It was November 2010 and our stable was fresh off Meese Rocks’ Iroquois win. Riding a wave of momentum and enthusiasm, we sought to bring in some new stock while diversifying our barn. After a bit of legwork, we came across a spunky little 2-year old chestnut filly named Kissdon’t Tell (Badge of Silver—Kirby’s Fuse, by Lite The Fuse), who was running out of Allan Hunter’s barn at Calder Race Track. A winner in her first time out on the track, this late-running lass had the breeding, style, and determination that we were looking for. After brief negotiations, she was on a van headed for New York. She was our first 2-year old. It was quite a thrill to have a horse whose potential was yet to be realized. The sky was the limit.
A January foal, Kissdon’t Tell (KDT, for short) arrived at the barn with a maturity not often seen in 2-year olds. Even more importantly, she was a total professional, both in training and on the track, amongst other horses. Though amazingly kind and gentle in the barn, this filly hit the track with an attitude that said “I’m coming to get you in the stretch, whether you like it or not.” Still, we were reserved. Running a relatively slow 5.5 furlongs in a $16k claimer at Calder is one thing. Coming to New York to run in the “big leagues” was quite another. Many a shipper has found success at regional tracks, only to spit the bit on the New York circuit.
Hoping that talent, grit, and luck were contagious, we stalled her next to Meese Rocks in Eddie’s barn. It worked. On December 8th 2010, we sent her out a relative unknown running for a $25k claiming tag, and brought her home a winner. After moderate early splits and a troubled stretch run, our little filly found her best gear and motored home under Junior Alvarado, running down a $125k Pletcher-trained blueblood to score the win at a largely dismissed 10-to-1. We celebrated like we had just won the Oaks. The sweet rush of promise and hope washed over us like a warm blanket.
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| KDT out-guts Avanta in the Aqueduct stretch |
A little over a month later, we entered KDT into a much tougher race over Aqueduct’s inner dirt course (this race’s winner would go on to place 2nd in a stakes race and 1st in an allowance race). Despite an extremely troubled trip (again), she had enough kick left in the stretch to score the show honors. However, after two tough races in less than 6 weeks, we decided it was time to give our girl some much needed R&R. A 3-year old who had already shown flashes of talent, we decided to take it slow and develop her properly. Too often, 2-year old winners are never heard from again after they are pushed too hard too fast during their formative years. We had a keeper and we wanted to do right by her. Our little girl is now back in training and gearing up for the trip to Saratoga. We hope for (and expect) many late-running thrills from our little filly this summer and beyond.
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| "See you all in Saratoga" --KDT |
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