Locally Owned, Lone Rock could meet again in Aftercare Alliance Stakes
ELMONT, N.Y. - All that cheering and screaming around the Keeneland sales grounds shortly after 2:30 p.m. Saturday was not about the hammer going down on another seven-figure yearling purchase. Instead, the celebrating was coming from trainer Tom Morley and a gaggle of his friends after watching Locally Owned defeat the odds-on Lone Rock to register a stunning $39 upset in the $300,000 Grand Prix American Jockey Club Invitational at Belmont Park.
Both Locally Owned and Lone Rock are owned by Jason Provenzano’s Flying P Stable, which Morley began training for earlier this season. The pair have had considerable success since, with Locally Owned becoming yet another claim-turned-stakes-winner for the red-hot team.
While many thought Morley and Provenzano had entered Locally Owned solely to help fill the 1 5/8-mile Grand Prix for Lone Rock, such was not the case, as Morley explained Sunday afternoon between looking at and bidding on horses at the Keeneland sale.
“He’s bred that he should relish the longer distance, and when things go his way he’s got a very high level of talent,” Morley said. “His form is littered with a lot of very good races and a lot of bad ones. It’s kind of feast or famine with him. He likes being inside horses and his previous two starts at Saratoga he had outside trips in big fields.
"To be honest, did we think we could beat Lone Rock? No. But did we think we could run second and pick up a $65,000 check. Yes!”
Morley was quick to praise the trip jockey Dylan Davis orchestrated for Locally Owned in the five-horse Grand Prix. Locally Owned saved ground sitting off the dueling leaders before slipping through an ample opening on the rail to seize command into the stretch, after which he edged clear and maintained a safe advantage over the heavy favorite through the final furlong.
“Dylan just sat back and enjoyed the view for as long as he could, got [Locally Owned] comfortable and into a nice rhythm, and he said when the hole opened ‘he just grabbed the bit and ran with me.’
"Was it a surprise we won? Of course it was. But for a big purse, you have to take a shot.”
Morley and Provenzano partnered for the first time this past winter at the Fair Grounds.
“It was a situation where Jay was looking for a trainer to claim some horses down there and several people were sweet enough to recommend me to him,” Morley recalled. “And we’ve been very lucky ever since. Jay has a sound claiming program. We do a lot of video work and research.
"We like to look for horses who have back class, who have proved they could do it before. For example, Tell Your Daddy had run a huge race in the Shakertown and Locally Owned had run a real big one last summer at Saratoga. Now we have to see if this guy can do it again.”
As for Lone Rock, whose four-race winning streak came to a disappointing end with his second-place finish in the Grand Prix, trainer Robertino Diodoro said all was well the morning after the race.
“He hardly drank any water and cooled out well back at the barn,” Diodoro said. “I’m not sure what the deal was, but he got very washy in the paddock, which he’s never really done before. He had sweat dripping off his belly. Usually he never turns a hair. But I’m not going to make any excuses. It just wasn’t his day.”
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Morley and Diodoro said Locally Owned and Lone Rock could meet again in the 1 5/8-mile, Grade 2 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at Del Mar on the Breeders’ Cup undercard on Nov. 6.
Diodoro also confirmed Sunday that his top-rated 3-year-old Keepmeinmind would make his next start Saturday in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. Keepmeinmind finished second in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and fourth in the Grade 1 Travers - beaten both times by Exclusive Quality - in his last two starts at Saratoga.
“He worked very well here Saturday and we’re going to Pennsylvania because it looks like the race is coming up with some speed in it,” Diodoro said. “That’s what made us turn there.”
Diodoro said Joel Rosario would again be aboard Keepmeinmind in the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.