Gotham Only the First Test for Best Intentions

[Wandering Eyes]

Well, if they were being anything like as prescient, at the end of last summer, as they have proved to be in flying him across a continent for his first run since, then everything is going to work out just fine.

For while Bob Baffert has had the rug pulled from under his feet, with the abrupt suspension even of training over the track where he was about to relaunch two rather more accomplished colts, OXO Equine’s Instagrand (Into Mischief) had already booked a magic carpet east.

Flying 2,500 miles for the GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct Saturday has turned out a lesser logistical challenge than trying to run on his home track. No less paradoxically, however, Instagrand resurfaces under nearly as much scrutiny as will (eventually) Baffert’s divisional champion, Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}), and his fellow Grade I winner Improbable (City Zip).

That’s because of owner Larry Best’s decision to take Instagrand off the track after he duplicated a 10-length maiden success in the GII Best Pal S. last August. His unorthodox intervention generated plenty of comment at the time—and a lot of people will now be curious to see whether it pays off.

In fairness, Best’s whole point was to take the long view. Hoping to see the horse fulfill his potential with maturity, at three and even four, he resolved to stop on a thriving 2-year-old—after a total 126.2 seconds of competition—in the hope of avoiding the burnout he’d seen in so many adolescent horses sacrificed, so to speak, at the Triple Crown altar. He noted how Instagrand had graduated from the rigours of a 2-year-old sale, while showing the kind of wholehearted attitude that might soon send the fuel gauge the red if not managed carefully.

As such, a Grade III race in March is not where Best’s strategy should be judged. Because even if Instagrand begins to look like a Kentucky Derby horse today—and whether he is really in that mould is another story—then his owner will continue to do only what he feels best for the horse’s long-term interests. (He has already specified that he would rather win the Derby and Travers than the Triple Crown.)

What most provoked some observers, however, was not so much the specifics of his argument as the fact that he was candidly over-ruling a veteran horseman in Jerry Hollendorfer. In Europe, certainly, owners of the old school historically consider it not just foolhardy, but somehow ungentlemanly, to seize the steering wheel from the professional horsemen they hired. (Albeit you do see cases over there where trainers would actually benefit from a little less tenderness to their vanity.) That would seem rather less true in the U.S., these days at any rate. After all, hard-headed barn transfers and jockey switches have long been routine when a horse suggests that he could reciprocate proven, elite handling.

But the bottom line today seems to be—well, the bottom line. The guy who pays the bills (and let’s not forget Instagrand cost Best $1.2 million; nor that he essentially does his own shopping) will typically feel entitled to have his opinion not only heard but heeded. In this case, moreover, we’re looking at a fellow whose self-same “gut” feel for a left-field decision put him in a position to spend all this dough in the first place.

Increasingly, even Hall of Fame trainers find themselves dealing with a vocal new generation of owners, many much younger than Best but fully accustomed to having their voices heard. Compared with the era of the old breed-to-race sportsmen, then, it can be nearly as important to read and guide a patron, with empathy and tact, as to be able to manage his horse.

Now the irony is that many horsemen would urge Best that the way to get a runner to last is actually to give him a foundation at two; that early seasoning is not just about the Triple Crown, but about his chances of coming out the other side.

To some, then, the fact that so many horses derail after the Classics is precisely because they typically get a shallower grounding than great names of the past. To others, yes, the way Justify (Scat Daddy) tore up the rulebook will only encourage the vogue for a lighter schedule. But he didn’t last either. Perhaps longevity is sooner about the type of horses we breed today, than the kind of options they take in their youth.

Anyway, who said ‘rulebook’? What rulebook? Horses come with as many different needs as people (including owners). Just look at the different paths Hollendorfer is taking with Gunmetal Gray (Exchange Rate) and Galilean (Uncle Mo). Sure, it was a risk for Best to turn down a bird in the hand, with Instagrand. But training Thoroughbreds, as the same barn was tragically reminded just days ago with Battle Of Midway (Smart Strike), is never free of risk.

It’s perfectly reasonable to back off a bullet breezer, bred the way Instagrand is, who has detonated like that in two races; and just to let that bone grow without constant strain. Nor are there rules about the type of horse he can or can’t be. Last year, remember, Into Mischief managed to get a son (and one out of a Gilded Time mare) into the Derby frame. True, the little we’ve seen of Instagrand has been wild speed; and, sure enough, he is being flown coast to coast for a one-turn mile. But there was something auspiciously controlled and fluid about the way he attacked the 11 fleeting furlongs of his juvenile career.

So it’ll be fascinating to see how he gets on today, and hereafter. But he’s a horse. He’s not trained with a cookie cutter. There’s never a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to plan a horse’s career, so long as the people around him keep doing what they believe will serve his interests best.

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