“You take care of your horses and they’ll take care of you.”
The foreman for Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens said that to me in 1978 while working at Belmont Park in New York, and it certainly rang true Wednesday night when Explosive went off at 30-1 and ran to his name.
The seven-year-old grey gelding won the $25,200 Rangatira Overnight Stakes Wednesday for trainer Lise Pruitt and owner Arnason Farms and became the longest-priced winner of the meet so far, paying $62.20, $21.10, $9.20 across the board
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
Explosive nibbles on some dandelions Friday morning under the watchful eye of trainer Lise Pruitt at Assinboia Downs .
Owner Barry Aranson usually bets $30 across the board (win-place-show) on his horses when they run, or $20 across if he’s not quite sure about their chances. Explosive wasn’t given much of a shot in the race so he would have likely attracted Arnason’s $20 across for a total outlay of $60. That play would have returned $622.00 to win, $210.10 to place, and $92.00 to show for a total of $924.20. There was only one problem.
“I was going to bet, but I fell asleep,” said Arnason. “So I missed it, but I woke up to watch the replay. I looked at the screen and saw Explosive at 30-1 and said to myself, ‘You stupid ass.’”
While Arnason didn’t get the $864.20 profit on the bet he never made, he did get the $15,120 winner’s share of the purse. He also gets credit for giving Explosive the winter off after last season.
Claimed last February for $25,000 at Turfway Park, Explosive had been racing in tough company at Golden Gate, Santa Anita, Del Mar, Los Alamitos, Churchill Downs, and Turfway Park, for two straight years without any time off. In human terms that’s like playing seven games in every playoff series including the Stanley Cup final.
That would be enough to cook most horses physically and certainly fry them mentally, especially if they didn’t win. Explosive, however, had some toughness and quality to him. He won five times over those two years, and was then given a much-deserved holiday on Arnason’s farm.
In his first start back this year on May 20, Explosive finished last in a five-furlong sprint, but he rallied willingly and was only beaten by three lengths. He faced the same group of horses at the same distance in the Rangatira on Wednesday and powered home late to win by a head under jockey Renaldo Cumberbatch.
On Friday morning Explosive was out in the field eating grass with trainer Lise Pruitt. If he looked any better they’d have to put him on the cover of Vogue’s Pretty Horse Weekly — his grey dapples dashing and his eyes ablaze with confidence.
He wasn’t supposed to win. Explosive’s stablemate Big Nick was going to stalk a duel between favourite Jeff Fa Fa and Mr. Stang and pounce on the tiring duellers late, but when Jeff Fa Fa broke slow, Big Nick ended up duelling between horses and set the race up for his stablemate. It was like reverse osmosis or something.
“You just never know what’s going to happen when the gate opens,” said Pruitt, who looked after Explosive over the winter. “It was like, ‘OK scratch Plan A immediately, now what?’”
Pruitt also won the $25,500 Taboga Overnight Stakes on Tuesday evening with 2023 CTHS Horse of the Year Melisandre, for ownership partners True North Thoroughbreds and Arnason Farms. Again, time off over the winter did the trick. Now a six-year-old, Melisandre is back in the best form of her career.
Explosive is groomed by Keno Martin, while Melisandre is cared for by Richie Ricketts. Both are two top grooms. Pruitt’s 24-year-old daughter Ciera has moved on from grooming to galloping and working horses now and is rumoured to be going to Woodbine to work for Hall of Fame trainer Jose Carroll, the first female ever to win the Queen’s Plate in 2006. Ciera will learn a ton working for Carroll.
Pruitt also has HBPA Groom School graduate Harmony Mattie and Harmony’s boyfriend Matthew working for her. “When Matthew first came here he didn’t know anything about horses,” said Pruitt. “He used to wash dishes at Polo Park. But he was willing to work and he’s getting good now.”
So is jockey Antonio Whitehall, the reigning three-time ASD jockey champ who some wrote off too quickly after a one-win-first week. Whitehall was aboard Melisandre when she won the Taboga on Tuesday and led all jockeys in week two with five winners. Five-time leading trainer Jerry Gourneau also won four races to maintain his spot on top of the trainer standings with 10 victories.
Finally, history was made on Monday at ASD according to track historian Bob Gates, when there was a dead heat for the win in a stakes race for the first time since 1963. Zorina, trained by Carlos Moreno and ridden by Ronald Ali, and She’s My Niece, trained by Jared Brown and ridden by Damario Bynoe, couldn’t be separated on the wire in the $24,900 Slinkylady Overnight Stakes.
Both horses had the best of care.
