by Mark Ratzky, publicity, Cal-Expo
Sacramento, CA — Ultimate Desire, one of the most promising pacers on the grounds at Cal-Expo, is getting ready for his seasonal debut for owners Hei and Pamela Mitchell and trainer Bob Johnson.
The 3-year-old son of Real Desire and the Jate Lobell mare Bolero Ultima won his first two starts here last summer, added another victory at Indiana Downs, then found himself mixing it up with some awfully nice stakes horses in Lexington.
While he made the cast for the $300,000 Kentucky Sires Stakes final in late August, he was unable to threaten from an outside post in that rich event and went to the sidelines following the effort. He is now being readied for his 3-year-old bow by Johnson, who sent him out for a sharp 1:56.3 qualifying win with Lemoyne “Mooney” Svendsen last week and plans to give him one more practice mile.
“We gave him the two races here last summer, which he won nicely, and then he raced well at Indiana Downs before going on to those stakes races,” Johnson related. “I actually went back there and spent a month with him, but he got a little sick and he never really came back all the way.
“We gave him a shot to make the Kentucky Sires Stakes final and he did. I thought he had a chance if he drew an inside post, but he got the outside and that was that. The plan all along was to give him some time after that race.”
Johnson noted that Hei Mitchell started to get Ultimate Desire back to speed at his place before arriving back in Sacramento about a month ago.
“I trained him a few times before last week’s qualifier and he was doing great. To be honest, he did more than I expected in that mile. I thought he would go in about :58 and change, but he went a couple of seconds faster. Mooney said he was doing it on idle.”
Ultimate Desire will get one more qualifier this week, then it’s time to get back to the wars.
“We’ll let him tell us where to go from there,” his mentor said. “There’s a stakes for him in Pennsylvania in May, a late closer in Indiana after that, then the Kentucky Sire Stakes. We’ll just have to see how things play out.”
Fire still burns for these pacers
Jersey Bouncer and Leavnona Jateplane may do their work at the lower level these days, but the veteran pacers showed last weekend that they still have the desire to win.
Jersey Bouncer is a 12-year-old son of Presidential Ball who is just shy of the $400,000 earnings plateau with a 1:51 mark that was set five years ago, while Leavnona Jateplane is a 9-year-old Jate Lobell offspring who went over $180,000 in earnings with that last score and has a 1:51.2 tour on his resume.
Jersey Bouncer is owned and trained by Mark Anderson and has a veteran partner in the sulky in the form of Jim Lackey. The pacer snapped a dry spell last week when came first over to prevail by a neck.
Meanwhile, Leavnona Jateplane carries the banner of Melissa Erzene while taking his lessons from Troy Thomas and was landing in the charmed enclosure about an hour after Jersey Bouncer. It was his second victory from eight attempts on the season and he rewarded his backers with a $30 payoff.
“I’ve had him for about year now,” Thomas related. “You know, they gelded him a little late in his career, and I think it might have messed with his mind a bit. He’s actually a little timid.
“I’ve learned the key is to leave him alone and mess with him as little as possible. As far as the race goes, he has speed, but if you leave with him you have to get him covered up as soon as possible. He definitely does better from off the pace.”
Leavnona Jateplane obviously caught some players off guard with his 14-1 upset, and you can include his driver/trainer in that group.
“I have to admit I was surprised by his race the other night — pleasantly surprised.”
Challenge The King looks to make it back a third time
Friday the 13th seemed to be a good night for Challenge The King, who was recording his sixth win from seven starts on the year and his third straight Open victory, but it lived up to its reputation for the star-crossed trotter.
Challenge The King, who has twice overcome separate splint bone operations on his left front leg, not only came out of the race with a tear of his right rear suspensory, but a saucer size break in his right rear cannon bone. The prognosis is that he has a two-thirds chance to make it back to the races, but not until the fall.
The 7-year-old son of Star Challenge has been in career form this season for the team of owner Lisa Ehrlich, trainer Bob Johnson and driver Lemoyne “Mooney” Svendsen, and making miraculous comebacks are nothing new for this game performer.
Lisa’s husband, track announcer Scott Ehrlich, explained what transpired following Challenge The King’s fateful February 13 win.
“After King won his last race, I asked my wife to ask Mooney and Bob if King was sound, as I felt that night when he scored down that while not looking bad, he had looked sharper.
“The report came back that he was sore in his right front, but not lame, and that Dr. (Gary) Budahn would take a look at him the next morning. On Saturday, Dr. Budahn called me to inform me that he was sure that King had a tear of the right rear suspensory and that if all went great, he would be racing again by mid-April. He said he wanted to confirm his diagnosis with an x-ray the following Tuesday.
“On Tuesday, Dr. Budahn called me to inform that the x-rays not only confirmed the tear of the right rear suspensory, but by luck, the x-ray also showed a fresh saucer size break in his right rear cannon bone.
“I wasn’t sure what he meant by saucer size, to which he explained that the break was as thin as the saucer for your coffee cup — if not actually thinner. He also informed me that for a trotter this was not a good injury as they get all their power from behind. The scary part, however, was what he told me next. We were lucky it wasn’t a clean break through the bone, because had it been, King would have been euthanized that night.”
As you might imagine, Ehrlich was in total shock at that point and admits his jaw dropped to the ground.
“Can you imagine you have a horse who has just won his third straight Open Trot, the same horse who has overcome two separate splint bone removal operations on the same leg, and you find out he could have been put to sleep?
“I immediately asked Gary if King was in distress, and he informed me not only was he not in distress, but he was actually in a playing mood and was eating everything in front of him, which did my heart good.”
Of course, the next question concerned Challenge The King’s future. It turned out to be a bad news/good news situation. The bad news was the prognosis of no return to the wars until the fall, but this also meant there would be much more time than needed for the tear in the suspensory to heal.
“He gave King a two-thirds chance to make it back to the races by the fall, and seemed pretty confident given that he has already returned from two operations.”
Budahn also pointed out that Challenge The King’s heart and desire to race would play no small part in his recovery and possible return to action.
“He told me how much he likes this horse,” Scott continued, “because he can see that King just loves to race.
“This couldn’t have been more evident by the fact that these injuries occurred with a bad step at the quarter pole in his last race on a track that was hard because it had been sealed for rain, yet King would still go on to win easily.”
Everybody involved with this popular performer has their fingers crossed that he will be able to go out and do what he loves when the fall rolls around.
“If he does come back, the question is will he come back as good and that remains to be seen,” Ehrlich said.
“One thing you can count on, I know that Bob, his crew and Dr. Budahn will do everything they can to bring him back, and they’ll do it the right way. This is good news for the many fans Challenge The King has, for which Lisa and I have been pleasantly surprised to find out about.”