At Last, Done Deal Makes Graded Debut in Vanderbilt
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Done Deal has two wins in two starts since returning to the races after a 20-month hiatus
The crack in his left knee that emerged after his open-length win at Churchill Downs in September 2016 had healed thanks to the screw holding it together.
The fragments in the bottom of his pastern—the result of kicking himself as a baby—remarkably continued to be a non-issue.
He was putting in steady workouts under the astute watch of his ever-patient trainer, and yet something with the dark bay gelding in Ian Wilkes' barn last summer still just wasn't right.
Physical setbacks have been part of the narrative for Done Deal for pretty much the totality of his five years. They were the reason his owner/breeder Sierra Farm ended up keeping him to begin with, and just when he appeared to be finding his form on the track, they showed up and combined to rob him of his entire 4-year-old campaign.
When he was poised to return from his knee surgery last summer, he bled slightly in a workout and ended up spending the next six months in a pasture, with his connections' aspirations about what his talent could realize on hold. Again.
Should his comeback keep clicking along at its current rate of success, however, Done Deal's 20 months away from the races might get reclassified as a blessing rather than misfortune.
After shaking off a dense layer of rust, the Macho Uno gelding has earned the right to have another major ask put before him. With two wins in as many starts since returning to the races in May, he'll attempt to slap the "fairy tale" label onto his journey when he faces graded stakes company for the first time in the $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) July 28 at Saratoga Race Course.
Before injury and ailments forced him to the sidelines for nearly two years, a dive into deeper waters was something that realistically appeared to be on the horizon for Done Deal following a pair of eye-catching victories sprinting on turf and dirt in the summer of 2016. It took him four starts to find the winner's circle for the first time, a 3 1/4-length victory going five furlongs on the turf at Arlington International Racecourse that July. But when he switched to dirt for his subsequent outing at Churchill in September, the result was an even more emphatic 6 3/4-length triumph going six furlongs.
That was when the benefit of not having an impending stud career was put to full use. The knee fracture discovered after that win at Churchill put the gelding out of commission for the rest of 2016, and when he still wasn't 100% right last season, the decision by his connections to let the healing properties of time do its thing was a no-brainer.
"Whatever the hell was going on, he just needed to be let go for a little bit," said Mike Callanan, longtime manager of Sierra Farm. "There was just something niggling with him last year. Ian was like, 'He hasn't been right all year, let's just turn him out again.' So I literally kicked him out with my yearlings, my racehorses … and he went out with them and just put his head down and ate grass for six months.
"I think that is the most underrated thing in this industry—just giving them enough time. We've just taken our time with him, and it's so good to see these things pay off."
Since returning to Wilkes' care this season, Done Deal has put himself back in the same auspicious position he occupied before circumstance intervened.
Questions about his fitness and his mettle were answered in his first start back as he finished in a dead-heat for the win with Chiltern Street in a 5 1/2-furlong turf test May 18 at Churchill. When he tried stakes company for the first time in the July 6 Iowa Sprint Handicap on the dirt at Prairie Meadows and came away with a four-length triumph, he happily left Wilkes wondering what surface might be the gelding's best and what the ceiling on his potential might be.
"After he came back and dead-heated for the win his first race, I decided to give him a little time and take him to Prairie Meadows, and if he ran good, we said we'd think about the Vanderbilt," Wilkes said. "The horse has done it all himself in taking us there.
"It all goes back to a testament to the owners and farm crew for giving him the time and persevering. A lot of people would've given up on him. He's a naturally fast horse, and he's just gotten better and better. He's a unique horse, for sure."
Before Done Deal's unexpected hiatus, Callanan recalled going out one morning to watch him work what was supposed to be an easy half-mile. The move certainly appeared to be leisurely enough, but when Callanan heard the final clocking, he realized it was the product of a horse with that special ability to make the strenuous appear routine.
"They went easy, and then I looked at the clock and it was like :46," Callanan said. "He's just such an efficient mover, just an easy-moving horse. It's very exciting. And I can tell you there are probably only a handful of trainers in North America that could do this (comeback) and that you trust 100%. Everything Ian does, the horse dictates."
On Saturday, Done Deal's team will find out if elite-level sprinter is another description that fits.
Among the six challengers Done Deal will face in the six-furlong Vanderbilt is multiple graded stakes winner Imperial Hint. The 5-year-old son of Imperialism carved out a five-race win streak—including last season's General George Stakes (G3) and Smile Sprint Stakes (G3)—that was only halted when he finished second in the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) in November.
Trained by Luis Carvajal Jr., Imperial Hint romped to a five-length score in a Florida-bred stakes in March but faulted over the sloppy (sealed) surface when sixth in the May 5 Churchill Downs Stakes presented by Twinspires.com (G2). He promptly returned to form next time out in the June 8 True North Stakes (G2) at Belmont Park, bettering fellow graded stakes winner Whitmore by a neck.
"That race in the True North really helped him," Carvajal said. "He put a lot of effort in that race, and we've given him about seven weeks to this race, so he's coming in fresh."
Were it not for Done Deal's history of bad luck, the grand opportunity before him and his connections may have never materialized.
As a baby, Done Deal struck into his front pastern with his hind leg and smashed his P1 and P2 bones, Callanan said. Aside from some initial swelling, the injury never really hindered him, but the Sierra Farm crew knew such an X-ray would cause buyers at a sale to bolt the other direction.
"In the bottom of his pastern are all these little fragments … but it's never bothered him," Callanan said. "But we knew going to a yearling sale, people would take one look at it and go, 'No way.' So we said, 'Let's just race him.'"
Count that injury as the first supposed impediment for Done Deal that has been reframed as a positive. And now that—finally—all is right in his world, his connections are confident it won't be the last.
"Every step forward has been a good step forward, and he's handled every step forward," Callanan said. "I supposed it's just a bonus. We think we're just getting started with him. I think he's a horse who is just getting better and better."
Saratoga Race Course, Saturday, July 28, 2018, Race 8Entries: Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. (G1)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Switzerland (KY)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
119
Steven M. Asmussen
2/1
2
2Petrov (KY)
Joel Rosario
116
Ron Moquett
20/1
3
3Warrior's Club (KY)
Luis Saez
118
D. Wayne Lukas
9/2
4
4Imperial Hint (FL)
Javier Castellano
124
Luis Carvajal, Jr.
6/5
5
5Sweetontheladies (FL)
John R. Velazquez
115
Henry Collazo
20/1
6
6Mr. Crow (KY)
Jose L. Ortiz
115
Ben Colebrook
8/1
7
7Done Deal (KY)
Chris Landeros
116
Ian R. Wilkes
8/1
