'Pharoah' Upsetter Om Eyes Next Start

It was a 2-year-old maiden special weight at Del Mar last summer—one that has now become the stuff of legend.

On Aug. 9, covering 6 1/2 furlongs on the synthetic track, a 22-1 shot took to the lead early and put away the field with ease, hitting the wire 7 1/4 lengths ahead of his nearest rival.

At a top-end summer meeting like Del Mar those simple stats alone would be impressive enough from just about any 2-year-old maiden, but the true context of the win only came to light the following year.

The impressive chestnut frontrunner goes by the name of Om. You might know him as the only horse to win a race Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was also entered in.

That maiden event was American Pharoah's debut for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, and in retrospect it is hard to even recognize the champion who went on to win every following outing, including six grade I stakes. After getting worked up in the paddock and on the way to the gate, Zayat Stables' son of Pioneerof the Nile   sat just off the Dan Hendricks-trained Om early on, challenged in the turn, and faded to fifth, 9 1/4 lengths behind the winner.

"That'll take us right into the Hall of Fame," Hendricks said with a hint of good-natured sarcasm during opening week at Del Mar, approaching a year since his trainee's standout victory. "It's kinda neat, though. It was Baffert with his favorite that everyone was thinking was the next coming. I went in confident, but hoping he'd be third or better and run a good race. That's all I could hope for at the time, but at the quarter pole, it was over."

Hendricks enjoyed the score on the ground and in the winner's circle, but the colt's owner wasn't so lucky.

About 450 miles away in Northern California's Bay Area, KB Sareen was fresh out of the hospital, doing his best not to get too excited watching the race on TVG. Ten days before, he had gone through coronary bypass surgery.

"I couldn't get excited, but my guests were," Sareen said. "I had a couple of friends with me. We watched the race, and then around the bend, when he had the lead, I was waiting for the crowd behind him to catch up. It never happened."

But it wasn't just American Pharoah (the 7-5 favorite that day) who Om beat that summer afternoon. Of the eight in his wake, three went on to win stakes—American Pharoah, Calculator, and Daddy D T. Two others—second-place finisher Iron Fist and One Lucky Dane—are graded stakes-placed so far, and One Lucky Dane, another Baffert trainee, was scheduled to compete against his stablemate in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) until an injury during a morning workout derailed those plans.

BALAN: One Lucky Dane Off Derby Trail After Workout

Hendricks purchased Om for Sareen at the 2014 Barretts limited March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training. Om is from the first crop of Munnings  , out of the Tabasco Cat mare Rare Cat, and the trainer got a tip on the colt from bloodstock agent Gayle Van Leer.

"I was going through the auction book and I kinda wanted to buy something from the Gone West line," Sareen said. "Munnings was a first-time stallion, so I called up Dan, who was at the auction and told him, 'Have a good look at him, and if you like him, let's bid for him.'"

Sareen, watching the sale on the internet from home, was willing to go to $150,000 to purchase the colt, but when the bidding stopped, he got him for $125,000.

A "very immature 2-year-old," as Hendricks put it, the colt's name came from Sareen, a native of Kolkata, India who flew into Los Angeles International Airport with only $2,000 and a suitcase in 1980, and eventually became a managing partner at New York Life.

"'Om' is a word that is dedicated to yoga, to calm people down to go into meditation," Sareen said. "When I saw him for the first time, he was fidgety—jumping around, difficult to touch. I said, maybe he needs to recite 'Om,' and that became his name."

The backstory seemed destined for a tear-jerking pre-Kentucky Derby feature on NBC, but all that promise was thwarted after Om's maiden-breaking victory. Although nothing showed up on X-rays or nuclear scans, the colt had an inflamed growth plate and did not race again until April 12, more than eight months after his runaway win.

For a horse trainer, disappointment on that level is just part of the business. For Hendricks, who was paralyzed from the waist down because of a spinal injury suffered in a 2004 motorcycle accident, it was a blip on the radar.

"(His first win) was a nice field on paper and the way he won it was exceptional," Hendricks said. "The offers started coming in and we started turning down offers, then he had to back off and we had to watch all the others develop into stakes horses. Looking back, he would have been lucky to have been second to (American Pharoah) every time, but I don't feel any (disappointment). It was a great race, he ran super, and we enjoyed it."

The colt's injury wasn't as easy to swallow for Sareen.

"It was very painful seeing that, then having to lay out all that money for his recovery," the owner said. "It was a very slow process. When I saw all of the horses he'd beaten winning, it was very tough on me, but that's horse racing."

Om's return to racing in 2015 hasn't been as encouraging as that first victory, but living up to that standard would have been a longshot even in the best of circumstances.

His first race back was the loaded San Pedro Stakes at Santa Anita Park, where he finished fifth in the six-furlong dirt event after getting bumped at the start and stalking a furious pace.

His second race off the layoff showed the promise of that first win, but it was over a new surface on the Santa Anita grass. In his turf debut, Om took an allowance/optional claiming field gate to wire in the mile event and finished 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Royal Albert Hall, who has gone on to earn stakes-placed honors.

"He ran well, but not like we'd hoped he would (in the San Pedro)," Hendricks said. "He rebounded and came back and won at a mile on the turf. We were really happy with it."

Back to dirt for the third start of his 3-year-old campaign, Om earned the graded stakes-placed label with a third-place finish in the Affirmed Stakes (gr. III), behind well-thought-of runners Gimme Da Lute—who went on to win the Los Alamitos Derby (gr. II)—and Prospect Park.

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Om will stay on the grass for now, as Hendricks has the colt pointed to the $150,000 La Jolla Handicap (gr. IIIT) Aug. 9. It will be his first start at Del Mar since that standout victory last August.

"It'll be a tough race, but hopefully we'll come back and run well," Hendricks said. "As long as he runs third or better, we'll be happy. And he ran well on the dirt. If the right dirt race comes up, I'm not opposed to doing that either."

If the grass success continues, Sareen can't help but hope Om can again capture the magic of that first victory with a run in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT). Hendricks, however, follows the classic horsemen's mantra—one step at a time.

"He needs to get into a nice rhythm of racing," Hendricks said. "I didn't want to run a mile opening day with all the hoopla and speed that would be in there, so we talked about giving him the extra three weeks for the La Jolla and hopefully it works out."

Future prospects are exactly that—in the future. For the time being, Om is doing the best to live up to his name, taking in the seaside breezes in the Hendricks barn alongside the track where he left the champ in the dust.

"He's really matured and he's good-natured," Hendricks said. "He's a real happy horse."