Morley's Best-Laid Plans Come to Fruition

Last November, when New York-based trainer Tom Morley penned his monthly blog that appears on his stable's website, there was a mention of a yearling filly purchased at the 2022 Keeneland September Sale on behalf of several of his clients with the specific intent of bringing her to Royal Ascot for this year's Queen Mary Stakes (G2). 

Flash forward several months, and said filly, now named Cynane  and a flashy debut winner in May at Belmont Park, arrived in England June 13 and will be Morley's first starter at Royal Ascot in the five-furlong Queen Mary June 21. It's a race that has been won four times by the American-based trainer Wesley Ward, who is expected to have Bundchen  in what is anticipated to be a large field when the draw takes place June 19.

When does anything, particularly in the fickle business of training racehorses, ever work to plan?

"Never," answered Morley, who has saddled two winners of grade 1 races in the United States, Carrick  and Haveyougoneaway , since he began training in 2013.

Morley, a native of England who descends from a lineage laden with talented horsemen, trains the filly for the partnerships of VinLaur Racing Stables (Gregg and Cathy Palesky), West Paces Racing (principals Keith Mason and Larry Connolly), and Rainbow's End Racing Stable (co-founders Mike Iannaconi and Bob Scavetta). All have previously had horses in his care, and Morley was bullish on giving his loyal owners something to dream about when he and the Oracle Bloodstock team, led by Conor Foley, went shopping for a horse who could get them to Royal Ascot.  

They identified a daughter of Omaha Beach  , out of the Arch mare Burning Arch  (whose dam, Chili Cat, is a half sister to grade 1 winners Point of Entry   and Pine Island), as a must-have. Bred by Hinkle Farms, Oracle signed the slip for $250,000, and the filly headed to Raul Reyes' King's Equine Farm in Ocala, Fla., to commence with her early lessons before arriving in Morley's Belmont Park barn this spring.

"The day I found her at Keeneland, I put a group of people together to buy her," Morley said. "For the guys in West Paces, it's enormous because they are regular attendees of Ascot. For the guys in Rainbow's End, they are a very high-level training partnership who get involved in some of the younger horses we buy at the sales, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of those guys. Gregg and Cath Palesky have had horses with me very early on in my training career. They owned that wonderful mare Xanthique (a stakes winner), but they haven't had (much) luck since and have had some slower horses. This means a lot to the Palesky family and both syndicate groups.

"When I saw this filly at the sale, she reminded me enormously of the fillies I've been seeing for years running in the Queen Mary, so I was incredibly keen to go down this route," he added. "Because, you know, all she had to do was miss a week's training, get a stone bruise, or a cough, but touch wood, she has done absolutely everything right at every stage—the way I have planned out for her."

Purchasing Cynane was only the first step in hopes of crossing the Atlantic. She had to step up and perform well on debut, and the Kentucky-bred didn't disappoint. In a dazzling display of speed under jockey Javier Castellano, Cynane punched her ticket to Royal Ascot with a 2 3/4-length victory in a five-furlong maiden special weight on the turf at Belmont Park May 11. She stopped the clock in :57.61 as the fourth choice in a field of seven juvenile fillies. The win was the first for her freshman sire, Omaha Beach.

Video: Race 1 (MSW) at BEL on 5/11/23

Castellano, fresh off his first victory in the June 10 Belmont Stakes (G1) aboard Arcangelo  and his first Kentucky Derby (G1) win aboard Mage , five weeks earlier, will once again be paired with Cynane in what will be his first ride at Royal Ascot. Morley explained that this pairing of horse and rider had been in the making since Cynane exited the ring at Keeneland, and Morley rang up Castellano's agent, P.J. Campo.

"I said to P.J., 'I think we might have bought one that is a Royal Ascot-type.' So it's a journey that P.J., Javier, and I have been on since September," Morley said. "Javier did a lot of her fast work in the mornings, breezing her from the gate. Then realizing how fast she was when he breezed her from the gate, he was very good at making sure that mentally her next two works weren't too much so she could go into her (debut) in really good fashion. He's ridden her in two pieces of work since that race and he was absolutely delighted with her last piece of work before she got on the plane.

"It's really cool to go on this journey together. For Javier, to have his first ride there, and for me, to have my first runner there."

That this plan to get to England has come together so seamlessly and beautifully for all involved is further sweetened by Morley's personal and professional ties with Royal Ascot. A graduate of the Godolphin Flying Start program, he grew up going to Royal Ascot with his parents, and later, while working in the yard of Jeremy Noseda, was part of the team that saw a multitude of his boss's horses dominate at the fabled race meet.

Morley, 40, readily recalls his first Royal Ascot pilgrimage, which was indeed a family affair and resulted in celebrating Celeric's victory in the 1997 Gold Cup (G1). The gelding was bred by one of Morley's uncles, Christopher Spence, and was owned by Spence and Morley's father, Jake, and trained by another uncle, David.

"My mother and father took me out of school the day Celeric ran," he said. "That was the first time I went to Ascot and the last time that I ever considered doing anything else in my life but training racehorses."

His father, with whom he was very close, died in the spring of 2022. Without a doubt, Morley will be carrying his father close to his heart on this journey that the trainer will take with his wife, Maggie Wolfendale, an on-air team member for the New York Racing Association's nationally televised racing coverage carried on the networks of FOX.

"I'm sitting here at my desk, and I have the order of service from my father's memorial," he said with a catch in his voice the day before he left for England. "The picture on the back of it is of him in a morning suit after Ascot one day. 

"I actually think I'm probably going to go and see him on the way to the track (on the day Cynane runs) and sit with him because it would have meant an awful lot for me to have managed to do this when he was alive. Still, it will be very, very special to go racing with my mother on Wednesday."