An old proverb attributed to Benjamin Franklin goes like this:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Well, forget about all of that.

In last Friday’s $50,000 Count Lathum - a key prep for next month’s Canadian Derby - at Century Mile, Classy City lost his left front shoe leaving the starting gate when he went to his knees.

He still won.

“He grabbed his left front foot when he tried to collect himself and he over reached,” said trainer Craig Smith. “He went right down to his head.

“My stomach dropped. When that happens it usually doesn’t work out.

“But he still managed to put himself in the race and got into a good position.

“Give the credit to (jockey) Rasheed Hughes for staying composed.

“Classy City just didn’t stop running,” said Smith, last year’s leading trainer in Alberta, who is having another fantastic season winning 30 per cent of his starters.

“But that’s the way he is. He doesn’t quit. He keeps digging in. He ran through a bit of an issue and then he got a great trip never having to leave the rail.”

Third early, Classy City went past stablemate and pace setter Ticket to the Top and then a game Itsallgoodman to win by a length.

He got the mile and a sixteenth in a solid 1:44 3/5.

After the race a member of the starting gate crew came up to Smith holding Classy City’s left front shoe and said “I think this belongs to you.

“It came off in the first or second jump out of the gate.

“I saw him stumble but I had no idea that he had lost his shoe.”

A late foal, Classy City, who impressively won the June 7 Western Canada Handicap - at odds of 16-1 - still went off at 10-1 in the Count Lathum.

“I don’t bet. I can’t remember the last horse I bet on. But I noticed that he was 10-1,” said Smith.

“I guess the public looked at his last race - the Chris Loseth in Vancouver - and maybe thought he was headed in the wrong direction.

“Whatever. Classy City proved them wrong.

“I’d rather be 10-1 and show up then 4-5 and run fourth. It’s nice when they do that.

“Looking at the Racing Form it was an even race and the odds showed that. Skipper’s Pride deserved to be the favourite but we beat him in the Western Canada.

“I didn’t know where we fit in but he was definitely under bet in the Count Lathum.”

Smith said you can throw out the Chris Loseth where Classy City finished sixth beaten almost 15 lengths.

“That race was a comedy of errors,” said Smith.

But not a funny one.

“Everything went wrong in that race.

“He shipped well but he didn’t settle down the entire time we were in Vancouver.

“He can be a nervous horse and he sure was in B.C.

“He was shook up the entire time.

“On race day he was nervous in the paddock. I had a bad feeling all week.”

Then there was the race itself.

“He got bumped hard away from the gate; then he was hung three wide.

“The situation just didn’t work.

“Once he got back home he settled down.”

Owned by the Highfield Investment group, Classy City was purchased for $50,000 (US) in February as a Canadian Derby hopeful.

“Adrian (Munro) picked him out at a Fasig Tipton Digital Sale.

“He liked what he saw and we were prepared to go as high as $55,000.”

Classy City had been running at Golden Gates, California. And he was consistently running well but without a win going back to last November.

Last December he finished second by half a length in the Gold Rush stakes.

Classy City ran twice for Munro’s Highfield Investment Group at Golden Gate after the purchase. He ran a good second in an allowance race going a mile and then was third in another allowance race under the care of trainer Colleen O’Hagan, Smith’s girl friend.

Then he shipped to Alberta where he won the Western Canada by two lengths once again hugging the rail.

“He knows where the rail is that’s for sure.”

Smith isn’t sure when Classy City will run next but it might not be until the August 24 $200,000 Canadian Derby.

“That’s always the hope and the dream.

“He’s been asked quite a bit the last seven weeks. Barring any changes I might just train him right to the Derby even though that’s a month away.

“There’s an outside chance he might run in an open allowance race.

“It’s a big ask. But I think he’s up to it.

“The Western Canada showed he was legit and he has thrived since he’s been in Alberta.

“I think he’s getting good at the right time. And I don’t think the Derby’s mile and a quarter distance will be a problem.

“He’s a grinder. He keeps grinding and he keeps running. And he has the pedigree to go long,” he said of the son of Classic Empire.

So does Smith, who has been training for 20 years.

“I know both sides of the game. The highs and the lows. Right now we’re on a high. Winning 30 per cent of the time is insane.”

But it’s happening.

“I enter aggressively and I’ve got a great team.

“I hope we’ll be talking again after the Derby. He’s headed in the right direction.

“I’m glad to have a horse like him in the barn.”

STOCK REPORT - As well as the Count Lathum the Sonoma Handicap was also contested last Friday at Century Mile. There Silkstone, trained by Tim Rycroft, went wire to wire.

“Very impressed,” said Rycroft, who was Alberta’s leading trainer five times and is in another battle with Smith for top honours again this year.

“The distance and the pressure doesn’t seem to bother her,” he said of the three-year-old filly, who won last year’s Freedom of the City by almost four lengths.

“She seems to strive off competition and keeps running. She was running away from them at the end.

“I always liked her but I wasn’t sure if she was quite as good as it looks like she is,” he said of the daughter of Birdstone, who was purchased at the Alberta Fall sale for $30,000 for owners Everblack Cattle Co. and Stetson Enterprises.

“She beat older mares quite easily in her previous start and then stepped up and won the Sonoma.

Rycroft also unveiled a two-year-old filly, They Call Me Tom, that was most impressive - as good as has been seen in Alberta in a long time - in her maiden debut winning as she pleased with a strong start and an even stronger finish.

“Dallas Nelson picked her out,” Rycroft said of the $30,000 purchase at the B.C. mixed sale.

“I have a running joke with Dallas. When I started breaking and riding her I told Dallas this spring that I liked her but he couldn’t ask me how she was doing until she got to the races. I said ‘I never want to talk about her again until she runs.’

“When I get too high on a horse I seem to jinx them.”

Enrique Gonzalez was the jockey. After arriving in Alberta late Gonzalez got off to a slow start but is really picking it up now.

“He’s a very good rider. When he’s on he’s really on,” said Rycroft.

“He started working her when he finally got to Edmonton. He just took it easy with her. There’s no money in the mornings.

“He just let her breeze.”

A daughter of Sungold, They Call Me Tom is Ontario-bred.

“I liked her all along,” said Rycroft. “Even the consignor (James Barry Loud) said she had the potential to be something very nice.

“She’s really smart. She knows what to do and she’s got the talent to do it. That’s a good combination.

“I like my babies to do everything right and she does just that.”

Sent away at 4-1, They Call Me Tom won by a handy length getting the four and a half furlongs in 52.29 seconds which was half a second faster than the two-year-old boys ran earlier on last Wednesday’s card - a race won by Whatwomenwant by a diminishing neck over another Rycroft starter, Holiday’s Again.

“He can run,” Rycroft said of Holiday’s Again, who had been working strong all spring for owners Tallie Racing.

“He really didn’t run until the last eighth of a mile.

“He’s like They Call Me Tom in that he’s smart and talented. But he can be a little quirky.

Bred by Canadian Derby winning trainer Bill Matier, Rycroft said he jokes with Matier that he used to call Holiday’s Again Wild Bill.

“Now I call him Sweet William.”

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Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.