The majority of the water cooler talk these days in the Maritimes deals with who’ll be coming to this year’s Gold Cup & Saucer. Trainer Travis Umphrey’s coming, and his ticket to the winner’s circle will be the horse who gave him his first ever sub-1:50 victory
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Umphrey told Trot Insiderthat Blended Whiskey, a career winner in excess of $260,000, will be making the trip to Charlottetown, PEI looking to add to his already impressive resume.
"I've watched that race every year and my owner [Terry Hamilton] and I have always wanted to go,” claimed Umphrey. “This all came about last week, we've been talking about it for a month if the horse was on his game.”
That certainly has been the case for the four-year-old son of Rambaran-Leia Lee, who powered to a 1:49.4 victory at Mohawk Racetrack on July 27. He’s in-to-go this Saturday evening at the Campbellville, ON oval looking for an encore performance.
“Going into his last start, the way he raced and came out he thought we'd take a shot," he added. “The horse seems to be coming into his own again. He was really good in November, the trip back home to Alberta kinda hurt him - cold weather, no Lasix and he's a Lasix horse. He ended up in really tough company because of earnings when he came back to Ontario."
The O.S.S. graduate worked through that rough patch and appears to be sailing smoothly once again, but will he be able to maintain that sharp form away from home and on the half-mile oval? Umphrey seems confident the gelding can handle the assignment.
"He got around Western Fair rather well and those are some of the tightest turns you can find," he added. "He’s back in-to-go for Saturday, and that will give us a rough idea of where he's at."
Rick Zeron engineered the latest win for Blended Whiskey, but he won’t be making the trip to Charlottetown. When asked about who will get the nod on Blended Whiskey, Umphrey went with a pilot who knows the lay of the land.
"Robert Shepherd, he knows the horse and the Maritimes,” said Umphrey. “I've known him since our days back out West."
Shepherd, a Maritime native who now resides in Ontario, isn’t a complete stranger when it comes to Blended Whiskey. In fact, he engineered a 1:51.3 triumph with the pacer at Georgian Downs on July 13. Shepherd’s won some big races over the course of his career, but nothing would be sweeter than winning the Gold Cup & Saucer – a race that appears to be well within reach considering the horsepower he has to work with.