First Prediction Makes Grade
by Derk Ackerman
Racing Action
May 1989
This is the tale of a woman and a horse.
It is also the tale of good things coming to those who do things, "my way" and the "hard way."
Best of all, it is the story of charity, the good side of horse racing, the nice people involved and their rewards.
The woman raised in San Francisco during the 1950s always loved horses. She cared for and trained polo ponies in Northern California while growing up. She joined the Peace Corps in the mid-1960¹s, served in the poverty of South America doing whatever she could.
In fact, it was while there that she met her husband and aided him delivering babies by candlelight in Columbia. Her name is Janet Del Castillo.
The horse is a mare. A gray mare foaled in 1982 by On To Glory out of the Haggle mare Around The Bend. She was just another one of the yearlings in breeder Paul Marriott's large operation and when the herd was culled, her destiny was to be donated as a yearling to the Florida Children's Home in Cintra, Florida. Her name is First Prediction.
Dr. Hernando Del Castillo and his family returned to the United States and bought a farm, Rancho Del Castillo, in Winter Haven, Florida and went into the thoroughbred business with the expectations of raising a champion. Janet took out a trainer's license, but there were no champions.
"When the horses (they were just cheap claimers) did not win the Kentucky Derby right away, my husband lost interest in racing," she said. "But we had over $25,000 invested and I didn't want to give up just like that."
Then she got a break.
While working at the Florida Children's Home, still helping others, she spotted a gray yearling filly that she thought might have some ability on the race track and invested in her and took her back to her farm in Winter Haven. The filly was First Prediction.
First Prediction's road to success has not been traditional; unconventional would be more apt.
³I can train horses in an orange grove," Janet said, "and have them as fit as any that train at the race track."
First Prediction's success story on the track is just as unbelievable. She could really be called the "Iron Mare," for in nearly 60 starts, she has earned over $250,000 and done it the hard way-on the rubber-based strip at Calder, the main tracks at Gulfstream and Hialeah, and the grass courses of all three South Florida race tracks.
Her most recent string of wins began in an even more bizarre manner. It seems Gulfstream Racing Secretary Tommy Trotter was having a tough time filling the Rampart Handicap because no one wanted to challenge Wayne Lukas' Life At The Top and Woody Stephens' I'm Sweets. He approached Del Castillo, and though she had another race in mind for First Prediction, she said that she would be there.
When we questioned her on why she accepted this spot she responded, "Did you ever hear of a trainer using a handicap race as a tightener for an allowance race?"
Unfortunately, everything did not go right, as First Prediction did not reach a contending position for her patented late charge and trailed throughout.
But 11 days later, she made the six-hour van trip from Winter Haven down to Gulfstream and won an allowance race.
Then on Mother's Day, after a lengthy van trip, First Prediction - under the brilliant handicapping of Julio Pezua - was up to win The Very One Handicap by a nose at one mile on the turf.
As First Prediction came back to the winner's circle, hundreds of fans circled around and cheered the winning horse, jockey and owner in a display of emotion most befitting the holiday.
Oh yes, in a story with a happy ending such as this, what began as a charitable venture continues on that way. That's because Janet Del Castillo makes a donation to the Florida Children's Home after every win.