from the New York Sire Stakes

Albany, NY — Ontario horseman Bob Young knows that you have to plan ahead if you’re going to stay ahead in the horse business.

Mike Lizzi photo

Artimittateslife was a 1:53.2 winner in the New York Sire Stakes Final on September 13.

He’s proud that he and his partners bred Artimittateslife, recent winner of the $175,000 New York Sires Stakes final on the Night of Champions at Yonkers Raceway. The filly is only the second foal from the 9-year-old broodmare Oven Mitt, which Young trained during her stellar career. He owns the mare in partnership with Paul Gazzola and Brian Barton.

Yet Oven Mitt goes under the hammer at the Harrisburg sale in November and she’ll be carrying a brother or sister to Artimittateslife.

“It’s just a matter that we now have a very good daughter out of Oven Mitt and we think it will be great to have an Art Major mare to breed in the future,” says Young.

Young certainly isn’t abandoning the New York Sires Stakes program.

“We have a very good program here in Ontario,” he says, “but I like the New York program very much. The races are spread out so that you don’t have to race a horse every seven days. I’m sure that’s helped Artimittateslife both as a 2-year-old and again this year as a 3-year-old.

“Racing a horse in a stakes every week is tough and the New York schedule allows you to give your horse some rest,” he says.

Young recalls seeing Oven Mitt when she was a yearling at the Harrisburg sale in 2000.

“I’d stopped at the Winbak Farm consignment because I wanted to see an Abercrombie yearling named Over Charge, who was a sister to a filly I’d raced named Don’t Do Windows,” says Young.

While he was inspecting Over Charge, a friend told him that he ought to take time to look at a nearby filly by Albert Albert.

“Most of the Albert Alberts I’ve seen are so small that they can’t see over the stall door,” quipped Young.

His friend said that this filly was an exception to the rule. Young took a look at this filly named Oven Mitt and found out that she had more size and bone than the average Albert Albert filly.

“She was out of a No Nukes mares, so that’s where she got her size,” he says. He liked what he saw in the pedigree and had the final bid on Oven Mitt at $23,000.

“She was a very smart filly and good-gaited from day one,” he says. “From the time I broke her until the time she qualified, I think she was sick once for a couple weeks. That’s the only problem she had.”

As a 2-year-old in 2001, Oven Mitt earned $138,853. Young turned her out at the end of the year and brought her back to the racing wars in 2002.

“She was in against a real good group of fillies that year,” says Young. “She raced against Precious Delight, Armbro Wallflower, Lady Graceful and others. She took a 1:52.1 mark early in the season and later defeated Precious Delight in winning the Simcoe.

“Doug Brown drove her all the time for me. He would just say ‘What a nice mare’ every time he drove her. You could do anything with her.

“If she had a fault, it’s that she didn’t have great speed out of the gate,” continues Young. “But she could grind it on the outside for a long way in a race. In fact, sometimes when she was second-over in a race, I’d be upset because I think she liked it better when she was first-over.”

Oven Mitt earned $127,582 as a 3-year-old and in the spring of 2003, she was bred to Camluck via embryo transfer. Through the process an egg was flushed from her, fertilized with Camluck semen, and the embryo implanted in a recipient mare. That allowed Oven Mitt to continue racing but she only earned $38,081 in 27 starts as a 4-year-old.

“She was telling us it was time to stop,” says Young.

In 2004, Oven Mitt was sent to New York and bred to Art Major. She got in foal promptly.

Meanwhile, the recipient mare produced Oven Mitt’s first foal, a colt by Camluck given the clever name Hot Glove. Young put him into training in the fall of 2005.

“He trained good right from the beginning,” he says. “He won a qualifier at Mohawk in 1:57.4. I drove him myself and I was just sitting there.”

He then went to Georgian Downs for a sires stakes and made a break and spoiled his chances. A couple days later the colt was running a slight temperature and wasn’t eating. He was treated, but got worse instead of better. In a short time, he began to founder and soon he was dead.

“The vets never found out what caused his death,” laments Young. “They just weren’t certain.”

So Young was hoping that his luck would be better when he started to train Artimittateslife, the Art Major filly from Oven Mitt. He had developed a friendship with Ed Hart, the well-respected trainer who lives and trains in New York. Young recalls seeing Hart at the 2006 Harrisburg sale.

“Eddie, I’ve got an Art Major filly in the field that I like a lot,” Young said. “I’m going to break her and if she’s good enough I’ll send her to you to race in New York.”

Artimittateslife proved more than good enough.

“She did everything right from the beginning,” he says of Artimittateslife. “She’s a very long filly. I raced her twice at Mohawk myself and then sent her to Eddie in July.”

Before he did so, he made certain that Artimittateslife learned how to leave the gate at top speed, unlike her mother.

“That’s so important on the half-mile tracks in New York,” says Young. “I put her nose on the gate when I drove her and made sure she learned to leave fast.”

Those lessons paid off. In seven New York Sires Stakes starts as a 2-year-old, Artimittateslife was never worse than third and she took a 1:55f mark winning at Tioga Downs. She was second to Kissing Bandit in the NYSS final last year.

Then she was sent to Peninsula Farm in Kentucky for some rest and relaxation before her sophomore season.

“I sat down and mapped out a program for her as a 3-year-old,” says Young. “I could see that she had grown some, filled out, and got even longer. I wanted to manage her races so that she would last all season.”

After winning her initial start at Georgian Downs, the daughter of Art Major was reunited with trainer Hart in New York. She finished fourth, beaten only 1-3/4 lengths, in the Empire Breeders Classic at Tioga, then made a quick trip back to Ontario for the Fan Hanover. She won her elimination there and was second in the final.

She returned to New York and ripped off five wins in six starts in NYSS events. In the Night Of Champions, she was sent off at 2-1 odds and rewarded her backers, leading all the way and winning easily in 1:53.2.

She’s certainly not done for the year as Young’s schedule calls for her to travel to many big events this fall. He also plans to race her as a 4-year-old and then she will replace her mother in the broodmare ranks.

“Oven Mitt is only nine years old and she’s worth a lot of money in foal to Art Major,” says Young. “We’ve got her daughter as a replacement.”

Although Young has planned Artimittateslife’s calendar with precision this year, he knows that you can only plan certain things in the horse business. When he bred Oven Mitt to Art Major in 2004, he certainly wasn’t looking for a future broodmare.

“I wanted to breed to a first-crop stallion,” says Young. “I liked Art Major and I was hoping to get a colt so that we could play in the big leagues.”

Half of Bob Young’s wish came true. He didn’t get a colt, but the Art Major filly Artimittateslife, already a winner of $559,767, has indeed allowed him to play in the big leagues.