Owner looks to get ‘monkey off his back’ in Rooney

by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Disappointments are common in the racing game. A sense of humor can help. Maybe it even can lead to an owner getting the last laugh.

Richard Young hopes so.

For nearly a decade, Young named horses with an eye toward the impossible — Elephants Can Fly, Donkeys Can Talk, Chicken Grow Teeth, Chipmunks Can Sing, and so on — with the hopes of ending a stretch of bad luck. “I figured if an elephant can fly, maybe it will win me a race,” Young explained. It worked, but only briefly. Elephants Can Fly, for example, won a division of the 2001 Champlain Stakes and three weeks later started a 33-race losing streak.

A little more than a year ago, Young decided on a more direct approach, naming a horse Monkey Off My Back. On Saturday night, the 3-year-old colt will compete in the $421,950 Art Rooney Pace at Yonkers Raceway. There might be no better time for him to deliver on his owner’s wish.

“He’s already won me more money than I’ve won in the last four years, which is kind of amazing when you consider he’s only won $35,000,” Young said with a laugh. “In a way, I do find it amusing. In 2007, I won zero races and in 2008, I won one. It’s hard to believe when you buy the kind of stock I buy.”

Paul White photo

Richard Young has chosen many outlandish names for his horses, such as Elephants Can Fly, a winner of nearly a quarter of a million dollars in his career.

Monkey Off My Back, trained by Chris Ryder, got off to a tough start. After suffering a minor injury as a 2-year-old, Young decided to give him the season off. This year, the colt has won two of eight races and finished on-the-board four other times.

“He showed quite a bit of talent at 2, but when you don’t race at 2, your learning experience is your first four or five races at 3,” Young said. “He’s done reasonably well. He’s a little sparkplug.”

Monkey Off My Back will face a tough field in the Art Rooney Pace. Hypnotic Blue Chip, coming off a seven length track-record 1:50.3 win in the Empire Breeders Classic on May 24 at Tioga Downs, headlines the seven-horse group. Hypnotic Blue Chip has won seven of 11 races this year, including the Junior Trendsetter at the Meadowlands, and earned $210,740.

Last year’s Matron Stakes winner If I Can Dream and 2008 International Stallion Stakes division winner Fireintheshark also are among the entries. Matron runner-up Barber Pole, coming off a fourth-place finish in the Hoosier Cup, is joined by Mobile and Venice Menace is rounding out the field. The race will be drawn after the entry box closes at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“The draw means a lot, and on a half-mile track it means that much more,” Young said. “That’s important for a horse that’s just competitive and not special.”

Young purchased Monkey Off My Back (original name Cocolopez Bluechip) for $100,000 at the Standardbred Horse Sale. The colt is by Bettor’s Delight and was the first foal out of the mare Weeping Wanabe. Young owned Weeping Wanabe, who was unraced until 3 because of injury and illness, but still won $346,248 lifetime. As a 4-year-old, she was second to Eternal Camnation in the 2003 Milton Stakes. That star-studded field also included Bunny Lake, Worldly Beauty, Always Cam, Carolina Sunshine, Molly Can Do It, and Cam Swifty.

“Her fourth name was Weeping Wanabe; she was a wannabe and I was weeping,” Young said, referring to the injuries and illness that delayed the horse’s debut. “When I bought her (for $155,000 as a yearling originally named Eureka Hanover) I thought she was the best looking animal I’d ever seen,” Young said. “She tried hard and gave it her all. From an ability standpoint, it was there.

“When she had her first foal, I had to buy it. I had no choice. I couldn’t let that one beat me.”

Just to be safe, Young bought Weeping Wanabe’s next foal, too. He renamed that colt, by Rocknroll Hanover, No Monkeys Allowed.

“Once they’re off my back,” Young said, “they’re not allowed to come back.”

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