TROT reached out to a number of trainers, owners, assistant trainers and grooms, and asked them to tell us the name of, and the story behind, the best two-year-old they’ve ever been associated with. A few of the lucky ones had a bit of trouble narrowing it down to just one, but in the end we learned some very interesting stories that we share with you here. Compiled by John Rallis & Dan Fisher.
In our 2021 Twos In Training issue we asked a number of drivers to tell us about the best two-year-old they had ever driven and the story behind it. Last year we asked a handful of trainers likewise, in regard to the best freshman that they had ever trained. This year we carried the tradition on by asking some owners, trainers, assistant trainers and caretakers to share with us the story of the best two-year-old they have ever been associated with. Once again, their recollections did not let us down.
JIM CAMPBELL: Trainer.
Broadway Hall. He was only a $30,000 yearling so obviously there weren’t a lot of people looking at him. But Jules [Siegel] and I were looking at him and thought he was just a nice, racey-looking son of Conway Hall. If you wanted to fault him at all he might have been a bit on the small side, but that was it. He really went under the radar all winter while we were training them down… he didn’t do anything wrong but we just had a few that were a lot flashier. The first time my brother John baby-raced him though, he only finished second in 2:03, he said ‘This is a good horse right here. He’s a true professional’. I was like, ‘Wow!’ (laughing). I was surprised to hear him say that at the time because he never really stood out over the winter… but when my brother said something like that he was rarely wrong.
Broadway Hall [2,1:56.4 -’02; $583,762] never lost [9-for-9 lifetime]. He won the Breeders Crown to end his two-year-old year and then unfortunately, due to some issues he had, he never raced again. He was one of those horses that I always labeled as being smarter than I am. He never got too excited about training. He did his work when he got behind the gate - that’s when he turned into a different horse.
He was a really good sire too. I trained a few good babies of his including Broadway Schooner [$895,130], and she was the dam of Broadway Donna [$1.1 million] and Fashion Schooner [$691,886], so he’s been very good to me for years.
I really don’t get too excited about any two-year-olds until they get on the gate and you see what they can do. Maybe that’s because of my experience with Broadway Hall. ~ DF.
NOEL DALEY: Trainer.
I’ve had a handful of good ones throughout my career but the one who ended up with the best record - My Little Dragon - I’d have to say is my number one on my list. She went a perfect 6-for-6 as a two-year-old and she didn’t start until we qualified her in September down at the Red Mile.
I always knew she had talent but she was wishy-washy all over the track training down. She was nice, but we didn’t know she was a superstar until we took her to the qualifiers. Brendan Johnson, one of my second trainers at the time, drove her that first morning and that’s when he confirmed we had something good. Once she got there and we saw what she was, she was just the best. She was beautiful, and ended up having a killer pedigree [dam of Stay Hungry; $1.1 million].
That was real early in buying babies [for me] and I didn’t appreciate her pedigree as much until later on. I sort of got lucky with her though. I know Myron Bell and his crew had a toss up between her and another one. They ended up buying the other one for 250,000 and I got mine for $60,000, which was a bargain I’d say (laughing).
When I would train her, all she’d do was wander all over the track and do her own thing. By the time we got her to the track, racing, it was eye-catching. We were all just in awe.
Volume Eight, the fella I’ve got now, I’d have to say his win in the Kindergarten final was the most brilliant performance I’ve seen from any of my two-year-olds though. He won in [1]:52 but Andrew [McCarthy] says he could’ve gone in [1]:50 if he wanted to. That was special, but My Little Dragon [p,1:48.1 -’07; $2,386,055] didn’t have a blemish in her first season, including winning a Breeders Crown, so she’s tops on my list for that reason. ~ JR.
JOHN FIELDING: Owner.
I’m very lucky to have been involved with a number of great two-year-olds, but I’m going to give you two here. One is Father Patrick. We bought him from Brittany [Farms] and Jimmy Takter loved him all the way through… from the first time he put the harness on him. He might have lost his second start but other than that I don’t think he got beat at two. I believe he went 10 for 11 at two and made a whole bunch of money. I remember watching him train at Jimmy’s farm and then watching his first few starts with such great anticipation. He was just such a great horse, and I still have a ton of faith in him as a sire. People are fickle… he had a few great ones early on, like Greenshoe, and now everyone wants to breed to Greenshoe but not as many to Father Patrick [3,1:50.2f -’14; $2,600,571]. In the Thoroughbred world for example, that’s absolutely unheard of. I think this next crop of his is going to be very good though… I have a couple of two-year-old Father Patricks right now that are looking great.
The other one that really stands out that was great at two, and like Father Patrick was great at three also, was See You At Peelers. When she first qualified at two she came her last quarter in :26 seconds and we could just tell that she was special. I think she won her first 23 starts in a row or something… it was August of her three-year-old year before See You At Peelers [p,3,1:49.2f -’11; $1,566,900] ever got beat.
Remember though, if you want some more, I owned horses like All Speed Hanover, Cedar Dove, Eager Seelster, Solveig, Shake It Cerry… I’ve been lucky enough to win 22 Breeders Crowns and at least 10 or 12 of those were with two-year-olds. I’ve had a long list of great two-year-olds and that’s generally because of my friend Mr. Takter. ~ DF.
SCOTT FORBES: Assistant trainer in the Anthony Beaton Stable and former assistant to trainers such as Casie Coleman and Jim MIller.
Oh, that’s got to be Cheery Hello. You know, I was thinking that I’ve been lucky to be around a lot of great two-year-olds like Brisco Hanover and Tijuana Taxi, but Cheery Hello [p,3,1:52.3 -’89; $869,619] never got beat at two, so I’d have to say it was her.
She was a full sister to Tyler B and I think she went her first 12 starts or something before she ever lost. She ended up winning the Jugette and Breeders Crown at three… she won everything.
She was an expensive yearling… I think she was two-fifty [$250,000].
There’s a real good story that goes with her… she was terrified of the tractors. Even if she saw one at the far end of the track she’d wheel [and go the other way]. And she never got better.
Anthony Pedone was a big owner in those days. He owned her and he had owned part of Tyler B. Apparently Tyler B had been terrified of the tractors too so Pedone kept bugging Jimmy Miller to ask Delvin Miller what he did about that… that’s who trained Tyler B. Well Jimmy didn’t want to be bugging Delvin Miller, but finally he asked him what he did. Delvin Miller just said, ‘Jimmy, just do what I did - stay the F away from them’ (laughing).
Freestate (Raceway) was our home base, and that’s where Jimmy first put a checkered hood on her. If you remember her you might remember that she always wore a checkered hood. She wore that hood so the track maintenance crew knew it was her. When she would go out on the track they would go in, and Jimmy would fill the track crew’s fridge with beer every week in exchange (laughing). It worked out well for everyone.
At night though, when we raced her at different tracks, we just had to watch and see what the tractors would do. If they went the right way we’d go the right way; if they went the other way then we’d go the other way. We’d just warm her up accordingly and do whatever we had to do to keep her away from them.
One night at The Meadowlands though, I thought I had it timed out perfectly for my mile with her. I was ahead of the tractor when I turned and I wasn’t going to catch it before I got my mile in with her. Well doesn’t the driver stop and get out at the head of the stretch to pick up a boot or a shoe or something. All I remember is that he was 9-wide, thankfully, and I remember that all I could see was sparks as she was into that metal hubrail they had there. We got past it somehow but the sparks were flying everywhere as the bike was scraping off of that metal hubrail.
I’ve been around some great two-year-olds but since she never lost at two it’s awfully tough to pick against her! ~ DF.
BEN HOLLINGSWORTH: Trainer and former caretaker.
When I was back home, Deep Finesse, Phil Pinkney’s colt, was probably the best down there that I was involved with. He was a Maritime champion at two, went undefeated and was the richest two-year-old ever in the Maritimes. Phil usually never qualified them early, but that colt, he just couldn’t get him to go at all at first. He couldn’t go by himself, so he was one of the first two-year-olds to qualify in Canada that year - because he needed the company - and he ended up being the best of them. Phil babied him that year and still made $80,000-$90,000 [15-for-18]. He sold him for big money after that year.
Usually, when two-year-olds qualify that early, they’re never there until the end of the season, but Deep Finesse [p,1:49.3f -’12; $245,184] was [still] there because of Phil’s patience. Phil got him in the bike and taught him to be a really good racehorse. Donnie Porter raised him - he raised all the ‘Finesse’ horses. We had success getting horses off him in years prior, so when Phil saw Donnie breaking him, he bought him all by himself. He was the fastest Maritime-bred [ever] at one point.
Probably my favourite two-year-old of all-time would be a horse by the name of Voracity. Tony Alagna trained him. It was my first summer up here. I had just moved from the East Coast and I ended up getting this Sportswriter colt. That colt, he was just such a cool horse to be around. He was laid back and couldn’t care less what was around him. He made like $350,000 that year. We won the Nassagaweya; we finished 3rd in the Metro after winning the elimination. That year, he raced against Control The Moment and Betting Line. To come up from the Maritimes and get a horse like Voracity [p,1:49f -’21; $920,498] was surreal. He was such a really cool dude. He never really came back strong at three, but he was really good at two. I’d do a stall first thing in the morning and he’d be asleep. It was a struggle having to wake him up every morning, but he was the easiest guy to deal with after that. ~ JR.
JOHN MALLIA: Assistant trainer in the Jack Darling Stable.
Other than Bulldog [Hanover] you mean? (laughing). You know, there actually is another two-year-old that we had, that most people seem to forget about, that compared to him at age two, and that’s Big McDeal… she set a World Record at Lexington.
She was a $70,000 yearling - which was a lot for a McArdle - and she was absolutely gorgeous. Jack always buys nice looking yearlings, but she looked like a colt, and she never did a single thing wrong. She was perfect.
That year [2011] was a killer year for pacing fillies… American Jewel, Economy Terror, Shelliscape, horses like that. She won her two baby races and Jody [Jamieson] loved her. Then she was second to Shelliscape in the Whenuwishuponastar final and to American Jewel in the Eternal Camnation. She was 4th in the Shes A Great Lady and then Jody picked off of her in the Champlain. We put Paul [MacDonell] down, and he sent her down the road and won in [1]:51 (laughing). She broke her maiden going for over $200,000.
Jody got the drive back, and in her first start in Lexington they ran her all over the track. The next week though, she won the big one. She beat American Jewel and set a World Record of 1:50.2.
She drew the 10-hole in her first two starts at three and still won in [1]:53, but then Jack sold her to Brad Grant and she went to Ben Wallace.
You know she won in 1:49.1 as a three-year-old, made almost a million dollars and is a really good broodmare, but a lot of people don’t even know who Big McDeal [p.3.1:49.1f -’12; $817,957] is. Brad [Grant] has her three-year-old now - Hungry Man. He won in [1]:50 last year at two.
She was a great two-year-old for us. She was absolutely perfect. ~ DF.
DAVID MENARY: Trainer.
The answer’s easy for me… it’s Hes Watching for sure. His two-year-old season is right up there with any two-year-old year ever. He had eight starts, he had six track records and two world records.
Because of his yearling price [$3,000] he wasn’t heavily staked. I wish he had been paid up into some bigger dances, but nobody figured he’d be as good as he was. I remember it was a muddy track the first time Chris [Christoforou] qualified him at Mohawk… when he came back after that prep, he said to me, ‘This is the fastest horse I’ve ever sat behind.’ When we were training him, we knew he had real speed, but we never envisioned he’d go undefeated at two and win a Dan Patch Award.
Hes Watching [p,3,1:46.4 -’14; $1,129,215] didn’t come in until December 4th, because I had a lot of colts that year. I didn’t go with him that much at the start because I had a lot of expensive ones and well-bred babies that the owners wanted to see me go with. The day I trained him in 2:14, I got off the cart, went and bought him a new harness and never let anybody else go with him after that.
He was a good horse right from the get-go. We kind of laughed because after just one week my right hand man said ‘Geez, we have some of these expensive ones who have been training for two months, and I think the little one is a lot faster’.
Tim Tetrick, who guided him to his biggest win at three [The Meadowlands Pace], has driven many great horses, and he’s gone on record numerous times saying that he’s the fastest horse he’s ever sat behind.
An honourable mention for me would have to be another favourite of mine, which is Prodigal Seelster [p,2,1:50s -’10; $927,277]. He broke Somebeachsomewhere’s Canadian Record in the Battle Of Waterloo and he won his Metro Pace elimination in [1]:50 flat, which was a national season’s record. I had never been in a $1 million dollar race before and he got me there. Unfortunately, he couldn’t deliver as the 9/5 favourite. It was a dirty, muddy night, and he scoped worse [after the race] than I’ve ever had a horse scope in my life. I went in my truck after the races that night and had a little pout for a good 45 minutes. ~ JR.
GEORGE MILLAR: Owner/Breeder.
Obviously, having Prohibition Legal, Silver Label and Betterhavemymoney all in the same year - with two of them winning O’Brien Awards at two - was special. To me, it just doesn’t get much better than that, but back in 2003 I had a really nice Precious Bunny filly called Serious Comfort. She too, won an O’Brien Award as a two-year-old, but what made her special was the story behind her.
That particular year I had forgotten all about Mother’s Day, and I remember my wife, Sondra, was over at the broodmare barn. She saw this filly being born and she came back to me and said ‘Thanks for my Mother’s Day present’. I said to her ‘What do you mean, I didn’t get you anything?’ She said ‘Yes you did, I’m taking that filly’. Right away she said to me ‘I’m going to call her Serious Comfort because she’s going to make me a lot of money and bring me some serious comfort’. For me, the more I could keep her involved, the easier it was in my life.
So we started training her down and I remember it was around the middle of June in ‘03, and I mentioned to my wife that we were going to qualify her filly that week. She looked at me and said ‘Well, how fast can she go?’ I said that we were probably going to go in 1:58, or 1:59 since it was just a qualifier. She didn’t think that sounded very fast. When she asked how fast she needed to go to win a race, I told her it’d likely have to be 1:54, which she probably wasn’t ready to go just yet. That’s when she said she didn’t want her to qualify until she was ready to go in [1]:54 at first asking. I told her, ‘Sondra, we’re going to miss a lot of races if we wait until she’s ready to qualify in [1]:54!’. She turned to me and said ‘It’s my horse and we’ll do what I want.’
So we trained her for another month. She could’ve been racing in the middle of June and her first start ended up being on August 26th… she was second, beaten a nose. My wife wasn’t happy because she didn’t want her to race unless she was ready to win. Tough owner, I’d say (laughing).
Not only did she salvage Mother’s Day for me, Serious Comfort [p,2,1:52.3 -’03; $798,227] went on to win six races in eight starts as a two-year-old, and make just shy of $400,000. She had a great year and a great career. I’d say my wife sure knows how to pick ‘em! ~ JR.
CHANTAL MITCHELL: Trainer.
I’d give Bettors Wish an honourable mention here but I’d have to say that Alicorn was the best two-year-old that I’ve ever been associated with. Unfortunately with Bettors Wish - and he did have a great two-year-old year for us - something often happened that year that made him the bridesmaid. With Alicorn [p,2,1:50.3s -’19; $730,079], she still went lots of tough trips and everything, but in the end things always seemed to work out for her that year.
Her owners were more into racehorses… they’d buy some yearlings each year but wouldn’t necessarily spend a lot on them. She was a good looking Bettors Delight filly but she was on the small side, so they got her for just $30,000 and sent her to Roland Mallar so he could get her ready down in the states. After her first qualifier they called and asked if we would take her and their Hes Watching filly, but they warned us that they were both on the small side. When they stepped off the Doyle van we looked at each other and said something like ‘They weren’t kidding’ (laughing).
The Hes Watching filly wasn’t able to do much at two, but the fillies were so tightly bonded that when Alicorn started doing so well they just asked us to keep them both for the summer and just keep jogging and trying things with the other one. The two of them got turned out together daily and were inseparable, and we didn’t want to change a thing in Alicorn’s routine.
Alicorn set a new OSS record [1:50.3], and matched it a few starts later. She also set a track record at Grand River [1:54.2] that has been equalled since but still stands. She won 7 of 13 starts for over half-a-million dollars, but her best start was probably when she finished second to Lyons Sentinel in the Shes A Great Lady final. Our girl did all the work and paced faster [1:49.3] then the track record, but just got beat.
I know that Eric Cherry owns her now and that he bred her to Papi Rob Hanover. She won the O’Brien Award for us that year [2019] and gave us some big thrills… she is the best two-year-old I’ve ever been associated with. ~ DF.
MAC NICHOL: Owner.
I would say that out of the ones I’ve had, it’d probably have to be Betting Line. He was the one that I’d say was the most talented. He was good at two - he won the OSS Super Final and was second in the Metro - but he was even better at three. He went on to make over $2.2 million in his career.
The funny part is that Dave Miller, who was undefeated sitting behind him, and won his last fourteen career races in a row with him, wasn’t a big fan of his when he was training as a baby down in Florida. There was another one that I had that he didn’t like either, that ended up making some big money in their career, so I guess when Dave doesn’t like one training down you know they’ll end up being pretty good (laughing).
There was some controversy surrounding Betting Line [p,3,1:47.2f -’16; $2,238,518] at three, ahead of The Little Brown Jug, but he went out there and did what he always did throughout his career, and that’s deliver. He won by eight lengths in the final, in a mile of [1]:49, which ended up being a track record. It was nice to put forth a performance like that, especially with some of the stuff that surrounded him leading up to that race. He was a great horse for us, at both two and three. ~JR.
JIM STOCKER: Assistant trainer in the Anthony Beaton Stable and former longtime assistant to Bob McIntosh.
Western Shooter. He won the Governors Cup in November in 1:50 flat. That pretty much says what you need to know.
Pixie [Brian Biekx] and I rubbed eight horses between us. He was one of the eight and so was All American Ingot. They both looked like they were going to be nice colts so when it came time to split them up and go on the road with them we flipped a coin. We flipped a coin because Shooter was a dickhead and Ingot was perfect. Pixie said we’d flip a coin and he’d go with one for the year and I’d go with the other. He called it and he lost. I picked Ingot, because he was a gentleman, and he got Shooter. We still looked after the eight of them together but when it came to racing he went with his and I went with mine.
Ingot was really good at the start of the year… he won the [Woodrow] Wilson and was the big favourite going into the Metro, but he got a little fracture in his cannon bone and he was done [for the year].
Western Shooter [p,2,1:50 -’01; $904,462] was going to win the Metro but he made a break when he got hit by the whip. Then he won the Breeders Crown up here and had to go back down to The Meadowlands where he was the big favourite in the Governors Cup. Before the race Pixie called Bob and said ‘You’ve got to send Stocker down to help me with this horse. The horse is just too much for one person, I need him here.’ So they put me on the CSX jet with Bob and Patti and the owners and I got to fly down to help. He got away about 6th, came first-up and won easy in 1:50. We flew back home later that night.
Sad part is that he and Louie Louie Two, [Joe] Holloway’s good colt, never raced again after that night. They both died that winter. ~ DF.
TEESHA SYMES: Trainer and former caretaker.
In 2021, I got the chance to take care of and basically train Monte Miki. Mark Evers called a week before the Metro eliminations and asked if I would take his colt. Honestly, I didn’t know Mark from a hole in the wall but I had taken some horses for Todd Luther and the Ohio horse community is pretty close, so he got the recommendation to ship him over to me. All Mark told me was that this horse was really fast, and to train him as if he were one of my own. He gave me full control. I didn’t know much about the colt beforehand, but I remember when I was at the Jug with Josh Sutton - who drove Monte in Ohio - he wouldn’t shut up about this colt. He kept saying ‘Don’t underestimate this colt, I’m telling you, he’s the real deal!’ I remember telling Beau [Brown], I had never heard Josh talk about a horse like that before, so I was hoping he’d be right.
Monte Miki [p,2,1:50.4 -’21; $751,796] hadn’t raced against Grand Circuit types yet, so you aren’t really sure. Josh [Sutton] wasn’t vaccinated at the time so we needed to find him a driver, and I figured Scott [Zeron] would be a great candidate since he wasn’t driving a top colt in that division that year. He got the drive and we won the Metro Pace from post-position #11 in a twelve-horse field.
Mark called me after winning the Metro and asked if I’d like to go down to the Meadowlands and get him ready for the Breeders Crown as well. That was a tough decision for me, honestly, because I had a barn of my own here and owners who rely on me, and I wasn’t sure if I could go away for three weeks with Monte. I’ve got a great team here and such, but it was a tough decision to make at the time. Actually, it was Bob McClure who twisted my arm. I was outside the paddock when Mark had called me, and Bobby just happened to be getting something out of his car and heard me talking. He asked what the deal was and I gave him the rundown. Right away Bob said, ‘Why are you even thinking twice about that?’. I explained about my barn and my owners. He said ‘What happens if you never get the chance to train a colt like this again? If your owners are upset that you’re going to go there and train a Breeders Crown winner, then that’s on them’.
If not for Bob McClure pushing me, I’m not sure I would’ve gone… and I’m glad I went, because there’s a Breeders Crown trophy in my living room because of it. What’s even sweeter is that I was able to nose out Brian Brown’s colt, Gulf Shores, in a tight photo. Brian is my boyfriend’s dad. I think it’s pretty cool, at least, but I’m not sure the Brown family finds it cool (laughing).
After the Breeders Crown win, now that they’ve syndicated him, Miki is the gift that keeps on giving. They ended up giving me a lifetime breeding to him. He gave me the biggest thrill of my career and I’ll never forget that experience. ~ JR.
This feature originally appeared in the May issue of TROT Magazine. Subscribe to TROT today by clicking the banner below.
