Mare and foal entered on same Saratoga card

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – From the something-you-don’t-see-every-day department, a mare and her first foal will be racing on the same card Wednesday at Saratoga.

Enthusiastic Gal, a 7-year-old mare, is entered to run in a second-level/optional $62,500 claiming race at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, which goes as race 9. Three races earlier, Get Set, a 2-year-old gelding by Awesome of Course out of Enthusiastic Gal, will run in a maiden race, also at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf. Both horses are owned and bred by Joseph Imbesi and trained by Steve Klesaris. Both will be ridden by Jose Lezcano.

“I never had one before, let alone see one before,” Klesaris said about having a mother and foal race on the same card.

Enthusiastic Gal, a daughter of Ecclesiastic out of the Maria’s Mon mare Twiggles, won for maiden $75,000 claiming at Belmont Park in her second career start in October 2015. On New Year’s Day 2016, Enthusiastic Gal, trained then by Shug McGaughey, finished third in a first-level allowance race at Gulfstream Park. Following a subsequent workout, Enthusiastic Gal was found to have a bowed tendon.

Imbesi, a former trainer, believed that given ample time the tendon could heal well enough to bring Enthusiastic Gal back to the races at some point. In the meantime, he bred her to Awesome of Course, a Florida-based stallion who Imbesi felt would help create a small foal.

“I’m a firm believer in giving a bowed tendon at least 18 months,” Imbesi said. “It seemed like a logical thing to do, so we bred her. It was easier to give her the 18 months that way.”

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The breeding took place at Ocala Stud in Florida but the foaling took place on Imbesi’s farm in Pennsylvania. Imbesi believes that the pregnancy, which increases stem cell production, helped heal Enthusiastic Gal’s tendon.

“This bowed tendon is completely and totally healed up,” Imbesi said.

Enthusiastic Gal came back to the races in May 2018. After two losses, she won a $40,000 claiming race at Belmont that July 2018, starting a run of seven races where she had three wins, two seconds and two thirds. Enthusiastic Gal won a first-level allowance at Belmont on May 18 – her fourth win in as many starts at Belmont – before finishing seventh, beaten only 2 3/4 lengths, in the Grade 3 Intercontinental at Belmont on June 6.

“She started out a little slow, but she picked it up from there,” Klesaris said. “This year, she’s had an even better year. She came off the bench and ran a good race in a first-level allowance and wasn’t embarrassed in the Grade 3 behind a very slow first quarter.”

Enthusiastic Gal has yet to run at the 5 1/2-furlong distance of Wednesday’s race. She made her first start in 2015 at Parx at about five furlongs, finishing fourth, beaten 5 1/4 lengths.

“Hopefully, the 5 1/2 is enough distance for her,” Klesaris said. “She kind of excels at six or seven.”

On June 25 at Parx, Get Set made his debut in a 4 1/2-furlong dirt race and finished fourth, beaten six lengths.

“He had been working well but at the break he hesitated a little bit, and at 4 1/2 you can’t blink or they’re all gone,” Klesaris said. “The mother, of course, is a bonafide turf runner. He’s got a build and a foot for the grass, so we said ‘Hey, let’s give it a shot.’”

While the race for Enthusiastic Gal was originally scheduled for Wednesday, the maiden race that Get Set is in was originally scheduled for Sunday and was not used by the racing office and brought back.

“We were pointing to this race with her, then the extra came up and I talked to Steve and I said this is too good to pass up,” Imbesi said. “Now we have a mother and baby running on the same card.”