Overlooked by the stellar dominance of trainer Barbara Heads on last Saturday’s Derby Day program - winning the $200,000 Canadian Derby with August Rain after Infinite Patience won her 21st race in 31 starts and Avana put on a stellar come-from-the-clouds performance after stumbling at the break of the Century Casino Oaks - was Varatti in the mile and a quarter $100,000 Speed to Spare Championship.

With a great ride by jockey N’Rico Prescod, who used the rail to his advantage, Varattti was always well placed, allowing Space and Silent Runner to pass him on the outside entering the final turn at Century Mile. Then Varatti unloaded with Prescod making the winning move splitting those two horses before holding off Decoy on his inside and just one more Heads trainee to his outside to win by three-quarters of a length.

“It was a phenomenal ride,” agreed Alberta’s leading trainer and co-owner Craig Smith.

“He didn’t let the front runners get to the rail. He just held his position and saved ground. Then he struck quickly making that winning move.”

Varatti got the distance in 2:03.60 more than a full second faster than August Rain won the Derby.

“I think that showed that Varatti is one of the best older horses in Western Canada,” said Adrian Munro, whose Highfield Investment Group co-owns Varatti with Smith and the Smokin Guns Stable of Broc Dan and Al Palicuk.

“He’s now crossed the finish line on top in five straight races,” said Munro.

“The only asterisk was that he got disqualified - debatably - in the Century Mile,” said Munro of the July 12 Century Mile when “I think the jockey, Rasheed Hughes, maybe started celebrating a little too early” and drifted out very late just before the finish line.

“Varatti has got a lot of confidence right now. His chest is pumped out and he feels good about himself.”

No kidding.

Bracketed by the disqualification were triumphs in an optional allowance at Century Mile on June 8, another stellar allowance win on June 29, and a third optional claiming race on August 9 which he won by six widening lengths.

Now the Speed to Spare.

“He’s all race horse,” said Smith.

“He’s an athlete and he looks the part. He’s a beautiful horse.”

Well meant from the beginning, Varatti is another astute purchase by Smith and Munro, who plucked Classy City, fourth in the Derby and winner of both the Western Canada Handicap and Count Lathum, out of a Fasig Tipton Digital Sale for $50,000 (US) in February.

Varatti appears to be an equal if not better purchase. While Classy City was spotted by Munro, Smith was the one who unearthed Varatti paying just $17,000 for him at a Keeneland, Kentucky Horses of Racing Age sale last November.

“That was all Craig,” said Munro. “I told him to keep his hands in his pocket but he couldn’t resist.”

To that Smith replied “Adrian tells me that every time we go to a sale. But he never says no when I like something.”

Obviously Smith was right - again - about this son of champion sire Into Mischief, who has been North America’s leading stallion the last five years and is on pace again for a sixth.

Led by top handicap horses Laurel River, a record-setting eight and a half length winner of the $12 million Grade 1 Dubai World Cup and Newgate, winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap, Into Mischief sired 15 seven-figure yearlings in 2023 alone.

Initially trained by Todd Pletcher, who has won the Eclipse Award eight times as Trainer of the Year, Varatti was initially sold for $350,000 (US) as a yearling.

Big things were expected but Varatti only raced once as a two-year-old - an open maiden allowance that he won most impressively.

Then he only ran twice as both a three- and four-year-old.

But, despite the red flags, Smith still saw plenty to like.

“I think he just had a series of setbacks,” said Smith about Varatti’s lack of races.

“It just seemed to be one thing after another.”

“If there was a hole in him we certainly didn’t find anything,” concurred Munro.

“Everything was there,” added Smith.

“Big pedigree. A real good looker. I thought he was worth taking a chance on.

“We bought him with the intention of him being ready to run up here.

“He had time off before we got him. And we gave him some more time off from November, when we bought him, to his first start for us in March at Tampa.

“We just took our time with him.

“I got the feeling right away that he was a quality horse.

“He grew up and filled out.”

Munro said Varatti “has just blossomed since Craig has had him.

“If you look at a picture of what Varatti looked like when we bought him and what he looks like now you would think it was two different horses.

“He has put on weight; his body filled out. Like I said, he doesn’t look like the same horse we bought.”

Smith put four months getting Varatti ready for his first start for his new connections.

“We weren’t in any rush.”

But things didn’t go smoothly in Tampa.

“He fell to his nose leaving the starting gate in his first appearance for us. Then he got wiped out at the gate in his second start for us,” said Munro.

“He got into a lot of trouble in both those races. He had excuses.”

Then Smith sent Varatti to Edmonton and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Derek Ryan, a trainer in Tampa I look up to, told me the horse was very impressive off his long layoff from making his last start for Pletcher in July of last year before racing in Florida in March. Derek told me ‘I think you’ve got something here.’”

It certainly looks that way.

But Smith, as usual, doesn’t like to take any credit.

“It’s the grooms, the gallop people, the farriers and the vets.

“I think we just got him at the right time. I think he would have done well in anyone’s hands.

“When he first raced in Edmonton I thought he wanted to be a sprinter.

“Now it looks like he can do anything. If you want him to make the lead sprinting he can do that. If you want to take him off the pace and ask him to make a big run down the lane while running long he’s comfortable about doing that too as he showed going a mile and a quarter in the Speed to Spare.”

What’s next for Varatti?

“That’s a good question,” said Smith. “It’s something we’ll all have to discuss. We just want to do what’s right for the horse.

“He came out of the Speed to Spare bouncing.

“Sunday morning he didn’t even look like he had raced the day before.

“It’s incredible how he came out of the race.”

Munro said there are some stakes at Hastings or Winnipeg that Varatti might enter.

“We haven’t been paying attention but we will now.

“We've been lucky. There’s a lot of luck involved.”

There’s also a lot of skill and talent.

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