BY TAMPA BAY DOWNS PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
The 3-year-old Florida-bred gelding Mad House left Tampa Bay Downs last spring as a maiden after his first four career starts, filling his trainer David VanWinkle with uncertainty about what came next.
VanWinkle, who began training Thoroughbreds in 1989, knew Mad House had potential. The well-bred son of Vekoma out of the Munnings daughter Stifled Heiress finished second to John Handcock in his career debut on Jan. 8 sprinting six furlongs. The Brad Cox-trained John Hancock won of the $250,000 Sam F. Davis (Listed) in his next start.
But after that promising debut, Mad House turned in a trio of perplexing performances at Tampa Bay, including an uninspired fourth in the $110,000 Florida Cup Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore won by Macho Music on March 30.
As he prepared to take Mad House to Canterbury Park in Minnesota for the late spring and early summer, VanWinkle continued to search for the key to unlocking the Mad House’s potential.
“We had tried to stretch him out in distance at Tampa and I don’t think that was his cup of tea,” VanWinkle said. “He was always sound and didn’t have any setbacks, but he was a little bit high-strung and it took him time to figure things out. It took him a while to put everything together mentally.”
Mad House has since developed into one of the sport’s leading Cinderella stories of 2025.
Owned by South Dakota resident James Thares, Mad House has won four races in a row since breaking his maiden on June 29 at Canterbury, including the $400,000 Gallant Bob (Grade 2) on Sept. 20 at Parx Racing.
That front-running victory, in which the 23-1 shot sped six furlongs in 1:08.77, earned Mad House a spot in Saturday’s $2-million Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in San Diego.
Mad House flew to southern California on Thursday from south Florida, where he worked a sharp four furlongs last week in :47.10. VanWinkle arrived on Saturday, jogging the horse about a mile on Sunday and galloping him a mile-and-a-half Monday and Tuesday.
“He is fit and feeling good. He has adapted well to being out here,” VanWinkle said.
The Gallant Bob was the first graded-stakes victory of VanWinkle’s career propelling he and Mad House onto Thoroughbred racing’s biggest international stage.
VanWinkle, who is a three-time leading trainer at Canterbury, will be joined at the event by his wife Pam and daughter Taylor, his assistant.
After serving notice that sprinting was his thing in his first career victory, an 11 ½-length romp in a five-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight, Mad House won a pair of six-furlong allowance races at Canterbury in July and August. But his three-race winning streak in Minnesota didn’t hold much weight with Gallant Bob bettors.
“He was stepping up against much tougher competition and I’d have been happy to have him hit the board,” Van Winkle said. Despite early pressure from another longshot, eventual third-place finisher Fire Pit, Mad House was able to stay comfortable on the lead under jockey Paco Lopez through taxing opening fractions of :21.58 for the quarter mile and :43.94 for the half.
Mad House drew off late to defeat runner-up and 83-1 longshot Gateskeeper by two-and-three-quarters lengths.
“When he won a couple at Canterbury, his heart got built up and we could tell he was liking his job. You could say he is peaking at the right time,” Van Winkle said of Mad House, who was bred by Jean White, Wavertree Farm and SGV Thoroughbreds, LLC.
“He’ll be going up against a lot of older, more seasoned horses, but he has developed well so hopefully that won’t be an issue. Paco said he wasn’t pushing hard on him early [in the Gallant Bob] and that he knew he had horse left late if he needed it, so that was encouraging.”
Mad House has drawn post 13 in the 14-horse Sprint but VanWinkle is not concerned.
“With his running style, he is probably better off out there than down on the inside if something were to happen,” VanWinkle said.
Mad House is 30-1 on the morning line.
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