by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — By the middle of his 2-year-old season, several different trainers had determined San Pail had no future on the racetrack, but Rod Hughes was willing to take a chance on him and he’s certainly glad he did.

“He had kind of been given up by his previous trainers,” remembered Hughes, who co-owns and conditions the gelding. “He was very immature and his body was short and squatty. He had a lot of growing to do, but his biggest issue was he wouldn’t trot on the turns, so they figured if he wouldn’t do that it was time to move on.

“That led him to being offered up to a bunch of local trainers as to whether they wanted to try him and I was kind of the last one they came to,” he continued. “It was almost like I needed him and he needed me. He needed one last chance and I needed something that would put me on the map.”

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San Pail has earned more than $600,000 in each of his last two racing seasons.

The Ontario-bred son of San Pellegrino-Village Beauty, who is also owned by his breeder, Glenn Van Camp of Port Perry, Ontario, never made it to the races as a freshman, but from 24 starts as a sophomore, he won four times and earned more than $144,000. San Pail has improved every year he has raced and from 90 race miles, the gelding has a resume of 34-14-9, a bankroll of $1,578,316 and a lifetime mark of 1:51.3s. Besides winning the last two editions of the Maple Leaf Trot, he was Canada’s 2009 Older Trotting Horse of the Year and is one of the favorites for this year’s Horse of the Year laurels. From 14 races this year, the gelding has 12 victories, one second place finish and collected $615,855 in purse money.

“His biggest strength is he is so smart,” Hughes, who is a resident of Dunsford, Ontario, said. “He wants to win; he knows what he’s doing. If I go out to warm him up between races he will still be in front on the lap. He just doesn’t quit until he gets to the front, so I try to get him out on the track first if I can, or close to it because I know he won’t quit until he’s by everybody.”

Hughes allowed San Pail to take the time to grow into himself and learn how to do his job, but a few things he did enabled the trotter to realize his potential.

“I did take a different approach with him than I do with most,” Hughes explained. “I thought he needed the work so I trained him down with nothing but double headers until he qualified. He also needed a lot of weight up front so he wore a five-eighths (shoe) and a ribbed bell boot in front for the first three months he raced.

“He also used to interfere behind and I had some help from the likes of Steve Hill, he’s a good blacksmith from Mohawk,” he continued. “He gave me a few ideas on how to shoe him, so we tinkered with it a little bit and got him to trot cleaner. That, along with him maturing, allowed him to just keep getting stronger.”

San Pail is not the easiest horse to get along with when he’s on the track, but his demeanor around the barn is extremely kind.

“He’s got his own personality, that’s for sure,” Hughes said. “He’s a handful if you are late getting to warm him up and he’s as aggressive a horse as any you would want to race. He’s even a handful for his groom.

“But my 2-year-old son comes out to the barn every night before he goes to bed and gives Pail a kiss,” he continued. “Pail comes right over and tries to kiss my son back on the lips. Then he gets petted and we go in for the night. He can be pretty soft when he wants to and he just seems to know when he’s around the barn, he can relax.”

His connections are targeting the Glorys Comet Stakes on Jan. 10, but San Pail could venture below the border during his 2011 campaign.

“We’ll shut him down after the Glorys Comet,” Hughes said. “I’ve been thinking about going down to the Su Mac Lad (at the Meadowlands) just for the lack of racing for him up here, but I’m just going to play it by ear and see how he does. I think he’s gotten more mature and can handle a little more trucking this year and being away from home.

“When he was three and four as soon as I would change his routine, he would stop eating, so that was always a concern for me and I didn’t travel with him,” he continued. “But the last two times I’ve taken him away he hasn’t stopped eating and whenever he was at Woodbine or Mohawk in retention he ate excellent. I think these are all positives and maybe we can branch out a little bit more (next) year.”

Hughes likes San Pail’s odds to be named Canada’s Horse of the Year, but acknowledges the gelding has tough competition.

“I am a little biased on my horse and I would like to think we have an excellent chance, but Dreamfair Eternal has an excellent chance as well,” he said. “I think if he would have had more racing available to him up here, he would have had more impressive stats.

“I’m not saying he hasn’t made me enough money to put it up, but the supplement for the Breeders Crown was just too big for me to take out of my pocket,” Hughes continued. “I try to make as much money as I can without going backwards, so we will see what happens. It would be amazing to get Horse of the Year because it’s really something special to have a horse like that in your barn. He is pretty awesome.”