Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition

Trainer Andy Gladd on a roll

- By Mary Rampellini

Trainer Andy Gladd has been on such a roll this year that he sent out a 41-1 shot for a halflength win in a deep field in last month’s Kip Deville at Remington Park. Final Arrow paid $85.

Gladd, who has won seven races from 41 starts at Remington, is on pace to eclipse his best year as a trainer, which came in 2012. He won 36 races that year and his trainees earned $418,168. So far in 2017, the Gladd stable has won 33 races and earned $357,790.

“It’s been super,” said Gladd, a 52-year-old native of Tahlequah, Okla.

Gladd has a 30-horse stable at Remington, with Final Arrow one of the barn’s top young prospects. He took the lead in the Kip Deville, a six-furlong race for 2-year-olds, through a half-mile in 44.20 seconds, and kept on to cover the distance in 1:10.30.

“He gutted it out, and what was tremendous was by the time he was getting back toward the test barn, he was really bouncing,” Gladd said. “He’s stayed on his feed. Never backed out of his feed after running a race like that. We’re just lucky to get him.”

Final Arrow was a private purchase by T and M Precision Services. In his first start for his new connection­s, he won a $25,000 maiden-claiming race by 8 1/2 lengths at Remington Park. He came back one start later to upset the Kip Deville.

“They called me about him, we watched him, we liked him, and we bought him,” Gladd said. “He went to training really well on this track. The good Lord was with us. He just turned out to be better than everybody expected.”

Gladd said Final Arrow could return in the Clever Trevor Stakes, a seven-furlong race Nov. 3 at Remington. Gladd said another spot is a division of the Texas Stallion Stakes, which will be run Nov. 4 at Retama Park.

Gladd said he is hopeful Final Arrow will be effective over more distance, in part because of how he galloped out following the Kip Deville. The horse was the first stakes winner for the young stallion Crossbow, by Bernardini. Final Arrow’s dam, Final Trick, won a division of the Texas Stallion Stakes at 2.

Gladd has a couple of other runners in the barn targeting upcoming stakes. Go Apple Jack is being pointed for the Oklahoma Classics Filly and Mare Sprint and Pipefighte­r is on deck for the Oklahoma Classics Sprint. The races are Oct. 20 at Remington.

Gladd hails from a racing family, as his father, Paul, trained, as did several of his uncles. Andy, however, went down a different career path.

“I said I would never train horses,” Gladd said. “I’ve been in constructi­on all my life. My dad got sick with cancer. I started going and helping him. He passed away and the next thing I knew I had 30 horses in the barn.”

That was 2008. Gladd made the decision to train, and saddled his first winner in March of that year at Will Rogers Downs. He now keeps a circuit of Will Rogers, Lone Star Park, and Remington. Gladd also is active at Fair Meadows, and this summer he was the track’s leading trainer with a 19-for-56 record.

Terra’s Angel back in Texas

Terra’s Angel has come home to Texas. The winner of the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf on Sept. 4 will headline the $75,000 La Senorita Stakes on Saturday night at Retama Park near San Antonio. She drew post 2 of nine for the one-mile turf race for 2-year-old fillies. The La Senorita will share a card with the $75,000 El Joven, a mile turf race for 2-year-olds that drew 12.

The La Senorita is slotted as the fifth race, and the El Joven the seventh. First post for the nine-race card is 6:45 p.m. Central.

Terra’s Angel got her start in Texas, winning a maiden special weight in her debut May 13 at Lone Star Park. She traveled to Southern California and ran third in the Grade 2 Sorrento before the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf. She will be moving back to the grass following a sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Chandelier on Sept. 30 at Santa Anita.

Sasha Risenhoove­r has the mount for trainer Terry Eoff.

◗ Gary Weir, a longtime breeder and owner based in Arkansas, died Wednesday at 75, according to a family friend. Weir is widely recognized in the state for his long-running television role as Bozo the Clown. Weir also produced and hosted a popular replay show called the Oaklawn Report.

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