Leatherbury sticks to winning formula with Ben's Cat

King Leatherbury acknowledges he had second thoughts following Ben’s Cat’s emphatic victory in last week’s $200,000 Fabulous Strike Stakes at Penn National, but he ultimately decided to follow the same path with the 8-year-old as he has the past three winters.

After all, why mess with a winning formula?

Ben’s Cat looked so good in the Fabulous Strike that Leatherbury was tempted to keep him in training. It’s not easy to let a horse down when he is doing well and has just run what may be his best race of the year.

“I’m going to do the exact same thing I’ve done with him in other years,” Leatherbury said. “I’m going to stop on him and rest him a couple of months. I must admit it’s hard to do off such a big race.”

The Fabulous Strike was huge. Ben’s Cat was forced to go out to the middle of the track entering the stretch. Once there, he found a different gear and pulled away to win by more than three lengths.

His Beyer Speed Figure of 104 is a point higher than his previous best, which he earned twice in 2013 while winning that year’s Fabulous Strike and the Parx Dash on turf. That is no small accomplishment at age 8 for a horse who has won 28 races and more than $2.3 million.

“I think it was his biggest race of the year, and I think he finally proved he can compete on dirt just as well as he can on turf,” Leatherbury said.

Ben’s Cat will winter at the farm of Barbara and Charles Stanley, former clients of Leatherbury, in Warwick, Md.

“He gets the same treatment as everyone else there,” Leatherbury said. “I’ll pick him up in the month of February and start getting him ready. I’ll bring him back on turf in the spring.”

Ben’s Cat went 4 for 8 this year, a remarkably similar record to 2013, when he was 5 for 8, and 2012, when he was 5 for 9. He sure didn’t look like he’d lost anything winning the Fabulous Strike for the third year in a row, and Leatherbury, who is 81, sees no end in sight for the best horse he’s ever had.

“I’m looking forward to his 9-year-old season and, for that matter, his 10-year-old season,” Leatherbury said.