Old-school approach suits Amermans fine

The Arlington Million, once unique among North American events, retains its reputation as an honest institution, complete with a hardearned lore. John Henry’s inaugural triumph. The devastating grandstand fire. And then the Miracle Million, followed by the resurrection of Arlington Park as a modern architectural wonder.

Through its first decade and a half, the Arlington Million was a race a horse needed to win to become a champion. At least, it helped. After the era of John Henry and Perrault came Estrapade, Manila, Steinlen, Tight Spot, and Paradise Creek. More recently the winner’s circle has been graced by world-class grass masters like Gio Ponti, Cape Blanco, The Tin Man, Little Mike, Mondialiste, and The Pizza Man.

If you want to win the Million, you need to bring you’re “A” game, which Beach Patrol found out last year in his breakout score over a pair of talented Euros. Beach Patrol did not return to defend his title in Saturday’s 35th running of the Million, though in his place Chad Brown has dispatched three from his New York stable in an attempt to win a second straight.

That may not be enough to deal with Oscar Performance, a son of Kitten’s Joy owned by John and Jerry Amerman and trained by Brian Lynch. He will be favored Saturday, and if he runs back to his 2018 course-record debut in Belmont’s Poker, the rest of the field might be scrambling for second money.

Despite his birth year of 2014, Oscar Performance seems like some kind of throwback racehorse, a Thoroughbred athlete dropped into the midst of the modern game from a time barely recalled. He is an American homebred of solid Irish ancestry who won Grade 1 races at 2 and 3 and will undoubtedly win more at 4. He races with neither Bute, Lasix, blinkers, wraps, nor shadow roll, although he does sport a dark nasal strip that might be more a fashion statement than anything. Around the Amerman house, they simply call him Oscar.

“One of my sisters said, ‘That’s a dumb name for a horse,’ ” Jerry Amerman said from their Peacefield Farm in Temecula, Calif., where they keep about 45 lay-ups, retirees, and horses training for new careers. “Whatever you call him, you have to be very, very lucky to breed a horse like him. It’s been a privilege to own him.”

Jerry Amerman hails from Alabama, where she was saddled with the mysterious first name of her grandmother, Jerome. This did not prevent her from meeting and marrying a New Jersey businessman named John Amerman, who went on to be CEO of the Mattel Toy Co. for 11 years. Among the things they shared was a passion for the racing Thoroughbred.

“I’ve followed racing for so long, my idea of a trainer is Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons and Woody Stephens,” Jerry said. “I saw Kelso and Carry Back run against each other at Monmouth Park, and I was very disappointed that Carry Back beat him that day. But there hasn’t been anything like Kelso since then.”

Amerman recalls the first morning she saw the young, unstarted version of Oscar Performance in training at Saratoga, two summers ago.

“We were standing by the rail watching him go by, and my daughter could only say, ‘Whoa!’ ” Amerman said. “It looked like the rider just couldn’t stop him. And when he didn’t come back, didn’t come back, you had to wonder if he ever stopped.”

He did, of course, and in plenty of time to get his sea legs in his first maiden race and then blow the doors off his second, with a 10 1/4-length victory that put a bright star by his name. Two races later, he was in the winner’s circle at Santa Anita Park after taking the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf from Coolmore’s Lancaster Bomber.

Oscar Performance was providing the Amermans their second Breeders’ Cup trophy and first since Adoration’s upset of the Distaff in 2003. In addition, the dark blue and white Amerman Racing colors have been carried by such major stakes winners as Lido Palace, Happyanunoit, Siphonic, Spoken Fur, Mash One, and Balance, Zenyatta’s older sister.

A trip to the Arlington Million will bring back fond memories for the Amermans, who were part of the Team Valor syndicate that owned 1993 Million winner Star of Cozzene.

“This sounds terrible, but I remember waking up in the middle of the night before the race and it was pouring rain,” Amerman said. “We thought, ‘Oh, thank god!’ because Star of Cozzene loved soft turf.”

The downpour also prompted Shug McGaughey to scratch pre-race favorite Lure, leaving Star of Cozzene to trot home by 3 1/4 lengths.

The Midwest has been lashed with an unpredictable wave of storms this summer, leaving Saturday’s course condition up for grabs. Oscar Performance has an impressive win on yielding Belmont turf in the Pilgrim and a dismal outing at Churchill Downs on deepish ground in the American Turf. It’s not likely he’ll get a firm course like he did at Belmont for his return in the Poker, in which he ran a mile in 1:31.23, but there’s no harm in checking the weather.

“Whatever happens, we were hoping to get back to the Million with a horse like Oscar some day,” Amerman said. “And here we are.”