Catalano hopes Manny Wah, Liora are winning combo
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
NEW ORLEANS – Diane Pfister does equine therapy work and generally lends a hand in trainer Wayne Catalano’s string at Fair Grounds. Speaking of hands, Pfister’s left one sported a bandaged finger Monday morning.
“I lost part of my pinkie,” she explained. The wound’s source, a flashy chestnut with a mischievous eye, stood in the adjacent stall, having just digested several peppermints surely more satisfying than human flesh.
“I’ve had a lot worse happen. And it’s easier to take when it’s a good horse.”
Catalano hopes Manny Wah really is a good horse. More on that front will be known late Saturday after he starts in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes. Manny Wah is one of 15 entered in the Lecomte, while a filly on the other side of the barn, Liora, looks a prime player in the $150,000 Silverbulletday, the race immediately preceding the Lecomte.
“We’re hoping it all comes together Saturday like we expect it to,” Catalano said.
Catalano, a 62-year-old New Orleans native and former jockey, continues churning along with Manny Wah, Liora, and the promising 3-year-old turf filly Winter Sunset as the young foundation of his Fair Grounds stable. Catalano’s first starters as a trainer came 36 years ago, and he has in admirable fashion weathered the transition from the days when he was private trainer for win-obsessed owner Frank Calabrese. Catalano hit 143 winners in 2010 and generally stayed over 100 per annum through 2014, but now has settled into a 60-win-per-year rhythm. He won seven stakes last year, up from just two in 2015.
Manny Wah got in seven starts last year and, though he failed to win a stakes, showed encouraging ability, with his wins coming in an Arlington maiden sprint and a one-mile Keeneland allowance. Catalano raced Manny Way in blinkers for the first time following a fourth-place finish in the Street Sense Stakes at Churchill, and though Manny Wah was second to loose leader Gray Attempt here in the Dec. 24 Sugar Bowl, a six-furlong dash, he got a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He got a race over the track is the way I look at it,” Catalano said. “We’ve been waiting to run two turns.”
Manny Wah nips and can get aggressive in his stall, but he is playful, not roguish, and Catalano might be right about the two turns. The colt, owned by Susan Moulton, is by Travers Stakes-winner Will Take Charge and out of a stakes-winning dam, Battlefield Angel, who’s a sister to Kentucky Derby runner-up Lookin At Lee. Catalano said Manny Way “worked like a monster” in his final Lecomte drill Saturday.
Liora, meanwhile, already has proved her two-turn chops by scoring a 29-1 upset Nov. 24 in the Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs, where she outlasted heavy favorite Restless Rider by a nose. Liora, campaigned by the Coffeepot Stables, is by Candy Ride out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Giant Mover. Catalano said she was all long legs in her earlier days, but Liora has filled out nicely in recent months and made a fine appearance in her stall Monday.
Catalano initially had planned to skip the Silverbulletday in favor of the Feb. 16 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, but “called an audible” when Saturday’s race was coming up with a short field, he said.
“We were training her and she’s ready to roll, and we can’t pass up a spot like that. When you’re ready to run, you’re ready to run. You never know what’s going to happen down the road.”
Liora, at least, has been keeping her mouth to herself in the barn. Her trainer strongly believes she’s ready to sink her teeth into her 3-year-old season.
