HORSE RACING
Promises Fulfilled calling it a career after not racing for more than a year./
It had been almost a year since Promises Fulfilled ran. So, it came as no surprise when the news came out on Thursday that the 5-year-old horse, co-owned by Voorheesville’s Bob Baron and Winstar Farm, would run no more.
Winstar announced that Promises Fulfilled would be retired from racing and will enter stud at Winstar Farm for the 2021 breeding season.
In his career, Promises Fulfilled ran 17 times, with seven wins and three third-place finishes. Five of his wins came in graded stakes, including the Grade III Amsterdam and the Grade I Allen Jerkens in the 2018 Saratoga meet. The Jerkens was his lone Grade I victory.
His last race came on Oct. 4, 2019, when he finished sixth in the Grade II Phoenix at Keeneland, a race he won in 2018. Fol
lowing last year’s Phoenix, Promises Fulfilled had surgery to fix a chip in his left front ankle and he never got back to the races. He was set to make his 5-year-old debut in the Grade II True North at Belmont on June 27 but was scratched because of a filling in his leg.
During his career, his five graded stakes wins came at distances from six furlongs to 11⁄
16 miles. After his first two victories as a 2-year-old, his final 15 races all came in stakes company. Eight of them were Grade I races.
“Promises Fulfilled ranks up there with the best horses I’ve trained,” trainer Dale Romans said in a statement released by Winstar. “He is a lot like his sire (Shackleford) in the mental toughness department and he is an extremely intelligent horse. He won major races on all the main stages: Gulfstream, Keeneland, Saratoga and Belmont.”
Baron owned the horse on his own before going into a partnership with Winstar last year.
“When we look for stallion prospects, we want brilliance,” Elliott Walden, Winstar’s president, CEO and racing manager said. “Promises Fulfilled not only meets that criteria, but brings the added benefit of durability, a rare treat for horses with his speed. When you look at his past performances, you see him in front in 15 of 17 starts, no matter the distance.”