by Rich Fisher, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — It shouldn’t be surprising that Champagne Tonight has been a moneymaker on the racetrack this season. She showed a knack for being profitable from the beginning, when after auction she made $2,000 for one guy and saved $2,000 for another.

“There’s actually a little story behind that,” said co-owner/trainer Clair Umholtz.

The story started with Umholtz ready to bid $12,000 at last year’s Lexington Selected Sale, only to discover the bidding had closed. Another buyer bought Champagne Tonight for $8,000.

“I waited for the results to come out and saw who got it,” Umholtz said. “I didn’t know him, but a friend of mine did. So I offered him $10,000 for her and he took it. He made $2,000 and I saved $2,000.”

Scott Cantor photo

Champagne Tonight has won four straight races heading into this Friday’s Pennsylvania Sires Stakes championship.

Champagne Tonight is giving Umholtz his money’s worth, having won six of seven races and $202,316 heading into Friday’s $200,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship for 2-year-old filly pacers at The Meadows, where she is the 2-1 favorite with driver Tony Hall in the sulky.

“She’s actually going into the race very well,” Umholtz said. “I know it’s not a walk over, there’s some nice fillies in there. I’m confident but I’m wary of some of those guys, it’s not going to be given to us.”

Nonetheless, the trainer is bubbling over with compliments for his filly.

“I couldn’t ask her to be going into this race any better than she is,” he said. “She came out of the last race fine. I think we’ve done all we can and she’s done all she can. Hopefully she’ll be up to the task. She has a great desire to race, I know that.”

Part of what made Champagne Tonight’s price appear a bargain to Umholtz is that she is by Western Terror, who has sired a number of quality filly pacers. In fact six of Western Terror’s top seven earners are female, including millionaires Western Silk, Shacked Up, Yellow Diamond and Economy Terror as well as Higher And Higher and Drop The Ball.

Champagne Tonight was the first foal out of the Real Desire mare Lake Shore Drive, who is a half-sister to 2010 Adios runner-up Versado. Second dam Twointhemorning is the mother of millionaire mare Stonebridge Kisses and the family also includes stakes-winners Before Hours and Kiev Hanover.

“I think she just fell through the cracks,” Umholtz said. “The breeder (The OK Corral) isn’t a big-name breeder, so sometimes they just fall through the cracks. I usually do better with the horses I get between 10 (thousand dollars) and 20 (thousand dollars) than when I go higher.”

Once Champagne Tonight came through those cracks, Umholtz was there to catch her for himself and fellow owners Ngaire Umholtz and Dan Kennedy.

“Western Terror stamps a lot of them,” he said. “She didn’t have a Western Terror head; she’s got a Real Desire head. The only fault I had in my book is she toed in slightly.

“I actually thought she would go for $25,000, at least. I would have gone for at least 15, (but) a lot of times I say that I end up going more.”

When Umholtz is out of town, Champagne Tonight has also been trained by Jim Welsh, who Umholtz credits for much of her progress.

“He takes her out in the morning,” Umholtz said. “He gets along real well with her.”

The two of them have watched as Champagne Tonight has developed a competitive spirit on the track — after she gets her nap of course.

“Whenever you look at her in the stall, she’ll be sleeping, off in her own land,” Umholtz said. “But as soon as you get her out, she’s ready to race.

“She’s gotten a little racier as we’ve gone along. She used to be more lackadaisical during her warm-up. Now she’s paying more attention to what’s going on.”

During the race, her instincts are keen.

“You never have to ask her to go, she always wants to go,” Umholtz said. “Tony Hall said it best, she’s like a 4- or 5-year-old. She just knows what to do. I can’t take the credit for it; she does it on her own.”

After the Pennsylvania Sires Stakes championship, Umholtz will race Champagne Tonight in the Keystone Classic and then may shut her down for the season.

“I really want to quit with her,” he said. “We haven’t totally taken it off the board for another start, but we’d have to supplement her. She’s eligible for a lot of (stakes) next year and I think she’s got the potential to be a really nice 3-year-old.

“She’s been sound, so I’d rather race her one start too less this year, than one too many.”

No matter what she does the rest of the year, she has been money in the bank.