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Contact: Jim Mulvihill, Communications and Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager, 504.948.1233, james.mulvihill@fgno.com
TRIUMPHANT STALL BACK AT FAIR GROUNDS
Blame’s Trainer Readying for Fair Grounds Season Following Historic Upset of Zenyatta
Horse of the Year Campaign Was Plotted in Fair Grounds Barn Last Winter
NEW ORLEANS (Tuesday, November 9, 2010) – Trainer Al Stall Jr. was back at his Fair Grounds barn Monday morning, two days after his star horse Blame upset the previously unbeaten mare Zenyatta in North America’s richest race, the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. In a stretch run that’s being described as one of the most thrilling ever, Adele B. Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Blame won by a nose after holding off a late charge by Zenyatta, who had closed from as much as 15 lengths behind. The Classic was the final race for both horses.
For Stall, a
“Everything has been great since around mid-April really, to be quite honest with you,” Stall said. “That’s when it was almost like a switch was flipped. You make a long-term plan for a horse and it usually doesn’t work out, for a number of reasons – either the horse’s soundness or the fact that you think your horses are better than they really are.”
Blame’s 2010 campaign was mapped out by Stall and Claiborne Farm President Seth Hancock last December, a few weeks before Blame arrived at Fair Grounds to prepare for his 4-year-old season.
“Seth sat right here at this desk about December 1 and said, ‘Lead-up race, the Foster, the Whitney, the Jockey Club, the Breeders’ Cup, Horse of the Year, Claiborne Farm,’” Stall remembered. “That’s what he said and that’s what we’re now very close to doing.”
The debate over who should be Horse of the Year will rage on until the Eclipse Awards are announced Jan. 17 in
The lone blemish on Blame’s 2010 record was a runner-up finish in the Oct. 10 Jockey Club Gold Cup, when front-running Haynesfield was allowed to dictate an unusually slow pace and cruised unchallenged to a four-length win.
“We were prepping for the Breeders’ Cup but we were there to win, without question,” Stall said. “He hadn’t run in eight weeks and might have softened up on us a hair. And then the type of race and the way the track was configured for a mile-and-a-quarter (starting midway on the Clubhouse turn at
The low-key Stall said there was no raucous celebration the night after Blame secured the $2.7 million winner’s share of the purse. Instead, the trainer and his family did the same thing a lot of racing fans did Saturday night – they went home and watched the Classic replay a few more times on TiVo.
Stall will remain at Fair Grounds for the time being, overseeing a full barn of 50 horses preparing for the 139th Thoroughbred Season that opens Thanksgiving Day, with the possible exception of a brief return to Churchill Downs if Super Derby winner Apart runs in the Nov. 26 Grade I Clark Handicap against older horses.
About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, the nation’s third-oldest racetrack, has been in operation since 1872. Located in
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James J. Mulvihill
Communications & Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
A Churchill Downs Incorporated Company
1751 Gentilly Boulevard,
504.948.1233 [office]
504.481.8770 [cell]
504.944.7853 [fax]
2010 Bank of
2010-2011 Thoroughbred Racing Season Opens Nov. 25
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