Owner Harry Rosenblum Happy With Colt He Kept

Harry Rosenblum will have an eye on a horse running far south Saturday afternoon, then on a horse named Far Right Sunday afternoon. Rosenblum co-owns Far Right, who won the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 19 and is the 5-2 program favorite for Sunday’s $300,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn. Rosenblum also owned another promising 3-year-old prospect, War Story, before selling the gelding privately following his Nov. 1 career debut victory at Churchill Downs. Now with trainer Tom Amoss at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, War Story is scheduled to run in Saturday’s $400,000 Risen Star Stakes (G2).

“I feel like we kept the best horse,” Rosenblum said.

A native of Little Rock, Ark., Rosenblum said War Story being a gelding weighed heavily in his decision to sell the horse, adding he made a “handsome profit” on the transaction. Rosenblum had purchased the son of Northern Afleet for $51,000 at last May’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale.

“Geldings are only going to make what geldings can make,” said Rosenblum, a prominent Arkansas financial advisor. “You have to do your math and think about, ‘Well, what’s that the horse can make, X net, net, net of expenses?’ That’s kind of the thing that I did. You have to treat it as a business.”

Asked if he would have still sold War Story – if he didn’t also own Far Right – Rosenblum said he was uncertain. But, Rosenblum said the profit from the sale allowed him to purchase Sakima, a 3-year-old Curlin colt, from owner/breeder WinStar Farm late last fall. Sakima broke his maiden Jan. 17 at Oaklawn and ran fourth in a Thursday entry-level allowance race.

Rosenblum noted Sakima’s second dam, Tomisues Delight, was a millionaire, multiple Grade 1 winner and a full sister to 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft.

“So Sakima’s got those type of bloodlines, and he’s a colt,” Rosenblum said. “That’s kind of where I’d rather be.”

Rosenblum said he’s was looking to buy “two or three good 2-year-olds” last year and privately purchased Far Right in the summer after the Notional colt had made his first two career starts in Kentucky. Far Right went on to run fourth in the $200,000 Futurity Stakes (G2) Oct. 5 at Belmont Park and an unlucky third in the $1 million Delta Jackpot Stakes (G3) Nov. 22 at Delta Downs.

War Story, in his first start for Amoss, won a Dec. 28 entry-level allowance race at Fair Grounds before running second in the $200,000 LeComte Stakes (G3) Jan. 17. He was originally entered in the Southwest when it was scheduled to be run last Monday, but Amoss opted to return the gelding to the Fair Grounds, citing post position (11) and the forecast of winter weather. The Southwest was subsequently postponed six days because of icy conditions.

Asked if he would have felt strange watching Far Right and War Story run against each other for the first time in the Southwest, Rosenblum said, “Not really.”

Rosenblum sold one-third interest in Far Right to Robert LaPenta following the Delta Jackpot and also owns Gentlemen’s Bet, who finished third in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Who’s the Boss?

Boss Barney’s Babe is scheduled to make her 2015 debut in Saturday’s $100,000 Spring Fever Stakes for older fillies and mares at 5 ½ furlongs. She ran third in last year’s Spring Fever, but hasn’t run again after suffering a freak injury in her stall following the race, trainer Bret Calhoun said. He said Boss Barney’s Babe became excited, flipped and fractured her withers.

“It’s not something that happens regularly, but it happens,” Calhoun said. “If they land just wrong on their back, yeah, it could happen. You don’t see it very often, but it happens.”

The injury wasn’t career-threatening, Calhoun said, but required a lengthy break from racing.

“It just took time for the bone to heal,” Calhoun said. “It was just a slow healing injury.”

A 5-year-old daughter of Street Boss, Boss Barney’s Babe has a 4-3-2 record from 16 lifetime starts and earnings of $185,127. She also ran second in last year’s $100,000 American Beauty Stakes at Oaklawn and second in the $75,000 Instant Racing Stakes in 2013 at Oaklawn.