by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Over the nearly five decades they have been friends and involved in the sport Nelson ‘Spider’ Willis and Walter ‘Butch’ Paisley have certainly been around their fair share of nice horses, but neither man has ever been associated with a horse quite like Riccolo.

“For 50 years we’ve been palling around, even before either one of us ever got married,” explained the 68-year-old Willis. “We have never had a bad word, an argument or disagreement about anything. I’m just tickled with this horse. I’ve never had one that won seven straight, I’ve had one win five, but never seven and Walter hasn’t either. He had a horse that won six, but again that’s not seven.”

The 3-year-old son of Northern Kid and Touch Of Victory, competes as a homebred for Chicago driving legend Paisley and his 17-year-old daughter Paige. The gelding earned $3,430 and had a record of 3-1-1-0 as a freshman with Paisley, who has won 5,718 career races and banked $34,685,548 lifetime, in the bike for all of his engagements.

Willis qualified Riccolo twice last April in preparation for his sophomore campaign and on April 25 the gelding commenced his season with a victory in a $5,500 non-winners event at Balmoral.

He went on to capture his next two starts on May 2 and May 9 in $12,000 Illinois-bred stakes. Next was a trip to the winner’s circle in a $5,000 non-winners contest on May 23.

On May 30, Riccolo won the $41,900 Cardinal Stake and subsequently triumphed in two more $12,000 Illinois-bred stakes on June 13 and June 20.

Balmoral Park photo

Riccolo will look to extend his winning streak to eight in Sunday’s Hanover Stake at Balmoral.

He is a perfect seven for seven in 2012, has performed solely at Balmoral Park while earning just over $50,000 and took his lifetime mark of 1:54.3 in his last start.

On Sunday (July 1), Riccolo will leave from the three hole in the $34,700 Hanover Stake at Balmoral Park with Marcus Miller holding the reins.

“This horse showed a ton of trot early on as a 2-year-old,” said Willis, whose brother Connel was inducted into the Illinois Racing Hall of Fame in 1987 and who was Balmoral Park’s top trainer in 2010. “I went to qualify him after his last start as a 2-year-old and when I didn’t like how he warmed up I scratched him. I told Walter he was off up front in the right ankle and we decided to quit with him instead of having something go wrong.

“We had vets here look at him, but we weren’t getting anywhere, so we sent him to Rood and Riddle in Lexington,” he continued. “They went all over him with different kinds of exams and all they could find was a very small tear in the outside ligament of the ankle. They said it wasn’t anything that time wouldn’t take care of, so that’s what we did. We brought him back in January, swam him for 30 days and put him back on the track. He seems 100 percent now and his legs are as cold as a creek rock.”

Based on his mother’s behavior, Willis put in overtime working on Riccolo’s manners and is quite pleased with the results.

“Walter tried to sell her (Touch Of Victory), but he couldn’t get anything for her and brought her home,” he said. “She was really crazy and an absolute runaway and this colt showed some of that in the beginning, so we have kept working with him and Marcus said you could drive him now with two fingers.”

Although Riccolo has remained within the confines of the Prairie State, it’s quite possible he will take his show on the road next month.

USTA/Ed Keys photo

Nelson “Spider” Willis

“He has the Hanover Stake this weekend at Balmoral Park and he is eligible to the Hambletonian,” Willis said. “We are going to cross that bridge when we come to it and see how much better we get. The Illinois horses are cheap right now and they weren’t good as 2-year-olds so they really can’t go with him. I think he can trot a lot better than 1:54.3 and we haven’t gotten to the bottom of him by a long ways.”

If Riccolo does pass through the entry box for the Hambletonian, there is no chance Paisley will consider steering him.

“I think Walter was the youngest driver to race in the Hambletonian when he was 18,” Willis said. “The horse’s name was Algiers Eblis and it was one of his dad’s horses. Walter told him the horse didn’t have a chance, but he wanted to put him in there anyway.

“Even if we decide to go to the Hambletonian Walter will not drive,” he continued. “He lost his wife to cancer last fall and he has a 17-year-old daughter. He won his last race (April 25) on Riccolo and he said he always wanted to go out as a winner. He said he couldn’t take the chance of getting hurt anymore because he had to be there for his daughter and he is there for her, I’ll tell you that.”

If Riccolo doesn’t go to the gate on August 4, he still has a pretty strong schedule to pursue for the rest of the year.

“We are going to see how everything comes together and just last week I said this horse could trot in (1):52 at the Meadowlands,” Willis said. “Marcus said he could do that tomorrow. They usually have a prep race the week before the eliminations and if he looks like he’s going to be all right, we will go ahead and try that. If we get embarrassed then we won’t have to pay that big entry fee.

“He has the American-National here and the Galt Trot at Maywood,” he continued. “He has a lot of money to race for here in Illinois. Of course there is Springfield and DuQuoin, but we probably wouldn’t do that (if they race in the Hambo). It would be nice to go there, but he would have to be on his game. This is a good horse and he hasn’t met anybody yet to challenge him. Who knows though, I’ve seen horses get challenged and they give it up, but I don’t think this horse will. He’s a gritty horse and he knows how to get to the wire.”