Lucarelli optimistic about 2009 campaign

As their 2008 racing season slowly grinds to a halt, Schenectady native Don Lucarelli and partners are already looking at a busy start to 2009.

Grade I winner Monba and Why Tonto, a stakes winner on grass, will rejoin trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn next week to begin training for their 4-year-old campaign.

The duo has been at bloodstock advisor Barry Berkelhammer’s farm in Ocala, Fla., and will be shipped to Pletcher’s nearby string at Palm Meadows.

Monba has won three of six lifetime starts, including the $750,000 Blue Grass on Keeneland’s Polytrack April 13, but has been off since finishing last of 20 in the

May 4 Kentucky Derby.

“He got a chip in his ankle in the Derby,” Lucarelli said this week. “We started training him and we were going to run him at Belmont, and he just wasn’t training right. We did the scans and, sure enough, there was a chip, so we stopped on him.

“We removed the chip, and the prognosis is 100 percent. Naturally, we could have brought him back a little earlier, but with the timing and being down in Florida, we figured we’d give him a little extra time to grow and put some weight on, and that’s what we did. Barry’s happy with him.”

Depending on how he trains, Monba will either stay in Florida and point to the Gulfstream Park meet that opens Jan. 4, or be shipped cross-country for the Strub series of stakes on the artificial surfaces in California.

“He’s already shown that he runs well on that, and that series is good, especially for breeding and stallion value,” Lucarelli said. “He may miss the first leg of it because it’s on Dec. 29 and he probably won’t be ready.”

Second in the Grade III Tropical Park Derby, Why Tonto won the $100,000 Hallandale Beach at Gulfstream in February. He was being considered for the Triple Crown,

but hurt his ankle training for the Florida Derby and hasn’t raced since.

Lucarelli said Why Tonto will remain on the grass next year.

“Because he was eligible for the Derby, we were going to try him on the dirt, and then he ended up getting body sore, so we turned him out,” he said. “He’s definitely showed he loves the grass, and he likes it firm. Get him a firm turf, and we’ve got a helluva shot at doing some real damage with him next year.”

Starlight Racing, the high-end syndicate formed and run by

Lucarelli and Saratoga Springs resident Jack Wolf, purchased eight yearlings in September to bring their 2008 total to 20.

“From a pedigree standpoint, they are very well-bred,” Lucarelli said. “Hopefully, something comes out of those.”

Add to that Starlight’s 2-year-old crop that has seen several horses run second and 13 more yet to race, and Lucarelli has good reason to look ahead.

“Normally, our crops have been very early to the races, but it just happens that it didn’t work out that way this year,” he said. “We’re

going to have a lot of horses on the track, between the ones that haven’t started, the yearlings and the 18

2-year-olds we have, right now.

“I’m thankful that Southwest has a direct flight from Albany to

Ft. Lauderdale. We’re looking forward to, hopefully, a lot of action and making it a good year.”

The highlight of 2008 for

Lucarelli was the Blue Grass, his first Grade I victory and one the family dedicated to his late son-in-law,

David Longo, who died in a snowmobile accident in January 2007.

“For us, that was the peak of the year,” Lucarelli said. “We would have liked to have done better at Saratoga, but it didn’t work out that way, and we’re not going to push on them for the sake of having horses run.

“From an overall standpoint, I would say thank God Monba put it together in the Blue Grass, or it would have been a real dull year. It was like a reality check, because all the other horses were sort of late-developing or the ones that did run had a lot of seconds. Hopefully, they make the transition from 2 to 3 and progress, and there’s one or two real talented ones in there that put us in place next year.”

Another of Lucarelli’s older horses, Sam P., ran eighth of nine as the favorite in a one-mile optional claiming allowance Wednesday at Churchill Downs under jockey Jamie Theriot.

“We’re going to end up gelding him,” Lucarelli said. “The jockey came off, and said he didn’t want anything to do with racing. He shows all the signs, the studishness and all that. I think it may prove beneficial to geld him, and that’s what our plan is. We’ll bring him back at Gulfstream, too.”

By the end of the month, Longo’s widow, Lucarelli’s daughter,

Josepha, hopes to open a touchless car wash that the couple had been planning. It will be located on the corner of Burdeck Street and Campbell Avenue, above Rotterdam Square Mall.

“The timing is pretty good, because more cars are washed during the winter to get rid of the salt,” Lucarelli said. “It’s something they had always wanted to do.”

ON A ROLL

Pepper’s Pride extended her modern North American-record win streak to 18 straight races on Sunday, winning the $177,615 New Mexico Fillies & Mares Stakes at Zia Park.

Sent off at 2-5, Pepper’s Pride raced wide and made an early move to take the lead leaving the final turn, holding off pacesetter La Sorpresa to win by a length.

The 5-year-old mare is 18-0 with $991,805 in lifetime earnings, all of her wins coming against New Mexico-bred females. Hall of Famers Citation and Cigar were among four thoroughbreds that had won 17 consecutive starts.

Owner Joe Allen and trainer Joel Marr plan to run Pepper’s Pride one more time, in the $125,000 New Mexico State Racing Commissioin Handicap on Dec. 14 at Sunland Park, before retiring her to broodmare duty.

ON THE MEND

Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens was released from Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation Center on Wednesday and returned to his barn at Belmont Park.

The 79-year-old Jerkens was admitted to Long Island Jewish Hospital in New Hyde Park last month with shortness of breath. He underwent surgery Oct. 20 to repair two heart valves, and had a pacemaker installed Oct. 28.

“He came home and said, ‘I’d like to see the horses,’ ” said Jerkens’ wife, Elizabeth. “We drove him to the barn and he sat on the bench outside, and they brought out every single one of the horses for him.”

As he has for years, Jerkens plans to winter in Florida, although he doesn’t expect to be able to make the commute until next month.

AWARD WINNER

Trainer Larry Jones will receive the 2008 Big Sport of Turfdom Award, as presented by the Turf Publicists of America.

Jones trained several high-profile horses during the year, including multiple Grade I winning filly Proud Spell and ill-fated Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles.

Based in Kentucky, Jones will receive the award Dec. 9 during the keynote luncheon of the University of Arizona Race Track Industry Program Symposium on Racing and Gaming in Tuscon.

“This award is wonderful,” Jones said. “I think it’s my highest achievement in the sport. I’ve always felt that we, as trainers and horsemen, have an obligation to keep the fans well informed, and hopefully, we’ve done that.”

The Big Sport of Turfdom Award has been presented annually since 1966. The TPA consists of some 200 publicity and marketing personnel from racetracks and racing organizations around the U.S.

WEEKEND STAKES

Coming off a victory against fellow state-breds in the Empire Classic, Stud Muffin makes his graded stakes debut in today’s Grade III $100,000 Stuyvesant Handicap at Aqueduct.

A field of eight was entered for the nine-furlong Stuyvesant, including Solar Flare, trained by Jones, and Dry Martini, co-topweights at 116 pounds; and Ravel, considered one of the top Derby candidates of 2007 before being sidelined by injury.

Canadian-based Callwood Dancer is the lone Grade II winner in a field of 10 older fillies and mares for today’s Grade III $100,000 Cardinal Handicap on the turf at Churchill Downs.

Carrying jockey Eurico Rosa

Da Silva and topweight of 122 pounds, Callwood Dancer will break from post five. Her main opposition figures to come from graded-stakes winners Lady Digby and Indescribable.

On Sunday, Good Night Shirt will face only four rivals in the Grade I $150,000 Colonial Cup steeplechase at Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C.

The defending champion, Good Night Shirt is 4-0 this year, and has won five consecutive Grade I races. He has already broken the single-season earnings record he set last year, and is on course for a second steeplechase Eclipse Award.

Among the competition is Dark Equation, winner of the Grade I New York Turf Writers Cup at Saratoga who was fifth to Good Night Shirt in the Sept. 21 Lonesome Glory.

AROUND THE TRACKS

u Seeking the Gold, who will turn 24 next year, has been pensioned from stallion duty at Claiborne Farm. A son of Mr. Prospector, he is represented by 88 stakes winners.

u Churchill Downs is hosting a “Rider Cup” today, pitting American-born jockeys against their foreign-born counterparts in a friendly competition to raise $15,000 for charity. Retired Hall of Famers Pat Day and Angel Cordero Jr. will serve as captains for their respective teams.

u Sydney “Chip” Dutrow, younger brother of Tony and Rick Dutrow Jr., is going out on his own, according to the Daily Racing Form. Dutrow, 49, trained in Maryland from

October 2002 to April 2003, winning eight of 41 races. He will be based at Belmont Park this winter.

u Jockey Christian Dominguez will miss four to five weeks with a broken wrist following a two-horse spill Tuesday at Calder. Meet-leading rider Paco Lopez escaped serious injury in the incident.

u Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien captured the last Group 1 of the

European season on Wednesday with Fame and Glory in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud in France. O’Brien ends the year with 23 Group 1 wins, two shy of Bobby Frankel’s 2003 record for group or Grade I victories.

u New York’s top riders are being featured on Jockey Video Cards at NYRA’s official YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/nyravideo. Alan Garcia, Rich Migliore, Javier Castellano, Eibar Coa, Channing Hill, Mike Luzzi, John Velazquez and Rajiv Maragh are among the profiles.

u Twenty months after leaving New York, trainer Scott Lake is planning a move back for the opening of Aqueduct’s inner track meet on Dec. 3.