Carl Spackler Aces First Grade 1 Test in Fourstardave
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Photo: Mathea Kelley
Carl Spackler wins the Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga Race Course
The New York Racing Association was crafty in pushing back the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T) by a day due to the prospect of a soggy turf course on Aug. 10.
But you can't fool Mother Nature.
So, about five minutes before the Aug. 11 post time for the $500,000 turf stakes, it ... started to rain.
It was basically a quick shower that did not change anything, but it did serve as a reminder of the weather that has been wreaking havoc on racing at Saratoga Race Course, highlighted by the cancelation of the Aug. 9 card and the shifting of the Aug. 3 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) to Sunday.
The passing shower was gone before the field broke from the gate and the rainbow above the track after the mile stakes neatly summed up what happened when a talented colt finally grabbed the grade 1 laurels that he has seemed destined for since his maiden win.
It also helped put a new twist on a well-known movie line.
"He got the gopher," Bob Edwards said. "He's no longer a Cinderella story."
Edwards' words were a play on the antics of the oddball groundskeeper Carl Spackler in the comedy classic "Caddyshack" but they were also fitting when attached to his homebred 4-year-old colt Carl Spackler .
The four-legged Carl Spackler, who has been chasing a grade 1 win much like the way the movie character futilely tried to stop a gopher from chewing up the golf course, finally bagged his elusive prize as he took down his initial top-level win in his ninth career start.
"We thought early on he could be a grade 1 winner," said Edwards, who owns e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, which campaigns Carl Spackler and Fifth Avenue Bloodstock which bred him. "(Trainer Chad Brown) liked him early on. He had a nice (maiden) win at Gulfstream and a series of little things that happened to him. He's a resilient horse. He came back from colic surgery to win at Churchill Downs (in May). He looked like a million dollars today and he ran like it."
The win also secured an expenses-paid spot in the Nov. 2 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) at Del Mar for the son of Lope de Vega as the Fourstardave is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series.
"I love the Breeders' Cup. My stats are pretty good there," said Edwards, who has a trio of wins at the World Championships.
For Brown, North America's premier turf trainer, it was his first victory in the Fourstardave and leaves him a win in the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T) shy of owning wins in all of the New York turf stakes that are now grade 1 status. The four-time Eclipse Award winner captured the Jaipur Stakes (G1T) prior to it becoming a grade 1 stakes.
"It felt good. It's a perfect time for everything. My family and my parents are here, who brought me to the track growing up. We bet on this horse (Fourstardave)," Brown said. "I was telling Acacia (Clement, NYRA broadcaster) 'There's only a couple sure bets when I was a kid growing up here, Bill Mott's birthday, and Fourstardave winning at the meet.' To win this race, it is really special to have everybody here. I haven't won it because it is a hard race to win, so that makes it even more special. It is a very challenging race to win."
Carl Spackler with jockey Tyler Gaffalione wins the Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga Race Course
It was a 8 3/4-length maiden win Feb. 25 of last year that put Carl Spackler on the radar for a top-level win. The setbacks kept him from running in a grade 1 stakes but he did notch three grade 2 and 3 wins, including the July 13 Kelso Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga, where he has won four of five starts.
"This sure looked like the horse that was sitting on a big number," said Brown, who indicated Carl Spackler would likely get one more start before the Breeders' Cup. "He was capable of it. He had flirted with running a monster number before. I had a feeling today, and then with just a little bit of cut in the ground, I think he's even just a little bit better. I really felt today would be his day and it was."
In a field of six Strong Quality set the early fractions of :24.76 and :49.24 over good turf with Carl Spackler comfortably chasing in second.
Tyler Gaffalione, Edwards' son-in-law and the husband of his daughter Cassidy, kept Carl Spackler ($6.10) in second before moving to the front turning for home. In front by 1 1/2 lengths at the eighth pole, he crossed the wire 3 1/2 lengths ahead in 1:36.63 for the mile.
Victory Racing Partners' More Than Looks , making his first start since finishing sixth in the BC Mile, was second. The son of More Than Ready trained by Cherie DeVaux was a length-and-a-half ahead of Godolphin's Ottoman Fleet , a Sea the Stars gelding who was the 3-2 favorite.
For Edwards, there was special satisfaction in winning the grade 1 stakes with a homebred out of the More Than Ready mare Zindaya.
"Zindaya was my first winner and she's been part of the family since we bought her," Edwards said. "She has an Uncle Mo on the ground and a Justify in her belly, and we are looking for great things from her."