Gaston Grant wins his maiden in style

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Very few trainers can say their first victory came in a graded stakes race. Gaston Grant is one of the few.

After spending about a decade on the backstretch, Grant took out his trainer’s license in August. Three months later, he was standing in the Aqueduct winner’s circle following Green Gratto’s head victory over Palace in the Grade 3, $250,000 Fall Highweight Handicap on Thanksgiving Day.

“A guy could be in this business for years and never have a graded stakes horse, and here my first win as a trainer is in a stakes race,” Grant said Friday at Aqueduct. “You just feel blessed. It’s not every day you come across a horse like this. He’s really a tough, tough, tough guy.”

As the owner of Green Gratto along with his brother Anthony, Gaston Grant has been around the 5-year-old New Jersey-bred his entire career. In addition to being the co-owner, he was the horse’s hotwalker and groom while the horse was officially trained by a bevy of people, including Peter Chin, Eduardo Jones, David Smith and Osvaldo Rojas. Grant, whose primary job is as a driver for UPS, started as a hotwalker for Chin in 2004.

Grant is a native of Jamaica and worked around horses in that country. He said his first experience at the track was as a handicapper and observer.

“I started in the grandstand,” Grant said inside Barn 4 here. “I thought maybe I could transfer it over here. I started to venture back here; I liked what I saw. I wanted to be in the game. I decided it’s time to take out my license. It’s tougher than I thought, but it’s worth it. This is what I love to do.”

Grant’s first starter was Green Gratto in August at Saratoga. The horse got beat a neck in an optional claimer. Grant said he has six horses, two whom he co-owns with his brother, three for Madeline Cohn, and one for Milton Peart.

Green Gratto won the Fall Highweight on the front end as the longest price on the board at 24-1. But he’s had a history of running well over Aqueduct’s main track. In April, he finished second in the Grade 1 Carter at 52-1. The 2016 Carter in April is the early-season goal for Green Gratto, who will get a short break after running 31 times in 24 months, according to Grant.

Green Gratto, a son of Here’s Zealous, came out of the race “a little ouchy,” said Grant, who noted that the horse had two hard races in eight days. Green Gratto finished second in an optional claimer Nov. 18. Green Gratto earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure in both the optional claimer and the Fall Highweight.