Convict, Laddie Liam now partners in crime in Contessa barn

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Laddie Liam, winner of the Maryland Juvenile Futurity on Dec. 7, was purchased at auction by Leonard Green’s D J Stable and has been turned over to trainer Gary Contessa.

Laddie Liam, a Maryland-bred son of Golden Lad, was purchased for a sale-record $450,000 at Tuesday’s Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic winter mixed sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

Contessa said Laddie Liam will be nominated to the $150,000 Jerome on New Year’s Day, a race that is being targeted by impressive Nashua Stakes winner Independence Hall.

Laddie Liam, who had been trained by Hugh McMahon, has won 3 of 5 starts.

The acquisition of Laddie Liam came five days after Contessa and Green won a New York-bred maiden special weight race with Convict, who held off More Graytful to win by a neck. Convict, a son of Constitution – also sire of the Grade 1-winning New York-bred Tiz the Law – covered six furlongs in 1:10.76 and earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I don’t have a horse in my barn that can get past that horse in the morning,” Contessa said. “When [More Graytful] came up on the outside of me and it looked like he was going to just blow on by him, I knew in my heart there was no way he was going to get by that horse. That horse has real heart, he’s a tough, tough hombre. He could be a really nice horse. I really think a lot of him.”

Contessa said Convict will be aimed at the $100,000 Rego Park Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-olds on Jan. 12.

“I believe the further he goes the better he’s going to get,” Contessa said. “I’ll certainly nominate him to the Triple Crown. I don’t know where he’s going to hit his distance level, but he’s a big, strapping, good-looking horse and has the attitude that every trainer prays a horse has. He’s a gritty son of a gun and he really likes to fight.”