There’s a saying that claims “there are horses for courses,” and that could not be any more true when talking about Eurobond and Plainridge Park. Since making Massachusetts his full-time base of operations last year, it would be hard to dispute the horse has a definite home field advantage.
Bred by longtime Plainridge regulars, the Antonacci family at Lindy Farms of Connecticut, a short list of Eurobond’s career highlights include being the Kentucky Sire Stakes three-year-old colt trotting champion in 2018, taking a lifetime mark of 1:50.1 at the Meadowlands in 2019, and racing in the 2020 edition of the Spirit of Massachusetts, where he made an unfortunate break at the quarter.
In September 2020, trainer Domenico Cecere decided to make Plainridge Park Eurobond’s home track, and the results were stellar. Since that time, the horse has had 13 starts with eight wins, one second and one third, and amassed earnings of $84,975. This year alone, he has won five races in only six starts, including his last four in a row — all in Open company.
Although Eurobond was not made eligible to the Spirit Trot this year, the track extended the “at-large” invitation to him in June as the top performing local trotter. Then, things changed.
In July, Eurobond was offered for sale in the Tattersalls Mixed Sale at The Meadowlands, was purchased by a relative newcomer named Matt Morrison, and shipped to his new home in Pennsylvania.
Morrison is a 52-year-old Indiana, Pa., resident who owns a cybersecurity company named Assurance Data Inc. He got into horse ownership last year — sort of by chance — and has not regretted one thing about the decision.
“I have a friend who has a restaurant that was looking for a partner, and I kind of passed on that. But then he asked if I wanted to go in on a horse with him, and I said, 'Sure.' That was last November, and by February, we had 18 of them,” said Morrison. “People ask me why I would want to get involved in owning race horses, and I tell them I get pulled in all kinds of directions at work. It uses the other part of my brain that wasn’t being exercised.”
Morrison’s horses were racing primarily at The Meadows over the winter, but after the Game of Claims, they split the barn and kept eight horses at the Meadows and sent eight to Mohegan Sun Pocono.
“My friend was also my trainer, Neil Balcerak, who has now turned his attention back to his restaurant named Trotters. Our driver is Jimmy Pantaleano, so it was a natural progression for his wife Christy to take over training for us,” explained Morrison.
The decision to buy Eurobond was not a premeditated one. In fact. the sale only came on Morrison’s radar a few days out.
“I didn’t go to the sale looking to buy Eurobond; he just kind of ended up with us. We didn’t even decide to go to the sale until three days out. We saw that Eurobond won his last four and seven of his last eight, so we took a good look at him. Jimmy (Pantaleano) was at the sale with me and looked him over, and told me he really couldn’t see a flaw in him. We wanted another trotter in the stable. and he looked to fit that role,” said Morrison.
Morrison paid $205,000 for Eurobond, making him the highest-priced horse in the sale. And where a quality Open trotter can be worth all of that, the fact that his next start could be in a $250,000 race could have played into the purchase decision. But Morrison says it didn’t.
“It wasn’t a major factor of us buying him. I’m looking at this purchase as an investment for a horse that will be in my stable for a long time and not for just one race. I’ve had a lot of experienced folks tell me that we shouldn’t even race him in the Spirit because he wouldn’t do anything in there, but it’s a horse race; anything can happen. We’re going in with a can-do attitude, and I figure we have everything to gain and nothing to lose. We’re just humbled to be a part of this race with these great horses,” said Morrison.
“The Spirit will be over, but we’ll still have plenty of racing opportunities with Eurobond after that. We weren’t looking for a stake horse; we were looking for a week-in and week-out earner, and we bought exactly that. He just happened to be eligible for this stake.”
“He’s stabled at the Poconos and we just got back from spending a couple of days with him. He’s a very solid horse, very calm and well-mannered. For him to be a stallion and be that calm, to us, is just amazing. I jogged him and was really impressed with how well-gaited and smooth he is.”
Morrison said that Bruce Ranger is going to drive Eurobond in the Spirit because he knows the horse better than anyone at this point and he knows the track at Plainridge the best, too.
Although he’s only had him for a couple of days, Morrison said he has a plan laid out for Eurobond moving forward after Sunday’s start, and that’s to find the best spots for the horse to race.
“He’ll remain based at the Poconos, but may race at The Meadows as well. Depending on how he does Sunday, we may start racing him at The Meadowlands more consistently. I guess we’re a little bit different type of owner. A lot of people like to earn, earn, earn, in the box each week. We like to take a more long-sighted view of things and rest our horses intermittently to maximize their performance rather than just keep turning them over.”
This will be the first trip to the Massachusetts track for Morrison, but he and his family are very much looking forward to it.
“I’ve never been to Plainridge before and we can’t wait for Sunday to come. My 13-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, spends a lot of time with our horses, and she’s bonded with Eurobond already and is excited to come see him race. She’s been mucking stalls and learning a lot about taking care of them, and hopes to see the horse we bought her at the sale, Pauls Bandit, in a race like this some day,” Morrison concluded.
Spirit of Massachusetts Day kicks off with a 2 p.m. first post. The card is also highlighted with the $100,000 Clara Barton Distaff Pace and the $50,900 Bert Beckwith Memorial Pace and offers purses totalling over $500,000. It is the biggest day of harness racing in Massachusetts this year.
(Standardbred Owners of Massachusetts)