The ydrbargain stable of the vast holdings of Yellow Dog Racing holds the hopes of an entire nation on their backs this weekend, when New Found Cyclone takes to the track for the $2,000,000 Bluegrass Derby.
It’s been a rocky couple of months for the Queensland-based Australian conglomerate. In March the state of Queensland was rocked by the devastating effects of Tropical Cyclone Larry, and even though the area that Yellow Dog Racing calls home, Cairns, suffered only minor damage, the area is still coping with the aftermath. When Yellow Dog Racing moved their base of operations up to Cairns from Melbourne, no one could have figured fate’s role in the next couple of years.
“Coming to the Derby after the last several weeks has been a blessing,” says Seumas, New Found Cyclone’s primary care-giving groom for the last several months. “Even as we kept an eye on the news, we’ve all been glad that in times of trouble, our big horse could stand as something inspirational for the folks back home.”
Though Yellow Dog himself has been paying attention to matters both here and there, he states emphatically that he had no idea that the real world would have an impact on his horse’s life, although he acknowledges that when he started breeding for his ydrbargain entity in 2005, the names were definitely planned out with a specific intent. “Last year, I decided to name all new breedings in the stable with ‘Cyclone’, as our home base of Cairns is known as Cyclone City.” And, one Sunday morning, the stars aligned perfectly, to hear him tell it.
“I had a few hundred BP’s—all my breedings are done solely with BP’s—and I found ND (Northern Dancer) and Mr. P (Mr. Prospector) available on a Sunday
morning together, and I just had to use them! I used (Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the GSR residency and lovable lugnut) Barndog’s Freshman Sire list and liked his write up on Newfoundland.”
Newfoundland was a first-crop sire last year, and on the track, he exhibited stamina and versatility, as he won the Coronado’s Quest Stakes at Belmont at 3 on dirt, and at 4 he won both the Canadian Turf Handicap on grass and the Skip Away Handicap on dirt, while being four times graded-placed on dirt against such top horses as Funny Cide, Peace Rules and The Cliff’s Edge. He’s a half to stakes winner Full Mandate, and his dam’s dam was Dream Deal, not only a Grade I winner but a half-sister to 1985 Belmont Stakes winner Crème Fraiche. The sire has stakes-winning history and stamina all throughout his female family. This made him a rock-solid match for the lines of Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector.
He also made it an easy name to come up with for the new foal: New Found Cyclone. And the new horse was sent out for a debut on August 20, 2005, in Florida. Seumas remembers the day well. “Stifling hot, very humid, nasty. I know my boss was sweating up a storm, because I think everyone else was. But The Cyclone remained calm and cool. He seemed to be somewhere else that day…wish I was wherever he was.” He broke slightly awkwardly, but his jockey that day kept his calm, taking him back early in the six-and-a-half furlong dash to relax. By the top of the stretch, he was raring to go. He started passing horses with a furious rally, but the wire came too soon. New Found Cyclone had made up ground belatedly, but still fell a half-length short. The debut gave him a speed figure of 81, an auspicious debut for the colt.
A second maiden start over the Florida track was a disaster all the way around in late September. New Found Cyclone broke slowly, was shuffled back by an inexperienced jockey, and found traffic troubles in the stretch, and he came back fifth after all the troubles. It seemed to be a sidestep, instead of a big leap forward. But, undeterred, Yellow Dog himself decided to send him down to the tropics to escape the watchful eyes of the hardened Florida railbirds. The trip paid immediate dividends. On October 15, New Found Cyclone broke his maiden in a mile race at Jamaica. He did so in style, too. A change in jockey, a change in scenery, and a rail post on a track that favors those who get a good inside trip all conspired for the effort. Barbie, an associate trainer with the YDR group, was there in person, and she was impressed.
“He broke well, and was even helped by the one next door going to his knees out of the gate. He had room to move, and opted to lay in wait, and when they hit the stretch, he not only had the rail to himself, but he was passing all of them with relish. I never thought he’d hang for a second, because they were all standing still. He made it look easy. Don’t tell the boss, but I kinda knew something was up right then. I thought that he could be something to reckon with.”
Yellow Dog was pleased with that win, but it was the next race that made him sit up and take notice. It was mid-November, and New Found Cyclone hit the Bayou from the Caribbean. It was a mile allowance, a NW2L, and for the first half-mile, the colt got into his usual habit of settling down and sitting chilly off the pace. He stalked the leader in second, and began to close ground with a half-mile remaining. He took over easily at the top of the lane, and no one could gain much ground on him the last quarter-mile. He crossed the wire a two-length winner, under a hand ride, and went from an 82 fig in his maiden win to an 86. YDR was a proud entity, none more so than the Alpha Dog himself, though in his usual, reserved fashion he kept the pleasure to a minimum: “(I had a) faint inkling of hope (that he had a possible Derby horse) after his first allowance win as a two-year-old. He showed big improvement on his first two starts over sprint distances.” Despite the cool exterior, his associates claim he was a little more enthusiastic in private. “He disclosed his pleasure to us, complimented us on the job we did,” states Barbie with a big grin. “He always does that like a solemn father. Then he walked into his office, shut the door, and let out a loud ‘Wahoo!’, as if he knew something we couldn’t have. Everyone looked at one another and grinned, but if he said anything he’d ship us back towards Brisbane on the next flight out.”
A plan was undertaken to send the colt into stakes action, and one week before Christmas, New Found Cyclone was sent down to Argentina, for the Ridge Trick Handicap. Though there was a (working) holiday down there, no one was celebrating after what they witnessed. The sprightly colt didn’t show any enthusiasm for the track, the stables, or the race, and despite engaging a Ledwith to ride, the 2-1 favorite was washed out in the paddock, and spit the bit approaching the stretch, finishing a distant fourth, beaten almost twelve lengths. No one could understand what went wrong.
According to Yellow Dog, “Our hopes were dashed after that first stakes try. ‘Here we go again, another allowance horse that can’t make stakes,’ I thought.” It was a somber holiday, and over the New Year’s training break, YDR held an internal meeting to plot out strategies for the new three-year-olds. It was decided to try something new with The Cyclone. Grass was the new dirt, and a training routine was entered into in order to prep the colt for the lawn. “We put him on the lawn in Louisiana, to see if he would like it, and one Thursday morning, when we sent him out to breeze over the surface, he pricked his ears back, and ran energetically,” Seumas claims. “He really liked the new conditions, and you could tell in the days leading up to that next race that here was a brand new horse. Barb and I were impressed by his new spirit. We knew the boss has a lot riding on this next grass race, and we could tell something was going to explode.”
The next effort was a nine-furlong NW3L allowance over the Louisiana turf course on January 14. With their jock from the previous win over the course set down for a week for careless riding, a new jockey was given the mount, and it didn’t matter. After breaking well, the rider kept The Cyclone in reserve. By the time they hit the lane, he was beginning to inch up on the stubborn leaders, and, because he had been wide throughout, there was some cause for concern that he was losing a ton of ground. But as they passed the eighth pole, the colt found his best stride, and just like that, the cause for concern turned into a cause to believe. New Found Cyclone poked a head in front with a sixteenth to go, and quickly drew off to a two-length win. Grass had eased their pain. The YDR banner was waving high once more. Yellow Dog only thought the race was “Impressive”, but on the backstretch, his associates knew that meant he was ecstatic that, at the very least, there was a future on the turf for The Cyclone.
What worked once needed to work again. After the grass win earned New Found Cyclone a career-best 93 speed figure, plans were renewed for a stakes race. A race up in Michigan was selected, and for the first time, the colt was sent north on February 11. The race was the Barely For Bold Challenge, and The Cyclone was sent off at 7-5 against a compact field of four other runners, including the formidable “super” alliance. No one was fazed, though, after that initial allowance win, and here, their faith was justified when the colt stalked the early pace before taking his usual stretch kick at the top of the lane. By the three-sixteenths pole, The Cyclone took a lead he would never relinquish. He went on to a two-length win, and received a 95 fig for this initial stakes win. The conglomerate was thrilled about their reversal of fortune, and that’s when Yellow Dog made the decision that would surprise everyone.
“We moved (The Cyclone) to grass as a three-year-old, which was impressive, so I thought, “Let’s go back to dirt, but late in season, so our faint Derby hopes could come back again. We went right to a Grade II with him…as they say, the rest is history.”
There was some skepticism, held privately by a few in the backstretch crew, but no one dared to say anything publicly on the matter. When the boss says “Dirt”, you better say, “Grade II”. But Yellow Dog suspected the turf-to-dirt angle might serve his colt well. And the colt was sent to France for the Grade II Felipe Alou Handicap on March 11. There, he broke well from his outside post, a feat made easy by the fact that on that day, the outside of the track was the place to be. Though it was his first time on an off-track that day, he handled it well without resistance. He sat in stalking position no more that four lengths from the lead, and began to make his usual late move at the head of the stretch. In fact, the replay of the race will show that New Found Cyclone had the lead in deep stretch for about a nanosecond before Unamazingness, who was the only horse outside of The Cyclone in the starting gate, came from Versailles to charge past them all for the win. No one saw him coming, and The Cyclone, though he did his owners very proudly, was clearly second-best that day, beaten two lengths on the line. It was a heartbreaking defeat, but the consolation that could be found was that the colt was back in good form on dirt. Yellow Dog’s decision to return to the dirt earned him a spot on the Derby trail once more.
Next up: a trip to Dubai. The warmth of the March sun was comfortable for both horse and connections, and on just two weeks of rest, The Cyclone made a return in the Grade II Sand Castle Derby. And there was one member of the press already on the bandwagon of the plucky colt. “I like the way he’s been handled thus far and suspect his connections have a plan,” Bucksplash astutely observed when previewing the race in the Black Type Bugler. If there was a plan, Yellow Dog himself wasn’t sharing; he declined all interviews leading up to the race. The race itself was a dream from start to finish.
The Cyclone broke well on the inside, and was quickly shuffled back to mid-pack. He sat comfortably all alone in seventh, six lengths off the pace, and at the five-furlong pole, he started to roll. He had plenty of room on the inside, and had only one horse in his sights, the runaway leader. By the time they hit the stretch, The Cyclone was whirling away, and taking aim on I Did My Time. At the eighth pole, New Found Cyclone took over, and then, he turned on the afterburners. Not only did he draw away from the field, he did so under a vigorous hand ride, and crossed the wire a staggering five-length winner, in 1:50. His speed figure broke the century mark for the first time, and there wasn’t a happier person on the backstretch than Yellow Dog himself, a most confident trainer who knew now that he could write his own ticket to the Bluegrass Derby, with six weeks left to go. It was a highly emotional win, as earlier in the week was when Cyclone Larry hit Queensland, turning a big win into something with a highly emotional charge. They did it for Queensland, it was said.
The crew decided that maybe it would be smart to make their way to Kentucky early, to give The Cyclone one last prep for the Derby and give him a race over the track. The race was the Grade II Heat Less Stakes, and though he was a 6-1 second choice, he enjoyed the services of the circuit’s leading jockey, the famed D Givins, who knows a thing or three about winning in Kentucky. The race was intense, with New Found Cyclone sitting chilly in mid-pack, four lengths out, and making his usual middle move at the top of the stretch. Race leader Sundays Rule was trying to gut it out on the lead, and while The Cyclone had begun to make his late dash to the wire, a horse by the name of Vuja Day blew by him on the outside. The stretch drive was incredibly memorable, with The Cyclone trying to inch up to the front while Vuja Day and Sundays Rule were nose-to-nose for the final sixteenth. In the end, though he sure was a game colt, The Cyclone found himself outkicked by Sundays Rule, who won on a head-bob on the wire with Vuja Day. It was a heartbreaking defeat for the colt’s connections, but in the end, it elevated his ranking in the division into the Top 20, thus ensuring that a spot in the Derby was theirs if they wanted it.
Which they did. The heartbreak was eased by the knowledge that only a couple of unforeseen circumstances could remove New Found Cyclone from the field of 20. At #18, one might think they were one of the longest shots available compared to the cream of the crop. But instead, with a pair of speed figures of 100 in his back story to keep him competitive, it’s the top flight of horses that’s looking over their collective shoulders at a potent threat.
The YDR family of stables isn’t a cocky bunch. They realize that the field is fraught with tough customers who won’t be pushovers, yet Team Cyclone remains cautiously optimistic about their chances Saturday:
Yellow Dog, representing stable ydrbargain: “If he can hold his form after a fairly hard run up to the Derby, he should at least be competitive. Luck—lots of luck—is needed to win. (The only game plan is to) enter him, and then let the jockey decide, as in all his starts. I fear all of them; it’s a very even field.”
Barbie, associate trainer: “He’s been working well for this, and we’ve breezed him a couple of times just to get used to the track once again, particularly with his new jockey. We trust (P Munoz)’s judgment implicitly, and expect that he won’t be too far back early on, but he’ll have enough late speed to keep him rolling in the lane. He’s a smart horse, and he’s been walking every day with confidence. I think he’s prepared to really make some eyes pop from their sockets.”
Seumas, chief groom: “We haven’t had to do a whole helluva lot with him. He works, he comes back none the worse for it, and he polishes off all the food we lay out for him. He doesn’t have any idea what he’s in the middle of, and through all the media attention, the picture sessions, the whole thing he’s not even fazed. We’re just chuffed to be here, and he’s got his eye on being in front on the wire.”
P Munoz, who’ll be in the irons: “Being here is better than not being here. I always like being where the action is, and getting the mount this time is a blessing from heaven. This is my first Derby mount, and I’m just blown away by the whole experience. I think The Cyclone can blow ‘em away, but I know exactly what needs to do. I’m not going to do anything different here, just keep him steady and comfortable, and try to get him going by three-eighths. I know what the boss wants. I’m just going to be patient. It’s a lot different from Illinois racing, but I’ve been a good jock for years, I know how to adapt.”
With just ten starts under his belt, The Cyclone is in the prime of his life. He’s back on track, and this could be the year that a truly versatile horse steals the show from the flashy colts. With the recent events facing the state of Queensland, this would be a sentimental victory for the area and the country, and it would be a welcome relief and diversion for all.
This New Found Cyclone is prepared to blow into Kentucky on May 6, 2006.