Blinker change moves up Fire Plug winner Sonny Inspired

Maryland horse owner Matt Dorman was introduced to racing by his late father, Arthur Dorman, a longtime senator in Maryland who would take him to the track.

When Matt Dorman wanted to become involved in racing, trainer Phil Schoenthal sold him 5 percent of a $5,000 claiming runner so Dorman could “get his feet wet and see how the economics of the sport worked.” The next year, Dorman, the co-founder and chief executive of Credible Behavioral Health Software, and Schoenthal attended the 2012 Fasig-Tipton sale at Timonium, and Dorman bought eight yearlings under the stable name D Hatman Thoroughbreds.

The best of the group turned out to be Sonny Inspired, a $20,000 purchase, and Elevated, who cost $30,000. Both horses are still racing and, following Sonny Inspired’s win last Saturday in the $75,000 Fire Plug at Laurel Park, are now stakes winners. Sonny Inspired has earned $291,000 and Elevated $228,000.

“To pick a horse out of a yearling sale and train them multiple years, through multiple campaigns, is extremely satisfying,” Schoenthal said.

Getting Sonny Inspired to win a stakes hasn’t been easy, even though he came extremely close as a 3-year-old in 2014, when he was beaten a nose in the restricted Christopher Elser Memorial at Parx Racing. The winner that day was Elevated.

“Sonny Inspired is an absolute warhorse,” Schoenthal said. “But he’s the type who likes to play and run with other horses, and he’ll hang.”

In the six-furlong Fire Plug, Sonny Inspired advanced three wide on the far turn, took the lead outside of Jake N Elwood in upper stretch, and drew off to win by 1 3/4 lengths.

“This is the first time he’s forged to the front and drove clear,” Schoenthal said. “When he made the lead so early, I thought he might wait on horses and get beat.”

Sonny Inspired’s newfound concentration might be due to a change in blinkers. Schoenthal ran Sonny Inspired without blinkers in his previous two starts before putting them back on for the Fire Plug.

“Instead of going back to the smaller ‘cheaters,’ we thought, ‘Why not put the full cups on him?’ ” Schoenthal said. “I think that was the key Saturday.”

Schoenthal has been on a hot streak and has a 23-7-4-1 record from Nov. 27 through Thursday. He said he would nominate Sonny Inspired to the Grade 3, $250,000 General George, a seven-furlong race Feb. 15, but likely would pass that race and instead go to the newly created $75,000 Ben’s Cat Stakes at Laurel on March 19. The Ben’s Cat is a six-furlong sprint for Maryland-breds.

Miss Behaviour carrying Speightstown foal

Schoenthal said he recently visited his former stable star, Miss Behaviour, who is doing very well at Richard Golden’s Sycamore Hall Farm in Chesapeake City, Md. Miss Behaviour, who won 5 of 12 starts and $790,000 for Schoenthal and owners Cal MacWilliam and Neil Teitelbaum, is expected to produce her first foal, by Speightstown, at the end of February.

Miss Behaviour’s biggest wins came in the Grade 2 Matron at Belmont Park and the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks. She finished second in a pair of Grade 1 races at Saratoga in 2014, the Test and Prioress.

Miss Behaviour’s dam, Successful Romance, also is under the care of Sycamore Hall farm manager David Wade. She is in foal to Tiznow.

“Both of the foals will be Maryland-breds,” Schoenthal said.