Can nice girls finish
first?
Calder race tells the story
by Luther Evans - The Miami
Herald. August 24, 1986
FIRST PREDICTION held only a head
advantage over charging Truly when they reached the eighth pole in Saturday's
$47,650 Black Velvet Handicap before 9,884 fans at Calder.
On which filly would you have bet your money at that point?
Truly was the 2.20-1 favorite. She is a daughter of the great stallion In
Reality, bred by the eminently successful Frances A Genter. She is trained
by Frank Gomez, Calder's all-time leading winner of stakes with 58. She was
being ridden by Jose Velez Jr., Calder's 1985 riding champion with 109 winners.
First Prediction went off as a 15.30-1 long shot. She is the daughter of On
To Glory and was bred by Paul Marriott, who culled her from his yearlings
as being too small and gave her to the Florida Horsemen Children's Home in
Citra, Fla. Later, Janet Del Castillo bought her on credit as part of a two-filly
package for $5,000.
The primary training of First Prediction consists of Del Castillo, admittedly
"a large woman," galloping her through a Winter Haven orange grove
and also swimming the filly in a nearby lake. Saturday, First Prediction was
being ridden as usual by Benny Green, a nice guy who has to scuffle to make
a living... unfortunate for a jockey with his ability.
At the sixteenth pole, First Prediction and truly had swept past front-runner
Mery Cathy and C'Mon Liz and still were at each other's throats. Now, by all
logic, you would have bet on Truly. Right?
Wrong.
First Prediction, under a super ride by Green, refused to yield more than
a few inches in the drive and outgamed Truly by a nose to earn her first stakes
victory.
"I knew she had the guts to do it," Del Castillo said.
But the first female owner-trainer to win a Calder stakes this season didn't
come down to earth to analyze 4-year old First Prediction's unexpected added-money
triumph until 10 minutes after it had been accomplished. She had rushed onto
the track, leaping high with every other stride, to hug Green and his mount
before they got to the winner's circle. And all the time, she was whooping
in sheer ecstasy.
Del Castillo was entitled. When Ed McClellan, the children's home director,
decided that the home couldn't care for the fillies and offered to sell them
to her, she tried to say no. "I was in the middle of a divorce, had four
kids, and no money," she said. "But I couldn't resist buying them,
if on credit."
The other filly never panned out,
but before Saturday, First Prediction had earned $94,241 in 35 starts with
a 6-8-7 record. And that had allowed Del Castillo to pay off the $5,000 debt
last year. But she didn't stop there. Since then, every time First Prediction
earns a check, the home gets a donation from her. The next contribution will
be the biggest - First Prediction collected $29,790 in the Black Velvet.
First Prediction Carried 114 pounds over the mile and 70 yards in 1:45 3/5
and paid $32.60, $10.20 and $5.20. Truly returned $3.60 and $2.60 and Hail
The Lady #3.60.
End of an improbable - but heartwarming - report on a horse race.