Story to Tell helping lift Hendricks barn

DEL MAR, Calif. – Story to Tell has romped around Del Mar with such ease in recent mornings that trainer Dan Hendricks is confident going into Sunday’s $200,000 Best Pal Stakes. Story to Tell won the W.L. Proctor Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 13, and Hendricks wants to try for another stakes win before the division swells with recent maiden-race winners.

“We’ll get it before the others catch up,” Hendricks said. “There will be new ones coming out of the woodwork every week.”

Perhaps it is the owners and trainers of other 2-year-olds who should fear Story to Tell.

Story to Tell was a game second in the Santa Anita Juvenile in his stakes debut June 22 and returned to beat three rivals in the Proctor. Hendricks began thinking of a start in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes after watching Story to Tell exercise on the Polytrack synthetic surface at Del Mar in mid-July.

“He acts like he likes this track,” he said. “Everything has worked out well. I couldn’t be happier with him.”

Hendricks expected Story to Tell to be a success. Story to Tell was purchased by Cecil Peacock of Calgary for $200,000 at the Barretts March sale of select 2-year-olds in training. Peacock and Hendricks raced Brother Derek, the winner of the 2006 Santa Anita Derby and the fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby.

Story to Tell has earned $118,600 in his three-race career. The colt is by Bluegrass Cat, who finished second ahead of Brother Derek in the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

“Any time you put up $200,000, you hope you have a stakes horse,” Hendricks said. “I’ve seen it go both ways.”

Hendricks hopes Story to Tell can handle the distances in the longer races for 2-year-olds. Story to Tell beat maidens over 4 1/2 furlongs in his debut and won the Proctor over six furlongs. The Best Pal is run over 6 1/2 furlongs and is a prep for the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity over seven furlongs Sept. 3.

“He’s a happy, little horse, and he’s got a great mind,” Hendricks said. “He runs just off the pace and makes a strong run. If he keeps going, the added distance won’t be a problem.”

Story to Tell has been part of a revival for Hendricks this summer. The Proctor was the stable’s first stakes win since Rigoletta won the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes at Hollywood Park in 2010. Last Friday, Irish Surf won the Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap for Hendricks. Irish Surf is a candidate for the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 24.

Irish Surf gave the stable its sixth win of 2014. Hendricks has 17 runners at Del Mar this summer.

“We just had a lull – that happens,” Hendricks said. “We were down on 2-year-olds, but it’s picked up.”

The success comes 10 years after Hendricks suffered a spinal-cord injury in an off-road-vehicle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

“It took five years to get used to it,” he said. “Now, it’s second nature. You don’t think of it. If it weren’t for keeping busy at the barn or with the kids, it would have been hard.”

Hendricks, who is divorced, has three adult children – Chris, who works for Starbucks; Matt, who is training to be a pilot; and Greg, 18, who is exercising horses for his father this summer. They are as busy as their father, whose barn could have a memorable August.