Shackleford settles back in at Churchill, '50-50' for Belmont

Last updated: 5/22/11 4:01 PM

Shackleford settles back in at Churchill, ’50-50′ for
Belmont

Shackleford stepped off the van at Churchill following an early morning flight from Baltimore
(Reed Palmer Photogprahy/Churchill Downs)

Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge’s homebred SHACKLEFORD (Forestry)
returned to Churchill Downs just before 10:30 a.m. (EDT) Sunday morning
following a flight from Baltimore.

On Saturday, the chestnut triumphed by a half-length over Kentucky
Derby (G1) winner Animal Kingdom (Leroidesanimaux [Brz]) in Pimlico’s
Preakness S. (G1), the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

Returning with Shackleford to trainer Dale Romans’ Barn 4 was Donegal
Racing’s Paddy O’Prado (El Prado [Ire]), who won Pimlico’s Dixie H. (G2)
in the race preceding the Preakness.

“It was awesome. He ran a heck of a race,” Romans said by telephone
from Baltimore.

Romans himself returned to the Pimlico Preakness Stakes Barn shortly after 7:30
a.m. Sunday with trays of Starbucks drinks for media members who arrived for
updates on Shackleford.

It was a generous gesture by the Kentucky-based trainer and a
way to share some of a $50,000 bonus he collected from MI Developments’
Preakness 5.5 Saturday. Owners Michael Lauffer and William Cubbedge will share a
$500,000 bonus on top of the $600,000 winner’s purse, courtesy of the MID’s
incentive program that rewarded the Preakness winner’s participation in the
major three-year-old stakes at Gulfstream Park, a sister track to Pimlico.

“I went to bed for an hour or two,” Romans said looking a bit
bedraggled behind sunglasses on a sunny Sunday morning. “I don’t know how Todd
Pletcher and Wayne Lukas do it. They look so pristine all the time. I walk out
of my house to my car and I’m sweating and wrinkled and my shirttail’s out.
(Assistant racing secretary) Dan
Bork at Churchill Downs said I was the best at
making an expensive suit look cheap.”

Shackleford certainly made Romans look pretty good on Saturday, bouncing back
in two weeks from his fourth-place finish in the Derby to turn the tables on
Animal Kingdom.

“He was just so game,” Romans said. “I mean, he ran fast early and kept right on
going. Animal Kingdom was running, but at no point did it look like he was going
to get to him, in my opinion. When I saw 10 jumps before the wire that we
weren’t going to get beat, it was just an unbelievable rush.”

The Louisville-born trainer, who earned his first Triple Crown
victory in the Preakness, will spend the next three days in Maryland at
the Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training sale at Timonium and will be
back in Kentucky on Wednesday afternoon.

Shackleford received a bath outside trainer Dale Romans’ barn

(Reed Palmer Photogprahy/Churchill Downs)

“A lot of the people in the barn watched it (the Preakness) back
here,” said Baldemar Bahena, Romans’ Churchill Downs assistant. “I was
watching it over on the other side because we had had a horse in the
10TH race.”

A Triple Crown bid is no longer possible for this year, but
Shackleford could still go on to the third jewel of the Triple Crown,
the June 11 Belmont S. (G1).

“I thought last night of going onto Belmont right away,” the
44-year-old Romans admitted. “But I wanted to send him back to Kentucky so
we’ll get him with his regular team, go over him, watch him train a couple days
and then make the decision.

“Ultimately it will be Mike’s (Lauffer) call, but
he’ll let me have a lot of input, I’m sure. If he trains like he did going into
the Derby, I don’t know why we would pass (on running in the Belmont). I think it’s better than 50-50.”

Romans was quick to give credit to Shackelford’s rider, Jesus Castanon, who
has been aboard the chestnut in all five of his starts this year.

“Jesus has done a super job with this horse all year, ever since
we put him on him in the allowance race,” Romans said. “This horse has just been
improving. Mentally he was a little immature. In the Florida Derby (G1) he was kind
of looking around when he got to the lead. In the Kentucky Derby it looked like
he had finally kind of put it all together the last two weeks. It was almost
like he figured out what this was about.”

Shackleford gave both Romans, Castanon and the jockey’s agent, Dennis
Cooper, a first
Triple Crown victory when taking the Preakness.

Shackleford refused to let Animal Kingdom pass in the Preakness
(Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com)

“These three races are a lot different from the Dubai World Cup
(UAE-G1) or even the Breeders’ Cup,” said Cooper, a jock’s agent for the
past 25 years. “Those races are nice, but these races are the ones
people talk about.”

Cooper, who took out his trainer’s license in 1966 and trained for 19 years,
had Mark Guidry’s book for 14 years, Rene Douglas for seven years and Shaun
Bridgmohan for two years before hooking up with Castanon in September 2009.

Castanon got aboard Shackleford for the first time on February 5 in an
allowance at Gulfstream Park, and the result was a 2 1/4-length victory. The
partnership continued from there, resulting in a fifth-place run in the Fountain
of Youth S. (G2), a head second in the Florida Derby, a fourth in the
Kentucky Derby and Saturday’s score in the Preakness.

“We got on him in Florida and they just clicked,” Cooper said. “Jesus has a
lot of confidence in him.”

In the Preakness, Shackleford stalked the pace set by Flashpoint (Pomeroy)
before moving to the lead at the head of the lane. He just held off the late run
of Animal Kingdom by a half-length
on the wire to record his first stakes victory.

“When I saw (Castanon) look to his right at the head of the stretch and he
hadn’t pushed the button yet, I knew he had a lot of horse left,” Cooper said.
“He was not worried at all about the horse on his left (Flashpoint). He knew he
had him. There was only one horse (Animal Kingdom) coming and Jesus said that as
soon as Shackleford saw him, he was not going to let him by.”

Romans said he had already received numerous phone calls and
some 250 text messages of congratulations by late Saturday night. He said he
only responded to one call from Frank Taylor of Taylor Made Farms near
Lexington, Kentucky, where
Shackleford’s sire, Forestry, stands at stud.

“That was a phone call that I answered because Frank Taylor told
me in Florida if I won a Grade 1 with a Forestry, I had free meals for
life at Malone’s (in Lexington),” said Romans, the most robust of this
year’s Preakness trainers. “That was the one call I did answer to remind him of
what he said.”