First off: East Coast Girl, while from the East, is a boy.
Never mind the name, Penn National-based trainer Carl O'Callaghan said Island View Farm's 4-year-old horse in Saturday's $100,000 Claiming Crown Ready's Rocket Express is all man.
"He's just a powerhouse," O'Callaghan said at Churchill Downs, host to the Claiming Crown for the second time in two years. "He's built like a tank. He wants to give you his all. When he won in the mud at Finger Lakes, I didn't think he'd like the track. Joel Cruz came back and said, 'Look, the reason he won today was because he wanted to win. It wasn't that he loved the slop. It was him.' When you have that fire in a horse's eyes, you can't take it away from them."
The Claiming Crown was launched in 1999 by the National Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association (NHBPA) and the Lexington-based Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association (TOBA) to celebrate the blue-collar horses that largely race outside the spotlight but are vital to filling out race cards across the country. The series has eight races for various divisions, all under starter-allowance conditions, meaning horses must have competed for a certain claiming level or cheaper within a given range of time.
East Coast Girl, who technically is a ridgling (one undescended testicle), was a useful if lightly raced New York-bred, finishing third in a New York Stallion Stakes last year. The son of the late stallion Laoban was claimed for $30,000 at Monmouth Park then was off nine months before showing up May 14 at Finger Lakes in upstate New York in a $5,000 claiming race. Island View Farm put in a claim for the horse—who won by 12 lengths at odds of 1-20—and ultimately sent him to O'Callaghan, who had horses at Finger Lakes for the first time.
That race made East Coast Girl eligible for the Ready's Rocket Express, which is for horses that have run for an $8,000 claiming price or cheaper any time in their career.
Bonney Powers, a real-estate broker who races in the name of her Island View Farm home in Canandaigua, N.Y., said East Coast Girl came on their radar because she and her daughter Lexie were big fans of Laoban when he started out at stud at Becky Thomas' Sequel New York operation.
"We just fell in love with him," Powers said by phone. "He was just an outstanding horse. We're kind of like Laoban people. My daughter noticed that Laoban was coming through as a claim up at Finger Lakes racetrack. We started doing our homework—you have to do it quick, you can't dilly-dally—and he was pretty impressive. He was stakes-placed and he was quite fast. From his record, (it looked like) he had been hurt and had some time off. He was in a $5,000 claimer. I thought it didn't seem like he should be there. We claimed him because it just seemed he had more upside than down. And he's great!"
About that name. Powers laughed when asked. "Why would anybody name him a girl?" she said. "But then I thought that's really quite smart by whoever named him, because it makes him unique."
Indeed, East Coast Girl's name conjures up the 1969 Johnny Cash hit song Boy Named Sue.
"He's a boy named Girl," Powers said. "I think it's funny, it's cute. Maybe he's always proving himself."
In four races for Powers and O'Callaghan, East Coast Girl has two wins and two thirds at Finger Lakes, the last being a decent third in a New York-bred allowance on Sept. 24.
Of her first Claiming Crown, Powers said, "Oh my gosh, it's such an honor. I can't even express it. When Carl first told me, I said, 'oh my gawd, Carl, I'm going to jump out of my skin.' I was so excited.... I think (the event) is wonderful. These horses really are the bread and butter, the backbone of the racing world."
And being at Churchill Downs, she said, "It really gives the little guy a chance at the big guys' home base. ... Carl has a lot of faith in the horse. He says it's all the horse. And he is a special guy. He's precocious and he's a funny horse. He's got personality plus. He loves to be loved, loves to love on people."
O'Callaghan, who earlier in his career worked for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, made his Claiming Crown debut two years ago at Churchill. His horse didn't run well in the slop, but O'Callaghan and his owners from his hometown in Ireland had a blast.
"East Coast's record, since he came back this season, has been impeccable," O'Callaghan said. "He's always there; he's consistent. It's the luck of the draw, right? He's got a lot of speed (but) we've been working him behind horses for this race just in case he doesn't get the lead.
"It's kind of neat that the blue-collar horses get a shot to shine on their day. This weekend we get to showcase them. They all got heart and they all try, and he's certainly one of them."
The Louisville-based Martin Garcia, coming off a victory aboard Citizen Bull in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar, has the mount. Garcia won a pair of stakes in 2009-2010 aboard the O'Callaghan-trained Kinsale King when both the jockey and trainer were based in Southern California.
"Martin and I have a lot of history with Kinsale King, and obviously he won the Breeders' Cup for Bob (Baffert), so he's on a high," O'Callaghan said.
Stall hopes Hoodlum is mugging for cameras after Iron Horse
Veteran trainer Al Stall Jr. will have his first horse in the Claiming Crown when the 5-year-old gelding Hoodlum starts in Saturday's $100,000 Kent Stirling Iron Horse Memorial at Churchill Downs. But Stall got a taste of the event designed to celebrate racing's workhorses last year.
The 2023 Claiming Crown was at the Fair Grounds in Stall's hometown and winter base of New Orleans. Torrential rains threatened to force the races' cancellation (and the first two non-Claiming Crown races were called off). Other than that, it was a blast.
"It was fun," Stall said. "Our barn was a livery stable. We hadn't quite filled up just yet, because we still had horses at Churchill. Some of my friends came down, used stalls and ran—and some of them won. It was exciting. I wished I had something to run. So I'm happy to have something this year."
Hoodlum was cut out to be a nice horse, with the son of Pioneerof the Nile (sire of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah) fetching $290,000 as a yearling. After two terrible starts sprinting on turf, his original connections dropped him into a $20,000 maiden-claiming race, out of which he was claimed by current owners John and Allen McCulloch. With one victory in his next 10 starts while racing every two to three weeks, the brothers basically started over. Hoodlum was kicked out on a ranch in Arizona for almost nine months and then turned over to Stall.
"He's a horse we're happy to have," Stall said. "He was skinny and kind of beat up. They sent him out to their ranch in Arizona, and he literally rode under western saddle for six months, got everything out of his system, put on weight, looked really good. He rounded into form, and we've got a serious vein of form for us. We've been in the right place at the right time."
Hoodlum's first start for Stall looked like more of the same, with the gelding finishing last of five—beaten 16 lengths—in a $30,000 claiming race a year ago. Dropped down to a $5,000 claiming race for horses that had not won three races, Hoodlum was a good second and then easily won a starter-allowance race for horses that had raced for $5,000 or cheaper. That's the race that made him eligible for the 1 1/16-mile Iron Horse, for horses that had started for a claiming price of $8,000 or less.
That Jan. 5 race started a streak where Hoodlum has won five races, with three seconds and a third in nine 2024 starts.
"You could see why he was an expensive yearling," Stall said. "He's got a wonderful attitude right now. He's fresh and happy and we're really excited about Saturday."
The trainer surmised that Hoodlum might have been well-named as a youngster.
"He probably was a problematic child, would be my guess," Stall said. "Those Pioneerof the Niles can be a little salty when they're young and when they're whole (not gelded) horses. He just wasn't the right horse at that time. I guess that's what happened with him. They just kind of moved him down the ladder. But the McCulloch brothers gave him nothing but time and TLC, and they're being rewarded for it.
"He was probably a little hoodlum when he was young. But we love him. He's a great horse now. He's won five races this year, got a great record. Just got beat a dirty one at Keeneland with an awkward trip, and he's in great form. He won at Churchill, beat On a Spree when he was 2-5 and that looks like the horse to beat in this race also."
John McCulloch owns the Teec Nos Pos Trading Post, an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned trading post established in 1905 on the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners area of Arizona. The late mystery writer Tony Hillerman incorporated the Teec Nos Pos Trading Post into some of his novels featuring the fictional Navajo police officers Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn.
Stall said the brothers previously had a horse in the Claiming Crown.
"They said they had a great time; it was fun to come to," he said. "They kept me in tune to it, so here we are."
Stall applauds the Claiming Crown concept, saying, "Everyone wants their own Super Bowl."
Jacobson hoping Laughing Boy has last laugh in Jewel
Trainer David Jacobson, a presence in this Kentucky this fall after years in New York, entered four horses in Saturday's Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs, including Laughing Boy in the $200,000 Jewel.
The 6-year-old son of Distorted Humor comes into the 1 1/8-mile Jewel off a seven-month layoff since fading to eighth in Keeneland's 1 3/16-mile Ben Ali (G3) after setting the early pace. But his race before that, he paid $111 to win via a disqualification in Aqueduct's $150,000 Excelsior Stakes. Laughing Boy led much of the way into the stretch, finishing second but with the stewards ruling he'd been impeded by first-place finisher Messier.
"That's probably one of his best races, I'm hoping to reproduce that race Saturday," Jacobson said. "He's doing great. He loves Kentucky —he was bred and born here—and we're looking forward to a big race."
Jacobson said nothing physically happened to Laughing Boy during the Ben Ali that sent him to the sidelines.
"We just felt it was time to give him a well-needed rest," he said. "And he ran back a little quick. Now he's well-rested, he's training great, breezing regularly and he's ready to run a big race. I wish it was a little shorter; I hope he's ready to go a mile and an eighth."
The trainer also entered 15-time winner Mid Day Image in the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial (starter $25,000 at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf) and Got Thunder in the $125,000 Rapid Transit (starter $16,000 at seven furlongs). Afternoon Heat needs three scratches to run in the $100,000 Ready's Rocket Express (starter $8,000 at six furlongs).
"He's just a hard-hitting, fast grass horse," Jacobson said of Mid Day Image. "I loved the opportunity to run him on the grass. He's going to be really tough."
Jacobson currently has horses in New York as well as Churchill Downs' Trackside training center. He said he plans to have horses at Oaklawn Park this winter but will keep some in Kentucky to run at Turfway Park.
"I'm really enjoying it," he said of being in Kentucky. "Everyone is really nice. It's just a really cool atmosphere, really a lot of fun to be here."
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