Omaha Red starting to live up to Robertson's expectations
CHICAGO – Even as Hugh Robertson has his stable star Two Emmys back on track after a troubled trip to Keeneland, the Robertson barn might have found its next stable star.
The 3-year-old colt Omaha Red won a maiden race last Friday at Hawthorne by more than 12 lengths, extending his early lead through the homestretch while not being asked by jockey Jareth Loveberry. Omaha Red ran six furlongs on a fast dirt track in 1:09.43, yielding an 88 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I think he’s going to be a pretty nice horse,” Robertson said Monday. “I always like him. He just needed to grow up. He was a bit of a slow learner.”
Omaha Red finished third on Arlington Polytrack in his career debut last summer, then was ninth Oct. 23 in a Keeneland turf sprint. He made his 3-year-old and dirt debut April 3 at Hawthorne, finishing a close second in a 5 1/2-furlong dash, a race that set Omaha Red up for his eye-catching first victory.
Robertson owns Omaha Red with Wolfe Racing, the same partnership that campaigns Two Emmys. Robertson, a master of finding bargain yearlings at auction, paid $4,500 for Two Emmys, who has earned more than $770,000, but he went to $62,000 to acquire Omaha Red, a son of the Louisiana-based stallion Daaher and the mare Upsetter, by Strong Hope.
Robertson said he was focused on acquiring Omaha Red because the colt’s dam is a sister to Hotshot Anna, whom Robertson bought at auction for $20,000 and trained to three graded stakes wins and earnings just shy of $1 million. Robertson’s son, trainer Mac Robertson, looked at the same yearling auction at a half-brother to Hotshot Anna, now an unraced colt named Hammering Hank who sold for $240,000.
“Mac thought this was the better colt, but I didn’t think we’d have to pay that much,” Robertson said.
Omaha Red strikes Robertson as a candidate to stretch out on distance. For now, Robertson will try to find a first-level allowance race for Omaha Red. Robertson, in fact, just won Hawthorne’s most recent first-level dirt-sprint allowance race, run Saturday, with a colt named Coyote Road. Coyote Road was coming off a debut win at Hawthorne and earned a 73 Beyer for his allowance score.
“I don’t think he can outrun Omaha Red, but he’s doing pretty well,” Robertson said. “I had him down at Fair Grounds and he was so dumb the guys who got on him called him The Pony. They said he could pony horses because he never picked up his head. But at the end of the meet, he started coming around.”
Just as Coyote Road was coming around, Two Emmys was winning the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, the second-biggest victory of his career behind last summer’s score in the Grade 1 Mr. D Stakes at Arlington. Back in action at Keeneland on April 14, Two Emmys faded tamely to finish a distant seventh as the 2-1 favorite in the Elkhorn Stakes. The gelding had a clear excuse, however – heatstroke on a hot, humid afternoon.
“He walked and grazed till we got him out of Keeneland, and I just put him back in training at Hawthorne,” Robertson said.
Two Emmys, who has yet to breeze since the Elkhorn, will run next in the $75,000 Outbound Ike Stakes on June 19 as long as he’s training to Robertson’s satisfaction.