Same As earns shot at Fair Grounds Handicap
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the saying goes. So, yeah, okay, no one really is calling horses like Same As and Salengo trash, but both horses were culled from the holdings of prominent owners and breeders Alain and Gerard Wertheimer and trainer Todd Pletcher. Same As, a 5-year-old by Smart Strike, made one start for Pletcher and Wertheimer et Frere in July 2014; Salengo posted timed workouts at Saratoga and Palm Beach Downs but never made the races for Pletcher.
Trainer Jeff Engler, shopping for the Galloping Gator stables, bought both horses in a package deal last fall, and for both, so far, so good. Same As already has two wins, a third, and a fourth at the Fair Grounds meet, and a convincing last-out allowance race score has earned him a start Saturday in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap. Salengo debuted this past Monday and won an older-horse maiden dirt sprint by almost six lengths, earning an 86 Beyer Speed Figure.
Galloping Gator is composed of Wayne Carucci and Mick Cronin, the latter the coach of the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team. Same As and Salengo, improbably, are the first two horses they’ve owned.
But Engler, an Ohioan spending his fourth season at Fair Grounds, has a longer history rolling the dice with older horses like Same As and Salengo.
“We kind of seek them out anytime you get a horse with a pedigree like this who for whatever reason wasn’t working out for the people that had him,” Engler said.
Chocolate Ride will be favored to win the Fair Grounds Handicap for the second year in a row, and a year ago he won the race one start after scoring a first-level allowance victory. That’s the same move Engler is making with Same As, who was impressive Feb. 6, though not to the same extent as Chocolate Ride, who came home a sizzling final quarter-mile in a nine-furlong race before winning the Fair Grounds Cap.
“The big question was do we want to put him back in 14 days? And all indications from him were, ‘Put me in, coach,’ ” Engler said. “Every race and every day he goes to the track, he looks better and better. He’s just a really happy horse right now, and I just felt like he deserves a shot.”