Here’s the plan. Claim an off-form horse for $8,500 and win a $100,000 stake six months later.
Oh sure.
It’s like climbing Mount Everest in sandals or winning the Daytona 500 wearing blindfolds.
Impossible.
Yet, that’s exactly what Alberta trainer Jason Coney did with seven-year-old Fireman Dan. And he did it easily winning last Saturday’s $100,000 Dale ‘the Colonel’ Saunders Speed to Spare by more than five lengths.
Sent away at 6-1 in an evenly matched field, Fireman Dan paid $14.60 to win.
Coney was looking for a route horse this spring in Phoenix, Arizona when jockeys' agent and sometime trainer Riley Rycroft touted him on Fireman Dan, a horse Rycroft said was screaming for more distance and who was trained by Robertino Diodoro, one of North America’s leading trainers.
Coney listened and had Rycroft drop a claim for $8,500 on Fireman Dan for himself and Terry Tomshak on February 25. Three other people put claiming slips in for that race but Coney won the shake. Initially, Coney wasn’t sure if that was a good thing because Fireman Dan ran a largely disinterested fifth.
Coney had buyer’s remorse and told Rycroft to enter Fireman Dan right back for $8,500.
Coney didn’t care if someone else claimed him.
But Rycroft talked him out of that idea.
“Riley kept saying there was more to him than his form would suggest,” said Coney, who is riding a hot hand winning six of his last 13 starts at Century Mile.
“Riley told me that if he ran Fireman Dan for $8,500 somebody would claim him.”
Then came the eye popper.
“Riley said I’d be sorry because Fireman Dan would win the $100,000 Dale ‘the Colonel’ Saunders Speed to Spare which was still six months away.
Sure enough…
Last Saturday - lost in the shuffling glare of the $200,000 Canadian Derby - Fireman Dan did exactly that: he won the tough and coveted mile and a quarter Speed to Spare on the August 22 Derby card just as Rycroft had prophesied half a year earlier.
Even Nostradamus would have blanched.
“If Jason had put Fireman Dan back in for $8,500 he would have been long gone,” said Rycroft. “Then there never would have been this rags-to-riches story.”
“Riley is one of best horsemen around,” said Coney. “He can read a racehorse.
“He’s a wealth of knowledge.
“He’s been my mentor since I first came to the track in 2014 in my home town of Grande Prairie. Riley is also from Grande Prairie. That’s where we first met.
“To have one of your best friends tell you that you’re going to win the Speed to Spare six months into the future is unbelievable. But once again Riley was right.”
Was he ever.
“You just don’t claim a horse for $8,500 and win the Speed to Spare,” said Coney.
“When I claimed him I was thinking he might be a good $17,500 claimer. I certainly didn’t claim him thinking we could win the Speed to Spare.
“What interested me was that he was a big, stretchy horse that I thought would like a distance.”
Fireman Dan was bred nicely too. Sired by Summer Front, a multiple stakes winner, Fireman Dan’s mare side is strong. His dam is Our Quiet Hanna who was sired by Real Quiet, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1998 and was second - by a hard to take four inches - to Victory Gallop in the Belmont.
But something changed - something magical - when Coney took over the training of the horse who only had one victory in 19 previous starts.
Instead of running Fireman Dan back for $8,500, Coney put him in an allowance race in Phoenix where he couldn’t be claimed. He finished second.
Then Coney sent Fireman Dan north to Edmonton. After giving Fireman Dan two months off, he entered Fireman Dan in a $32,000 allowance at Century Mile which he won. Then he ran a close third in another allowance race. And then he finished a strong second in the Century Mile - a race Coney believes he should have won.
“I think he was just a little short for the Century Mile.”
So, Coney, a welder by trade, started giving Fireman Dan some brisk works.
A week before the Speed to Spare Coney caught his colt working four furlongs in a blazing :46 4/5ths.
It was easily the fastest work of the morning.
“It was faster than I wanted but in retrospect it might have been just what he needed - a good stiff work,” said Coney, who also worked Fireman Dan five furlongs in a brisk :59 2/5 on August 9 and four furlongs in an eye-popping :47 3/5 on August 1.
“Every time he worked he trained like a monster,” said Coney, whose first stakes winner was HK Rapper, who won the Beaufort by five lengths on the Fall Classic program in 2023. “He was blowing past horses in the mornings. So I kind of liked his chances in the Speed to Spare.
“He just got better and better and stronger and stronger.
“He’s got a ton of stamina. He can show you early speed like he did in the Speed to Spare or you can ask him to come from off the pace.”
As for the Speed to Spare itself, Fireman Dan went virtually wire-to-wire with Boodramsingh nursing him gently down the backstretch getting his first quarter mile in :24.57 and a half in :48.59 seconds.
Not once did Boodramsingh have to ask Fireman Dan for more. Instead, he was hand riding him like he was out for a leisurely morning gallop.
Nobody challenged him; nobody came close to him.
At the top of the stretch he was three lengths clear and increased that margin down the stretch with Diocles finishing second and Stonevicious third.
The mile and a quarter finished in 2:04 2/5 which was two and three-fifths of a second faster than Quarry took to win the following race’s $200,000 Canadian Derby.
The finishing fractions for the Speed to Spare and Canadian Derby were also disparate. And convincing. The final quarter mile for the Speed to Spare was :26 4/5th seconds. The final quarter for the Derby was :28 1/5.
There was no game plan going into the Speed to Spare.
“I told Brian that it was up to him. I said you might find yourself on the Choo Choo,” said Coney.
“I said ‘You’ll find out when the gates open. You’ll have about 10 seconds to decide.
“It’s up to you buddy.”
Breaking sharply, Fireman Dan took himself to the front, duelling under no pressure with Tigerito early and then dictating the pace for good.
“Coney and his crew did a great training job,” said Rycroft, who has the book for three of Alberta’s top riders Jose Asencio, Enrique Gonzalez and Boodramsingh.
Rycroft also worked as racing secretary and starter at Grande Prairie the past two summers.
“Fireman Dan didn’t look like the same animal that came out of Phoenix,” said Rycroft.
“When this horse got to Edmonton he started training really good.
“Before he even raced in Edmonton Jason told me that maybe I was right. That maybe he was going to be alright. He just turned around,” said Rycroft.
Never liking to take the credit, Coney said he has to give the applause to his grooms, exercise rider and gallop boy Rafael Zenteno Jr. and particularly assistant trainer Olivia Carr.
“Olivia treats a $4,000 claimer and Fireman Dan the same. She’s got tons of experience and is a marvellous person. And I think the world of Raffy.
“Raffy is Big Hug’s rider,” Coney said of the two-time reigning Horse of the Year.
“He gallops all of my horses and even helps around the barn.
“All in all we got lucky.
“It’s still hard to believe.”
STOCK REPORT - Jockey Antonio Reyes won five races in a row at Century Mile on Friday to move within one win of leading rider Asencio. Reyes now has 29 wins on the season; Asencio has 30.
Calgary’s Century Downs’ summer harness racing schedule ended this past Saturday with the renewals of the $53,600 Marquis and $54,500 Maverick stakes.
Terrible Custard made it four in a row taking the Marquis for three-year-old fillies as the odds-on favourite by a length and a half over Blue Star Strike in 1:55. Also the winner of the stirring $89,000 Gord and Illa Rumpel, Terrible Custard is owned by Lorne Duffield, trained by Rod Hennessy and driven by Michael Hennessy.
In the Maverick for three-year-old colts, 28-1 longshot Outlaw Country On came from the moon. Far back and second last driver, Dave Kelly moved Outlaw Country On three wide without cover down the backstretch and maintained his momentum to the wire winning by a length and a quarter over 3-5 favourite Ruler Of Dragons. Outlaw Country On, who paced in 1:54 2/5 is owned by Clauzette Byckal and trainer Rod Starkewski.
Century Mile will continue their thoroughbred season through to the September 12 Fall Classic. Then the thoroughbreds head for Calgary’s Century Downs opening on September 19.
Harness racing returns to Century Mile on September 25.
In quarter horse racing at Century Mile, Miss Fancy Nancy exploded to a two and a half length victory in the $60,000 Regional Bank of America Challenge Finals. Miss Fancy Nancy won for the 9th time in 24 starts; she has also been second eight times. Venerable Flight Club, who has won 21 career races for earnings of $340,000, was second. Miss Fancy Nancy is owned by Barry and Janice Sather and trained by Misael Moreno.
And, in a pair of harness stakes in Calgary for two-year-olds, Blue Star Shania won the $70,000 Derek Gilbert Memorial ASHA in 1:57 3/5 by a head over favourite Dixieland Delight. And, the $70,000 ASHA two-year-old Colt Pace presented by Business Instincts Group was won by Y V Michters by three parts of a length over favourite Forbearance.
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Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.