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Behindatthebar

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With a victory in Keeneland’s Coolmore Lexington Stakes two weeks in front of the Kentucky, Behindatthebar had enough graded-stakes earnings to challenge the Kentucky Derby field, but cooler heads prevailed in the form of trainer Todd Pletcher and majority owner Satish Sanan of Padua Stables.     Facing the prospect of a third tough race in 30 days for the horse, it was decided to skip the Derby and zero in on the Preakness Stakes. Pletcher and Sanan now bring a fresh horse to the Preakness, one who hasn’t tasted defeat at the hands of Derby champion Big Brown.     This son of Forest Wildcat was purchased for $130,000 at the 2006 Keeneland September sale and $140,000 at the 2007 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company sale of 2-year-olds in training by Michael Shustek and W. Don Stanley. That pair kept a 10 percent share in the horse when they sold the majority portion to Sanan.

TRAINER - Todd A. Pletcher originally from Dallas, Texas, now resides in Garden City, N.Y. Triple Crown victories: Belmont Stakes – Rags to Riches (2007). Breeders’ Cup victories: Distaff – Ashado (2004); Sprint – Speightstown (2004); Turf – English Channel (2007).     It just keeps getting better and better for Todd Pletcher. He now has four straight Eclipse Awards as North America’s top trainer and in 2007 he outdid himself in record earnings with a mark of $28,111,697. It was the third straight year for his stable to raise the earnings bar, surpassing his 2006 mark of $26,820,243, which followed the historic breaking of the $20-million standard in 2005.     Perhaps the most satisfying of all, however, was the victory by the remarkable filly Rags to Riches in the 1 1/2- mile Belmont Stakes, ending a long trail of defeats in Triple Crown races and marking the first Belmont win by a filly since 1905. Rags to Riches also won the Kentucky Oaks and Santa Anita Oaks, as well as the Las Virgenes, also at Santa Anita and also a Grade I race. She was awarded the Eclipse as the top 3-year-old filly, heading a finalist list of three Pletcher runners, Octave and Panty Raid being the others.     His four straight Eclipses put him in the company of Robert Frankel and Laz Barrera as the only conditioners to post that mark. He did fall short, however, in a couple of categories where he has set the record – stakes and graded stakes victories. He missed his 2006 record of 100 stakes scores when he managed only 94, and grabbed only 56 graded wins, one shy of the mark he set in 2006.     Among his other major horses in 2007: Multiple stakes winners English Channel, who won the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top male turf horse; Lawyer Ron, who won the Eclipse for older male, Honey Rider, Wait a While and Triple Crown runners Circular Quay, Any Given Saturday, Scat Daddy, King of the Roxy, Sam P. and Cowtown Cat. Even with all his success, Pletcher remains winless in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Prior to the breakthrough victory in the Belmont Stakes, Pletcher had saddled 39 horses for unsuccessful trips in Triple Crown races. He entered five in the 2007 Derby, with Circular Quay finished highest at sixth. Pletcher has been runner-up twice, with Invisible Ink in 2001 and Bluegrass Cat in 2006.     After posting a breakout year in 2004, in which he won his first Eclipse Award and two Breeders’ Cup championship day races, the trainer added an exclamation point in 2005 by crushing the record for North American earnings and capturing his second straight Eclipse Award. His record earnings totaled $20,867,842, well ahead of Robert Frankel’s previous record of $19,147,129. He was unable to duplicate Breeders’ Cup victories posted in 2004 by Ashado and Speightstown in the Distaff and Sprint, respectively, and led to Eclipse Awards as top 3-year-old filly and top sprinter, but 2005 triple Grade I winner Ashado tucked away another Eclipse as older filly or mare.     Along with Ashado’s wins, Pletcher counted Grade I victories from Adieu, Bandini, Flower Alley, Forest Danger, Honey Rider, Host and Purge. A highlight for the trainer came on October 8 when both Ashado and Host won Grade Is at Belmont Park and Keeneland, respectively. Pletcher is another one of those fine young trainers that came out of the D. Wayne Lukas stable. For several years, Pletcher was in charge of the Lukas string that raced in New York and Florida. In all, he was a Lukas assistant for 6 1/2 years, beginning in 1989 after graduation from the University of Arizona with a degree in animal science. Prior to his own experiences on the Triple Crown trail, Pletcher’s most memorable moment came when Thunder Gulch, under his care as a member of Team Lukas, won the Florida Derby in 1995. The colt later went on to win that year’s Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.     Pletcher went out on his own in 1996 and made an immediate impact by winning eight stakes events the next year. His first winner after setting up shop for himself was Majestic Number, who won a race at Gulfstream Park in February 1996. Prior to his stint with Team Lukas, Pletcher had a taste of the Thoroughbred life while growing up. His father, Jake, was a trainer.     In 1998, Pletcher saddled Jersey Girl to seven straight victories before she went on the shelf with an injury. Six of those were in stakes, including the Acorn, Mother Goose and Test, all Grade I events. Other outstanding runners trained: Early Warning, Electric Shock, Mellow Roll and Texas Glitter.     Pletcher’s trainee, Left Bank, was named Eclipse Award winner as 2002’s top older male.

JOCKEY - David Flores - Born Feb. 5, 1968 in Tijuana, Mexico and now resides in Beverly Hills, California. His purse earnings for 2007: $10, 413,397 are up sharply from $6,883,199 in 2006.     Best horses ridden in 2007: Multiple graded stakes winner Citronnade, and other graded stakes winners Dixie Meister, Sugar Shake, Idiot Proof, Naughty Rafaela and Tasha’s Miracle.     Flores had an impressive day at 2007 Breeders’ Cup championships: Second in the Sprint with Idiot Proof, fourth in the Juvenile Fillies with Tasha’s Miracle and third in the Classic aboard Awesome Gem. He was instrumental in establishing Hall of Fame trainer Robert Frankel as Santa Anita’s all-time winning conditioner by riding Les Grands Trois to victory No. 869 for Frankel, tying the legendary Charlie Whittingham, and then returning to score Frankel’s record-setting 870th.     Top winners in 2006 included E Z Warrior, Moscow Burning, Dixie Meister, A.P. Warrior and Hollywood Story. In 2004, had purse earnings of $8,365,977, good for 17th on the jockeys’ national list. His biggest score that year came at Lone Star Park when he rode Singletary to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on the Texas turf. It was his third Breeders’ Cup win, following triumphs with Tempera in the 2001 Juvenile Fillies and Action This Day in the 2003 Bessemer Trust Juvenile.     Other major winners in 2004: Lundy’s Liability, Pico Central, During, Silent Sighs, Even the Score and Ten Most Wanted. He had the biggest year ever in 1999, winning both the Santa Anita and Del Mar riding titles, his first at major Southern California tracks, capturing four Grade I events at Del Mar, including the $1-million Pacific Classic with General Challenge, and racking up purse money of $11,938,125 to put him sixth on the national list. During that year, also posted the most wins by any Southern California rider -- 208. In 2003, registered 155 victories and $10,759,008 in purse earnings for 12th place on the national list.     Other stakes winners for the rider in 2003, besides Action This Day, included Sulamani (Arlington Million), Special Ring (Eddie Read Handicap) and Honor in War (Woodford Reserve Turf Classic). He finished 11th on Storm Treasure in 2006 Kentucky Derby, following a sixth-place finish on 2003 Juvenile champion Action This Day in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and fourth aboard the fast-closing Atswhatimtalknbout in the 2003 Run for the Roses. Prior to that, he had a third place on Free House in 1997 in his first Derby ride, seventh with Hanuman Highway in 1998, fourth on Prime Timber in ’99, eighth aboard Express Tour in 2001 and ninth with Essence of Dubai in 2002.     Flores has been riding on the Southern California circuit since July of 1989 after spending first five years in the saddle at Caliente in Tijuana. he won 75 races during his Santa Anita ride to the title, besting runner-up Alex Solis by 10 wins; won the Del Mar title over Solis, also. Has won six races in one day three times -- at Caliente, the Orange County Fair and Fairplex in Pomona. He set an apprentice record of 61 victories at Caliente in 1984. He was a regular rider on Siphon, who won the 1996 Hollywood Gold Cup, 1997 Santa Anita Handicap and finished second in that year’s $4 million Dubai World Cup.     His first Grade I victory came in the 1991 Hollywood Gold Cup aboard longshot Marquetry. Other notable victories came on Silver Charm in the Del Mar Futurity and on Isitingood in the Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs, both in 1996; Keeper Hill, 1998 Kentucky Oaks; and Chilukki, 1999 Del Mar Debutante. His late father, David, rode in Tijuana and then spent several years as an exercise rider in Southern California. Each summer, David Flores sponsors a golf tournament to benefit needy children in his native Tijuana.

CO-OWNERS - Padua Stables, Michael Shustek and W. Don Stanley     Padua Stables is owned by Satish K. and Anne Sanan. Satish is 58 and Anne is 57, and they live in Clearwater, Fla. The family includes daughters Nadia and Charmain and son Sasha. Daughter Nadia is general manager of Padua Stables, leaving behind her Cornell University pre-med education and 1999 degree in neurobiology for her love of the family stable. Son Sasha has been actively involved in the farm operation and joined full time following his graduation from Vanderbilt University.     Satish Sanan was born in India and immigrated to Great Britain when he was 16. Following college, he worked for six years in the United Kingdom before heading to Canada. He then settled in the United States, and has become a U.S. citizen.     He was the founder and former chief executive officer of IMR Global Inc., a company that supplied computer outsourcing and software services worldwide. The company is best known for anticipating the potential threat that the “Millennium Bug” might have on computers around the world. He since has sold IMR Global, but remains active in the computer/software industry with STI Knowledge, based in Atlanta.     The Padua racing operation is named after his mother-in-law’s English farm by the same name in honor of St. Anthony of Padua. Sanan has spent millions at yearling sales over the past 10 years, often buying the sale topper. His activity in the business has netted him Breeders’ Cup champions Cash Run, in the 1999 Juvenile Fillies; Vindication, in the 2002 Juvenile, and Cajun Beat, in partnership with John and Joseph Iracane, in the 2003 Sprint.     Padua has been much less successful in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 12th with Exchange Rate in 2002 and 18th with Quintons Gold Rush in 2004.     Sanan’s breeding operation has blossomed over the past few years since buying the former 586-acre Silverleaf Stud Farm in Ocala, Fla., as a base for his breeding operation. The farm’s broodmare band numbers about 100. Padua stands these stallions: Delaware Township, Exchange Rate, Pico Central, Proud Accolade and Snow Ridge. In addition, Vindication stands at Hill n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky and Yes It’s True stands at Three Chimneys Farm, also in Kentucky. In racing, Padua Stables has horses with these trainers: Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen, Kiaran McLaughlin, Josie Carroll and Cam Gambolati. Padua’s purse earnings for 2007: $1,237,779. Aside from racing and breeding, Sanan has been instrumental in creating the Alliance for Industry Reform, an organization devoted to creating standards governing Thoroughbred sales practices.     Michael V. Shustek is president and chief executive officer of Vestin Realty Mortgage Inc., a financial and mortgage investment firm based in Las Vegas. He became president of the company in February 2004.     He has been involved in various aspects of the real estate industry in Nevada since 1990. In 1997, he was involved in the initial funding of Nevada First Bank, with the largest initial capital base of any new charter in Nevada history.     Shustek is the co-author of two books, “Trust Deeds Investments” and “If I Can Do It, So Can You.” He is a guest lecturer at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where he has taught courses in real estate law and ethics.     He is a graduate of the University of Nevada with a degree in finance.     He owns a minor portion of Behindatthebar.     W. Don Stanley lives in Henderson, Nev., where he keeps track of his investments and a small string of horses that run, basically, in Southern California with trainers Craig Dollase and Adam Kitchingman.     Stanley and partner Michael Shustek had Behindatthebar with Dollase in Southern California at the time they sold the majority interest to Satish Sanan. At that time, the horse was moved to trainer Todd Pletcher, who left it with his assistant in charge of his Southern California string, where he continued prepping toward the Triple Crown. The two men are partners in several other horses.     Stanley, born in Clinton, Mo., September 18, 1938, sold a computer business in Kansas City in 1996 and moved west to make his home in Henderson.

CO-BREEDERS- Dr. Frank Justice and Meadow Oaks Farm are co-breeders of Behindatthebar, a son of Forest Wildcat out of Dr. Justice’s broodmare Rhiana.     Dr. Justice bought the mare in the name of his Dell Ridge Farm for $270,000 at the 2003 Keeneland November mixed sale. She had raced as a homebred for Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss before being claimed for $40,000 by John and Allegra Ernst in 2002. The next year she finished second or third in four stakes races.     The bay daughter of Runaway Groom ran twice for Dr. Justice before moving to the breeding shed.