Caleb’s Posse turned in his first drill after a runner up effort in the Tom Fool Handicap
Winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, Caleb’s Posse, returned to the races on 3 March, 2012, to make his 4-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Tom Fool Handicap over a distance of six furlongs at Aqueduct’s dirt course under jockey Rajiv Maragh, where
he finished a close second another stern sprinter, Calibrachoa who swept the race in 1 minute and 9.07 seconds.
Cheyenne Stables and McNeill Stables owned colt, Caleb’s Posse came out of the race fine and turned in his first drill after the race at Oaklawn Park, and according to trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel, Caleb’s Posse after his runner up in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes
effort to the Bob Baffert trained sprinter, The Factor, the son of Posse this time last year turned in a strong work of half mile in 47 1/5 seconds, and gallopedout rest of the distance.
Out of mare Abbey’s Missy by Slewacide, Caleb’s Posse is eyeing a start in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap on 7 April, 2012, where he will go for another seven furlong sprint over at Aqueduct’s dirt course, and step in distance to participate in the Grade Metropolitan
Handicap (Met Mile) on 28 May, 2012, over a distance of 1 mile at Belmont Park’s dirt course, where he could meet with the likes of Mucho Macho Man, Jackson Bend, Shackleford, and Boys at Tosconova.
“I caught the gallop out in about a minute and change,” said Von Hemel. “He was moving pretty good down the lane. Horses like him just naturally pick it up when they get in the stretch. It becomes a part of the way they do things.”
Donnie Von Hemel another 3-year-old colt owned by Robert H. Zoellner, Z Rockstar, who finished sixth in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes to Secret Circle in his last start, but bounced back to win an allowance race by 2 ¼ length. He could be heading toward the
$100,000 Northern Spur over a mile on 14 April.
“It’s a little bit early, but I think he’s a two-turn horse,” said Von Hemel. “I thought it was a powerful race and I think it shows he’s a Northern Spur kind of horse. That race is two turns and a mile to a mile-sixteenth is about what you need to be able
to do mostly here in the middle part of the country.”
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