It happened again. A freshly claimed horse won a stakes race for the second time this year at Assiniboia Downs.
Last time it was Delvecchio winning the Phil Kives Stakes Aug. 21 for trainer Mike Nault and A2 Thoroughbreds, which had claimed the horse for $10,000 the start before. This time it was Manitoba-bred Sugar Daddy Jack, who jumped up off the claim to win the $40,000 J.W. Sifton Stakes Tuesday for trainer Carl Anderson and owner Tom Boyko.
Haltered for just $6,250 in his start before the Sifton, Sugar Daddy Jack took home $24,480 for his Sifton victory. See what happens when you do something nice for someone.
George Williams / Winnipeg Free Press
The crew behind Tuesday’s J.W. Sifton Stakes winner Sugar Daddy Jack. Groom Casey Ursel (left), jockey Tim Tarasenco, groom Brad McKenna and trainer Carl Anderson.
Trainer Carl Anderson, the second oldest trainer on the grounds, helped Tim Tarasenco, the oldest jockey on the grounds, when he was trying to make a comeback this year after 24 years off. Tarasenco didn’t get or take many mounts outside of Anderson’s barn, and still managed to win at a 17 per cent clip, compiling an error-free record of 12-5-10 from 70 starts. He made no mistakes in the Sifton.
Stalking from the inside aboard his 8-1 Sugar Daddy, Tarasenco saw favourites Private Frank and I Love My Life going hard at each other down the backstretch. By the time they got to the final turn he was behind an all-out duel. The two favourites cooked themselves. Private Frank gave way in early stretch and Sugar Daddy Jack rolled by I Love My Life at the sixteenth pole.
“I didn’t think I had him long enough to get him ready,” said Anderson in the winner’s circle, but he wasn’t that surprised by the win. Anderson knows what it takes to win the 1 1/8-mile stakes races in these parts. He’s won the Gold Cup at least three times, and the Sifton twice and not always with the best horse.
The Sifton is restricted to three-year-old colts and geldings foaled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. You have to nominate to be eligible for the race, and Anderson had a list of the nominations. He’d been looking to claim something off the list for the Sifton, and Sugar Daddy Jack was the horse.
Anderson liked what he saw when groom Brad McKenna showed him the replays of Sugar Daddy’s previous two races and decided to drop the claim and take the horse on Aug. 28 for $6,250. People asked him why he would claim that horse. “I told them for the Sifton,” said Anderson. “There were a few people laughing at me.”
They’re not laughing now.
Sugar Daddy Jack was the best-looking horse in the race from which Anderson claimed him. A big, strapping, dark bay who is a half-brother to nine winners including a stakes-placed runner. Sugar Daddy Jack was bred by Larry Falloon of Foxwarren, and is by Nonios-Nickel Candy by Silver Deputy. His full brother, Hip number 9 in the 2023 CTHS Manitoba Yearling Sale, was consigned by Falloon and partner Denis Huberdeau, and purchased for $25,000 by Arthur Roy.
No matter where you looked, this horse shouted bargain, if Anderson could just train him hard enough and smart enough to stretch him out to 1 1/8-miles from six furlongs and still keep him eating. You have to back off on a horse’s training when they stop eating. Sugar Daddy didn’t.
Anderson had Tarasenco take his new acquisition out for a two-minute mile five days after he claimed him and told his jockey to let him roll the final three-eighths to the wire. “I got off him and told him he’d just made the claim of the meet,” said Tarasenco.
The day after the work, Anderson agreed. “I walked him the next morning myself. He was pushing me around and playing and jumping and kicking like he hadn’t done anything.” He knew he had a shot to win.
Anderson sent Sugar Daddy Jack home to the farm after the Sifton, wanting to let his new three-year-old star grow up. He’d already paid for himself with almost 20 grand in reserve, and he’d given Tim Tarasenco his first stakes win of the meeting.
Karma was on his side.
