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Contact: Jim Mulvihill, Communications and Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager, 504.948.1233, james.mulvihill@fgno.com
Contact: Graham Ross, Staff Writer, 504.948.1255, graham.ross@fgno.com
Get in da house getting in da ‘classic’
· Daily Racing Form’s Featured ‘Silks’ Story Dec. 1 Has Strong Local Connection
By Graham Ross, Staff Writer
NEW ORLEANS (Saturday, December 1, 2012) – Get in Da House, the hard-knocking 4-year-old gelding co-owned by Robert Orth and his trainer Wes Hawley, is now set for a start in the $150,000 Louisiana Champions Day Classic Dec. 8 at Fair Grounds when the Crescent City oval hosts Louisiana Champions Day for the 22nd year.
“Definitely,” said Hawley Saturday morning in the racing office when asked if Get in Da House would be going in Fair Grounds’ Louisiana Champions Day headliner, but his positive tone would not have been in evidence if the 49-year-old Oklahoma-born conditioner had been asked that question a couple of weeks ago.
“He got run into by another horse about three weeks ago (Nov. 11) and he was lame for a few days after that,” said Hawley of the training accident. “It was kind of like a little hip pointer injury. But he’s always been a tough horse and he has responded to everything we’ve done and about 10 days after he got hurt I realized we could still think about this race.
“In fact, I worked him this morning (five-eighths in 1:01.60) and he went real good,” Hawley said. “He threw a little scare into me for a couple of strides when he jumped a shadow at about the 4 1/2-furlong marker but then he got going again and finished up good. In fact, (jockey) Miguel Mena said it was the best the horse has ever worked for him.”
At his best Get in Da House can give a lot of very good horses all they can handle. This year he was third to Alternation and Prayer for Relief in Remington’s $200,000 Governor’s Cup, third beaten 1 3/4-lengths behind the victorious Star Guitar in Evangeline’s $100,000 Louisiana Legends Classic, runner-up to 2012 Grade II New Orleans Handicap hero Nates Mineshaft the Grade III Lone Star Park Handicap and third beaten a neck for all the money behind Star Guitar and Populist Politics in Fair Grounds’ $90,000 Costa Rising Stakes on Louisiana Derby Day.
“Not long ago I thought I would have a couple of other horses in the other races on Louisiana Champions Day,” concluded Hawley, a highly regarded horseman who began his training career in 1994 and tied for fifth in Fair Grounds’ final standings last year.
“However, one of them hasn’t come along quite the way I would have wanted and then I decided to give some time off to the other one and give him a little TLC,” Hawley said.
“But Get in Da House is training really well right now,” concluded Hawley, who claimed the horse for $10,000 in his first start at Fair Grounds last March 14. “He’s turned out to be one of the best claims I’ve ever made.”
DAILY RACING FORM’S FEATURED ‘SILKS’ STORY DEC. 1 HAS STRONG LOCAL CONNECTION – Fair Grounds placing judge Natalie Brocklebank first made news in New Orleans more than four years ago when she was a practicing attorney who took a break from her legal career to become a racing official at the Crescent City oval.
However, in today’s DRF Weekend, the Saturday pullout supplement in Daily Racing Form, it is Natalie’s mother Antoinette Brocklebank and her aunt Anna Marie Miceli who get feature billing.
Those two sisters, married respectively to former jockey and current bloodstock agent Joseph Brocklebank and former jockey and current trainer Mike Miceli, have operated what they call a “Silks Factory” just a few miles from
In Eclipse Award-winning turf writer
Antoinette is mentioned further in a sidebar about Parting Glass Racing’s silks, which it took more than two days to make due to their very intricate design. The Parting Glass partnership currently has horses in
Meanwhile, daughter Natalie, now licensed to practice law in
“But I remember when my mother got the emergency call to make those silks for Hammer,” Natalie said. “Among other things, they actually sent a limousine to come get her so she could do the last-minute rush job in time for the race. “
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James J. Mulvihill
Communications & Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
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