Wow… Charles Town Filly is the Real Deal

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Javier Contreras has been around since 1983, wins his fair share of races at Charles Town and dreams small. Trainers like Contreras don’t think about winning graded stakes races. They want to make some money, pay the bills and prove that they can be a success at racing’s blue-collar level. But Contreras’s life began to change when he purchased a West Virginia-bred horse named Late Night Pow Wow (Fiber Sonde) privately from breeder John McKee for an undisclosed fee. Fiber Sonde stands for $1,000 and the mare, Holy Pow Wow, raced four times and lost those races by a combined margin of 66 3/4 lengths.

Once he started training her, Contreras could tell right away that Late Night Pow Wow had some quality, so he wasn’t surprised when she broke her maiden at Charles Town on Sept. 17, 2017 by 6 1/2 lengths. But he figured there were limits to what she could accomplish.

“I knew she could run,” he said.” I thought I had a pretty nice West Virginia bred and I could have some fun with her. I knew she would go through her West Virginia-bred conditions.”

Late Night Pow Wow won her second start and then lost in her stakes debut, the Its Binn Too Long Stakes., finishing second.

She hasn’t lost since.

“She just kept getting better and better and better,” Contreras said.

Late Night Pow Wow won her next six starts, all of them at Charles Town, including the GIII Charles Town Oaks. It was after that race that Contreras got a call from Mike Hall and Sam Ross, who race under the name of Breeze Easy LLC. Hall and Ross don’t normally shop around for horses at Charles Town. They are major owners and breeders and last July bought the sale topper, My Miss Tapit (Tapit), for $700,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale. But clearly they understood quality horses can come from anywhere, Charles Town included.

“I sold 100% of the horse to them,” said Contreras, who would not disclose what he sold the filly for. “They made me an offer I just couldn’t say no to.”

The money, Contreras said, was important, but it was more important to him that Hall and Ross promised him he would train Late Night Pow Wow throughout the rest of her racing career.

“They told me if they could acquire her they would leave her with me and that was part of the deal,” he said. “I will train her for the whole year and they will retire her and breed her. If they had insisted that she go to another trainer I never would have sold her.”

After the Charles Town Oaks win, Late Night Pow Wow returned to restricted company and won a stakes races on the West Virginia Breeders’ Classic Card. It was time to try something tougher.

Then nine for 10 in her career, she was shipped to Laurel for the $100,000 Willa On the Move S.

“I heard a lot of comments, like ‘Why don’t you stay home? What are you doing over there? She’s just a West Virginia bred,'” Contreras said. “I thought we’ll give it a shot and see if we can prove everybody wrong.”

She did just that, winning by five lengths. She returned to Laurel for her next start and won the What a Summer S., this time by 6 1/4 lengths.

Yet, there were still plenty of non-believers. Her wins had all come at either Charles Town or in small stakes at Laurel. How would she do when she faced better horses? That opportunity came up last Saturday in the GIII Barbara Fritchie at Laurel, a $250,000 race.

“Right after nominations came out and I looked at the some of the names,” he said. “Chad Brown had one nominated. So did Peter Miller. I was concerned.”

Not only did Brown and Miller show up, but so did Kiaran McLaughlin, Linda Rice and John Servis. But there was only one horse who scared Contreras, and that was Miller’s Spiced Perfection (Smiling Tiger). She had just been transferred to the Miller barn after winning the GI La Brea for Brian Koriner.

It turned out to be the toughest race of Late Night Pow Wow’s career, but she defeated Spiced Perfection by a head under regular rider Fredy Peltroche. With an 11-for12 lifetime record, two graded stakes wins and a victory over a Grade I winner, it had become awfully hard to poke any holes in this horse’s career.

The next logical step is Grade I company and Contreras said that’s where Late Night Pow Wow is likely headed next, to the GI Madison on April 6 at Keeneland.

In the meantime, a trainer who has spent much of his career around claimers and West Virginia-breds is living out a dream.

“Training this horse, it is amazing,” he said. “It makes you want to get up early in the mornings. I can’t wait to get up and go to the barn and watch her train. I have a bunch of nice horses that fit good here at Charles Town, but nothing like here. This is definitely, definitely the best horses I ever had.”

 

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