Shackleford bows out of his racing career with a thumping victory in the Clark Handicap
Dale Romans decision to run Shackleford at the Louisville oval proved to be well founded, as the son of Forestry and the 2011 Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner bowed out of his racing career with a thumping victory in the 138th running of the Grade 1, $447,000 Clark Handicap presented by Norton Healthcare.
Michael Lauffer, W.D. Cubbedge, and Phillip Racing Partnership’s Shackleford at his homebase gave his fans a treat, as he surged from the gate, and seized the lead on the first turn, and ended a spectacular run be fending off a late challenge and went on to the cover the 1 1/8 mile distance in 1 minute and 49.12 seconds on 23 November, 2012.
The 4-year-old colt snapped his three race losing streak by winning the Clark Handicap, which started when he finished an uncharacteristic eighth in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap, and then improved to finish second to winner Jersey Town in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap.
His losing streak continued in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, where Shackleford never got going, and finished a non-threatening seventh at Santa Anita Park to winner, Tapizar, on 3 November, 2012.
Trainer Dale Romans said that he is exiting his racing career they way he is supposed to. The horseman re-united the winning combination of jockey Jesus Castanon and Shackleford in the Clark Handicap.
Together the duo has gone on to win the 2011 Preakness Stakes, and the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes.
"I know what he likes to do and I put him in a spot where he wanted to be," Castanon said.
Shackleford gave trainer Dale Romans his first Clark Handicap victory, who with the Clark, won his ninth grade 1 race out of 20, and that might give him the consideration for the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Trainer this year.
"It's the end of an era for my stable," Romans said. "He took my career to a new level. He made my resume totally different than it was before he came into the barn. I owe him a lot."
Shackleford, was also the one who gave Romans his first classic with, the second leg of the 2011 Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.
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