The $700,000 Delvin Miller Adios, with three eliminations set for this Saturday at The Meadows, has attracted an accomplished field featuring nationally prominent three-year-olds and locally based horses
hoping for a little 'backyard magic' in the Pace for the Orchids.
Perhaps the most interesting of the locally connected horses is Jonesie Hanover, a son of The Panderosa out of the Artsplace mare Cohiba Mary, who will Leave from Post 2 with Mike Wilder in the third elimination (Race 11). The colt is a full brother to 2005 Little Brown Jug winner P Forty Seven, a pedigree that helped persuade Dan Altmeyer to give $57,000 for Jonesie Hanover as a yearling.
“He’s a great-looking colt, too,” said Altmeyer, who trains and owns Jonesie with Murray Brown, Richard Kelson and Jack B. Piatt II. “He had absolutely nothing wrong with him from a conformation standpoint. I thought he would be good enough for these kinds of races.”
One attribute Altmeyer couldn’t determine from studying conformation was the colt’s volatility. In short order, he became a notorious bad actor.
“He’s a handful,” Altmeyer confirmed. “He’ll bite, strike, kick. The grooms need to keep their guard up all the time. Around the barn, he acts like he needs gelding, but he’s never showed signs of that around the track. That’s why I decided not to cut him.”
Among many tantrums, Jonesie has cut an ankle kicking a stall gate and fallen on a paved road after breaking free from a groom, resulting in another injured ankle. In all, he’s missed about five weeks of training thanks to his own antics. But he’s shown signs of coming around, including a second-place finish to We Will See — one of the Adios favourites — in last week’s Pennsylvania Sires Stake.
Altmeyer has reached the Adios final three times — with Ready Cash, Basil Hanover and Cammibest — but hasn’t been better than fourth in the final. If Jonesie Hanover doesn’t self-destruct before Saturday, he’ll have a chance to take Altmeyer to a new level.
Another locally based hopeful is Bombastic, a gelded son of Western Hanover--Cami Whitestocking purchased as a yearling for $36,000 but unraced at two.
“He’s a big, long-legged horse who started getting a little sore as we trained him down,” said Troy McDougal, whose Western Millennium finished 3-6 in the 2000 Adios. “We just decided to turn him out.”
In his nine starts, Bombastic has looked by turns talented and tentative.
“He’s still real green,” McDougal said, “but if they roll right on, he’ll flow along right with them. We’re hoping he’ll turn into a good Open horse.”
He said he and co-owner Howard Alexander decided to try Bombastic in the Adios, knowing he would be a long shot, because “we didn’t want to race him in an overnight and say, ‘We should have been in the Adios.’” Bombastic will leave from Post 2 with Eric Ledford in the first elimination (Race 9).
The Meadows-based trainer Jan Fread and owner Ted Tomson will be enjoying their first Adios with TSM Ryans Dragon, a Dragon Again--Lovin Yankee ridgling whose late kick has earned him $95,757 this year. But he appeared sluggish in last week’s PASS, where he finished fifth to We Will See.
“I gave him antibiotics to clean up some mucous, and I think it deadened him,” Fread said. “He finally got a great trip and didn’t have any punch. But we’re excited about being in the Adios. How often do you get a chance to do that?”
The acronym TSM is Tomson’s nom de course, short for Turning Speed to Money. TSM Ryans Dragon will leave from Post 6 with Doug Snyder in the second elimination (Race 10), where he’s looking to prove he has enough ‘S’ to earn significant Adios ‘M.’
(Meadows)