by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — He may not have as much money on his card as competitors Let’s Drink On It ($116,417) or Limelight Beach ($136,942), but Beat The Drum is certainly one to keep an eye on in a $77,750 division of the Bluegrass Stakes at The Red Mile this Saturday evening (Sept. 28).

The colt, a son of Tell All-Pop Diva, is certainly no slouch with just under $90,000 on his tab and a record of 8-3-0-2, yet his name has not been in the media nearly as much as some of the other 2-year-olds in this division.

That could all change this weekend in a very big way and the oddsmakers seem to concur as Beat The Drum was installed at 3-1 on the morning line even though he is hampered by the eight hole. Corey Callahan will be responsible for guiding him down the line in what is carded as the fourth race on the program.

“He trained down super from Day One and that’s why he was staked to pretty much everything,” said conditioner Staffan Lind. “You never know until you hook them to your cart, but he has done everything right. He’s a very easy going horse and takes good care of himself. He acts like a very good horse.”

Lisa photo

Beat The Drum (#2) won his career debut, a New Jersey Sire Stakes race at the Meadowlands, by a head over Doo Wop Hanover.

Owned by Lind and Bender Sweden, who are usually in the winner’s circle with equines of the diagonal gait, Beat The Drum is the second foal from his dam and was purchased for $17,000 at last year’s Lexington Selected Sale. His older full brother, Divulge, knocked down the gavel at a mere $7,000 at the same sale two years earlier and has a lifetime mark of 1:51.3 with $97,937 in purse money.

As mentioned earlier, Lind isn’t known for having his barn stocked full of pacers, but he decided he wanted to give this particular guy a home.

“I have had a few pacers in the past,” he said. “We had Celebrity Citation, who was a 1:49 pacer, but as of late I haven’t had any buyers or pacers so last year I decided to buy one for myself. I was out looking on the last day of the sale with my friend Perry Soderberg. He had already seen this horse at the farm (Brittany Farms) and he really liked him, so I went over and looked at him. He looked really good to me so I thought I would give him a try.”

So far so good as Beat The Drum has held up his end of the bargain. The colt broke his maiden in his career debut on June 29 in a $22,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes race at the Meadowlands. He followed that performance with a third in another $22,500 NJSS contest over the same oval, and was fourth in the $150,000 New Jersey Sire Stakes final on July 13.

The colt then traveled to Mohawk where he captured a $15,520 conditioned race on Aug. 9 while in Casie Coleman’s barn and then was sixth in a $79,357 Nassagaweya Stake over the same surface on Aug. 17. Beat The Drum secured his position in the $648,850 Metro Pace final with a third in his $38,000 elimination on Aug. 24.

The Metro final, won by Boomboom Ballykeel, was like a bumper car ride at the fair. This colt was a very nice fifth after Let’s Drink On It and Some Major Beach got a little too close for comfort with an incredible amount of knocking around. Luckily every one, horses and humans, all came out of the race safely and Beat The Drum came back to the States to post his third career triumph in a $37,308 division of the Reynolds Memorial at Tioga Downs on Sept. 14.

Lind couldn’t have been more pleased with his charge.

“I think his last start was definitely his best,” he said. “But before that it was the Metro final. Corey Callahan said he was ready to blow right by them and then those two horses in front of him hooked wheels so Corey had to pull him straight to the right so he lost all momentum, so I was really glad to see him come back the way he did.

“I was also very pleased with his race in the Nassagaweya, where he hung in there after a very tough trip (leaving from post nine).”

What also is impressive about this colt is the consistency of the last quarters he has been throwing down. His last victory at Tioga was his slowest in :29 seconds, but in four of his other races he has come home between :27 and :27.4.

What has hampered Beat The Drum, besides some of the outside posts he has drawn, is he is not the swiftest of horses off the gate but he did have the one hole at Tioga and was able to put himself in the game quickly enough to not have to come home like a freight train.

“He did draw the outside post again at The Red Mile this weekend,” Lind said. “Hopefully he can race through that as usually everybody gets a chance (to race) there. So far he hasn’t been the fastest one out of the gate, but I think he can be a pretty good horse.”