When Paul and Andrena Van Doren’s Rise Up won the $1 million Delta
Jackpot last month, the celebration in the winner’s circle was “somewhat
subdued,” trainer Tom Amoss conceded Monday morning during training hours at
Fair Grounds.
“It turned out that that was the same day Andrena was diagnosed with cancer,” Amoss said.
“In fact, this morning is the day she goes for her first chemotherapy treatment.
“But winning the Delta Jackpot was just the ideal immediate therapy she
needed to see that day. With her positive attitude it was the kind of good news
she will be able to build on.
“The Van Dorens are the kind of wonderful owners I like to have,” Amoss said,
“They’ve been in this business a long time and they deserve to have a horse like
Rise Up.
“The horse is being freshened in Ocala right now,” Amoss said of the bay
two-year-old by Rockport Harbor out of the Johannesburg mare Appenzell.
“There’s nothing wrong with him, we just thought he deserved a little breather.
I expect him to come back to me here around the first week of January.
“I’d like to give him one or possibly two starts here at Fair Grounds, and
then we’ll decide where to go off of those,” Amoss said of the suddenly aptly-named
Rise Up, who earlier won the August 3 Mountaineer Juvenile and the October 26
Jean Lafitte.
Last weekend on Santa Super Saturday at Fair Grounds, the Amoss-trained Sum of
the Parts, owned by Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence, scored a
front-running 2 3/4-length victory in the Bonapaw Stakes, a sprint at
about 5 1/2 furlongs over the Stall-Wilson turf course.
“He came out of that race well,” Amoss said. “He’s a very versatile horse.
He’s now won on grass (Bonapaw), dirt (the 2012 Red Legend at Charles Town) and on Polytrack (Keeneland’s Phoenix
for the second straight year on October 4.)
“One thing (Sum of the Parts) won’t do is run against (Maggi Moss’s)
Delaunay,” Amoss concluded, referring to last season’s Horse of the Meeting at Fair
Grounds. “We intend to keep them apart always.”
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