Rail Trip rejoins Ellis

Rail Trip just wasn’t the same horse in New York (Benoit Photos) Millionaire Rail Trip is back in Southern California with original trainer Ron Ellis. Winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Gold Cup in 2009 for the Jay Em Ess Stable and Ellis, the gelded son of Jump Start was transferred to trainer Rick Dutrow on the East Coast in 2010, but failed to win in five starts. “He got here yesterday,” Ellis said Tuesday from his Hollywood Park headquarters. “It’s a nice Christmas present. He grabbed a quarter in his last race and required stitches. It was a pretty nasty gash.” Rail Trip’s last race was November 17 in the Sunny and Mild Stakes at Aqueduct, where he stumbled at the start and unseated jockey Ramon Dominguez. As a result, he did not finish the nine-furlong race as the 2-5 favorite in a field of five. That was the final straw for his frustrating sojourn in New York.

A late developer, Rail Trip was brought along carefully by Ellis, for whom he
won his first five starts. He finished runner-up in both the Grade 2 Mervyn
LeRoy Handicap and the Grade 2 Californian Stakes before putting it all together
with a three-length romp in the Hollywood Gold Cup on July 11, 2009. Ellis
called a halt to his four-year-old campaign after one more start, a third in the
Grade 1 Pacific Classic.

Rail Trip kicked off 2010 in grand style, sweeping the Mervyn LeRoy and
Californian that had eluded him the prior year. But he was unable to repeat in
the Hollywood Gold Cup, winding up a wide-trip second.

Sent to Dutrow thereafter, Rail Trip did not reappear until the Grade 1
Jockey Club Gold Cup, but ran poorly in fifth. The six-year-old gelding was
sidelined for another eight months, and when returning in the June 5 Easy Goer
at Belmont, he just missed in a big effort. Rail Trip threw in another clunker,
though, in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap. He gave a better account
of himself when second in the September 15 Pot O’Luck back at Belmont, his last
start prior to the Sunny and Mild debacle.

Ellis plans to take it easy with his old pupil.

“He’ll walk at my barn until January 1 and we’ll go from there, so at this
point, I don’t really have any plans for him (race-wise),” Ellis said. “Needless
to say, I’m pretty happy.”