In Search of Gulfstream Leading Owner Title

More than halfway into the 2014-15 championship meet at Gulfstream Park, fast-rising White Wabbit Wacing holds a narrow lead over two-time defending champions Ken and Sarah Ramsey in the competition for leading owner.

Through Feb. 8, the meet's 47th day, White Wabbit had 14 victories from 49 starts, while the Ramseys had 12 wins in 59 starts. Frank Carl Calabrese was third with 10 wins in 47 starts.

The Hallandale Beach, Fla., track will end its 82-day championship meet March 29. That gives the Ramsey juggernaut 35 days to try to catch White Wabbit, created two years ago and run by Gregory Schwartz of Hollywood, Fla.

It is a competition between a six-time Eclipse Award winner that uses national stars Mike Maker and Wesley Ward among its trainers, and a new entity whose horses are trained by the highly successful but also controversial Jorge Navarro.

"Even if we don't win, we will give Ken a good run for his money," said Schwartz, an attorney whose practice includes personal injury cases.

"We plan to win again (at Gulfstream)," said Ken Ramsey, who believes White Wabbit "will continue to have a very strong meet."

If the owners' race is close heading into the final week, Ramsey said he will consider running some horses that otherwise would not  have a next start until April.

White Wabbit came into the Gulfstream meet after tying Calabrese for most wins, each with 13 , at the eight-week Gulfstream Park West meet. Gulfstream ran that meet in October and November at Calder Casino & Race Course under a lease arrangement.

Last summer White Wabbit led all owners in wins at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.

White Wabbit began the Gulfstream meet confident it would finish high in the owners' race but not realistically expecting to win it, said Darren Deluci, the principal racing adviser to Schwartz. Now, Deluci said, "we intend to win it."

White Wabbit will attempt to do so with a stable of about 20 horses, all in Gulfstream-leased permanent stalls at Calder. When asked about the stable's colorful name, members of the White Wabbit Wacing team would only say it has origins in Australia.

Most of the operation's horses were claimed out of races at Monmouth or in South Florida. Deluci said he and Navarro look for horses "with speed and back class."

"We are good at spotting horses where they can win," Deluci said. "We think Jorge is the best trainer in the business with claimers."

Navarro moved from Panama to Florida in 2008. According to Equibase, through Feb. 8 his horses won 390 of 1,466 starts for a 27% win rate. He led the Monmouth trainer standings in wins in 2013 and 2014.

But in October 2013 the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering suspended Navarro for 60 days for a series of overages of the anti-inflammatory drug flunixin, commonly known as Banamine, in horses that raced for him at Tampa Bay Downs in 2012. Tampa Bay Downs then barred him for 2013-14, but he continued to train at Gulfstream and Calder.

The Florida DPMW website shows that in 2012-13 it made 16 administrative complaints against Navarro, all of which resulted in fines and/or consent orders. But the Florida DPMW has not filed any complaints against Navarro, medication-related or otherwise, since January 2014.

On the track, the energetic and personable Navarro has won 23 of 73 starts this winter at Gulfstream. That puts him second in wins behind 11-time champion Todd Pletcher, who has won 32 of 115 starts.

Ramsey said he has reduced his number of horses in training to race at Gulfstream to about 25, the lowest number in several years. Those horses are split between Gulfstream and its affiliate Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach. He also said he is claiming fewer horses this year.

"We will be gone from here as of April 1, for Keeneland, so the timing for this meet is good," Ramsey said. "Winning the Gulfstream meet remains important to us, but we are doing some things differently this year."

"When we claim, we are looking primarily for broodmares rather than for horses to race here. We can make more money breeding horses to Kitten's Joy   and to Real Solution   than we can running them back in claiming races."

Kitten's Joy was the country's leading sire by earnings in 2013. Real Solution, in his first season as a stallion, is among the Kitten's Joy progeny that have won multiple graded stakes on turf. Kitten's Joy was instrumental in helping the Ramseys win the 2013 and 2014 Eclipse Awards as leading owner and breeder.

Ramsey said one of his major 2015 goals is to win the owners' title for the first time at Saratoga Race Course.

Calabrese was second in wins at Gulfstream's 2013-14 championship meet and won the 2013 summer/fall meets that were run head-to-head at Gulfstream and Calder. His stable is built largely around claiming horses that are better suited to Gulfstream meets later this year. However, he has strength in numbers.

On the purse side at the meet, the leader is Al Shaqab Racing, which has won all six of its starts for earnings of $507,315. Based in Qatar, Al Shaqab won two of the four graded stakes on Gulfstream's Feb. 7 card; it sent out Mshawish to win the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Turf (gr. IT) and Sandiva to win the $150,000 Suwannee  River Stakes (gr. IIIT).

The Ramseys are second with $431,090 in earnings, followed by Crossed Sabres with $300,960. A partnership of WinStar Farm and Twin Creeks Racing Stables is fourth with $297,000, followed by White Wabbit at $293,350. Calabrese is 14th by earnings with $155,050.