Capestro looking to pull shocker in Longacres Mile

AUBURN, Wash. – It’s been a lean year for Paula Capestro. More than seven months in, the Southern California-based trainer has saddled just two winners: Blondy’s Reward captured a maiden claimer at Del Mar last month, and Fleet Eagle, the longest shot on the board at 39-1, won the Governor’s Handicap at Emerald Downs in May.

Through it all, Capestro has learned the value of a patient approach, which helps explain why she’s spent the past three months coddling and cajoling Fleet Eagle while trying to get him back into peak form for Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs. Another trainer might have been more aggressive with Fleet Eagle, riding a hot hand after his romping victory in the Governor’s. Capestro’s play was to send the horse home to San Diego County for an extended round of rest and relaxation.

“He wants to be fresh,” Capestro said this week. “So, I gave him three weeks to jog and lope around at San Luis Rey Downs. He can stand in the sun – he loves that – and about 30 days out, I started to bring him back around and tuning him for the race. He’s fit. Mentally, you want him to be on his game and really fresh. There are exceptions to the rule, but most horses need a little freshening.”

The speedy Fleet Eagle paid $81.40 when he went gate to wire in the Governor’s and is likely to be a longshot again Sunday. For many observers, the 6-year-old horse hasn’t done enough to suggest he can win a graded stakes race, never mind the Beyer Speed Figure of 100 he recorded in the Governor’s. In his most recent start in California, in a minor stakes race on the Santa Anita grass, Fleet Eagle was 97-1. If he wins Sunday, he’ll light up the tote board. His résumé is light, and his trainer is 2 for 49.

Capestro, 63, doesn’t need to be Richard Mandella to make a living on one of the toughest racing circuits on the planet, but a few more wins would be nice.

“It’s been a tough couple of years,” she said. “I make money in horses besides just winning races – I sell horses, sometimes I sell weanlings and yearlings – but really, if you don’t have the right stock, you’re all messed up, and we didn’t. But we’re starting to come alive lately, and prior to Del Mar, I sold a couple of horses for $60,000 and $65,000. I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies.”

Capestro came early to horsemanship but late to the training game.

“I’ve always been involved with horses,” she said. “I did hunters and jumpers as a kid, and I bought and sold horses at a young age. I’d buy horses in Tijuana, recondition them for jumping, and then sell them in Indio [Calif.]. When I got older, I started dabbling in real estate. Then, in my 40s, I had a bout of cancer and decided, ‘You know, I’m going to have some fun.’ I went to Florida, got my trainer’s license there, and that’s where I learned how to pinhook yearlings to 2-year-olds in training.

“I got into the racing business late. I was my own best customer, basically. I started forming partnerships in various horse ventures. I like to break my own horses. We start them all ourselves, measure their ability in Southern California, and then send them out to where we think they fit. And then if we get a good one, like River’s Prayer, we look for stakes races around the country.”

Capestro knows her way around a good horse. River’s Prayer won 9 of 16 starts and earned almost $1 million, bagging three graded stakes in 2007. Another Capestro runner, A to the Z, backed into a graded-stakes victory at Fair Grounds when the winner was disqualified for a drug violation three months after the fact. Other than that, she’s come up short in graded stakes, something she hopes to remedy with Fleet Eagle on Sunday.

“His record has been a little spotty, but we’ve run him against some pretty difficult horses at all different kinds of distances,” Capestro said. “It’s tough down here, and he faced such tough company that if everything doesn’t go perfectly, you finish fourth. We brought him to Washington thinking it might be easier company for him, and he really liked the track. He just flew across it. If he can return to that similar form and run his race …”

Diego Sanchez will ride Fleet Eagle, who drew post 3, a good launching point for a horse with early foot. There will be no shortage of competing speed with Modern in the race, and defending champion Stryker Phd will be rolling late.

“I think it’s a pretty even race,” Capestro said. “I think my post position is a little bit of an advantage. Stryker Phd is the gorilla in the room as far as a closer goes. Alert Bay and Modern are really solid horses, as is Noosito. This could shape up where racing luck comes into play. A lot has to go your way when you’re going against these kinds of horses.”