Hennig and Adam team up for Nashua, Tempted

ELMONT, N.Y. – Mark Hennig has been on a roll with his 2-year-olds, going 4 for 15 with them at the Belmont Park fall meet, which concluded Sunday. This week at Aqueduct, he will send out his two top prospects, Capitaine in the Grade 2 Nashua on Friday and Cursor in the Grade 3 Tempted on Saturday.

Capitaine and Cursor each scored an impressive maiden win at Belmont in their second start. Capitaine will vie for favoritism with Mo Town in the Nashua, which has a five-horse field. Cursor will be among the favorites in the Tempted, which was to be drawn Wednesday. The races are worth $200,000 and run at a mile.

Capitaine and Cursor both race for Donald Adam, a relatively new owner for Hennig. Adam, who lives in Texas and owns Courtland Farms in Ocala, Fla., is expected to be on hand for this week’s races.

“We got together in August 2015,” Hennig said.

A month after Hennig and Adam teamed up, Hennig and the Courtland Farms team attended the Keeneland September sale, where they purchased Capitaine, a son of Tapit, for $400,000 and Cursor, a daughter of Quality Road, for $340,000.

“I participated in helping pick them out along with Courtland’s advisers and their farm manager, Ernie Retamoza Jr.,” Hennig said.

Adam purchased two other horses at that sale whom Hennig started at the Belmont meet. Battle Joined, a daughter of War Front, sold for $500,000, and Spectacular Jack, a son of Tapit, was purchased for $550,000.

Adam, 81, has been involved in racing since the 1990s. His best horse has been Film Maker, who earned $2.2 million and finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf in 2004 and 2006 and third in that race in 2005.

Strike Charmer, a 6-year-old turf mare owned by Adam, has won the Grade 3 Beaugay and Grade 2 Ballston Spa since being turned over to Hennig this year. She is being pointed to the Grade 1 Matriarch, a one-mile race at Del Mar on Dec. 4.

Bourbon Lane Stable has sent horses to Hennig for the first time this year. They won a pair of New York-bred 2-year-old maiden races together at the Belmont fall meet. Bourbon Empire scored a 20-1 upset in his career debut last Wednesday, and Paz the Bourbon won a six-furlong turf race Sept. 10.

“Paz the Bourbon was part of the first horses Bourbon Lane Stable sent me,” Hennig said.

◗ In addition to Capitaine, who earned an 83 Beyer Speed Figure in his maiden win, and Mo Town, who is coming off a seven-length victory for trainer Tony Dutrow, the Nashua field includes Han Sense, who was second in the Grade 3 Grey at Woodbine in his last start; Boys From Boston, who was second in the Fitz Dixon Jr. Memorial at Presque Isle Downs on Oct. 6; and the maiden Hemsworth.