Pocono: Weiss Series standout Lanjo Lee showing continued promise

In some 50 years of interest in this sport, it's rare to find a first of anything. Most horses travel similar paths to reach the races and bloodlines flow through normal channels producing racehorses, and at times stakes horses. Lanjo Lee, a 3-year-old colt pacer by So Surreal, will put his unblemished record in 2022 on the line this Saturday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and his route to this point is far from conventional, and one I truly have never seen before.

Trainer Jeff Sorenson, who helped owner Gordon Lee Swift purchase Lanjo Lee from the Harrisburg Mixed Sale when he was just a weanling in 2019, explained the beginning of the relationship.

"Mr. Swift had been in the breeding business for a long time with just a couple of horses each year," said Sorenson. "He's retired now and still wanted to raise horses but not be in the breeding business."

So, Mr. Swift decided the next best thing would be to purchase weanlings as opposed to yearlings because it would allow him to raise the horse for a year prior to Sorenson taking the controls.

"We would buy two," said Sorenson. "You had to have two to raise together."

Lanjo Lee had enough pedigree for Sorenson to like him, but when he arrived at Harrisburg to inspect the colt, all was far from perfect.

"He was banged up really good," said Sorenson. "He had stitches in his nose and looked like he'd been in a fight."

That inspection didn't deter Sorenson, but it may have sent other potential buyers in a different direction. Perhaps there were other reasons, but when the hammer came down, Mr. Swift owned the So Surreal colt for just $10,000.

"I think we would have gone to $20,000-25,000," said Sorenson in hindsight.

A year or so later, after Mr. Swift had raised and named Lanjo Lee (the first name is a composite of the initials from his grandchildren's first names), Sorenson, a 37-year veteran in the sport, got him to train and hopefully make the races.

"I liked him from the start," said Sorenson. "He always had a high turn of speed."

A New York-bred, Lanjo Lee was staked to the New York Sire Stakes program, and his connections were all set to have him qualified and ready for action for the stakes season when things went south.

"All of a sudden, we were two weeks away from qualifying him, and he started to make breaks for no reason," said Sorenson, recalling the frustration at the time.

"I had to do something, so I took the hopples in and made them very tight," Sorenson said.

That radical move at the time may have been the difference between Lanjo Lee racing last year or at all, and according to Sorenson, it helped develop confidence in the gelding that has since materialized into something greater.

Despite some reasonable expectations, the 2021 racing season didn't go exactly as Sorenson had planned.

"In almost every start he was run into in one way or another," said Sorenson. "In the final [$50,000 Excelsior at Vernon] he just got pushed out of it."

"The only race he didn't have trouble in was the race at Saratoga," said Sorenson, referring to a 1:56 victory last July over the half-mile strip.

Second-guessing is a part of this game and Sorenson too looked back on the six-race season and wondered aloud what could have been different.

"I wanted to race him from behind to teach him to be a racehorse," said Sorenson. "I guess he could have had a better year if we sent him to the lead."

Hindsight is always 20-20, but there's no need to look back given the immense improvement we've already seen from Lanjo Lee this year.

Sorenson had Lanjo Lee ready for action when the 2022 campaign began. On March 9 he qualified just once, a 1:57 2/5 score at Pocono with Tyler Buter getting a chance to sit behind him. The sophomore colt made his season's debut at Saratoga on March 26 and quickly served notice with a 1:55 blowout victory after sitting off the opening half-mile pace. On April 2 he flashed a burst of speed again at Saratoga that gave strong indication of good things to come for the connections. A 1:56 1/5 victory was completed with a 27 flat final quarter over the half-mile track.

Lanjo Lee fit the conditions of the Bobby Weiss Series at Pocono, well under the $30,000 earnings ceiling for nomination. The race would essentially be the first time he was out of New York, and the first time he was going to meet non-New York-sired horses in stakes-caliber competition.

That hardly proved a deterrent for Lanjo Lee, as Buter sat behind him and waited patiently on the pylons through a slow opening-half before giving Lanjo Lee his cue. The gelding responded with a burst of speed that propelled him more than four lengths over his rivals in a then-new personal-best 1:53, over a rain-soaked surface.

Lanjo Lee followed the first leg score with a blistering effort in the second round. Again, perhaps to the trainer's iking, Buter was content to sit off-the-pace in the first-half with the colt. The clocking was just 58 1/5 when Greg The Leg reached the half, but the leader had no answers through a blistering 27 flat third quarter when Lanjo Lee took charge in an instant. The gelding completed the mile in 1:52 4/5, this time winning by five lengths and once again doing so on a sloppy surface.

"We've only got him staked to the New York Sire Stakes," said Sorenson. "He hasn't beaten anybody yet."

That last line could only be spoken from a long-time trainer wary of overly high expectations and how often that gets you into trouble.

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Perhaps in the case of Lanjo Lee, he's already achieved more than maybe some would have anticipated from a horse that didn't cost very much. With $29,000 banked in his four 2022 starts, Lanjo Lee has shown the promise to be more than just a "nice" horse.

On the positive side for the connections, Sorenson said, "I've got 16 horses in training, and I'd have to say he's the soundest."

There are still many more hills to climb with better competition coming out in the next few weeks, and Lanjo Lee needing to pick up his game each time. This Saturday afternoon Lanjo Lee looks for his fifth straight victory of the year and will meet six New York-sired horses in the third leg of the Weiss at Pocono. It will also be the first time Lanjo Lee faces a sophomore that had similar limited success last year and has blossomed rapidly in 2022 by the name of Shake It.

"He's got a very high turn of speed and he can carry it," said Sorenson.

With just 10 career starts to date, Lanjo Lee, the third foal from the Dragon Again-sired mare My Drag Queen, has a world of potential. His older brother Dragon Said only found his groove as a 4-year-old in 2021 and then competed in the MGM Borgata Series this year.

The next few weeks will answer more questions about Lanjo Lee and determine where he'll fit when the New York Sire Stakes program begins on June 1 at Buffalo Raceway.