Del Castillo Has a Right To Feel Wonderful

Art Grace - The Miami News
Thursday April 17, 1987

Editor's note - See yesterday's article. This was the following day! What a joy to prove them wrong!

In this column yesterday, I excoriated owner-trainer Janet Del Castillo for what I considered poor, and possibly abusive management of her horse First Prediction. After running extremely well against top competition all winter, the 5-year old mare appeared to have been ground down by an exhausting schedule - 20 races in 28 weeks.

I was moved to voice my displeasure when First Prediction ran three times in 12 days at Gulfstream, twice in major stakes, and had run five very poor races in a row. Immediately before going off form, First Prediction had finished third, beaten a neck and a nose, to top fillies Anka Germania and Chaldea in the Columbiana at Hialeah Feb. 1 and two weeks later came from last to finish second to Singular Bequest in the Key Largo.

Then came five terrible races, the most recent in the Rampart Handicap April 5. But there are two sides to most stories and Miss Del Castillo surely was entitled to present a defense. She came to see me yesterday and did so, an hour before First Prediction ran still again in the ninth race which, to Janet's discomfiture, had been switched from grass to dirt.

"I know it looks terrible on paper," she said. "All people see is that she ran on March 24 and April 1 and April 5. What they don't realize is that I can't ever work this mare like a normal horse."

"Every time I try to work her, she ties up (suffers severe cramping). If I let that happen, it takes two months to get her ready again. So I never work her. She has to get fit by running. And in order to stay fit she has to run at least every 10 to 14 days. If she's off longer than that I have to start from scratch again."

"If I ever felt she had a physical problem, if she ever went off her feed, I'd stop on her immediately. She's like a part of the family... she's in our yard (Del Castillo lives in Winter Haven) when she's not running. I could never abuse her. She's absolutely sound."

"She's been running poorly, but I've been trying to get her back into her rhythm. I know it looks bad when she runs in a tough race like the Rampart with only three days rest. What they'd never understand is that I needed the race to get her back to her optimum form. Not many people use a $125,000 stakes as a work, but I did. I never was able to be very subtle."

"She's been acting just fine; I expect she'll run well today. If it hadn't been taken off the grass I'd really like her... she doesn't seem to like dirt. But I still expect her to run a whole lot better."

"After what you wrote in the paper today, I hope the people don't throw rocks at me when I go to the paddock. If she runs bad again, I'd consider resting her until Calder opens (in six weeks) which would mean it would take me four races to get her ready again. That's something I can't really afford to do."

If I had to choose yesterday to lambaste Miss Del Castillo, at least my timing was exquisite. First Prediction was so utterly worn out that she came from next to last on the backstretch and wore down front-running Bereavement in the last 50 yards to win the mile and a sixteenth allowance feature by a length. Julio Pezua, of course, rode her flawlessly.

After the race, Miss Del Castillo could not resist rushing to the press box to tell me "I told you so!"

Well, indeed she had. Practically everyone except Janet had agreed with my criticism, but I'm the only one who went public with it. She had a right to rub it in. It was the least she could do.

"I feel wonderful. It's such a relief to know I wasn't wrong," she said. "For a while I was starting to doubt myself."

Before the race Janet had felt First Prediction could not run well on dirt except for Calder (which has a unique racing strip). "She was running super on grass down here, then I made the mistake of running her at Tampa (seven days after the Key Largo at Hialeah)."

"She didn't like the track and didn't fire (finishing a bad fifth). When she ran back in the Black Helen it was against killers and she was widest of all in a 15-horse field into the first turn. She didn't have a chance.

"At that point, I had to try and get her back into her rhythm. I ran her seven furlongs and she did close ground. But she couldn't handle those fractions: :22, :44 and change, 1:10. And she didn't like the dirt. The only place to run her next was the grass stake at Gulfstream (Suwanee River) and the fractions were so slow she couldn't make up ground."

"With a horse like her, who comes from way out of it, things have to break right (a realistic early pace by the speed horses) for her to run well. But I felt she needed that race, and one more, to reach her level of competence."

"The reason I ran her back four days later (in the $125,000 Rampart Handicap) is that I got suckered into it. Just before the entries closed, they called me and said only four horses were entered. It turned out to be seven."

"I told Pezua not to abuse her if she didn't have a shot. The pace was slow again and he realized there was no point beating on her."

"It's no fun to have to train her in front of everybody in the afternoons. She has to get her works in her races. She doesn't do well in a stall."

" I have her in a normal environment at Winter Haven, in cycle with nature. She's out in the pasture every day, in the sunshine, not locked in a stall. She swims every day. That's it."

"A horse can't talk to you. You have to go by your perceptions. I can tell you she hasn't gotten sour in two years. She's never refused to eat up. She's like a working man who puts on his hard hat and goes to work every day. 'Another day... another dollar'"

"If the race sets up right (with early speed) she'll be there. If it doesn't, she won't. If I can run her with no more than 10 to 14 days between races, I don't have to be concerned about not working her.

"It's tough when I have to keep running her in stakes but it's the only way to keep her in her rhythm."

"Most people have no idea how tough this game can be. They've never had to load a hysterical 2-year old filly on a van at 5 in the morning and take her to Tampa to work."

First Prediction ran 19 times in 1985, 24 times last year, and already has run 11 times this year. She has finished in the money in 32 of those 54 starts, winning nine. She went over the $200,000 mark in earnings with a $13,200 winners purse yesterday.

While I still have reservations with Miss Del Castillo's handling of First Prediction, she aced me in straight sets yesterday and the overall results have been good.

Last year at Hialeah First Prediction ran twice in five days and finished second both times. She ran at Calder Aug. 2, 15 and 23 and won twice and finished second once.

Before the slump hit late in February this year the mare ran eight times in 2 1/2 months and every race was a corker. After her performance yesterday, I doubt she ever will break down. Her career will end when the iron starts to rust.

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