Needs Supervision shrugs off stumble at Silverbulletday gate
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
NEW ORLEANS – Jerry O’Dwyer, a 37-year-old native of Ireland, showed up two winters ago at Laurel Park with three horses he had been fooling around with in Kentucky and the hope of striking out as a head horse trainer. On Saturday, on a blustery evening in New Orleans, he left Fair Grounds with his first stakes win and the hope of having a filly for the Kentucky Oaks after Needs Supervision won the $150,000 Silverbulletday Stakes by three-quarters of a length.
Needs Supervision stumbled right out of the gate, but quickly picked herself up and tracked the pace of Fun Finder and Liora through a quarter-mile in 24.12 and a half in 49.57, the second quarter-mile run into a 30-mile-per-hour headwind. Joe Rocco moved Needs Supervision three wide around the far turn, made the lead just past the quarter-pole, and his mount held off 31-1 shot Eres Tu, who jumped up with easily the best race of her brief career.
Needs Supervision paid $7 to win and earned 10 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks. She also provided her trainer, a former exercise rider for Fair Grounds trainers Al Stall and Andrew McKeever, his first stakes win. It was the third straight tally for Needs Supervision following a Laurel maiden win and a Churchill Downs first-level allowance victory.
The Churchill win in a one-turn sloppy mile was decisive and quick, and after it prominent owners Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, and Madaket Stables bought 80 percent of the filly from her original owner, Mike Karty’s Howling Pigeon Farm.
Having high-profile connections might have turned the pressure up on O’Dwyer, who shipped Needs Supervision to New Orleans by van early this week.
“Her homework was so good, and I was confident in her staying two turns her first try,” O’Dwyer said. “That’s just the type of filly she’s been from day 1. But you’re always speculating how good they are when they have to step up.”
The top two were much the best, with Grandaria, favored at 3-2, closing mildly for third, more than five lengths behind Eres Tu.
“She might need a little more distance and pace,” said Grandaria’s trainer, Brendan Walsh. “She didn’t disgrace herself and ran all the way to the wire.”
Liora, winner of the Grade 2 Golden Rod in her most recent start, backed up in the stretch and finished fourth.
“At the top of the lane I didn’t think I was going to get beat at all,” jockey Channing Hill said. “She gave me like four good strides and she shut down.”
Eres Tu, trained by Steve Asmussen, had been fourth behind Grandaria here last month in a first-level allowance race and took a serious step forward Saturday.
Needs Supervision is by Paynter and out of the Carson City mare Moroccan Rose. She clocked a mild 1:45.34 for one mile and 70 yards on a drying-out track that was upgraded from good to fast earlier in the card.
O’Dwyer said he planned to leave Needs Supervision at Fair Grounds to train for her next start, which could come Feb. 16 in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes. Needs Supervision raced on Lasix for the first time Saturday; O’Dwyer said she had bled a little bit and “it was the right thing to do by her to put her on Lasix.”
O’Dwyer has established himself in Maryland now, but figures to spend ample time in New Orleans overseeing his stable star.
“It’s not just a one-man show. We’ve plenty of partners who have been there and done it all before. It’s my first time going down this road, and I’m going to be looking for advice,” O’Dwyer said.
That’s a decent plan, but from the look of things, the neophyte stakes trainer doesn’t need much supervision.
