Mathews, Howard Hit It Big With Ivan Fallunovalot

Three horses, each for $25,000, were claimed out of the ninth race March 6, 2014, at Oaklawn Park. Only one of those horses has developed into a multiple stakes winner. 

"Just glad he found us, you know what I mean?" trainer Tom Howard said of Ivan Fallunovalot. And, Howard didn't even have to shake for the gelding, now 7, either. 

Almost three years after hitting the equine lottery, Ivan Fallunovalot bids for a record third consecutive victory in the Feb. 4 King Cotton Stakes, a $125,000 six-furlong event for older horses at Oaklawn.

Unlike the other two horses, who have never started in a stakes race since being claimed out of that 2014 race, Ivan Fallunovalot has flourished in high-end races under the care of Howard and owner Lewis Mathews, a businessman in nearby Bismarck, Ark. 

The Valid Expectations gelding has won 11 races—including seven stakes—and competed in the $1.5 million TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) in 2015 since his current connections snagged him. He was named 2015 Texas Horse of the Year by the Texas Thoroughbred Association and most recently broke through for his first graded stakes victory when he took the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park Nov. 19.

WINCZE HUGHES: Ivan Fallunovalot Takes De Francis Dash

What was supposed to be a claim based heavy on regional flavor—Mathews was shopping for a Texas-bred because Howard was shifting his summer base from Prairie Meadows to Lone Star Park in 2014—has turned into the claim of a lifetime and among the best in Oaklawn history.

"I'm just proud to be a part of it," Mathews said. 

Mathews, who has 60 victories solely or in partnership since his first in 2004, said he handicaps every night before the races and looks for lightly raced horses with the "potential to win" in making claims. Ivan Fallunovalot, he said, was a perfect fit.

"At that time, I think he had eight outs and three wins and earnings of $60,000," Mathews said. "He hadn't been heavily raced and showed the potential to win. And, then I liked Valid Expectations. Knowing that we were going to Texas, it all came together."

Valid Expectations was the first nationally prominent horse for Steve Asmussen, and the Hall of Fame trainer's first Oaklawn stakes winner (the Mountain Valley in 1996).

The "irony," Mathews said, is Ivan Fallunovalot has started only once in Texas since being claimed—an allowance/optional claiming victory in May of 2015 at Lone Star.

"They didn't have a non-winners of 12 or anything like that," Mathews said with a laugh.

The 2014 race at Oaklawn was Ivan Fallunovalot's 4-year-old debut, first start outside Texas, and first running for a claiming price.

"He jumped off the page, so I called Tom and said since we're going to Texas, let's take a look at this one," Mathews said. "And the way we do it is, we both look at it physically before we make the decision. This time, a lot of luck was involved."

Howard said he believed Ivan Fallunovalot, who began his career with the high-profile Texas connections of owner Tom Durant and trainer Jack Bruner, shipped in the day before the race and vividly recalls the gelding's "slick" coat.

"I guess he had been in Texas, because he didn't look like the other horses that were here," Howard said. "We had hair. I mean, it was a rough winter. I looked at him and said, 'He looks damn good to me.'"

Ivan Fallunovalot won allowance/optional claiming races in his first two starts for Howard, then the David M. Vance Sprint Stakes in August of 2014 at Remington Park. His 2015 campaign included victories in the King Cotton, David M. Vance, and Remington Park Sprint Cup .

The gelding was unbeaten in four starts last year, highlighted by the King Cotton, David M. Vance, and the De Francis Dash. With 15 wins from 24 starts, Ivan Fallunovalot has bankrolled $800,808.

Save for the 60 days the gelding spent at Mathews' farm following the 2016 Oaklawn meeting recovering from a quarter crack, Ivan Fallunovalot hasn't had any major physical problems since being claimed. Mathews said his goal for the bay gelding is to reach $1 million in earnings and retire sound to his future home in Bismarck.

"You will never, ever see him in a claiming race," Mathews said. "When it's time, I've already got a place for him here."