Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Sharp Spa Start For Always On the Go Trainer Sharp

Wandering Eyes · Friday at 10:11 PM

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – So far, trainer Joe Sharp has done little wrong at the Thoroughbred meet at Saratoga. If you've been following along, you know he has won six races with his first 15 starters.

You might not know that he is also doing ok across the street at the harness track.

Sharp has been moonlighting as a harness owner at night–along with former jockey Taylor Rice, the wife of jockey Jose Ortiz. They own a pair of pacers named Virgin Honor and Legal Bettor and they will both race Saturday night.

They got involved in the sulky business a year ago.

Legal Bettor will run in the second race and Virgin Honor will contest the fourth. Both will be driven by veteran Wally Hennessey, who just won his 12,000th career race earlier this week. He drove Virgin Honor to victory last Saturday night.

“It really is a lot of fun,” Sharp said outside his barn on the Oklahoma Training Track. “This is sheer entertainment, and I have learned a lot. That's why I like it so much because I can learn a lot about a different industry. That is what makes it so intriguing for me and Taylor and Jose.”

Sharp laughed when asked if he was a tough owner.

“Last year I might have been a little bit tough, but I have a lot of faith in my trainer (Jaymes McAssey) and I am very good at letting him do his thing. But we are in the mindset that we want to win. We run them wherever they can win.”

Sharp, 40, is all in on the harness thing. Every morning, after training his own string at Saratoga, he heads over to the harness track and jogs a few horses.

“They usually hold one or two for me to jog,” he said. “It's a lot of fun.”

As far as changing careers, that isn't happening. His wife, former jockey Rosie Napravnik, just rolls her eyes when that subject came up.

Sharp is having plenty of fun so far at Saratoga as his horses have been showing up for him. He is just two wins away from career win No. 1,000.

“Only because you guys remind me of it all the time,” Sharp said with a smile when asked if he thinks about the milestone. “Honestly, I don't think about it much. I'm very proud of our team and getting to that point does not weigh on me at all.”

As far as the sizzling start goes, he'll take it. Last year's Saratoga meet saw him win five times in 49 starts.

“The right races went for us early in the meet,” he said. “We are grateful how everything has been clicking and we have a lot of horses yet to run. Some of the horses that have already won might start, some might not. It's important for me up here. The track is great, the atmosphere is great, and the weather is fantastic.”

And if Sharp wasn't busy enough, he still finds time to run between eight and 10 miles four or five times a week.

“I went 11 the other day,” he said, “that's because I got lost!”

La Cara, Nitrogen Work Towards Alabama

Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse said he has never had two quality 3-year-old fillies like these.

He is counting down the days when he will run La Cara (Street Sense) and Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI, $600,000 Alabama Stakes on Aug 16.

La Cara working Friday | Sarah Andrew

Both fillies worked on the main track at Saratoga Friday morning. La Cara, who missed last weekend's GI Coaching Club American Oaks because the barn she was in was under quarantine, went five furlongs in :59.76 (1/16) with regular exercise rider Mary Rose Hitt.

Casse said that while under quarantine, La Cara missed three days of training.

“I don't think I have worked her five-eighths in a long time,” Casse said outside his barn on the main track. “I am trying to put some air into her since we didn't get to run.”

The last time La Cara worked five furlongs was Mar. 21 at Palm Meadows in Florida. Since then, she has had six, four-furlong works before Friday.

La Cara, owned by Tracy Farmer, has three wins in five starts this year, including a pair of Grade I races. In her latest, she won the GI Acorn at Saratoga on June 6.

D J Stable LLC's Nitrogen has started six times this year, five of them on grass. In her lone try on dirt, Nitrogen won the off-the-turf GIII Wonder Again by 17 lengths over two grass horses.

Friday, she worked four furlongs in company and was timed in :48.02 (8/60).

“She worked phenomenal,” Casse said.

While Casse is excited about his two fillies heading to the Alabama, he is also facing the fact that he will not be attending the King's Plate at Woodbine. That is Canada's oldest Thoroughbred horse race and the oldest continuously run race in North America.

Casse plans on having a horse, maybe two, in the King's Plate, a race he has won three times.

“I can't ever remember missing one,” Casse said, “but the Alabama is the same day, and I have never had two fillies in the Alabama.”

Bauer's Barn Has Taken Some Hits

Last summer, trainer Phil Bauer had some high hopes for a pair of young horses. Jonathan's Way (Vekoma), a 2-year-old colt, and Two Sharp (Twirling Candy), a 2-year-old filly, had shown plenty of promise.

Fast forward a year and Bauer doesn't have either of them in his barn. He just hopes they can return next season.

Phil Bauer | Sarah Andrew

“We have been annihilated with depression,” Bauer said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track.

Here' why. Start with Jonathan's Way, owned by Richard Rigney's Rigney Racing LLC.

After breaking his maiden at Saratoga by 4 1/4 lengths last summer, he took a hike up in class and won the GIII Iroquois Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.

After a lackluster seventh in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Nov. 1, he rebounded with a second in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.

Then, nothing.

“He had an infection and then he had colitis,” Bauer said. “He looked like an emaciated horse. It was awful. He is doing ok now.”

Bauer said Jonathan's Way is back home on the farm. He'll get the rest of the year off.

Two Sharp, also owned by Rigney, won three of four starts last year, including the GIII Chilukki Stakes at Churchill. In her one race this year, Two Sharp won the GIII Winning Colors by 3 1/2 lengths.

She hasn't been seen since.

Bauer said Two Sharp has had a soft tissue issue and is also at the farm.

“She is crazy good, that filly,” Bauer said. “Probably the best horse I ever had. She is just naturally fast and doesn't stop; she is one that does not get tired.”

All Bauer can do now is wait and see if both horses can get back to the races as 4-year-olds.

“That is the plan,” he said. “It's not like they are retired. They are turned out and we'll reevaluate them and try again. You are always hopeful, but you can't get too high on them, because they will just break your heart.”