Nine racing seasons.
84 starts – 20 wins, 14 seconds and 13 thirds.
$552,452 racing from $7,500 claiming to allowance, just two stakes outings.
Six different trainers and owners at six different racetracks.
22 different riders.
Eleven-year-old LAPOCHKA has more than earned his retirement and at Woodbine on Sunday, November 24, the Ontario-bred warrior will be celebrated as he heads off to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society in Hillsburgh.
Current owners Eight Star Racing Stable of Joe Mazarese, Lorenzo Scala, Mike Dattori and Mike Fronte have owned the lean and leggy son of English Channel – Russian Sweetiepie by Absent Russian for more than half of his career starts. Vito Armata has been his trainer.
Lapochka would no longer be allowed to race at Woodbine after this season as the track implemented a new rule this spring that the maximum age of a horse racing at Woodbine is 10.
Bred by Richard Lister’s Cinnamont Stable, Lapochka was born on January 30, 2013 at Mike Carroll’s Grandview Farm in Belwood. He was entered twice in sales – the 2013 Keeneland November Breeding Sale as a weanling and the 2014 Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale – but both times he was withdrawn.
Lapochka made his debut for Lister and trainer Jim Smith in June 2016 as a three-year-old. He finished a good third in a 1 1/16-mile turf race. He didn’t race again until the following spring, when he won on April 7 at Laurel Park in Maryland in a maiden special weight on turf.
It was more than a year before the gelding won again and that was after Lister had to claim him back for $40,000 after Eight Star and trainer Dale Desruisseaux had taken him for that price in the summer of 2018. Lapochka would win again for Lister before the owner began to disperse his horses. Lapochka changed hands, moving to owner and trainer Sam DiPasquale who dropped him in for $7,500 claiming. Bill Tharrenos scooped him up and would race him through the fall of 2020 when Mazarese and partners claimed him for $20,000.
Through the next four seasons, Lapochka won 11 races for his new owners and trainer, getting into the low 90s in Beyer Figures on a few occasions while racing in starter allowances and in $62,500 optional claiming events.
More recently, the popular gelding has been racing in the $15,000-$23,500 claiming levels and he won twice this year. His 20th win came in late August under apprentice rider Pietro Moran.
Lapochka made his final start on Nov. 17 for $10,000 claiming and he closed ground to finish second.
Lapochka comes by his sturdiness through his pedigree. His dam Russian Sweetiepie ran 69 times and won or placed in 36 races, earning over $355,000. Russian Sweetiepie’s siblings Plenty of Pie and Easy as Pie each raced over 80 times and were multiple winners.
Congratulations to Eight Star Racing, Vito Armata and Lapochka!
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