While mulling a comeback for an old-timer in his stable, Danny Caldwell confidently begins a new season as one of North America's most successful horse owners.
Caldwell has been king of the hill at three Midwestern tracks the last four years. He's gearing up for the 57-day Oaklawn Park season starting Jan. 12, after which he targets the Prairie Meadows meeting in Iowa before returning to home state Oklahoma's Remington Park.
The Poteau-based Caldwell set career highs in 2017 for starts, 549; victories, 134; and purse earnings, $3,016,210, according to Equibase, racing's official data-gathering organization. The latter two figures ranked fourth and 18th, respectively, nationally in 2017.
"We did probably have our best year, by number-wise," said Caldwell. "It started with Oaklawn Park. We had success there, and it carried over to Prairie. We came back to Remington, and I had to reload again. You go track to track and you have conditioned horses and you run through those conditions, or you lose some by claims because, you know, I'm not scared to lose a horse."
Caldwell has about 35 horses at Oaklawn with private trainer Federico Villafranco but largely with a different cast that won 22 races here last year.
"I basically had to reload at Churchill, Keeneland, Prairie Meadows and Remington Park," Caldwell said. "I claimed some. I bought some privately."
Stable star Domain's Rap helped Caldwell lead Oaklawn owners in purse earnings for the first time last year at $965,728. The Cherokee Gap gelding represented Caldwell's first Oaklawn stakes winner in the Fifth Season opening day. He has not started since placing second to longshot Inside Straight in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap April 15. Though retired last summer because of a suspensory ligament problem, and now 10, Domain's Rap resumed training last fall and could race again, said Caldwell.
Claimed for $10,000 in November 2015 at Remington Park, Domain's Rap "doesn't owe me anything," Caldwell said after the 2017 Fifth Season. "He's got a spot in my pasture any time he wants it."
A number of stakes winners are under consideration for the $125,000 Fifth Season, a mile-and-sixteenth race for older horses on Jan. 12. Among them is multiple graded-stakes winner Chief Know It All, an allowance/optional claiming winner at the 2017 Oaklawn meeting. Claimed for $100,000 out of a runner-up finish June 30 at Churchill Downs, Chief Know It All won a pair of Grade 3 stakes in Canada and ran third in a $200,000 race Nov. 22 in New Mexico. The Fifth Season would mark the 4-year-old debut for Flashy Bull's son, trained by Robertino Diodoro.
Oaklawn stakes winners Far Right and Uncontested are under consideration for the Fifth Season, said co-owner Harry Rosenblum of Little Rock. Far Right, now 6, won the Smarty Jones and Grade 3 Southwest in 2015 when trained by Ron Moquett. Uncontested won the 2017 Smarty Jones for trainer Wayne Catalano in his 3-year-old season.
Oaklawn-based horses have not worked over the track since Sunday with no training Monday in observance of New Year's Day and two days since then because of freezing temperatures.
A Brad Cox-trained half brother to champion Classic Empire, last year's Grade 1 Arkansas Derby winner for trainer Mark Casse, worked a half-mile Sunday in 48.20 seconds. The Concord Point colt, produced by Cat Thief's daughter Sambuca Classica, is unnamed.
Sports on 01/05/2018