When Giveitgasandgo starts in Saturday’s (Aug. 5) Hambletonian Stakes, he may have the biggest fan club at the track. His owners, the partners of fractional ownership group VIP Stable are traveling from Ohio, Indiana, and Florida to join their comrades waiting in New Jersey to see their horse compete in North American trotting’s biggest event.
“It’s about eight to ten that have a piece of him. They have been with us for a little while. They’ve owned horses in the past,” VIP Stable’s Tom Janes said. “Everybody is thrilled to death to be in on this one. We have folks flying and driving in from all over the country, it’s a dream come true for these guys.”
VIP Stable purchased Giveitgasandgo out of the 2015 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale for $32,000, partnering with Harmony Oaks Racing Stable, David J. Miller, and Lawrence M. Means. Trainer John Butenschoen picked out the Yankee Glide ridgling out of Mazda Hanover, a half sibling to multiple Pennsylvania-bred stakes winner Smoother Ride.
“John will typically visit all the farms ahead of time. He probably sees 90 percent of the horses in the field before we get to the sale. He’ll read them off for us and we’ll go walking through the sales grounds with him and decide which ones we want to go in with him on,” Janes explained. “He does a lot of homework and we stand around and think we know what we’re doing and look at them and say, ‘yeah, they look nice,’ and we say we checked them out. John does 90 percent of the work and we write the cheques.”
Giveitgasandgo met all the requirements on Janes’ and partner and VIP Stable founder Ed O’Connor’s checklist. He was the right size, he looked athletic, and he went for the right price. VIP Stable prides itself on offering its members affordable horses who have a chance to achieve success at the sire stakes level or higher.
“We’re not going to spend $100,000 on a yearling. That $20,000 to $40,000 range is where we found we can get the best bang for our buck, especially with Yankee Glide,” Janes explained. “We look where everyone else is not looking. Everyone else wants a Muscle Hill. If this horse were a Muscle Hill, he would have went for $150,000 at the sale.”
VIP Stable sold its share of Giveitgasandgo to stable members, many of which were experienced owners with the group and who invest in a host of yearlings every year. Among them, a former trainer who found his way back into the game and a faithful investor who buys a piece of all of VIP Stable’s yearlings each year.
“One guy used to train horses years ago and retired and was out of it for a while. Now he can get back in the game and he owns fractional shares of a bunch of them with us. It’s just a lot of fun. It’s pretty good for those guys,” Janes said.
“We have a guy from New Jersey who owns two, two-and-a-half percent of everything we have,” he continued. “Number one, he has a lot of fun because he has a lot of action. And number two, if we get a good one, he’s going to have it. You don’t get beat up with the costs and you don’t have to worry about putting all your eggs in one basket, living and dying with those one or two horses.”
It’s appropriate that loyal VIP Stable members are involved in the partnership’s first Hambletonian starter. Although the group floated the idea of entering the $1,000,000 event in the past, they opted to do right by their horses rather than stoke their own egos.
“Last year we debated putting Hititoutofthepark in there and decided that we were going there just to go there as opposed to going there with a legitimate chance of doing something. We passed on it, although everyone wants to go just to go there,” Janes recalled.
With Giveitgasandgo, VIP Stable has the right horse at the right time. Although he bled and added Lasix -- a race-day medication not permitted in the Hambletonian -- in his most recent start, Giveitgasandgo’s form makes him competitive. He’s won his last two races, both at the Meadowlands, and took a lifetime mark of 1:52.1 in his most recent start on July 29.
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“He bled a little bit in training a few weeks back and John put him on Lasix. John wanted to try and let him heal a little bit. We gave him a week off, scratched him out and tried him at The Meadowlands once on Lasix. He went a good mile and then it was, ‘ok, do we go?’ Two heats potentially, off Lasix,” Janes said.
“We got a bunch of opinions and of course we really wanted to go, but we wanted to do the right thing by the horse too,” he continued. “We were pretty excited when they all came back and said we were going to do it.”
For Janes, starting a horse in the Hambletonian is made even more special now that his son, David, is helping to modernize the Hambletonian Society. His part-time college job of digitizing old VHS replays and videos in the Society’s records recently evolved into a full-time position.
“He used to come to the track with me. He started to get into his teenage years and was getting more interested,” Janes explained. “He has his degree at Rutgers in IT and he added to that department a skill that they needed. Someone who was more technology-driven who also happens to be a big harness racing fan, who knew everything about the game, all the players, etc. It was a natural match of something they needed.
“He’s been going to the track with me forever, all the time going to the track. With working for the Hambo, getting a girlfriend, getting engaged, I don’t see him as much as I used to,” Janes continued. “Hopefully we’ll see him handing Dad the Hambletonian trophy on Saturday. That would be neat.”
Giveitgasandgo will start from post four in the first of two $100,000 eliminations of the Hambletonian. A top five finish will earn him a spot behind the gate for the $1,000,000 final five races later. Giveitgasandgo is an 8-1 chance in a field led by International Money, whose 3-for-3 record this season earned him morning line favouritism at 5-2. Despite the odds of their star trotter, who is still seeking his first open stakes victory after dominating in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at two, racing on this stage is a reminder of why VIP formed the partnership nearly two decades ago.
“It’s totally why we do this. I think every trainer out there and every person in the game strives and hopes to have that great horse, have a horse who’s going to win that big race. Everybody strives for that Hambletonian or that Meadowlands Pace winner,” Janes said. “I think that’s why we do it. You’re looking for that star horse. You’re looking for that one that you can hold onto with memories forever.
“Plus, you get the opportunity to bring it to so many other people in the game. We can enjoy it with friends, which we have made a lot of over the years,” he continued. “Now, we get to enjoy this moment with some of our friends and our members. We don’t do this for money, we do it because we love the sport and we hope to have a champion one day.”
Hambletonian Elimination (Race 8)
PP – Horse – Driver – Trainer – Line
1 – Southwind Woody – Matt Kakaley – Ron Burke – 12-1
2 – Bills Man – Corey Callahan – John Butenschoen – 5-1
3 – Guardian Angel As – Jason Bartlett – Anette Lorentzon – 10-1
4 – Giveitgasandgo – David Miller – John Butenschoen – 8-1
5 – International Moni – Scott Zeron – Frank Antonacci – 5-2
6 – Stealth Hanover – Francisco Del Cid – Francisco Del Cid – 30-1
7 – Victor Gio IT – Yannick Gingras – Jimmy Takter – 6-1
8 – Long Tom – Tim Tetrick – Marcus Melander – 3-1
9 – Jake – Daniel Dubé – Luc Blais – 8-1
Hambletonian Elimination (Race 9)
PP – Horse – Driver – Trainer – Line
1 – What The Hill – David Miller – Ron Burke – 3-1
2 – Seven And Seven – Mark MacDonald – Tom Durand – 8-1
3 – Sortie – Andy McCarthy – Noel Daley – 10-1
4 – Shake It Off Lindy – Brett Miller – Frank Antonacci – 20-1
5 – Dover Dan – Brian Sears – John Butenschoen – 8-1
6 – Enterprise – Tim Tetrick – Marcus Melander – 9-2
7 – Southwind Cobra – Matt Kakaley – Ron Burke – 15-1
8 – Achille Duharas – Yannick Gingras – Jimmy Takter – 20-1
9 – Devious Man – Andy Miller – Julie Miller – 5-2
10 – Perfect Spirit – Åke Svanstedt – Åke Svanstedt – 12-1
For free, printable Hambletonian Day program pages, click the following link: 2017 Hambletonian Day Past Performance Pages.
(with files from Brandon Valvo for VIP Stable)