Forster has a puncher’s chance

Pirate’s Punch will be a longshot in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, but considering where his career was in the summer of 2019, and where he is now, a win would be in line with the odds he’s overcome the past 16 months.

Once considered a fairly promising prospect before his 2-year-old debut, Pirate’s Punch by the summer of his 3-yearold season was an abject disappointment. He had raced five times, and time off, a switch in trainers, riders, and locales, removing and then adding blinkers, and a drop in class, all failed to stop his declining form.

Prior to his sixth start, against maiden $30,000 claimers at Ellis Park on July 6, 2019, he was gelded. He won that day, and with trainer Jeff Mullins heading back to California for Del Mar, the decision was made to leave him in Kentucky, with co-owner Phil Bongiovanni of Gulliver Racing tabbing Grant Forster to take over.

“I happened to win a race that day at Ellis, so that probably helped, too,” Forster said, laughing.

Right place, right time. Pirate’s Punch has made a remarkable turnaround since being gelded, and under Forster’s care. In 11 starts for Forster, he has finished in the money 10 times, while ascending the class ladder to the point where he is now a Grade 3 stakes winner, via his victory last time out in the Salvator Mile at Monmouth. He probably should be a two-time Grade 3 winner, but Pirate’s Punch was disqualified in what politely can be called a controversial decision in the Iselin, his race prior to the Salvator Mile.

“That was disappointing, to say the least,” Forster said Wednesday. “He beat a good horse like Warrior’s Charge after going head and head with him. So to see him come back and validate that in the Salvator Mile was gratifying.”

Forster believes he was the beneficiary of getting Pirate’s Punch, now 4, when he became a different horse owing to being gelded.

“When you watch him train, he looks like a stakes horse,” Forster said. “I don’t have any experience of what he was like when he was a colt, but now he’s the nicest horse to be around.”

Forster, 46, has a year-round circuit that includes Fair Grounds in the winter and Kentucky the rest of the year. Though his home in Kentucky is literally across the street from Churchill Downs, he trains eight miles away at the Churchill Downs training center, where Mike Maker is the best-known resident.

“I prefer it over here,” he said. “It’s quieter for the horses.”

Forster’s small barn will be taking on such mammoth operations as those of Chad Brown (Complexity), Mark Casse (War of Will), and Brad Cox (Knicks Go) in the Dirt Mile. Pirate’s Punch is 20-1 on the Dirt Mile line of Daily Racing Form’s Brad Free, but Forster says on current form, “we think we’re going into the race with a legitimate shot.”

This will be Forster’s first Breeders’ Cup starter. To keep the karma going, he and the owners agreed Jorge Vargas Jr., who rode Pirate’s Punch in his last two starts, will stay aboard. It will be his first Breeders’ Cup mount.

“Him and the horse have great communication,” Forster said.