BY BROCK SHERIDAN
James Thare’s Mad House led from the start but had to hold sway against 2-1 favorite Roll On Big Joe for the last three furlongs, topping a Florida-bred exacta in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park Saturday. It was the second graded stakes victory for the 4-year-old Mad House, who has now won six of his seven races since breaking his maiden at Canterbury Park last June.
Ridden by Paco Lopez, aboard for the first time since taking the Grade 2 Gallant Bob at Parx Racing four races back in September, Mad House defeated six other 4-year-olds and older going six furlongs in the $500,000 Count Fleet.
He joins a star-studded list of Florida-bred winners of the Count Fleet including millionaires C Z Rocket (2021) and Shake You Down (2004); plus multiple graded stakes-winner Concept Win (1996) and multiple stakes-winner Sandbagger (1982).
Mad House popped out of gate four and promptly had a length on Tough Catch on the rail and Roll On Big Joe on the outside. Mad House tugged Lopez through a rapid first quarter in :21.99 as Roll On Big Joe began to apply pressure heading into the turn. Roll On Big Joe stuck a head in front past the quarter pole after a :45.12 half mile as Wendelssohn tried without success to challenge from the three path.
Mad House fought back on the rail and the two Florida-breds separated from the pack while going head and head for the length of the stretch. Mad House, while apparently losing a right front shoe, quickened late to win by a half-length ahead of Roll On Big Joe, who was two-and-a-quarter lengths faster than Dreaminblue in third. Booth, Tejano Twist, Tough Catch and Wendelssohn completed the order of finish. Maximum Bourbon was scratched.
Mad House paid $20.20 to win and the Florida-bred $1 exacta paid $47.50.
After breaking his maiden by 11 ½ lengths in his sixth try, Mad House won an allowance race and a conditioned, $12,500 optional claiming by a combined 10 ¾ lengths at Canterbury in his next two starts. Trainer David Van Winkle then sent him to Parx to win the Gallant Bob and next to Southern California for the Grade 1 Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar on November 1. He finished last of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup but, after a four-month break, returned to dominate an upper tier, $100,000 optional claiming at Tampa Bay Downs on March 6.
Mad House earned $285,000 for winning the Count Fleet, nearly doubling his career bankroll to $603,015. He has now won half of his dozen career starts with a second and a third.
By Vekoma out of Stifled Heiress, by Munnings, Mad House was bred in Florida by Dr. Jean White, Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Farm and Steven Venosa’s S G V Thoroughbreds, who earned a $5,000 Export Incentive check from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
“That Export Incentive is going to be nice,” Dr. White said. “That is a huge improvement from the past to now get rewarded for having these [Florida-breds] that go on to be so successful.”
Mad House is the second foal out of Stifled Heiress and is a half-brother to winner Singsational, by Audible. Stifled Heiress has three other Florida-bred foals, Gaelic Legacy, a 2-year-old colt in training with Dunne at Wavertree; and an unnamed yearling colt with Dr. White in Reddick, both by Leinster.
“He’s a very nice looking individual,” White said of the yearling. “He’s tough but more of a confident tough. He’s in a herd of colts running around at the farm now.”
Stifled Heiress produced another Leinster colt at Dr. White’s farm in Reddick on March 28.
Stifled Heiress, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Salvaje and topped the Fasig-Tipton October Digital Sale, selling to Pursuit of Success for $470,000 from the S G V Thoroughbreds consignment.
“I’m very happy for the horse and very happy for the people that now own [Stifled Heiress],” Dr. White said. “We sold the mare… …after he won the Gallant Bob. They bought the mare before he stepped up to the biggest stage [in Breeders’ Cup], where I think [Mad House] was more mentally over-matched than physically [over-matched]. To go from Parx, where he had seen the most people he’d ever seen, to the Breeders’ Cup.
“I very happy and very excited for [Pursuit of Success] who bought the mare. I’m sure it was heartbreaking when he ran so poorly at the Breeders’ Cup.
“[Mad House] is a tricky horse and they have done an absolutely masterful job managing him as you saw in the [Count Fleet]. They gave him some time off after the Breeders’ Cup, they didn’t panic. They brought him back strong at Tampa and then aimed him for this race.”
Return to the April 11 issue of Wire to Wire
