OLD CHESTNUT has been a trusty gelding for owner Bruno Schickedanz since he claimed the son of Speightstown from Live Oak Plantation three years ago. A stakes winner as a two-year-old for Live Oak and trainer Mark Casse, Old Chestnut made 22 starts for his breeder before he was picked up for $32,000 in October, 2022.
The handsome chestnut won right off the claim for the same price and picked up a couple of graded stakes placings, but it wasn’t until last December when he won again and after mixed results in Florida, he had a modest Woodbine return when in for $50,000 claiming in April.
Trainer Martin Drexler didn’t have the Jacques Cartier Stakes (G3) on Old Chestnut’s schedule, but when Horse of the Year Patches O’Houlihan scared everyone off, Woodbine race office staff took aim on Old Chestnut, pleading for his entry. Schickedanz and Drexler agreed, put up $3,000 to supplement the eight-year-old, and then came to Woodbine on May 31 to find out Patches O’Houlihan had been scratched.
A four-horse field became three.
The Jacques Cartier, race 1 on an 11-race, stacked card at Woodbine on Saturday, was then a one-horse race as Old Chestnut led from start to finish under Eswan Flores and won by 2 3/4 lengths over favoured Simcoe and Saffie Joseph Invader Okiro. His time for six furlongs on a very windy, cold day was a sharp 1:08.17.
This was the 7th win for the Florida-bred out of the Silver Deputy mare Pool Land. He has earned over $520,000.
Flores would win a maiden race a few events later and the pair would combine to win a $32,000 claiming race with stakes-winning old-timer Frosted Over in race 6.
The ‘piece de resistance’ for Schickedanz, Drexler and Flores came in the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes when CLASSIC MO TOWN, a $25,000 claimer last year, flew past millionaire Get Smokin from the Mark Casse barn to win the $210,000 race by three quarters of a length. Behind him, Casse trainee Webslinger was also flying, but had been too far back early to make up the ground.
Sent off at 9-to-1, Classic Mo Town ran 1 1/16 miles in a fast 1:42.97.
It was the fourth win by Classic Mo Town since he moved to the Drexler barn and he had been fourth in his previous two races at Gulfstream. This was the five-year-old’s sixth win in 22 races and he has $294,399 in earnings. A son of Mo Town from Porta Clasica (Arg), Classic Mo Town is a half-brother to stakes-placed Town Classic and two other winners.
The Drexler barn has won eight races in the last 13 race days.
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