by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Trainer/owner Bob Shahan is not surprised at how I Like My Boss has begun his career. Then again, he’s not walking around telling everyone he predicted 14 wins in 14 starts by the 3-year-old gelding trotter.

“To tell you the truth, when I broke him and trained him down, I knew he had unbelievable speed,” the Harrington, Del., resident said. “But you know how it is. I didn’t think he’d come out like he is now. I really thought he had a chance to be that way, but you can’t get too high too quick. But I did think he would be a good horse when he came together.”

Fotowon photo

Delaware champion I Like My Boss has never been defeated in 14 career starts.

I Like My Boss has had it together from the start. Bred by Shahan and fellow owners/Harrington residents Jimmy Parsons Jr. and Ashley Parsons, I Like My Boss is out of Wild One and his father is Don Boss Vita, who won the 2005 Su Mac Lad in a stakes-record 1:52.1 at the Meadowlands in 2005.

“He has a little of both of them in him,” Shahan said. “The mare was a perfectly gaited mare. She could trot bare footed as nice as you’d want a horse to trot, and he’s the same way.

“Don Boss Vita had that high speed. He could go fast a long ways. He can turn it on in one step. He’ll go from low gear to high gear right away. A lot of trotters can’t do that, but (I Like My Boss) has a lot of that in him too.”

Incidentally, I Like My Boss’ ties to speed run deep in his maternal family, which includes Hall of Fame trotters Cresceus — who lowered the trotting world record twice in 1901 — and Florican.

Driver Jonathan Roberts has been in the sulky for all 14 of I Like My Boss’ wins, but his presence came about by complete accident. Shahan’s good friend George Dennis drove I Like My Boss in a training mile in June 2013 at Harrington and told him, “Bobby, this colt is the real deal.”

“I said, ‘That’s kind of what I thought, I’m just glad to hear it from you,’” Shahan recalled.

Shahan decided to turn out I Like My Boss and then pick back up in August. His first big races began in November and Dennis was scheduled to be the driver. But when Bob showed up with the horse for a qualifier at Dover Downs at the end of October, George was nowhere to be found.

“He was at every qualifier every time I had ever been there,” Shahan said. “When I got (Boss) back ready to qualify, I hadn’t talked to George for four or five days, I just took it for granted he’d be at the qualifier. I didn’t say anything to him, I figured ‘He’ll be there,’ and I put him down hoping everything would be fine.”

Ahhh, the ol’ assumption karma strikes again. All was not fine.

“When I got there, they announced that George Dennis was in the Bahamas,” he said with a laugh. “I said ‘Oh no!’ I looked over and saw Jonathan standing there. I always liked him. I said ‘Would you like to drive a colt?’ So I let Jonathan qualify him and he finished third in the first qualifier.

“He got off him and said ‘Jiminy Christmas, no wonder George liked this colt. I could have won this if I wanted to, but I knew he just needed to qualify,’” Shahan said. “Then I was really high on him. He looked really good that day. I told Jonathan ‘If George wants to go to the Bahamas and take a vacation, you might as well drive him.’”

Bob says he is paying Dennis back by giving him a nice 2-year-old colt to drive this year, Save The Night, who has finished first and second so far in two trips behind the gate.

I Like My Boss went on to win the $100,000 Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund final last fall and has won two $100,000 Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund finals this year — one at Dover Downs and the other at Harrington. He has banked $228,500 to date and he has done it racing several different ways.

“Jonathan Roberts has done a remarkable job with him,” Shahan said. “He started out racing from behind with him, he didn’t know how to be in the lead early. But in one of the $100,000 finals he put him on the lead and he won by four or five lengths. It was his first time on the lead right from the gate and as soon as he got the lead he was relaxed. When Jonathan said something to him he was gone.

“He’ll race either way and seems like he does it perfect. You really don’t have to do much with him. You just shake the lines.”

Off the track, I Like My Boss doesn’t do anything more or anything less than what he needs.

“He’s kind of a very smart horse,” Shahan said. “He doesn’t mind doing his work, but he doesn’t want a lot of the excess. After he gets his work done he’s satisfied to be left alone for the next day.

“He knows his days off and when he’s supposed to be out in the field. He raced (Wednesday) night and (Thursday) morning he was at the gate, like ‘You better put me out because today is my day off.’ I don’t want to change too much on him because he’s pretty smart about it. He’s an easy horse to keep fit.”

I Like My Boss beat older horses in his last two starts, both in conditioned races at Harrington. He won the most recent in 1:56.4, breaking his own track record. On Wednesday (Sept. 10), he faces four foes in the Open at Harrington.

“I think he’s going to surprise them,” Shahan said. “I don’t think people think he can go with them. Even though he’s won every time, you hear that talk around the track, they say he’s raced around a lot of the Delaware state colts but he hasn’t been against the tough ones.”

Two races ago, I Like My Boss trotted his final quarter-mile in :27.2.

“I don’t think I ever saw a (trotter) do that at Harrington,” Shahan said.

The colt is not staked to anything, as Shahan is taking things as they come, but hopes to get him in some late closer races at the Meadowlands as a 4-year-old.

For now, he will just hope to continue seeing things that are not totally surprising, but are not totally expected either.