by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He loved her gait, conformation and family, but none of those factors ultimately determined why Steven Pratt purchased Barn Doll, New York’s 2014 2-year-old filly trotting champion.

“She was a cycle-bred,” said the Corfu, N.Y., resident. “I don’t have a big stable and never have. As long as I’ve been doing this for, maybe about 20 years, I’ve only had one horse that was a cycle-bred not make it to the races as a 2-year-old.

Cycle breeding involves putting a mare under lights intensely when their eggs are most productive, which is all measured through basal temperature, mucus, etc., then breeding at that exact moment whether it be through embryo transfer or live cover.

“I read about it roughly 40 years ago in an article in Hoof Beats,” said Pratt. “I can’t remember who wrote it, but they said it had a 70 percent success rate. I ran the numbers myself twice and came up with 70 and 71 percent. I don’t want to give my secrets away, but that criteria has been important to me since seeing that article.”

It appears that Pratt has a pretty solid point.

The daughter of Conway Hall and the Yankee Glide mare Headintheclouds sold for $20,000 at the 2013 Standardbred Horse Sale under the name Heading Home.

Tom Berg photo

Barn Doll won seven of her nine starts as a freshman and earned $207,787.

Shortly after Pratt bought her to New York, Wanda Polisseni, who he has helped buy horses for years, inquired about buying into the filly. As the two never owned horses together, Pratt and his wife Nancy agreed. They developed the nickname of ‘Barn’ quite some time ago and asked Wanda what she would like to name the newest member of the shedrow. She selected Barn Doll and mentioned something else to the Pratts.

“We had Barn Babe (Cash Hall-My Baby’s Momma, 3,1:54.2f, $350,463) for the two years before we got Doll,” Pratt said. “She was a nice filly and I’ve done very well with them, especially for not having many horses. Wanda reminded me that there are some horses that just don’t work out. This filly might be one of them and then Doll went out and did what she did. Like I said Barn Babe is nice but Doll is all class. She is in a level above her.”

In her debut season, Barn Doll was 9-7-1-0, trotted her swiftest mile in 1:58.4h and collected $207,787 in purse money.

Steered in all but one of her races by Jeff Gregory, the filly served notice she possessed ability with a first over, second place trip to George Ducharme’s highly regarded Concentration at Vernon Downs in her first trip to the post in a New York Sire Stakes race.

She then captured her next four races, three in NYSS company, before coming home last on August 6 at Saratoga. After that miscue, Barn Doll ended her season with three more triumphs, the last being on Sept. 13 at Yonkers Raceway in the $225,000 New York Sire Stakes final. She was much the best as she came home a full second faster than Nunkeri, her closest competitor.

“I can’t say enough about what she accomplished last season,” Pratt said. “She overcame a lot of adversity and never let it bother her. It started off with her driving a nail up into the inside of her foot while she was in the barn, then she popped a curb and next she came into heat.

“The week before the final I had to scratch her because she had a virus for 10 days. I could have raced her, but she wouldn’t have been at her best and obviously, we wanted to go in the final with her.

“All year long it was about making adjustments with her and she responded. Not a lot of trotting fillies that age would have kept going on like that.”

As to her inexplicable effort at Saratoga, that is actually easily explained.

“That is when she was in heat,” Pratt said. “She just decided she did not want to race that night. She wanted nothing to do with the whole thing. Jeff said she never picked up the bit the entire race.

“Coming into heat doesn’t usually happen with 2-year-old fillies, but I also had it happen with Barn Babe. We put her on Regumate to manage it and it hasn’t been a problem since. If that had not happened she probably would have won eight consecutive races.”

While Barn Doll certainly enjoyed a fantastic season, Pratt’s stats are nothing to sneeze at. From 44 purse starts as a conditioner, he cleared $241,998 with a UTR of .495. In 2013, it was 23 starts, $220,826 and a .565 UTR and in 2012, 16 starts, $146,848 and a .479.

Hence, Wanda’s warning that Pratt may not hit the jackpot with this filly.

“I prefer the fillies to the colts,” he said. “It is always something with them and they can have an attitude but that’s how you want them.

“I have really been very lucky. I won’t pay a lot for horses. I think I paid like ($5,000) for Barn Babe and I don’t buy very many. I race at the most three at a time and that is a lot for me, but truthfully I think I might be getting to the end of the tunnel. It’s cold here jogging in the mornings and I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

As for this year, Barn Doll will remain on the New York circuit and attempt to defend her crown.

“I already have her jogging and she is ready to go out there to race,” he said. “She has not gotten taller but thicker and her attitude is excellent. I will probably wait to qualify her twice at Vernon and then race her there. Unfortunately, the few stakes she was paid into conflict with the times of the sire stakes races so we will just go with those.

“I am looking forward to this year with her and think she will do really well because she is such a good filly, but things happened last year. Also, you never know how they will come back, but she is a very talented, classy filly that should have a nice season.

“Jeff never touched her all last year and she was only shown the whip once. He is looking forward to driving her.”