Ethan's Baby a fast filly with a future

AUBURN, Wash. – After two easy victories to begin her career, Ethan’s Baby seems destined for a bright future. Her owners and breeders, Todd and Shawn Hansen, have fielded calls from would-be buyers, but the Hansens aren’t interested in selling. Ethan’s Baby is fast and, for the moment, there’s no one at Emerald Downs who can beat her.

In her stakes debut July 27, Ethan’s Baby zipped six furlongs in 1:09.29 to take the Angie C. Stakes by 6 1/4 lengths. On a day when the Emerald surface was extraordinarily fast, her effort was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 56 – not exceptional, but commendable for a 2-year-old filly just starting her career.

An anticipated speed duel in the Angie C. failed to materialize when Seeking the Light, the morning-line favorite, broke slowly from her inside post position, leaving Ethan’s Baby and jockey David Lopez alone up front.

“She did everything I wanted her to do,” trainer Howard Belvoir said Friday. “It was a great race, and she came out of it good. It’s a shame there was a mess-up at the gate a little bit and the one horse broke so slow. I like it even, especially when you think you have the best horse.”

The Hansens, who have been active owners for many years, have been ramping up their efforts on the breeding side, Belvoir said. To end up with Ethan’s Baby, they sent their unraced Broken Vow mare Hope and Vow to the Wild Again stallion Offlee Wild, who stands in Pennsylvania.

Offlee Wild’s reputation was enhanced last Sunday when his son Bayern romped in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. Later in the day, at Emerald Downs, Ethan’s Baby added her name to Offlee Wild’s growing list of stakes winners. And then the phone started ringing.

“Oh yeah, they have gotten some calls,” Belvoir said. “She’s basically not for sale.”

That can only be good news for Belvoir, who got his first look at Ethan’s Baby over the winter.

“Todd Hansen usually brings his babies in to me, and I evaluate them and see what they’re worth and where they should go,” Belvoir said. “This is a homebred, so we ran her here. It took her a while to get going, but she likes training, and most of your good horses like to train. You can work her fast, and she’ll be bucking and playing the next day. After a race, you’re lucky if you can walk her for even one day without her tearing the barn down.”

Belvoir has targeted the $50,000 Barbara Shinpoch Stakes on Aug. 17 for Ethan’s Baby’s next start, followed by the $50,000 Northwest Farms Stakes for statebreds Sept. 7. After that, Ethan’s Baby will take the winter off before gearing up for her 3-year-old campaign at Emerald.

“The way she acts, she’ll run all day,” Belvoir said of Ethan’s Baby’s distance capabilities. “She likes it. I foresee she’ll go as far as you want her to go.”

Trackattacker staying home for now

At Emerald Downs, Trackattacker is the 2-year-old male version of Ethan’s Baby – undefeated and essentially untested in two starts. In the horse-trading world, Trackattacker might be an even more popular commodity because he’s substantially faster than Ethan’s Baby. But Trackattacker is not currently for sale. Someday, perhaps, but not now.

“I don’t have any interest, really,” owner Roy Schaefer said this week. “It would have to be such a ridiculous price that it’s not going to happen.”

Trainer Frank Lucarelli has fielded some calls on Schaefer’s behalf but the “numbers thrown out there have been ridiculously low,” Schaefer said. “Frank has kind of put a stop to it and told people that we’re not really interested in selling him unless it’s a crazy, crazy price.”

Trackattacker earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 76 for his runaway victory in the Emerald Express Stakes on July 20, winning by 11 lengths on the heels of a track-record-setting nine-length victory in his debut in a June 1 maiden race. He is expected to make his next start in the $50,000 WTBOA Lads Stakes on Aug. 16.

Schaefer has had a big horse before. Atta Boy Roy was a graded-stakes winner of more than $600,000 and holds Emerald’s six-furlong track record. Schaefer said he fielded generous offers for Atta Boy Roy but turned them down, offers that were so generous, Schaefer said, that, “I don’t want to say how much, because people might think I’m an idiot.”

Parting with Trackattacker would deny Schaefer one of his yearly goals: finding a good horse to watch run at Emerald Downs.

“My home is in Washington and that’s where I want to run,” he said. “I think Frank knows that’s my priority. But if he says we need to go to California, we’ll do it. I’m excited about the horse. I just keep my fingers crossed that he stays healthy. I’m as excited about him as I was about Atta Boy Roy. And I was pretty excited about Atta Boy Roy.”