by Ellen Harvey, Harness Racing Communications

Freehold, NJ — Trainer/driver Gates Brunet made the most of a $14,000 yearling in the colt Hay Goodlooking, who was the tops of all New York sired colts last year, racing against 2-year-olds.

Co-owners Ted Gewertz and Samuel Dotro and Brunet’s wife Deborah are right back in the hunt for state-bred honors this year as their son of Art Major races from post two in Saturday’s $15,000 race five, for New York-sired 3-year–old colts and geldings at Goshen Historic Track.

Tom Berg photo

Hay Goodlooking held off Diamond Stick Pin by a neck in their NYSS split on June 12 at Yonkers.

Hay Goodlooking is coming off a season in which he won six of nine starts and $186,250. This year he’s added another three wins in five starts and has a total of $239,879 in winnings.

“He set the track record at Yonkers (1:54), broke Presidential Ball’s track record as a 2-year-old, noted Brunet. “He went as fast as Bullville Powerful (a 3-year-old racing in the New York Sire Stakes Final) that night.”

Brunet wasn’t exactly looking for a powerful pacing colt when he found Hay Goodlooking, though. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

“I was looking at a trotting filly out of the Peninsula Farm consignment (at the Lexington Selected Sale) and Pat Waldo had him out and was looking at him. He happened to catch my eye, but I knew nothing about the breeding. He was a very handsome colt, I flipped the page over and saw his name was Hay Goodlooking, so it was easy to remember. I put a big number on the page thinking he’d bring good money, even though he was selling on the last day (of the sale).

“I made a mental note, but I never really looked at him. They just put him in his stall, brought out the filly I was looking at and I didn’t really like her. So that was that. There was another filly I really loved and she was selling really late, so I knew Ted (owner Gewertz) and I would have to wait around because she was my number one pick for the day. We were sitting around waiting for this filly to come and he came in the ring. I said to Ted, ‘You watch, this colt will bring good money.’

“He was really a handsome colt and an Art Major and all. He was hanging (no bids coming) at $8,000, so I jumped in and got him for $14,000. Then we waited for the filly we wanted, her name was Clever, and that was a Malabar Man filly I thought would go $25–30,000 tops. I got outbid; I went to $45,000 and she went for $46,000.

“The ironic thing was that I won the New York Sire Stake final last year with the colt (Hay Goodlooking) and my filly, a Conway Hall filly (named Carman M), got beat a head in her final that night by guess who? Clever, but her name was changed to Shes So Savvy. What are the odds, when you’re breeding 2,500 horses a year in New York state and you pick out three finalists? I bought three New York breds and I had two finalists and I could have had three.”

Hay Goodlooking has already won a New York–sired event on June 12 at Yonkers Raceway this year and made a rare foray outside state-bred competition in eliminations for the C$1.5 million North America Cup on June 20 that didn’t work quite as hoped. Hay Goodlooking finished 10th in the elimination race won by Dial Or No Dial.

“He was in really tough and there was a horse inside of him in the eight hole that could leave a hundred,” said Brunet. “We got to the turn and there wasn’t room for all of us. I ended up three wide and having to duck down and ended up parked. For some reason, and I still don’t know why, he basically pulled himself up around the last turn. We did some tests on him and everything was alright. I think that he wears a shadow roll on the inside, and when he got to the turn and he couldn’t see the horses on the inside of him anymore, he kind of packed it in. I knew we were there for a trial and to see how he’d get along with a higher class horse. He’d only been raced one way — on the front end. It was a front end bias night. There was nobody that night who was first or second who wasn’t first or second leaving out of there. It was one of those nights.

“Now we’ll stay in New York and he’s got plenty of races from here on in. Now it’s every week, it just goes on and on. I’m going to stay down to drive him and will try to stick with him all year.”