Harness: Perfect Sting has a tough road ahead to continue perfection

When you have been around as long as Hall of Fame trainer Joe Holloway has, you get a more realistic outlook when preparing a horse for his 3-year-old season. Holloway's Perfect Sting spent two months relaxing after his Breeders Crown victory at Hoosier Park in October and returned to New Jersey to prepare for the 2021 season at the beginning of this month.

"I don't expect him to go undefeated," said Holloway of the sophomore son of champions Always B Miki and Shebestingin. Clearly the demands on racehorses in this era of extreme speed makes it difficult or near impossible to complete a 3-year-old campaign without a loss. "Jenna was a great horse and he got beat twice as a 3-year-old," said Holloway of his champion Jenna's Beach Boy. "Jenna won the Breeders Crown as a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old. Do you realize how difficult that is? It means a horse has to be at his absolute best on three exact dates in the schedule."

It's that kind of experience that allows Holloway to look out on the 2021 season with extreme expectations but realistic goals.

"Right now, we're looking to get him ready for May. It's hard to say what's going to happen with the North America Cup given what's going on right now and how things went last year," said Holloway. "I know the Meadowlands Pace in July and the Hempt in August are on the schedule."

Perfect Sting's 10 victories in 10 starts as a juvenile was the result of a firmly planned schedule that kept the colt away from Pennsylvania Sire Stakes action as well as the rich Metro by design. Instead, Perfect Sting got his experience mostly at The Red Mile where he dominated the Kentucky Sire Stakes before handling Grand Circuit company and eventually winning the Breeders Crown.

While some may conclude that you don't mess with perfection, Holloway did have to tinker with a few things throughout the 2020 season and now believes his colt is well-positioned to profit in the long run this year. "Early on you had to urge him to get into a hole and follow," said Holloway. "He only did what he had to do."

Surprisingly, towards the end of the year Holloway needed to temper Perfect Sting's potential aggressiveness, so earplugs were added prior to his final two starts of the year.

"It's a balance," said Holloway. "You don't want him to be too aggressive and go out and bust a 55 half and wear himself out. At the same time, you don't want to have to keep getting after him."

Holloway looked back at some of the races in 2020 that showed the talent and toughness Perfect Sting had as a young racehorse.

"I thought the Kentucky Sire Stakes (August 25) at the Red Mile when Dan Noble's good colt (Natives Filou) looked like he was going to pace right around him. He was like three quarters of a length past him when Perfect Sting picked it up and fought back," said Holloway. "That showed me something." Indeed, Perfect Sting "woke up" after a 55 1/5 opening half and sprinted a 54 1/5 final half to secure the first of three sub-1:50 victories.

On October 10 Perfect Sting would find himself in less than perfect position as Summa Cum Laude cut out a rated pace in the International Stallion Stakes at The Red Mile and David Miller had Perfect Sting racing from off the pace and looking hopelessly too far back to continue his winning streak.

"When he tracked down a very good horse in Summa Cum Laude that showed me something. He had lot of ground to make up that day," said Holloway.

Summa Cum Laude would rally late in the Breeders Crown and initially give the impression he would upset Perfect Sting, but the result of the photo finish showed the two high-level colts in a dead-heat in a 1:50 2/5 mile that Perfect Sting did all the work creating.

It's impossible in January to know how much better Perfect Sting will be as a sophomore after a well-orchestrated juvenile campaign. On a positive note, the colt has returned sound and healthy, and Holloway is hopeful to have him ready for a big year.

"I'd say if all goes well, he'll start around 20 times this year," said Holloway. "We'll have to wait until the stakes schedule comes out before making plans."

Holloway currently has 16 2-year-olds in training for the coming campaign. "Let's just say there are none that I hate at this point," Holloway said. "If you don't like them at this point in the year, generally they don't amount to much." Thus, Holloway is still "happy" with what he has at the moment.

On the 3-year-old front there are high expectations for the Father Patrick-sired Caruso. "He had plenty of speed as a 2-year-old," said Holloway of Caruso. "He was just never sound."

Caruso took a 1:54 1/5 record at The Meadowlands in July but despite qualifying for the Peter Haughton final on Hambletonian Day was never in the hunt in the rich final, a race that would be his last as a 2-year-old.

Caruso is the first colt from the mare Tosca. She's a half-sister to the $1 million winner Guccio, as well as the $800K winner Lagerfeld.

Caruso was just a $30,000 yearling purchase at the 2019 Harrisburg sale.

On the trotting filly side Holloway expects the Chapter Seven-sired Sweeping Rainbow to progress into a decent stakes filly this year. An $85,000 Lexington Selected purchase, Sweeping Rainbow is out of the $800K winner Lady Rainbow.

"She trotted in (1):54 last year and I think she's going to get better," said Holloway. Sweeping Rainbow raced predominantly in Kentucky as a 2-year-old, closing out her first season with a fifth-place finish behind eventual divisional champion Anoka Hanover in an International Stallion Stakes division at The Red Mile.