Foster has built strong Louisiana operation

Trainer Joey Foster has built up a stable to be reckoned with in Louisiana and on Friday night will saddle starters in two of the three allowances carded at Delta Downs.

Foster, 57, won his fourth Louisiana Downs training title at the end of September. He’s since set up divisions of his stable at Delta and Fair Grounds, which opens Nov. 28.

“He’s a really underrated horseman,” said Morris Nicks, the retired trainer who has longstanding ties to Foster. “He can train with anybody.”

Foster won the recent Louisiana Downs title with 54 wins and topped all trainers in stable earnings with $562,020. Karl Broberg, who leads all trainers in North America in wins this year with 486 through Tuesday, ranked second in the Louisiana Downs standings, with 45.

“Broberg got me last year – he didn’t get me this year,” Foster said. “He’ll be hot on my trail next year.”

Foster sent out arguably the most impressive 2-year-old winner of the Louisiana Downs meet in Our Lost Love. She captured a maiden special weight Sept. 14 with a Beyer Speed Figure of 83. The number is the highest earned by a 2-year-old in the Southwest in 2019.

Our Lost Love, now based at Fair Grounds, is one of a number of promising young horses Foster has in his stable of 60 horses. Another is Cindy’s Prayer, who was third to Our Lost Love at Louisiana Downs. She is by Constitution, sire of recent Grade 3 winner Independence Hall.

“We’re looking for Cindy’s Prayer to be good at the Fair Grounds,” Foster said, “and we’ve also got some 2-year-olds that we haven’t run yet that look promising.”

On the Delta card, Foster sends Reckless Ransom in the opener, an optional $30,000 claiming sprint for Louisiana-breds. He is coming off a second-level allowance win Oct. 24.

Harbor King is in the sixth, a conditioned allowance around two turns, after running fourth at the same level at 49-1.

The allowance horses and 2-year-olds are just a part of the makeup of the barn.

“We do a lot of claiming,” Foster said. “We play the claiming ranks.”

Foster is a native of Missouri.

“I was raised in Arkansas,” he said. “That’s where I got started, at Oaklawn.”

One of the first trainers he worked for was Nicks – back in the 1980s.

“Joey had been ponying horses and wanted to learn the training end of it,” Nicks said. “I put a lot on him that first year at Oaklawn Park and he took it.”

Nicks said Foster is an excellent horseman. He was part of the Nicks operation when the trainer’s son Ralph Nicks was coming up, too. Ralph Nicks now trains on the East Coast.

“They’re really like brothers,” said Morris Nicks.

Foster registered his first win as a trainer in 1992 in Louisiana.