Harness: Wallin prepared to tackle 2023 with top prospects
For young trainer Lucas Wallin, 2022 proved to be his best season in an up-and-coming career. With the top-flight 3-year-old Rebuff, Wallin entered the year with Hambletonian dreams. Following the disappointment on that first Saturday in August, Wallin did his best to regroup and by the fall was able to capture the Kentucky Futurity with the now-retired Rebuff.
"The Hambletonian was tough," said Wallin, reflecting on the race that Rebuff was pointing to but ultimately disappointed as the favorite. "I'm glad he was able to end the year on a high winning the Futurity."
Wallin is young enough to learn from the experience and also appears wise enough to move forward and plan the course of the next generation as his 2023 stable returns with a small sampling of sophomores, one 4-year-old and 27 2-year-olds in training. While there are no Breeders Crown winners in the group as Rebuff was in 2021, Wallin does have some hard-hitting New York Sire Stakes types that could eventually blossom onto the Grand Circuit, and some raw talent in a sophomore colt with an impressive pedigree.
D'Apper, a son of Walner and the first foal from the $1.2 million winning D'One, showed signs of brilliance during an abbreviated freshman season. Although he hit a bump in the road that derailed expectations, that didn't deflate his trainer's confidence.
"He had a liver issue," Wallin said of the colt with an impressive pedigree. "We didn't pay that much for him [$75,000] and he showed plenty of talent. We couldn't get his liver levels down and because of that we couldn't even train him."
D'Apper came out strongly for Wallin in June winning his first race at The Meadowlands in 1:55 but then missed time and returned nearly a month later in 1:54 2/5 in a New Jersey Sire Stakes consolation, having missed the preliminaries. When Wallin took the colt to Lexington there was a notable difference in his performance as he showed none of the talent he'd exhibited at The Meadowlands. Once the liver issue arose it was obvious what was holding D'Apper back and he was given a vacation.
"He's only been back for a couple of weeks," Wallin said. "But he has matured and he looks great."
With just four starts as a freshman, it's hard to tell exactly where D'Apper may fit with this year's premier sophomores, but with the experience Wallin has already had, not just in the 2022 Hambletonian with Rebuff but in the 2021 Hambletonian in driving Cuatro de Julio, he's confident he has a colt with the ability to step right in.
"I think he's mature enough now that he could handle going in against stakes horses right away," said Wallin, who is treating D'Apper as a Grand Circuit talent.
While D'Apper is eligible in New Jersey and beyond, Wallin is optimistic he can make a solid impact on the New York Sire Stakes this season with some 3-year-olds that exhibited talent as freshmen in 2022 and are ready to step up their games. Ruth Honig is a Chapter Seven-sired filly that made $142k last year while finishing first or second in six of her 10 starts. She finished a pace-setting second in the $200,000 New York Sire Stakes championship final in September at Tioga Downs.
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"She's a nice little filly," said Wallin. "She was very good in New York and that's what we're pointing her for this year. We'll see how she does and then decide whether to put her on the Grand Circuit."
Wallin is hoping that the education process for Unicorn Blue Chip as a 2-year-old will help the filly blossom as a sophomore.
"We spent a lot of time teaching her to race," said Wallin of the $475,000 yearling purchase that's a Chapter Seven-sired filly and half-sister to $1.5 million winner Plunge Blue Chip.
Unicorn Blue Chip took a 1:56 mark at The Red Mile in late September. Given her lofty pedigree, the sky is obviously the limit for Unicorn Blue Chip on the track and of course later as a potential broodmare.
Onion Gum, a Chapter Seven colt, had a New York Sire Stakes win as a freshman and Wallin sees him coming back with more power as a sophomore. A $250,000 Harrisburg yearling in 2021, Onion Gum earned $56K during his freshman season that saw him take a 1:56 qualifying mark at The Red Mile.
Wallin hopes that the Muscle Hill-sired Devilish Hill will make more of his 3-year-old season than he did at age 2.
"We thought he was a top horse after he won an overnight at Pocono," Wallin said, reflecting on the 1:57 3/5 effort over a sloppy track in August. That success didn't last and eventually Wallin, who also co-owns Devilish Hill, knew things needed to change. "We decided to geld him and turn him out."
With a majority of his stable 2-year-olds, Wallin has the same hopes that others do in February. "You could talk to any trainer this time of year and they've got horses they love," said Wallin. "In the years that I've been training I haven't had a better group than this."
Of course, it's too early to know how the colts and fillies will handle the competition and whether they will continue to improve or hit the wall, but clearly Wallin is encouraged by what he sees and what his co-trainers have witnessed.
"I've talked to my other trainers about the ones they like the best and there's four or five out there," said Wallin, who indicated that each liked a different one. That said, there are always big-name horses that get asked about and one came to mind.
"I sat behind Cuatro de Julio and he had a lot of power," said Wallin. "I think his Greenshoe brother has that power." More specifically Wallin was referring to For July, just the second colt from Clarabelle, the dam of Cuatro de Julio. Wallin purchased the colt at last year's Lexington Selected sale for $360,000.
In addition to the 27 babies Wallin is training, he has high hopes for one baby that didn't have a mandatory birthday on January 1, that being young Mason, his soon-to-be 3-month-old and first child for him and bride Mikaela.
"He's my everything," Wallin said. Mason enters the world with an impressive pedigree of his own with Wallin as his dad and Makaela (Melander) his proud mom.