Saints win caps Breeders' Cup weekend for Amoss, Stall

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tom Amoss will run horses at Churchill Downs through the end of the fall meet, but you can count on one hand the number of days he will actually be here. Amoss is bound for his native New Orleans before week’s end, intent on furthering his status as the all-time winningest trainer at Fair Grounds, which starts its 2018-19 meet on Nov. 15.

“I’ve got some horses to breeze and some other things to take care of,” Amoss said early Monday. “Then I’m outta here.”

Amoss, like many others, had an incredibly busy Breeders’ Cup weekend. Not only did he run Serengeti Empress in the Juvenile Fillies and Lone Sailor in the Classic, but he also served as a frequent analyst on the in-house television Players’ Show while also watching over his stable and – perhaps most importantly – taking in every minute of the New Orleans Saints’ victory Sunday evening over the previously unbeaten Los Angeles Rams.

“I’m so exhausted,” he said with a laugh.

Serengeti Empress conceded the early lead to the eventual winner, Jaywalk, and wound up seventh of 11. Amoss said the filly emerged in good shape and is headed for GoldMark Farm in Ocala, Fla., along with Lone Sailor, who finished a respectable sixth.

“They’ll both get about 30 days off and then we’ll start getting them ready for next year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Al Stall Jr. had a veritable hotline into the Louisiana Superdome as the trainer of Tom’s d’Etat, who returned from a 15-month layoff Sunday at Churchill to easily win a depleted off-the-turf allowance for the GMB Racing of Gayle Benson. The 5-year-old horse earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure with his 7 1/4-length victory going a one-turn mile.

Gayle Benson is the widow of Tom Benson, the longtime Saints owner for whom Tom’s d’Etat is named.

“We were texting back and forth, pre-race and post-race, while she was in the owners’ suite at the game,” said Stall, who plans to leave Sunday and arrive Monday in his native New Orleans.

“Actually, I do a lot of the communicating with her racing manager, Greg Bensel, and my wife, Nicole, is in on it, too. It was all great news, seeing how the horse ran so well and the team won.”

Tom’s d’Etat will be nominated to the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, the highlight of the post-BC segment of the 21-day fall meet, but Stall indicated a 19-day turnaround “might be a little quick, seeing how we just got him back.” The layoff was caused primarily by what Stall termed “an ankle issue,” exacerbated by bone bruising diagnosed “right when we had him all set to run” in early May.

“He’s a good horse,” Stall said. “I’d prefer to maybe wait for the Tenacious,” on Dec. 22 at Fair Grounds, “and then maybe even Miami,” referring to the Jan. 26 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park.

Likewise, one more local trainer with New Orleans roots, Dallas Stewart, was reveling Monday in the Saints win, putting an exclamation point on a productive Breeders’ Cup weekend. Stewart was very happy with how his latest stable star, Seeking the Soul, closed stoutly to earn a career-high 105 Beyer when second behind City of Light in the BC Dirt Mile, setting up the 5-year-old horse for a possible repeat in the 1 1/8-mile Clark, which he won last year.

“Who dat,” said Stewart, using the Saints’ motto.

Commonwealth Turf is next

With another Breeders’ Cup in the books, things will calm considerably here before the Clark and five other graded stakes close the meet during Thanksgiving week (Nov. 21-25). The lone stakes here this coming weekend is the Grade 3, $100,000 Commonwealth Turf, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds.

Among those expected when entries were drawn Wednesday were Hot Springs, a last-out winner of the Jefferson Cup at the September meet for Woodford Racing and trainer Steve Asmussen, along with Discovered, March to the Arch, Rose’s Vision, Sniper Kitten, and perhaps another four or five more.

Two allowances Thursday

Back-to-back allowances will serve as co-features on a 10-race Thursday card that starts at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Givemeaminit, who has competed in stakes races in all but two of 13 career starts for Stewart, finally gets some class relief as one of the favorites in a field of seven 3-year-olds in race 8, a $78,500, first-level sprint. In race 9, an $82,000, second-level turf route for fillies and mares, Stave could be the horse to beat for trainer Larry Jones.