JEREMIA RUDAN had just his first experience of racing a horse a year ago, but the Niagara Falls developer and restaurant owner is hoping his second-ever winner, FENWICK, will pull off an upset in the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore on May 21.
Fenwick was a late addition to the Preakness field as he had also been considered for the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes on Preakness day.
The son of Curlin – Make the Sun Shine by Malibu Moon was installed as the longest shot in the field of nine at 50-to-1. The chestnut Kentucky-bred won his maiden at Tampa Bay Downs on March 12 by 5 1/2 lengths with an 88 Beyer Speed Figure, but came back and had a rough trip in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland and finished 11th.
“We think he should have run well in the Blue Grass,” said Rudan, who races under the name Villa Rosa Farm and owns the colt with Harlo Farm. “He broke a step slow. He got cut off on the corner. The jock sat down on him for about 10 seconds. He’s the kind of horse who needs to be free to run. He didn’t get that chance. I’m not saying he would have won, but if he had made that hole on the first turn, it might have been a different race.”
Trained by Kevin McKathan, Fenwick was ridden by Paco Lopez. In the Preakness, he will be ridden by Florent Geroux.
Fenwick, a $52,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling purchase in 2020, was named after Rudan’s mother, who passed away in a house fire when Jeremia was only 19.
“She got me into horses and always had me around horses as a kid. When we were at the sale, this colt’s dam’s name is Make the Sun Shine and my Mom always called me ‘sunshine’.”
Rudan had plans to sell the colt as a 2-year-old in training but he wound up keeping him to race.
One of the first horses raced by Rudan was Say Hey (Fr) whom he owned with Ontario breeders Steve and Kathleen Kemp, who operated Ballycroy Training Centre. Say Hey was followed by Ontario-breds Mr Souperstitious and Bet, the latter was recently second in a maiden allowance on turf at Tampa Bay.
Rudan told the Horse Racing Radio Network in an interview before the Blue Grass that he began his quest to own racehorses when a health issue curtailed a lot of activity. “I was bored and wanted something to do other than work.”
He met McKathan, of the famed McKathan Brothers Training Centre in Ocala, Florida, when one of his horses went there for early training.
“He came down to visit and watch the horse train,” said McKathan to HRRN. “But then he didn’t leave, he went out into the field and stayed all day time just petting his horse. It was refreshing to see how much love he has for horses and he wanted to learn everything.”
Fenwick is likely going to attempt to win the Preakness as he did his maiden race when he set the pace.
“He’s happy; he’s sound,” Rudan said of Fenwick. “The way the Preakness is lining up, there’s no reason not to give it a shot.”
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