When Gosger streaked home a two-length winner in the Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland April 12, he punched his ticket to the $2 million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course May 17. While the victory may have been his introduction to the racing public, his success came as no surprise to his connections.
"Ever since he came in, we always thought he was going to be a pretty good horse," said trainer Brendan Walsh. "I think this horse, as he goes along, there's definitely a big race in him at some point."
Should that big race occur at Pimlico Saturday, it will be an emotional victory for all involved as the colt carries on the legacy of owner and breeder Harvey Clarke, who died of lung cancer in 2019.
READ: Harvey Clarke, Breeder of I'll Have Another, Dies at 77
After Clarke's death, his wife, Donna, took over the stable. Their son, Scott, decided to increase his involvement and he became a managing partner to help keep his father's legacy in Thoroughbred racing alive.
"I've always been really interested in it, but that was more where I would follow my dad around," Clarke said. "I knew a little bit, but didn't really know the ins and outs of the industry. When my dad passed away, I kind of became the one to head the whole thing up."
Alongside Harvey Clarke's longtime bloodstock agent and racing manager, Steve Shahinian, the family reduced their herd to just a few broodmares and their offspring.
"Keep the quality and if you're not sure, sell it," Shahinian said of his recommendation to the Clarke family. "The goal of the family is to have small numbers and good quality."
"We hope that almost everything we breed will have some caliber of success," said Clarke. "When (Gosger) came around, being by Nyquist and out of Gloria S and her whole line, we had high hopes from the very beginning and there was never a thought to sell him."
Gosger stems from one of Clarke's most successful families. His dam, Gloria S, is a Tapit filly out of Arch's Gal Edith, whom Harvey Clarke bought for $80,000 at the 2004 Ocala Breeders' Sales Selected Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. Gosger's versatile American Pharoah half sister, Harvey's Lil Goil, won the 2020 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland and was third in that year's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) and Alabama Stakes (G1).
Arch's Gal Edith brought Clarke his biggest success as a breeder when her Flower Alley son, I'll Have Another, won the 2012 Santa Anita Derby (G1), Kentucky Derby (G1), and Preakness Stakes (G1) on his way to being named champion 3-year-old male. She also produced two-time grade 3 winner Golden Award (Medaglia d'Oro ).
Unlike Gosger, Clarke and Shahinian had some reservations on I'll Have Another when he was a yearling and put him on their list to sell.
"I saw him as a yearling as being very weak, 'Will he ever develop?' kind of horse," Shahinian said. "I recommended his sale and the buying public shared that opinion."
I'll Have Another sold for just $11,000 at the 2010 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and was pinhooked into the 2011 OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. When Shahinian saw him again, he saw a completely different and more developed horse.
"I called Harvey and said we may have made a mistake," Shahinian recalled.
However, Shahinian expressed concern over one of the colt's tendons, a glimpse over a year into the future as I'll Have Another was scratched from his Triple Crown attempt in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and retired after developing a tendon injury.
"Harvey asked me what he was going to bring. I said, 'This horse can really run, $50-$100 (thousand dollars) is what he deserves to bring. I'm not sure he'll bring it with what I'm looking at.' Harvey said don't look back."
They decided to pass on attempting to buy back I'll Have Another, who went to Reddam Racing and trainer Doug O'Neill for $35,000.
"You never know. You put a horse in 10 different hands, you get 10 different results," Shahinian said. "Doug O'Neill did a great job getting him as far as he got him."
Despite missing the opportunity to own I'll Have Another for his successful racing career, Scott Clarke said it was still a great experience for the family.
"You can't really have any regrets about anything you do," he said. "If we held on to him, anything could've happened. It's fun to be the breeder of a dual classic winner. When you own the mare, and you have so many members of the family, it helps solidify that whole side of it."
Now, the Clarke family has an opportunity to enter a classic as owner and breeder with Gosger.
"It's absolutely a testament to everything that (Harvey Clarke) did," Clarke said. "He laid the groundwork and set a really strong foundation where we have this family of mares that can go to nice stallions and we know we're going to be able to get the two-turn distance and nice-moving horses."
Oddly enough, the Clarke family is again linked to Reddam and O'Neill with Gosger as his sire Nyquist is the second Kentucky Derby winner for the owner-trainer duo.
"I saw Nyquist at the 2-year-old sale and I thought he was the best 2-year-old I'd ever seen," Shahinian said of 2015's 2-year-old champion. "(The mating with Gloria S) was a MOTO play, master of the obvious."
"He's got a beautiful pedigree," Walsh said. "It's a tribute to (Clarke). Long may it last. Hopefully we can get a Preakness winner for them."
Shahinian believes the colt's stamina will be a key factor that could help him earn the victory Saturday. Although he is 20-1 on the morning line, he is one of only three graded stakes winners in the field of nine—the Lexington marked his stakes debut—and has only started three times.
"We feel good, he's improving," Scott Clarke said. "Brendan Walsh, who's been fantastic, has been very high on him. He's very honest, so I take what he says very seriously. We feel good going into it. In the Lexington he showed that he's maybe something special."
Should Gosger enter the stretch run with a chance, surely all those involved with the colt will be thinking of Clarke as they cheer him home. Walsh said he didn't start training for the family until the end of Clarke's life, but that he was "always a gentleman" in their phone conversations.
"There's not too many (people like Clarke) around anymore and they're great people for the game," Walsh said. "We're going to miss people like that as we move along."
"It was being around the horses, being at the track," Scott Clarke said about his father's enjoyment of the game. "The excitement of it was fun to him. Taking some win pictures was an added bonus. He was the humblest guy, he wouldn't take any credit for anything. He caught the bug back in the '70s. Even if we weren't at the races, he'd be at home watching races on TV. It was his thing. It was a fun, unique thing my family has been able to enjoy."
