SHAKOPEE/ROCHESTER, MN – [EDITOR’S NOTE: Ted Grevelis, one of our co-founders, manages Breakaway Stables, owner of Magic Castle, an entry in the Minnesota Sprint Championship. We’ll take the opportunity this week to give some insight into going in a big race from the perspective of a small claiming partnership finding itself in an unfamiliar spot. This is part two of our series.]
In order to know where Breakaway Stables came from, we need a really quick history lesson of partnerships at Canterbury Park.
In 2009, Canterbury introduced the Canterbury Racing Club. The goal was to give fans the opportunity to own part of a racehorse with minimal investment and no recurring bills. Hopefully this would lead to some of them to go out on their own and start their own partnerships or own horses outright.
I was selected to manage the Club heading into the 2013 season and did so for the next six years, including a spin off, CAC Racing, for folks that wanted to move up a notch in the ownership experience. All the while I also managed a couple of independent partnerships.
After CAC Racing disbanded, several individuals wanted to continue and so we “broke away” from CAC and started a new group: Breakaway Stables.
Breakaway had a rough first year, not winning a race in seven starts. In 2020 the group got its first win with trainer Karl Broberg at Prairie Meadows and finished the year with a pair of wins, two seconds, two thirds and three fourths in 11 starts. It wasn’t great but it was moving forward.
The next year was similar, with 2 wins, a second, a third and a pair of fourths in nine starts. The year marked not only the low point, but the start of a remarkable turnaround for the group.
In May of 2021 the group was about $1500 in the red and the eight of us were knocking around the idea of disbanding. When Chip Wooley claimed Jewel Azul from us, it gave us a lifeline and we turned around and claimed a lightly raced son of American Pharoah, Roman Pharoah. We only had him for one race, but that was a win and he was claimed from us for what we paid, so we had a little extra money and went out and claimed Riverboat Gambler.
We took Gambler to Remington where we ran three times, finishing 5th, 4th and then a win, where we were claimed for $3,000 more than what we paid.
The group waited until the new year and we claimed Sports Fan at Oaklawn. We finished 4th in our first start off the claim and then 2nd, where we were claimed, this time for $2500 more than what we paid. Slowly the account was rebuilding nicely and we turned to old friend, Riverboat Gambler. This time we only had him for one race at Oaklawn, but that was a win and a claim.
We headed home to Canterbury Park needing a horse and we settled on a maiden named Apart of My Charm.
At this point, I’ll digress a little in order to describe how we find a horse. Some weeks Karl will send me a list, other times I will send him my thoughts. An important point, and I’ve said this to any trainer we’ve ever used, “you have complete veto power.” We hire a trainer for a reason – their expertise, which I will defer to every time. If I can’t trust him to make decisions, then we have the wrong trainer.
We knew Charm would break her maiden in the $16,000 race, but also thought that she was at least going to be that good moving through her conditions and, maybe, she wouldn’t win. She did and we sent her out in an allowance next out. That turned out to be a bit ambitious so we brought her back to a $16,000 non-winner of two, and she got the win. She was also claimed away.
With about half the Canterbury meet gone we turned our eyes to one more horse. At this point we had some decisions to make: try and find a horse that we can take away from Canterbury or find a Minnesota bred to try and make some hay with state bred money.
My eye caught a horse in the past performances on July 14, Magic Castle. He had the look of a Minnesota bred that could take on open company and win. Hell, he had done it already. Initially owned and trained by Bernell Rhone, he broke his maiden in a Tampa Bay Down $25,000 maiden claimer in very impressive fashion. His first out at Canterbury was a state bred allowance where he had a bit of a rough break and finished 4th. Claimed in his third career start while finishing 2nd in an open race for $30,000 by Lothenbach Stables, he came back and drilled a state bred allowance.
The July 14 race was a $16,000 claiming race ($25,000 for Minnesota breds) and my thought process was – get him, win a second level state bred allowance and then on to Festival Day.
A couple of things about him: he didn’t get started until he was three and then it was decided not to race him but turn him back out until he was four. No physical issues, the owners just decided to not get him started late in his three-year-old year. As a sports horse barn that’s not unusual, though in racing it is. Therefore, he was lightly raced coming to us with only five starts under his belt after this race.
Karl agreed with me (or just acquiesced!) and the people were all for it, so we dropped the slip and got the horse.
Castle is a relatively little fella. He’s 16 hands and he’s a little slight, but he’s sound and he’s quick. He’s a little nervous heading to the track – he’s also not much different than a 2-year-old in that respect – he just doesn’t have a lot experience.
He won the race we claimed him out of and won it decisively. That gave us all a lot of hope as Clemente Montoya, Karl’s on-site assistant, led him back to the barn.
(TOMORROW: Under our colors and the decision to run on Festival Day)
