Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — Four Graduate finals for 4-year-olds of both gaits and sexes will be contested on the Saturday night (July 9) 13-race card at The Meadowlands. Included among the quartet of Graduate races is the $250,000 final for male trotters (race 9), with the role of the 3-1 morning-line favorite bestowed on Rattle My Cage, who will start from post six with driver Yannick Gingras.

Rattle My Cage is riding a three-race win streak heading into the rich Graduate final, including a 1:50.3 effort last time out on June 25 in the final series preliminary at The Meadowlands. The son of France-based stallion Love You out of the Andover Hall mare Caress The Senses is owned by Perry Soderberg and trained by Ake Svanstedt.

While Soderberg, a native of Sweden, is well known for scouting for yearling prospects for the now-retired Jimmy Takter and currently for partners Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld, he landed the Carter Duer-bred Rattle My Cage for himself for $40,000 at the 2019 Lexington Selected Yearling Sale.

Rattle My Cage is riding a three-race win streak heading into the rich Graduate final, including a 1:50.3 effort last time out on June 25 in the final series preliminary at The Meadowlands. Lisa photo.

“Normally I was with Jimmy (Takter), who retired, and I do work for Marvin Katz and Al Libfeld, and they get all the information I have and from there we go on with their interest,” explained Soderberg. “They received the information on this one and some other ones. This one attracted me a little bit and I checked with everybody to see if they had interest and told them I was going to bid.

“Me and my wife Annelee were at (Duer’s) Peninsula Farm (in Kentucky) looking at the horses before the sale, and this was one of the fastest trotters I had ever seen. Speed doesn’t always translate into a good horse, but he was one of those who you would turn out and it would go as fast as any horse you’d seen before. You shook the camera a little bit and he’d take off. He gave us a very good feeling so we were happy to get him.”

Soderberg said what also attracted him to Rattle My Cage — who sold at the sale under the name Lexingtonian — was the pedigree.

“The family goes back to my all-time favorite horse, Dancer’s Crown,” he said. “Dancer’s Crown is important to me because that was when I came over from Sweden in 1982 to work for Stanley Dancer. I truly loved that horse.”

Soderberg said Rattle My Cage began his career in the barn of trainer Per Engblom, with the colt posting just one third in three attempts as a 2-year-old.

“I believe he trained in (1):56 and change before the baby races and he showed speed and power, but he wasn’t mature enough as a 2-year-old to go on, so we went a different route,” remembered Soderberg.

Rattle My Cage raced most of his sophomore season under the care of trainer Anette Lorentzon, moving into the Svanstedt barn in early September. The trotter finished his 3-year-old campaign with four wins in 15 starts and a mark of 1:51.3 taken on Oct. 10 at The Red Mile.

Svanstedt and his wife, Sarah, split their stable over the winter to where the babies are training in Florida and the other horses remain at their New Jersey farm. Soderberg said Rattle My Cage stayed north and benefited greatly from training on the Svanstedts’ sand track.

“The winter training this year really worked out in his favor,” said Soderberg. “It’s a different type of training that is more the European style and it worked for him.”

Rattle My Cage cruised to an easy 1:53.1 victory in an April 23 qualifier at The Meadowlands in his first 4-year-old appearance, and then two weeks later on May 7 he finished second by a neck to Sonofamistery in 1:52.1 in the Graduate opener. The trotter then won a conditioned trot on May 20 at The Big M in 1:51.3.

In his next start on June 11, with Svanstedt’s wife, Sarah, in the sulky subbing for Gingras, Rattle My Cage won a conditioned event in a career-best 1:50.2. The mile is believed to be the fastest ever by a female driver on the trot.

That led into the most recent victory in the Graduate prelims, giving the trotter his third consecutive trip to the winner’s circle and bringing his career earnings to $163,279.

“(Rattle My Cage) is strong and mentally tough,” said Soderberg. “Yannick has done a good job of driving and so did Sarah, now the world’s fastest woman on the trot.”

Also in the Graduate final are Graduate leg winners Ahundreddollarbill (post three, Todd McCarthy) and Sonofamistery (post seven, Brian Sears) as well as Cuatro De Julio (post 10, Andrew McCarthy), who was second by a neck to Rattle My Cage last time out, and Venerate (post nine, Andy Miller), the winner of the 2020 Mohawk Million.

Rattle My Cage is also one of three Svanstedt entries in the race, joining stablemates Delayed Hanover (post one, Ake Svanstedt) and Ambassador Hanover (post five, Scott Zeron).

“This is a very tough race and there are some very good horses in the race. It’s a tough race but we are thrilled so far,” said Soderberg, who added that Rattle My Cage will race next in the Hambletonian Maturity on July 16 and then possibly the John Cashman Memorial on Hambletonian day on Aug. 6 at The Meadowlands.

Racing begins at 6:20 p.m. (EDT) Saturday at the Meadowlands. The card also includes Graduate finals for 4-year-old male and female pacers as well as 4-year-old female trotters. There also will be two eliminations for the Meadowlands Pace, with the top-five finishers from each group advancing to the final on July 16 at the Big M.

For complete entries for the Saturday card, click here.