Jerome Winner Capo Kane to Target Withers Stakes

Bing Cherry Racing and Leonard Liberto's Capo Kane will be pointed toward the 1 1/8-mile, $250,000 Withers Stakes (G3) Feb. 6 at Aqueduct Racetrack, trainer Harold Wyner said the morning after the 3-year-old Street Sense  colt won the Jerome Stakes on New Year's Day at Aqueduct.

"I was talking with the owners this morning and that's the step we're going to push him to," said Wyner. "I ran him two turns at Parx going a mile and seventy (yards) in his maiden win and he did it so easy. The further he goes the better."

The Jerome win awarded Capo Kane 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. The Withers will also offer points on a 10-4-2-1 scale.

Wyner noted that Capo Kane drifted out a bit in his Nov. 25 maiden score traveling two turns at Parx Racing—somewhat similar to how he ended up in his 6 1/4-length score under Dylan Davis in the one-turn mile Jerome.

"We'll work on it. I asked Dylan if he was drifting out and he said, 'No. I put him out there in the middle of the track,'" said Wyner. "But when I watched the head-on and Dylan switched to his left-hand stick and showed it to him, that's when he shied away. When he hit him right-handed, he straightened up again. So, we'll have to work on that with him. It's just green stuff. He's just learning and I don't think we've seen the full potential of this horse yet."

Wyner, who gallops many of his own horses, said he will continue to work with Capo Kane.

"I try and get on all of my horses two or three times a week, but I get on him about four times a week," said Wyner. "When he was a 2-year-old he was very playful and laid back to gallop. When he came off his maiden victory he got to be very tough to gallop and he wanted to find his own speed to gallop in the morning. When a horse came up alongside him, it was game on for him. He just wanted to be in front of that horse. 

"He has a high rate of speed when he gallops and a big, long stride. I usually take a long hold and let him dictate to me how he wants to do it. In the morning, the further we gallop the stronger he gets. He just doesn't know when to stop. He wants to run."

Wyner was previously a steeplechase rider for trainer Michael Dickinson in England. When Dickinson moved his base to America in 1987, Wyner decided to make the journey as well, working as a groom and exercise rider.

"I won a couple races over jumps and then moved over here with Michael and worked for him at Fair Hill," said Wyner. "I got my weight down to become a flat jockey and I rode on the flats."

Wyner posted a 14-24-27 record from 462 mounts from 1990-92, according to Equibase.

"I rode at Delaware and I actually rode in a couple races at Belmont against Angel Cordero Jr. That's my claim to fame. He beat me, obviously, but I did get to ride against him," said Wyner.

Wyner eventually became an assistant trainer for Mark Hennig in New York and also worked with conditioner Jimmy Bond before hanging his shingle at Parx.