BY TAMPA BAY DOWNS PRESS OFFICE
OLDSMAR, FL—Florida-bred Shivaree’s best days on the track are behind him. But at the start of each day, owner-trainer Juan Arriagada senses the 7-year-old gelding’s passion and desire and enthusiasm for being a racehorse remain intact.
“If you saw him on the walker, you would never know he’s about to turn eight,” Arriagada said. “He looks like a 3-year-old in the morning. Around the barn everyone calls him ‘Abuelo’ [grandfather], but he’s a very kind horse with a great attitude.”
Shivaree, who won Saturday’s fifth race with leading Oldsmar jockey Samuel Marin aboard, has won four stakes, including back-to-back editions of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Florida Sire Stakes Marion County in 2020 and 2021 at Tampa Bay Downs. As a 3-year-old in 2020, he finished second in the Grade 1 Curlin Florida Derby and the Grade 3 Swale, both at Gulfstream Park.
The chestnut son of Awesome of Course out of Garter Belt, by Anasheed has career earnings of $606,766. He was bred in Florida by Jacks or Better Farm Inc.
Arriagada, who claimed him for $8,000 out of a starter optional claiming race on Aug. 29 at Delaware Park, has run him three times at the current meet, each time in claiming company.
But just because he is offering him for sale doesn’t mean he hasn’t become attached to the gallant and giving athlete.
“Everybody likes him. My wife [Alison] likes to gallop him and the groom loves being around him,” Arriagada said. “I just have to be careful not to train him too hard. He’s an easy-maintenance, classy old horse who is pretty sound for his age and cool to be around.
“The way he is, I think a young girl who is into jumping or showing would love to have him. So I’d like to see if we can win a couple more times with him here at Tampa and then try to find him a new home. He’s not the horse he used to be, but he has a lot of class and he deserves a chance [at another career].”
His first two races at the current meet resulted in fifth and fourth-place finishes at sprint distances and Arriagada thinks stretching him out to a mile-and-40-yards Saturday was the key to his front-running, three-and-three-quarters-length victory.
“I think he wants to go longer. He broke sharp today and kept going, and when [Marin] hit him at the quarter-pole, he made a strong move.”
Perhaps most tellingly, you didn’t have to be a horseman to know that Shivaree was feeling proud of himself in the winner’s circle and while Arriagada hosed him off before the walk back to the barn. In that sense, Abuelo still has it.
Return to the December 26 issue of Wire to Wire
