by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Placid, docile, and mellow are not adjectives his connections would even consider using to describe Sir Caviar.

“You do really have to humor him,” said Leslie Zendt, who conditions and co-owns the 5-year-old gelding with her husband, Bill. “He’s very, very high strung and with any horse like that you can’t pick your fights with him. You have to let him have his way over the little stuff, because then maybe he will give you yours over some of the big stuff. He really is quite a character.”

The Zendts claimed the strapping chestnut son of SJ’s Caviar and Sierra Flower K on November 11, 2009 from a $14,000 conditioned/claiming race at the Meadows. Sir Caviar had already faced the starter on 21 occasions in his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He had earned nearly $60,000 and captured a $20,000 division of the Reynolds Stake in 1:57.4 on his first trip to the post.

Since the Zendts purchased him, the gelding has trotted 30 miles with 18 wins, two seconds and four third place finishes while earning more than $220,000 and establishing a new track standard (1:53.1) at The Meadows for older geldings on June 13.

“When we claimed him he had been making breaks, was sore and kind of fed up with everything,” Leslie Zendt explained. “He had raced against a little trotter that I still love, Garcon, in the Sire Stakes so we knew how much talent he had and he has wicked speed. When he showed up in that race, we decided to try and get him to make a project horse out of him.

“We turned him out right after we got him and never put a harness on him for an entire winter,” she continued. “I wanted him to forget everything he had known before and come back with a fresh start.”

The Zendts had anticipated this would be the year Sir Caviar would show people outside the confines of The Meadows what he was capable of, but it hasn’t turned out exactly as they expected.

“We were kind of hoping he could take it to the next level this year, but his personality is such that he hasn’t matured enough to be able to get his act together on the road,” Zendt, a Houston, Pa., resident said with a laugh. “He’s a very, very high strung horse and doesn’t take to traveling. He won’t drink water, he won’t eat. He’s a homebody and he’s so happy here in his routine that he just doesn’t like to leave.

“You can’t be mad at him, because I know what he’s like,” she continued. “When we were at the Meadowlands (racing in the Titan Cup on July 2) I had to take him to the front paddock myself in front of the grandstand and he was an absolute nightmare. It wasn’t bad enough that he was excited about seeing other horses on the track, he had to watch the race replay on the Jumbotron and got all wound up. He just couldn’t handle it.”

Although Sir Caviar most definitely is temperamental, he’s not malicious and really does enjoy his work.

“He’s not mean and you don’t have to worry about him hurting himself, but he’s just on ‘go’ all the time,” Zendt said. “I don’t ever leave him in the paddock and he never lets me out of his sight. Maybe I created him because I did baby him bringing him along, but I just wanted him to forget everything he knew before. He lives at the farm with me and is not a racetrack horse. If he had to be in a stall 23 and a half hours a day he’d be certifiably crazy, but he really does like to race, but he’s like a little kid and gets so wound up thinking about it, he can’t contain himself. He’s been a great horse for us though and when you have one that you know will give you a 100 percent every time they go to the gate and have a shot to do well, that is fun.”

The Zendts have not given up on Sir Caviar taking some trips outside the borders of the Keystone State, and in fact, hope to do so in the near future.

“At The Meadows he can focus, knows his routine and doesn’t get so wound up,” Zendt said. “He has two speeds: farm speed and race speed and nothing in between. He’s a huge, red horse and is out of a Sierra (Kosmos) mare, so he knows it all and we just haven’t figured out how to take his show on the road, but we are going to try again as I hope he will mature out of this. He’s already better in the paddock this year.

“We are going to play it week by week with him and he’s got some stakes left,” she continued. “Next week he has a race at Indiana Downs and then maybe if we can find a farm we can take him to in Kentucky, we might try him at The Red Mile. I think he would like it there as the atmosphere is very laid back. Even if he can’t get it together on the road, I’m perfectly happy with him just the way he is.”