It’s not too early to start thinking about horses to watch for the 166th King’s Plate at Woodbine and on December 26, Ontario-bred FATHER TED had a splendid debut race at Santa Anita at six furlongs.
Bred by Toronto’s ROBERT MARZILLI, Father Ted (Practical Joke – Cry Uncle by Uncle Mo) was 8-to-1 and was almost three lengths behind the speed in the Santa Anita dash. The heavily-favoured Madaket Road moved wide to the lead and Father Ted angled out to follow that one, coming within half a length of catching the Bob Baffert trainee. The time was a solid 1:09.98.
Father Ted is owned by Muir Hut Stables LLC and trained by Mark Glatt. The colt was sold by Marzilli for $150,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September yearling sale through Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa. Old Gables was listed as the buyer. The colt was then pinhooked this May at the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training sale and he was bought for $475,000 by Muir Hut.
Cry Uncle was originally a $450,000 yearling purchase by D.J. Stable in 2016. She won a couple of races before she was sold in 2029 at the January Keeneland auction for $27,000 to Alberta-based Riversedge Racing Stables. The filly raced for Riversedge at Century Mile and Woodbine, won twice and then was claimed by Marzilli in the summer of 2020 for $10,000. Trained by Ross Armata Jr., Cry Uncle won for $20,000 claiming and was retired.
Father Ted is her first foal. Cry Uncle is from the mare Bayou Miss who is the dam of four winners including stakes-placed Three Echoes. Third dam Jaramar Rain, a stakes winner, had 14 named foals and eight winners.
Owner and trainer STEVE OWENS and co-owner TARA NEIGEL celebrated a win at Gulfstream Park last week when YORKVILLE posted a 20-to-1 upset in a claiming dash. Despite drifting out under jockey Micah Husbands, Yorkville held on to win by 1 3/4 lengths and also survived a claim of foul by Irad Ortiz Jr., who had to check his mount Zozan in deep stretch.
Owens, who has trained at Woodbine since the late 1980s and has bred and raced stars such as Highland Legacy and London Tower, has won over 300 races as a trainer. Neigel came to Woodbine from British Columbia at the outset of the 2024 season and she won or placed with three of her four runners this year.
Neigel has been training for Darrell Jones, a grocery chain owner in BC. Owens will saddle Jones’ most recent acquisition, Fabelman, in a claiming race at Gulfstream on Friday, Dec. 27.
Watch Father Ted’s debut outing here.
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