The Week in Review: Brian Knippenberg Never Gave Up on Mercante and Now He’s Being Rewarded

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Brian Knippenberg knew there was something wrong with Mercante (Gun Runner), but didn't know what it was. He also knew that the horse had a ton of talent and maybe he could patch him up and he'd be a useful horse. Not many would have done so. It would have been easy to give up on a horse that was sidelined for 15 months after he finished third in a July 22, 2023 allowance race at Saratoga for trainer Bill Mott.

Fast forward to the present and Mercante looks like one of the best turf horse in training. His latest win came in the GIII Arlington S. on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

It was after that July 2023 race that Mott sent the horse back to Hermitage Farm, owned by Carl Pollard. Knippenberg is his farm manager and trains a few horses for him on the side, mainly the ones that aren't good enough to make it at the bigger circuits. Knippenberg wasn't given any instructions or given a time frame. Rather, Pollard wanted him to look under the hood and try to figure out what was wrong with Mercante.

Mercante had a tendon problem, but it was an unusual one. There was swelling in the afflicted area, but otherwise Mercante appeared to be perfectly sound.

“There was no structural damage and he wasn't unsound,” Knippenberg said. “It was just an unsightly swelling. Nobody could figure out what was happening.”

So, with the blessing of his veterinarian, Knippenberg decided to put Mercante back into serious training. He also asked Pollard if he could train the horse.

“I told Mr. Pollard that I appreciated every horse he's ever sent me,” the trainer said. “I've loved winning races for him. How about giving me a chance with a potentially big time horse like Mercante? He waited about 30 days and then he said go for it. That's how the whole thing got set in motion.”

The swelling remained an issue, but Mercante was otherwise training well and Knippenberg thought he was ready for a race.

“We had him entered at Churchill and two days before the race, the leg just blew up. It was really bad. We sent him straight to the clinic. As is the case so often in life, the swelling was a blessing in disguise.”

This time someone figured out what was going on.

“They did an ultrasound on him and they found this tiny tear in what is called the manica,” Knippenberg said.

According to the website vet-anatomy, the manica flexoria are bands of tissue proximal and distal to the fetlock, made of lateral and medial margins of the superficial digital flexor tendon.

If they could repair this problem, there would be no reason why Mercante couldn't come back and, perhaps, develop into a stakes horse. But would it be worth the cost, the time and the effort? All he had done for Mott was break his maiden in six starts.

“There was no damage to the tendon,” Knippenberg said. “It's not a weight bearing structure. There was just this tiny tear in the manica that was rubbing the tendon. This is an expensive surgery that involves a lengthy recovery. I stood by the horse. He would have been fine without surgery. It wasn't a quality of life issue. I told Mr. Pollard that this horse was worth it. He was on the sidelines for 15 months. Six months of that was post op after the surgery. Mr. Pollard went for it. Thank goodness he did because the horse has backed him up.”

The Arlington was his seventh race since the long layoff and he's won four of them and was second in the GI Old Forester BourbonTurf Classic at Churchill.

“I'm proud of Brian because he fooled with him and fooled with him,” Pollard said. “Bill Mott did a great job with him, but there was always something wrong. I was ready to give up on him.”

Knippenberg said most owners probably would have given up on Mercante.

“Mr. Pollard is the greatest owner in the world,” Knippenberg said. “He always defaults to his trainers and his farm managers. He will have an opinion, but he will trust the experts. He wasn't pushing to retire him. I presented him with the possible options. We could retire him and give him away as a riding horse or we could do this surgery The success rate on that surgery is about 70-30, which is not really great odds for something that is pretty expensive. But he went for it. He's game and he loves racing. As far as caring for horses, even the ones that can't race, I've never seen anyone like him. It's never a money issue with him. He always does what's right by the race horse.”

For Knippenberg, Mercante has been a once-in-a-lifetime horse. He's been training since 2003 and has won 53 races. But many of the horses that came his way were Hermitage horses that didn't look like they had much of a future.

“I'm not looking to train a string of horses,” Knippenberg said. “It was kind of a side thing I do with horses that have a little bit of a rap sheet. That's why this is such a cool story that a horse like Mercante would come in to the barn. We're not going to the sales and buying $500,000 horses to try to win big races. It just one that passed through our hands and turned out to be this kind of a horse.”

Knippenberg has one other horse in training. The other is the claimer Sassy and Bold (Daddy Long Legs). Like Mercante, she has won three races so far this year. Knippenberg is 6-for-10 on the year.

“The most special part is that Mr. Pollard has supported me by naming me his farm manager and sending me horses to train,” Knippenberg said. “It was really special to win this race for him. It is gratifying because you always wonder why am I racing on the small circuits? Is it because I don't know what I'm doing? So it is nice to have a horse with this ability and he runs to his abilities. It's been really fun.”

Knippenberg wasn't sure what would be next for Mercante, but he said he will look at all the top grass stakes.

“We used to be a Cinderella story,” the trainer said. “Not anymore. With the way he's been running, there are very high expectations every time he starts.”

Patching Up “Patches”

Reigning Canadian Horse of the Year Patches O'Houlihan (Reload) was scratched from Saturday's GIII Jacques Cartier S. at Woodbine, but trainer Bob Tiller is optimistic that the 5-year-old won't be sidelined for long.

“We came in early [Saturday] morning and the first thing we looked at him and as soon we saw him, we knew that something wasn't right,” Tiller said. “He looked dull to me and we looked in the corner and he had left a lot of food. He wasn't feeling right. We couldn't run him. I would never run a horse in a situation like that where you might get a poor performance and make him even sicker. We love him to death. We adore him. We had to do the right thing and scratch him. He's much better today. It's just the second day, but we are optimistic. We'll do a lot of tests on him. I'm very confident he'll snap out of this.”

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