Why not make it a dozen?
By ART PARKER
Entering the 2013 spring meeting at Keeneland, Ken and Sarah Ramsey accumulated 11 owner titles at the Lexington oval. Six fall meetings and five spring meetings have the Ramsey name at the top of the owner’s list. By the looks of things during the opening weekend at Keeneland last week, the Ramseys couldn’t wait to win their twelfth Keeneland title.
In the first three days of racing the Ramseys were victorious in the first two races of the meeting, the last three races run, and one in between. The Ramseys won six of the first 29 races; a tad more than 20% run at Keeneland. The only bad news during the weekend is that the Ramseys actually endured fifteen consecutive races without a win! Go figure.
What is refreshing about watching the Ramseys win races is that there is nothing restrictive about their ownership involvement. In this game we see many owners that only come to the track when their horse runs, and usually their horse is a stakes runner. But with the Ramseys you see a little bit of everything, and they appear to be just as proud of a lower level claimer as a graded stakes runner.
Let’s look at the Ramseys winners in the first three days at Keeneland’s spring meeting.
Day one, race one: A $30,000 non-winners of two lifetime claimer. The horse was claimed at Gulfstream.
Day one, race two: An optional claimer “three other than” that shipped in from Fairgrounds.
Day two, race one: A $16,000 claimer that was claimed for $30,000 at Fairgrounds.
Then the “drought” when the Ramseys were winless for 15 consecutive races.
Day three, race seven: A debut runner.
Day three, race eight: Entry level allowance (turf) shipper from Gulfstream.
Day three, race nine: A $10,000 claimer that shipped in from Turfway Park.
Thus far at the Keeneland meeting, trainer Michael Maker has won five races for the Ramseys and trainer Wesley Ward has won one race for them. Others are likely to show up in the winner’s circle with Ramsey horses. In the meeting last fall the Ramseys won with Maker, Ward, Wayne Catalano and David Vance. Last fall the Ramseys won a total of a dozen races. After just three days this spring they already have half that number. There’s a good chance no other owner can even match what the Ramseys have done thus far.
The highlight of the opening weekend was the Grade One Ashland Stakes and the impressive romp made by Emollient, a gate to wire winner that looked to be light years ahead of the other three year old fillies. Mike Smith rode Emollient to a nine length winning margin after breaking from Post 13. Owned by Juddmonte Farms and trained by Bill Mott, Emollient covered the one mile and sixteenth in 1:43.49. Emollient is a daughter of Empire Maker out of the Touch Gold mare Soothing Touch. With Belmont winners on both sides of her pedigree, Emollient should be even tougher the longer she goes.
— Art Parker is the author of “Keeneland Winning Trainer Patterns” now available in all e-book formats for the 2013 spring meet. Get the inside scoop on the horsemen that win at Keeneland!
About Editor
Slumps are always around in sport activities for one or another reason, so it is good Ramseys get through them to keep themselves awaked in their business. As I wrote some days ago, they got the title 2012-2013, as the best owners in Gulfstream Park, Florida. There they faced another good horse owner, Frank Carl Calabrese, who currently lead again the stats in Calder Race Course, Miami Garden, Florida.