2021 Breeders' Cup Mile: Mo Forza carries on Abrams legacy
Perhaps it is fitting that the feisty turf miler Mo Forza, rated as one of the leading chances for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar, was bred by Barry Abrams, the late California trainer who himself was full of verve.
“He did have his own ideas about things,” said his wife of 38 years, Dyan.
“Barry was a character,” trainer Peter Miller said.
Barry Abrams, successful and outspoken and a mainstay in Southern California racing for more than 30 years, died of cancer at 66 in October 2020, days after Mo Forza won the fifth graded stakes of his career at Santa Anita.
This year, Mo Forza’s reputation has been enhanced with narrow wins in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 21 and the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on Oct. 2 at Santa Anita, his only starts of 2021. Leading California rider Flavien Prat was aboard for the wins, and has the mount Saturday.
“I have very high expectations,” Dyan Abrams said. “When he won last time, I told Flavien that Barry was riding on his shoulder. He came back and said, ‘I think you’re right.’ ”
No one would have criticized Barry and Dyan Abrams if they had sold a promising Uncle Mo colt as a yearling in 2017.
Mo Forza was bred by the Abramses, and was foaled the same year Barry retired from training.
“From Day 1, when this horse was born, Barry and I felt like we had something,” Dyan Abrams recalled last weekend. “He was a bit different and had something to him. Everyone tried to talk me into selling him as a yearling, and I refused. They said, ‘You can get $400,000.’
“Me and Barry said, ‘Let’s do this.’ ”
The decision to keep Mo Forza could have been questioned when the colt finished second through fourth in his first five starts, but never lost by more than 1 3/4 lengths.
“Barry and I were both extremely frustrated,” Miller said of Mo Forza’s early results. “Him being a former trainer, he got it.
“He was a big kid and he hadn’t put it all together, but he started figuring it out.”
The results of the last two years have eliminated any second-guessing.
Mo Forza has won eight of his last nine starts, including seven consecutive starts in graded turf stakes in Southern California. The blemish was a ninth in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park in January 2020, which was followed by an eight-month layoff.
“This horse has the class to win,” Dyan Abrams said.
Dyan Abrams has maintained ownership of Mo Forza with Onofrio Pecoraro, who races as OG Boss.
Miller is Mo Forza’s second trainer. Brian Lynch handled the colt as a 2-year-old in 2018, but never got him to the races because of setbacks. Lynch took a cautious approach, earning recent praise from Miller.
“If it wasn’t for Brian doing the things he did, no one would have heard of Mo Forza,” he said.
Barry and Dyan Abrams met in the late 1970s, when Barry was a harness trainer and Dyan worked on the backstretch. They spent part of the year at The Meadowlands in New Jersey and some of the year at Hollywood Park, when that track had a harness meeting.
“I was already involved in racing when I met Barry,” Dyan Abrams said.
She joined Barry’s staff and took a fancy to the trainer.
“I kept thinking ‘Wow, it would be fun if this was my boyfriend,’ but I didn’t want to date my boss,” she said.
Her outlook changed. The couple were married in 1982.
Barry Abrams switched his involvement to Thoroughbreds in the late 1980s. After working as an assistant for Roger Stein, he began training his own stable in 1993. Abrams won 688 Thoroughbred races with runners that earned $30.7 million.
Abrams won Grade 1 races with Famous Digger in the 1997 Del Mar Oaks, Golden Doc A in the 2008 Las Virgenes Stakes, and Unusual Suspect in the 2010 Hollywood Turf Cup.
Abrams had his best season in 2008, when the stable earned $2,999,839. Many of the leading runners in the stable were by Unusual Heat, a Nureyev stallion once claimed for $80,000 who became a regional leader in California.
“He was a fabulous trainer and able to get horses to win races,” Dyan Abrams said. “He thrived in the race horse community.”
Mo Forza was set to start in the BC Mile at Keeneland last November, only for an injury to derail those plans. Miller gave Mo Forza months off before resuming training in late spring.
Saturday’s BC Mile has always been the long-term goal.
“I feel like the luckiest gal in the world to be going to the Breeders’ Cup,” Dyan Abrams said.
Barry Abrams and Miller were acquainted before Abrams’s retirement. The offer to train Mo Forza was a shock to Miller, one of the leading trainers in Southern California.
“We got to know each other more when he hired me,” Miller said. “We were always friendly and we had a few things in common.
“I was surprised he called me and asked me to train this horse. It was a good compliment.”
Mo Forza runs from off the pace and will face his first international field in the BC Mile.
“If he brings his ‘A’ game, he can win,” Miller said. “I can’t describe it. If he wins the race, and runs his race – win, lose, or draw – it’s a testament to Barry and the horse.”