Caledonia Road Sitting on Go For Acorn

[Wandering Eyes]

Seven months removed from an upset victory in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar, connections are confident that Eclipse Award winner Caledonia Road (Quality Road) will be fit and ready to battle a tough field in Saturday’s GI Acorn S. Saturday at Belmont Park.

Managing Partner Luc Paiement feels the filly should be on her game following an easy 3 1/2-length allowance win in April at Belmont Park to start off her 3-year-old season, which was delayed because of an ankle surgery and a virus. She has drawn post five in the field of seven and is listed at 3-1 on the morning line. Mike Smith is aboard for the Ralph Nicks trainee, who has worked sensationally since her sophomore bow.

Included in the field is GI Kentucky Oaks winner Monomoy Girl (Tapizar), listed as the 4-5 morning-line favorite and leaving from post three, and multiple G1 winner and ‘TDN Rising Star’ Moonshine Memories (Malibu Moon), listed at 6-1 and drawn the fence.

Paiement, who owns the filly with Charlie Spiring and Maurice and Samatha Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud, said Caledonia Road’s familiarity with Belmont and the fact she has been training there for some time should bode well for Saturday’s race.

“We’re very, very pleased where we are,” Paiement said. “I believe we will be second favorite and we expect a good race. If the race goes the way we hope, she should be not far, if not ahead, at the finish.”

The plan is to run her no more than four or five times this year.

“We really want to go to Saratoga in top shape,” he said.

There is a possibility the filly may run in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and GI Alabama S. to try for a sweep of the American Triple Tiara of Thoroughbred Racing. Paiement, who is from Montreal, said racing in Saratoga is “very interesting,” which means the Alabama is of particular importance.

“If we won only two of the three races that would be great,” he said. “If we skip one, we skip one. She has not raced a lot this year. She should be good for the next four to five months if we don’t abuse her. Ideally we’d like to win two Grade Is and go to the Breeders’ Cup in November. That would be our main goals.”

Paiement, Executive Advisor of the National Bank of Canada, joked that the filly is in better physical shape now than him. He ruptured an Achilles tendon last December 22 walking his dog. While no longer needing crutches, which he had at the Eclipse Awards in January, he still has a limp.

“What I said to a lot of people is I preferred that happen to me than to my horse,” he said. “I have been in the horse business for a long time. I know that you have to manage your expectations in this business. It’s highs and lows. Because she had a chip in November, we knew from the start it would likely not be until the Kentucky Oaks [that she raced], but with an outside chance to run sooner. Once she got the virus and all of that, we knew [the Oaks wasn’t a possibility].

Paiement continued, “I went to the Kentucky Derby anyways, but now we’re very happy where we are, the filly is in top shape and not tired. She didn’t run in the mud in Louisville. That’s the horse business. I’m not used to that, but I turn the page and move on. That’s it.”

Caledonia Road will run for the first time in the colors of Newtown Anner Stud, which bought a one-third interest in the horse before the Breeders’ Cup. Paiement told the Thoroughbred Daily News the partnership rejected an offer to sell the filly outright or a majority interest in her after the Breeders’ Cup win. The filly will be sold at the end of this season or next season, depending on how she runs overall in 2018, because Paiement does not want to keep her as a broodmare prospect.

 

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