Altissimo Named 2018 Ohio Horse of the Year
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Photo: Courtesy John Engelhardt
Altissimo wins the Edward Babst/Albert Palacios Memorial Handicap at Belterra Park
Trainer Richard Zielinski pursued the most competitive season, yet, for 5-year-old Altissimo in 2018 and reaped four black-type stakes victories and two stakes placings for earnings of $320,875 and an Ohio horse of the year title.
The annual Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners' awards banquet was May 17 at the historic Darby Dan Farm near Galloway, Ohio.
Owned by Nancy Lavrich and Ronald Zielinski, the gelded son of Noble Causeway out of Great Goin Rose, by Albert the Great, was bred by Lavrich and Niknar Farm. The bulk of Altissimo's $519,388 in career earnings was earned by racing six furlongs, but his 2018 season started at a mile at Mahoning Valley Race Course where he finished fourth after setting the pace. He returned next to face open company at a mile and 70 yards and drew off by 6 3/4 lengths. Christian Pilares was in the irons for the win and would be his only jockey for the rest of the season.
Altissimo's next seven starts all came in stakes races, five of them designated as black-type races. He would win five of the seven, with the richest victory achieved in the $150,000 Best of Ohio Sprint Stakes at JACK Thistledown, where he drew away from the field by nine lengths over a sloppy track. Toward the end of the season he scored in back-to-back stakes, earning Equibase Speed Figures of higher than 110 in both. Relishing another wet track, he bested two-time Ohio Horse of the Year Mo Dont No by 4 3/4 lengths in the $75,000 Cardinal Handicap at Mahoning Valley.
He forayed out of Ohio for his final start in the $100,000 Dave's Friend Stakes at Laurel Park. In an impressive effort, he was shuffled back at the start and appeared hopelessly beaten while fifth in the lane. Unleashing a final furlong effort, he rallied to come up a head short at the wire to grade 3-placed Colonel Sharp. Altissimo has already returned to his winning ways this season at Belterra Park by taking the $75,000 Edward Babst/Albert Palacios Memorial Handicap, which regained its black-type status for 2019.
Asked about his 2019 campaign, Zielinski replied, "I guess we'll stick to the same schedule we had last year."