Harness: Can Curbside Pickup be the next Southwind Ozzi?

When watching races there is something called the "vision test." The concept is simple: Was the horse visually impressive? In the case of Curbside Pickup, who made his career debut at Harrah's Philadelphia on May 5, the answer was a resounding yes.

Curbside Pickup got away fifth in the early going through moderate fractions of 28 4/5 and 57 3/5 for a non-winners-of-one race before driver Tim Tetrick edged the son of Somebeachsomewhere off the pylons. They were third-over in a bad spot just before the three-quarter pole when Tetrick showed Curbside Pickup daylight. The Hall of Fame driver sent him three-wide, and the gelding accelerated with a wicked turn of speed while taking the entire turn wide and edging clear from a game Century Hannibal before crossing the wire a 1 1/4 length winner in 1:53 2/5.

"I knew at that point he would win by as much as Timmy wanted," said trainer Bill MacKenzie on his thoughts when Curbside Pickup made his move. "Go watch his qualifier. I think he was even better in that race," continued MacKenzie, rightfully bragging about a second-place finish behind recent stakes winner Whichwaytothebeach, where his gelding made up 10 lengths in the second half of the mile with a 53 2/5 final half at Philadelphia.

Curbside Pickup, a $160,000 yearling purchase at Harrisburg in 2019, was unraced at age 2 because he was too big and growthy. The price tag was high for owners Vincent Ali Jr. and Alma Iafelice, but riding the wave of winning the Little Brown Jug a couple of months earlier, they loosened the purse strings in an attempt to relive the good times.

"That was probably the biggest one we've gone after. We had a good year with 'Ozzi,' and we were looking for another Somebeachsomewhere," said MacKenzie, who added that the partnership bought four yearlings in total.

While Curbside Pickup has begun his journey, there is a long road from winning a maiden race and taking on the best 3-year-olds in North America. Even MacKenzie is unsure at this time where his budding talent fits on the spectrum.

"I get a lot of my information from my driver, and Timmy seems to love him. I don't sit behind 30 or 40 yearlings a year, so I don't have many to compare him to. He has a big engine, but we have to make sure he is behaving. He wasn't the easiest horse to get to this point. That is why he is a gelding," said MacKenzie. "He doesn't know how to race yet. When he got to the front, Timmy said he was looking left and right wondering where everyone went. When we train them at home we keep them together, and he wasn't used to being out there all alone."

MacKenzie, well aware of the tough competition on the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes circuit, is taking a more conservative approach with his young prospect, electing for the Stallion Series this Sunday at Pocono rather than risking having to face the top two ranked 3-year-olds in the country - Perfect Sting and Southwind Gendry - in the Sire Stakes.

"It was a bit of a coin toss. I think he can go and chase those horses, but I don't think it makes sense to ask him for that right now," said MacKenzie about the decision to avoid the Sire Stakes. "We wanted to get him a bit more of an education before races like the Adios, Max Hempt, Progress, and Breeders Crown down the road.

"If he wins the Stallion Stakes impressively and the horse is good, we'll head right to the Sire Stakes off that."

Luck wasn't on MacKenzie's side when it came to the draw for Sunday's Stallion stakes. Curbside Pickup not only drew the outermost post nine in the sixth of seven $20,000 Stallion Stakes divisions (race 11) but he also caught a strong field that includes 2020 Governor's Cup winner Always A Miki (post seven) and the aforementioned Whichwaytothebeach (post four).

Although fortune wasn't on MacKenzie's side, the competition for Curbside Pickup would've been much tougher facing the undefeated Perfect Sting and co-Breeders Crown winner Summa Cum Laude in the ninth-race $51,045 Sire Stakes or six-figure winners Southwind Gendry, Chase H Hanover, Exploit and others in the eighth and tenth race splits.

As Curbside Pickup attempts to follow in the footsteps of Southwind Ozzi, the now 5-year-old is trying to rebound off a lackluster 4-year-old campaign that saw him earn less than 10 percent of his sophomore bankroll.

"Unfortunately they didn't write any 4-year-old Opens on any of the tracks where I race," said MacKenzie about the subpar year compared to 2019 when Southwind Ozzi earned $837,685. "He'd win a non-winners of $14,000 and then the non-winners of $20,000 wouldn't fill. I'd have to bring him to places that he didn't like, and it was just a catastrophe for him.

"At the beginning [of Southwind Ozzi's 2020 campaign] I thought I dropped the ball a little bit. With COVID going on and not knowing when racing would start, I don't think I had him ready fitness-wise. The whole year was just a mess."

Despite dealing with the growing pains sometimes associated with switching from racing against peers to facing hard-knocking older foes, Southwind Ozzi was well-staked in 2021 by his connections and will focus on specific races if those tracks will have him.

"We are going to try to keep him more to the five-eighths races because that is where he's done the most damage," said MacKenzie. "If you take him to Yonkers he loses three lengths on every turn, and at the Meadowlands he just doesn't finish up as strong on the long stretch.

"Hopefully he'll get invited to the Commodore Barry [Philadelphia], the Senditin [Scioto], the Potomac [Rosecroft], and the Always B Miki [Pocono]. He's also in the Breeders Crown; we can't miss that."

Southwind Ozzi qualified sharply with Tim Tetrick in the bike at Harrah's Philadelphia. The pair posted a wire-to-wire 1:50 3/5 victory over a track rated "good" on May 4. The plan is to qualify a second time before pointing for overnight races ahead of his stakes schedule.

"We are going to start him in the conditioned races and see where he takes us," said MacKenzie. "I'm hoping he has a really good year. My fingers are crossed for him."

If Southwind Ozzi returns to the form that saw him pace in 1:48 while winning multiple stakes as a 3-year-old and Curbside Pickup proves he belongs among the elite in his division, the 48-year-old MacKenzie could be in for a career year.