From savvy claim to stable star, Ohio earning his keep and then some

ARCADIA, Calif. – The first goal was simply to win a race at Del Mar.

Last spring, trainer Michael McCarthy approached two clients – Bruce Treitman and Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners – with the idea of claiming Ohio, a 7-year-old Brazilian-bred gelding who was graded stakes-placed in 2016.

“We thought we’d get ourselves a horse that would be live at Del Mar,” McCarthy recalled on Sunday.

They claimed Ohio for $50,000 last June and he won a $28,000 claimer at a mile on turf last August in his only start of the Del Mar summer meeting. The objective was achieved.

Since then, Ohio has accomplished more than anyone involved could have reasonably expected, winning two stakes that have positioned him at the fore of California’s turf mile division.

Ohio won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita on April 6 in a 9-1 upset and is scheduled to start in Monday’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile here. The $500,000 Shoemaker Mile is worth $300,000 to the winner. There is an added prize for first-place – a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile here on Nov. 2.

Though it seemed impossible last summer, Ohio, the former mid-level claimer, could be bound for the BC Mile in a few days.

“This is a huge ask for the horse, coming off a Grade 1 win,” McCarthy said. “I don’t see any reason not to give it a try.”

Ohio, who has won 9 of 26 starts and $488,065, began his career in Brazil where he won three races in 2014 and 2015 before being sent to Argentina where he won an allowance race in September 2015.

In 2016, Ohio began his American career with trainer Paulo Lobo, and he won two of his first three starts in this country. Ohio was winless in eight graded stakes from mid-2016 to early 2018, with his best finish in that span a third in the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile in 2016.

Ohio finished second in a $50,000 claimer in April 2018 in his first start for a price, and McCarthy and his clients claimed him in his next start.

It was an easy sell. McCarthy said Treitman is a client “always looking for a bit of action.”

As for Wellman, “Aron was a fan of Ohio’s from the start,” McCarthy said. “He was interested in purchasing the horse privately.”

Ohio won his first start for them – the $28,000 claimer at Del Mar – in 1:33.66 for a mile on turf. An hour earlier, Catapult had won the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf in 1:33.40. Ohio’s win also represented the seventh winner of the day for jockey Drayden Van Dyke, equaling a single-day record at Del Mar.

Ohio’s fast time gave McCarthy and the gelding’s owners a reason to try him in the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile on turf at Santa Anita last October. Ohio finished third, 2 1/4 lengths behind winner Sharp Samurai.

“We took a shot and the horse ran well again,” McCarthy said.

Ohio closed from last of 12 to finish seventh in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar last November in his final start of 2018.

In his first start this year, Ohio won the $75,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Handicap at a mile on turf at Turf Paradise on Jan. 12. Sent off at 4-5, Ohio won by 6 1/2 lengths. It was a minor stakes win, but an important one.

“The race in Arizona turned him around,” McCarthy said. “It was a confidence thing with him, more than anything.”

Ohio was second to True Valour in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Feb. 9 before winning the Kilroe Mile by the narrowest of margins over Catapult, who is also a contender for the Shoemaker Mile.

“He’s been an easy horse to keep around,” McCarthy said. “He’s an old warrior. I think we’ve caught him on an upswing.”

After the Shoemaker Mile, Ohio will be considered for the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf at Del Mar on July 21 and the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on Aug. 18.

“We’ll have a little bit of a break after this until Del Mar,” McCarthy said. “I think maybe a mile and an eighth is within his scope. In the Kilroe, it looked like it would be a mile and a jump.”

This has been a career year for McCarthy, 48. In January, he won the $9 million Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park with City of Light, who won the BC Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs last November.

City of Light has since been retired to stud. Ohio is McCarthy’s lone graded stakes winner since the Pegasus World Cup.

“It’s going to take something special to replace something like that,” McCarthy said of City of Light’s absence. “To participate in big races on big days is what we’re here for.”

Ohio has developed into the star of McCarthy’s stable this spring. Since being claimed nearly a year ago, Ohio has earned $351,920.

The figure could rise substantially on Monday.