Surprising Soul Wires Lonesome Glory

[Wandering Eyes]

As kind as last year’s National Steeplechase Association season was to trainer Ricky Hendriks, this year has been as cruel.

A year ago, he was contending for the champion trainer title and was overtaken in November by Jack Fisher. This year, Fisher is running away with the title, and Hendriks’s wins, six to Fisher’s 28, have been few and far between as his top horses have gone to the sidelines.

One constant has been his mother Wendy Hendriks’ Surprising Soul (Perfect Soul {Ire}). Bred in Ontario by Charles Fipke, Surprising Soul earned nearly $100,000 last year with a change of tactics that can be best described as less is more.

That is, fewer starts–three in all last year, compared with seven in 2017–and more consistency. Thursday’s GI Lonesome Glory at Belmont Park was the 7-year-old’s third start of the year. He ran a short fourth in March and a good second in the GI Calvin Houghland Iroquois at Nashville May 11.

Hendriks put Surprising Soul away for the summer and shipped a fresh horse from eastern Pennsylvania to the Long Island track.

All eyes were on Hudson River Farms’ Winston C (Ire) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}), who went off at .90-to-1 after crushing Saratoga Race Course’s two Grade I races, and an overlooked Surprising Soul got away at 17.60-to-1.

One attribute that Surprising Soul possesses, but was lacking in his eight opponents, is front-end speed. He is not on the lead in all of his races, but he can be there when needed.

His regular jockey, Ross Geraghty, gauged that the Lonesome Glory was one of those times when speed was warranted. He maintained Surprising Soul on a two-length lead as the field toured Belmont’s spacious inner turf course.

Winston C makes his move late, in the final half-mile, and everything was going to plan for him until he had a slight bobble at the next to last fence and then found himself and jockey Thomas Garner in tight quarters around the final turn.

The situation was tight enough that Winston C bounced off a beacon, lost some more ground, and got moving again about the time Surprising Soul opened 4 1/2 lengths at the furlong pole and won by 3 3/4 lengths. Surprising Soul paid $37.20 to win after running the Lonesome Glory’s 2 1/2 miles in 4:34.41 on firm turf.

Finishing behind him were two veteran longshots, Harold A. “Sonny” Via’s Hinterland (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}) and Bridlewood Farm’s All the Way Jose (Senor Swinger), both at odds exceeding 40-to-1. Winston C finished fourth, and Bruton Street-US’s Scorpiancer (Ire) (Scorpion {Ire}) was fifth.

Fisher trains Hinterland, Scorpiancer, and Moscato (GB), the GII Temple Gwathmey H. winner in April who finished eighth.

The Lonesome Glory’s $90,000 first-place purse raised Surprising Soul’s 2019 earnings to $119,500.

 

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