Grooms All Bizness continues to improve with Get Serious triumph

Grooms All Bizness was turning into a very good turf sprinter as a 4-year-old colt in 2023 and is even better this year as a 5-year-old gelding.

Castrated last November, Grooms All Bizness returned from a nine-month layoff with an eye-catching win in the Turf Sprint last month over soft going at Pimlico and, racing on a firmer, faster Monmouth Park course Sunday, he was at least as good, winning the $100,000 Get Serious Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths.

Grooms All Bizness repeated in the Get Serious, which he won a year ago by three-quarters of a length, racing once more last summer before going to the sidelines. Jorge Duarte, who trains Grooms All Bizness for his breeder, Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stable, said Grooms All Bizness wasn’t an especially bad actor before being gelded, but that he could get somewhat unsettled before his races. A son of the $5,000 stallion Fed Biz and the Candy Ride mare Bride to Be, Grooms All Bizness hardly had hot prospects as a stallion, and Duarte said the horse’s demeanor was better before the Pimlico race.

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Grooms All Bizness rallied from eighth in Maryland, yet somewhat remarkably was able to stick hot on the heels of pacesetting 9-5 favorite, Souper Quest, who went the first quarter-mile in a snappy 21.61. Fernando Jara, riding Grooms All Bizness for the first time, said he came to the paddock with a plan to position his mount closer to the lead, and Duarte told him Grooms All Bizness would be sharp enough to do so. Souper Quest cornered for home still in front, but Jara, who had drafted behind the leader, took his mount off the fence, and Grooms All Bizness quickly drew alongside Souper Quest. Grooms All Bizness does not like to switch leads, and he didn’t do so during the stretch run Sunday, but the gelding still powered through his final furlong in 11.70 to win going away.

Eamonn rallied from last and came home fastest, in 11.48, but still fell 1 1/4 lengths short of Souper Quest finishing third. Grooms All Bizness was timed in 55.64 for five furlongs and paid a generous $9.60 as the third choice.

Colts Neck and Duarte also campaign the 6-year-old Nothing Better, another turf sprinter, who won a rich Churchill Downs stakes last weekend. Grooms All Bizness is one year his junior, already fast, probably still improving.

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