August 2, 2009. the Saratoga Special. Cup of Coffee. the Inexact
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August 2, 2009. The Saratoga Special. Cup of Coffee. “You never know in horse racing,” he says. “Some people The Inexact Science. By Sean Clancy. seem to have a natural way of deciding the right way to go. You always have decisions, whether to work today or wait until Morning hasn’t really come yet. Brisk. Puddles glisten at next week, how slow or how fast.” the Oklahoma Annex. Tom Voss complains about the traffic Sheppard breezed Forever Together in a quick 57 3/5 sec- because of a 5K in town, it took half an hour to get to the barn. onds Wednesday. Did she go too far? Did she do too much, too Danielle Hodsdon walks Forever Together around the trees in fast? Who knows? front of Jonathan Sheppard’s barn. A girl and her pony. “I remember With Anticipation going over to the main Sheppard stands under the awning of his shedrow and track to breeze. It was three days before the (2002 Sword follows his champion; hat pulled down nearly over his eyes, Dancer), I was waiting at the three-eighths pole gap and I look a jacket bracing the cold and his mind wrestling instinct and up and there’s Bobby Frankel,” Sheppard says. “He had Denon fact. out there, he was running in the same race. He said, ‘is that Hodsdon puts Forever Together in her stall and Sheppard your big horse?’ I said ‘yes, who do you have out here?’ He takes the shank. said, ‘well, Denon.’ ” “You look nervous already,” a visitor says to the Hall of The questions continued – astute horsemen quizzing each Fame trainer. other. “I am nervous,” Sheppard says “I don’t think we’re going to Sheppard: “How far are you going?” run. We got a lot of rain and there’s a race for her at Arlington Frankel: “A half, how far are you going?” Par k .” Sheppard: “Five-eighths. I guess we’ll find out on Saturday The trainer’s juxtaposition – instinct and fact. who’s right.” A trainer’s life is about decisions and this one has Sheppard Frankel just smiled. atwitter. Sheppard follows that story with a rhetorical question. Sheppard houses one champion in his barn. She never lets “What is right and wrong?” him down, so he doesn’t want to let her down. She won three With Anticipation beat Denon a nose. Grade I stakes last year, good enough to become the train- “Do you think if he worked five-eighths and we worked a er’s first flat champion. He’s in the Hall of Fame because of half it would have made a difference?” Sheppard asks. “No- his prowess in steeplechasing; he’s working on reworking his body knows. It’s a very inexact science.” plaque. Sheppard has developed a heady crop of flat horses re- With that, he walks to his Audi station wagon and heads cently. Informed Decision, Winter View and Just As Well won back to the Annex, to make a few more decisions. stakes this year, Forever Together leads the squad. The Diana is still six hours away. She won the Diana on good turf last year. She won the Jen- ny Wiley on good turf at Keeneland this spring. Sheppard ran her at Woodbine last year on yielding turf. The bog came over August 2, 2009. The Saratoga Special. Calling Her Shot Sheppard’s shoes. She suffered her worst defeat (when racing (Forever Together repeats in Diana). By Brian Nadeau. on the turf) that day; she finished third, beaten 3 lengths. The bad news for everyone else in the Grade I Diana came Sheppard doesn’t want to do it again. Doesn’t want to do with just two simple words shortly after 9 Saturday morning. that to her again. But, here it is in the morning, the Grade I “We’re running,” trainer Jonathan Sheppard told owner Diana looms in 12 hours. The rain has stopped. Is that sun? George Strawbridge via telephone. Hours later, Sheppard walks the turf course with jockey Ju- From there, Forever Together’s nine opponents never had lien Leparoux and decides the grass feels more firm than he a chance. expected. He’s running. Saturday afternoon the 5-year-old mare, who used last By 11, after appearing on the OTB show on the main track year’s Diana as a springboard to a divisional championship, side, Sheppard seems less nervous. Not at ease, he’s never at used another electric stretch run to collar Carribean Sunset ease, but less nervous. He’s made a decision, the hard part over. late and repeat in the $500,000 turf stakes. At least until the second guessing starts if she doesn’t run well. “I met with (jockey) Julien Leparoux this morning at about Now, he sits and waits. Instinct and fact. 8:30 and we went out on the turf course over at the three- “She’s run on good to yielding before and it might be list- eighths pole,” Sheppard said. “I was worried about all the rain ed as good I suspect. I think it drains pretty good and I don’t we’ve had as Forever Together is not at her best over a soft think it will be a factor,” Sheppard says. “If we waited for the course, but we actually didn’t think it was that bad at all. We Beverly D and it rains out there, we’ve got nothing to fall back had the Beverly D. next weekend at Arlington Park as a backup on .” plan, so this morning was the key decision. We didn’t have to Sheppard mulls a rival trainer’s four-point argument for the run if we felt the course didn’t suit her.” Beverly D – bad post at Saratoga, bigger purse at Arlington, With course condition no longer an issue, Forever Together soft ground at Saratoga, weight-for-age in Chicago, a handicap took her customary position near the back of the field. Qui- here. et Meadow and Criticism sparred on the lead through honest Of course Sheppard knows all those. They’re part of the de- fractions and were tracked intently by Carribean Sunset and cision process. Rutherienne. Forever Together watched the proceedings from ninth while coiling for the stretch run. 1 Quiet Meadow cut the final corner with the lead, but was “I never thought it was too much. I would have liked to soon joined by Criticism, Colina Verde and Carribean Sunset. have the workout four days out instead of three but that’s all,” Rutherienne followed that move on the inside while Leparoux Sheppard said. “But I was a bit worried this morning because swung Forever Together wide for a clear run at the leaders. she was overly aggressive. She wasn’t washy but would take a Carribean Sunset surged to the lead at the eighth pole, but For- few steps back and then come charging ahead. Usually she’s a ever Together was in full flight. The daughter of Belong To Me bit more composed than that.” took the lead inside the sixteenth pole and looked poised to Once the race was at hand, Forever Together was all busi- draw off to an easy score when she eased up a bit in late stretch ness. She walked to the paddock with poise, her Breeders’ Cup and was credited with a head victory over Carribean Sunset fly sheet draped over her hulking shoulders. (Ramon Dominguez), with Rutherienne (Alan Garcia) third. Think Mike Tyson, white towel in tow – circa-1987. And “She waited a little bit on Carribean Sunset once she made another knockout. the lead, otherwise it would have been more comfortable,” Leparoux said. “But I also moved her a little earlier than usual July 31, 2010. The Saratoga Special. Once More (Forever because I didn’t want the leaders to get too far away from me.” Together tries to win third straight Diana). By Joe Clancy. After the race Sheppard marveled at Forever Together’s turf Julien Leparoux stopped on his morning tour of the Sara- record, which now reads six wins from nine starts, and earn- toga Race Course stable area to watch Forever Together train ings in excess of $2.3 million. one day this week. “For a horse to maintain that level for such a long period “She was beautiful, did everything they needed, she just of time is quite remarkable,” Sheppard said. “Obviously things trained,” the jockey said. don’t work out perfect every time; sometimes she gets in a bit of That wasn’t always the case. As a young horse, Forever To- trouble or she gets caught out wide but she just keeps doing it.” gether sometimes refused to train or even leave the barn. She It wasn’t always that way. fought with her riders, her groom, her trainer. She flashed abil- As a 3-year-old in 2007, she took the Grade II Forward Gal ity and speed, but she did the wrong thing more often than she over Gulfstream Park’s main track, but she lost her next four did the right. starts that year. She returned in February 2008 and ran a disap- “I feel badly about some of the ways we handled her when pointing fourth in an optional claimer at Gulfstream, putting she was younger,” trainer Jonathan Sheppard said. “We just Sheppard and his filly at a crossroads. thought she was a bit of a clown or a coward and needed to be “It got to the point where she wouldn’t train for us.