it was no small task without pressure]. So we got through that without incident with Roger’s help.”
With a clean line under his belt, the winner of the Berry’s Creek and New Jersey Sires Stakes Championship was to be reunited with Dube for the North America Cup. Dube, however, was sidelined in a six-horse spill at the Meadowlands on the eve of the eliminations when he and fellow reinsman Richie Silverman endured the brunt of the damage.
“I happened to have one in that race that [Eric] Goodell was driving,” explained Saunders. “I didn’t even know that he [Dube] was badly injured until after I collected my horse, who had a few scrapes and bruises. I went to the front paddock where we were racing from to see how Danny was and they told me they took him to the emergency center so I was alarmed.
“I was able to get through to the hospital to speak to him about 7 o’clock on Saturday morning and he was very, very down - beat up mentally and physically. He was very disappointed that he wasn’t going to have the opportunity to race not only this colt but all these high profile horses that he would be driving.”
With Dube suffering a fractured vertebrae in his lower back and a carpal bone in his right hand, and expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks, Saunders reached out to driver John Campbell, who has previously driven the son of Rocknroll Hanover - the 2005 North America Cup winner - early in his two-year-old year. However, due to his commitments to drive at the Meadowlands that night and the lack of availability of last minute flights, Campbell was unable to make it for the elims.
“My owner [Frank Bellino] decided we’d have Tim Tetrick driving in the elimination and if Timmy wanted to drive him in the final if we got qualified then it was his drive to have but I knew Timmy would stay with Ray [Schnittker]’s colt [One More Laugh] because Ray’s colt is a great horse and he’s been with him from day one."
With Tetrick in the bike, Rock N Roll Heaven won the fastest and arguably toughest elimination, getting up to score by a nose in 1:48.4 over Kyle Major and Sportswriter.
“Timmy did a professional job. He put him in the right spot and worked out a great trip. With his ability to make speed, he got him to the finish line first, which I think was a huge edge. It enables us to avoid the demons of a bad post,” said Saunders, who secured his post position of choice, number three.
“John is available to come up Saturday and not only race him Saturday but to stay with him through the Meadowlands Pace and so forth, so hopefully Danny can get his act back together again. John knows the colt, he loves the colt and he’s happy to be driving him and Mr. Bellino and I are just happy to have him on the racetrack behind our guy.”
Unlike last week, Saunders says Rock N Roll Heaven will have a routine week leading up the big day, which will consist of some light jogging. “I like going in 2:20 but the colt likes going in 2:15 so we’ll probably go in 2:15,” he laughed.
Rock N Roll Heaven has made himself comfortable in the barn of Saunder’s good friend, Rene Laarman, at Mohawk with caretaker Lester Benson, who Saunders says has had his hands on every great horse he has campaigned. While Saunders has been associated with a slew of top aged horses including Misfit, Casimir Camotion and Holborn Hanover to name a few, he says Rock N Roll Heaven is by far his best colt.
“I’ve had a dozen top aged horses but this horse could do things at two that they were doing at four and five and six. I think as the year plays out, you’ll find that not only Rock N Roll Heaven but there’s three or four other colts that are going to do remarkable things. I don’t know if there’s any Somebeachsomewhere in there – he was a spectacular colt – but there’s plenty of horses here that have enormous talent.”
Considering the post draw results, Saunders says no one can be discounted. He predicts that the winner will be the horse that is unused at the top of the stretch and still has a lot of energy left in the tank. That puzzle will be resolved when the 10 colts are given the word ‘go’ on Saturday night, he says.
“I would love to see him [Rock N Roll Heaven] on the front end without a lot of pressure being able to steal a quarter. Until his miscue in the Burlington, he’s never lost a race on the front end. He’s tenacious on the front end. I didn’t realize that until the eliminations for the Governor’s Cup at Chester. He got pressure from the time the man said ‘go’ behind the gate to the finish line and he was pacing away from the field.”
In order for the pearly white gates to open for the connections of Rock N Roll Heaven, Saunders says his colt will have to be close to the front and fresh turning for home.
“He refuses to let anybody get by but is he good enough to win on the front end with the quality here? Not with the quality and the amount of pressure that’s going to come. I’ll let John figure out where to put him but I hope he’s close turning for home and fresh. If he is, it’s going to take a very serious horse to go past him.”
To view the recap of the post position draw, click here.
Mohawk's 13-dash Saturday program has a first-race post time of 7:10 p.m. Post time for the 27th edition of the Cup (Race 7), the richest pacing event in the world, is 9:40 p.m., The Score Television Network will air a special one and one-half hour telecast nationally from 8:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. (ET).
To view free, printable program pages for Mohawk's Saturday card courtesy of TrackIT, click here.
To view SC's regular entries page for NA Cup night, click here.