Hovdey: Game On Dude gets rep as ‘El Exigente'

In a quiet ceremony on Wednesday afternoon, the ashes of champions Charismatic and Hidden Lake were laid to rest beneath their recently delivered headstones in one of the two memorial gardens at Old Friends Equine near Georgetown, Ky.

They are in good company.

The special ground is dedicated to the memory of the late Nikki Bacharach, the daughter of Old Friends benefactor Burt Bacharach, whose Grade 1 winner Afternoon Deelites is an Old Friends resident. Charismatic and Hidden Lake are now there alongside Hall of Famers Noor and Skip Away.

“Nikki loved yellow, which is the color of the flowers that bloom there every spring,” said Old Friends president Michael Blowen.

It is the nature of the retirement farm business that death is an ever-present possibility. Charismatic was 21 when he was lost to complications of a fractured pelvis earlier this year, while Hidden Lake, the farm’s senior mare, lived to be 23.

Little Mike is only 10, a mere pup by the standards of Old Friends, but already he has made an impression as the only critter able to call Game On Dude’s considerable bluff.

Boasting his three Santa Anita Handicaps and $6.5 million in earnings, Game On Dude, also a spry 10, ran roughshod over a couple of paddock playmates at Old Friends before he was joined by Little Mike, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Arlington Million.

“They race around the paddock together, and Little Mike doesn’t give an inch,” Blowen said. “At first I think Game On Dude resented it, but I think he’s enjoying it now.”

At least Game On Dude can lord over Little Mike when it comes to crossover name recognition. Dan Kelliher, whose fine mare Klassy Briefcase was an Old Friends resident until her death in 2013, has helped connect two of Old Friends star retirees to a high-end coffee product from an emerging micro-roastery based in Colorado.

Erie Coffee Roasters, which deals only in direct-trade beans, now offers Game On Dude Dark Mountain Blend, described as “smooth but with rich body, nutmeg, cocoa, and hazelnut with a pomegranate nose during grinding.” His picture is on both the 12 oz. and 5 lb. packages.

Also offered is War Emblem Dark Bean Roast, honoring the champion and dual classic winner who lives by himself in an Old Friends paddock, because he does not play well with others. War Emblem Dark Bean Roast is “big-bodied, dark cherry, cocoa with a clean, sweet briskness.”

“I don’t know about the sweet part,” said Blowen. “As long as it has bite.”

Following the money

Want to know how to make your race a Grade 1 event? Just follow these simple instructions:

Take one solidly established Grade 2 race for 3-year-olds, position late in the summer or early fall, subsidize a million-dollar purse with casino cash, then pay owners and trainers appearance money to bring an exclusive group of Grade 1 winners to town, thereby gaming the graded race system.

Stir for four years and presto! Welcome to Saturday’s first running of the Pennsylvania Derby as a Grade 1 event.

:: Get bonus PPs and watch Saturday's card live from Parx

Full credit should go to Parx management for getting it done, and for their efforts they have landed a solid field that includes division heavyweights West Coast, Irish War Cry, Timeline, and Irap. Five of the 10 starters will share in percentages of the $1 million purse, while the other five receive a guaranteed $10,000.

Except for West Coast. Per the conditions of the race, the Travers winner is a special horse. For just showing up with West Coast, owners Gary and Mary West will receive $50,000, thank you. So will Bob Baffert, who trains the high-rolling colt.

In addition to the Travers winner, the only connections eligible for the appearance money are those with the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, and Haskell Invitational. The presence of such runners over a four- to five-year stretch virtually guarantees an upgrade, and the American Graded Stakes Committee doesn’t care how you got them.

Since the appearance money bonus began in 2013, the eligible runners Nyquist, Exaggerator, Bayern, California Chrome, and Will Take Charge have enhanced the quality of the field. In the six previous runnings as a million-dollar event without appearance fees, there were only three Pennsylvania Derby runners who won one of the division’s marquee events.

As for Girvin, the Haskell Invitational winner who didn’t fire in the Travers, he will be running this weekend, but at Remington Park in the Grade 3 Oklahoma Derby for less than half the Parx purse.

“I’m not the biggest fan of the Parx surface for my horse,” said Joe Sharp, Girvin’s trainer, who has plenty of experience at both tracks. “The owner and I have had a lot of luck winning races at Remington, so the idea is to boost the colt’s confidence, and get him back in the same mind-set he was in winning the Haskell.”

But how about that $50,000 appearance fee Sharp is leaving on the table?

“You can always use $50,000,” Sharp replied. “But we’re hoping to make a whole lot more than that with Girvin over the next couple of years.”