Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Contessa returns to training to work for Bell Gable Stable
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Gary Contessa, who last year said he “had enough” of training horses and announced his retirement after 35 years, officially comes out of retirement Friday when he starts Trust your instinct in Aqueduct’s eighth race, a $40,000 claimer for New Yorkbreds at six furlongs.
It will be Contessa’s first starter since last March 21 at Tampa Bay Downs.
Contessa, who has won 2,364 races since 1985, announced last December that in 2021 he was going to begin training privately for Nick and Delora Beaver’s Bell Gable Stable. Though he will ultimately be based at Delaware Park, Trust your instinct has been at Belmont for the last few weeks.
Contessa initially went to work for Bell Gable last spring, overseeing the stable’s breeding operation and racing operation, which had horses with a handful of trainers. Contessa said Nick Beaver asked what it would take for him to return to training.
“I said I want to be a salaried employee of yours,” Contessa said. “He said, ‘No problem.’ ”
Contessa said his duties will go beyond training. He will assist in the breeding operation, “evaluate the weanlings, the yearlings, do work for him at sales,” Contessa said.
“It’s been a wonderful experience so far,” Contessa said. “He’s one in a million.”
Contessa said that Beaver told him, “If a horse gets an injury, stop on him. If a horse can’t compete, give him to someone to make a riding horse but have that person sign a contract that if anything goes wrong to give him back to us.”
Contessa said he expects this year to be “a little bit slow” as he helps build the stable with young horses.
“We will have claimers and stuff, but we’ll be losing them and replace them with weanlings and yearlings and build that stable with more and more quality year after year,” he said.
Trust your instinct was beaten as a 1-10 favorite in a four-horse field in his last start Feb. 4 at Laurel Park. Contessa is adding blinkers to his equipment Friday.
“He’s a bit of a hanger,” he said. “He might be a hanger with blinkers on, too, but I figured it’s something I have to try.”
Contessa said he would not be at Aqueduct on Friday as he will just be coming back from the sales in Florida and setting things up at Delaware Park, whose backside just opened this week.
Handal running two in Cicada
Following a fruitless February, trainer Ray Handal is enjoying a marvelous March. It’s a trend he hopes continues when he sends out two runners in Saturday’s $100,000 Cicada Stakes at Aqueduct.
Handal went 0 for 14 between Aqueduct and Turfway in February, and has gone 5 for 11 between those two tracks in March through Sunday.
In Saturday’s Cicada, Handal entered both Irish Constitution and Just Read It in the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies, which drew a field of five.
Irish Constitution will be coming back just eight days after winning a New York-bred first-level allowance by 4 1/4 lengths, earning a career-best 74 Beyer Speed Figure.
“She bounced out of the race with good energy,” said Handal, noting that when he worked for trainer Rick Dutrow, “he would run horses, specifically fillies who were in good form, back on short rest.”
Just Read It won a six-furlong maiden race by 6 1/4 lengths here Jan. 31. Handal tried her on Turfway’s synthetic surface in the Cincinnati Trophy Stakes, where she finished a well-beaten sixth.
Handal said he ran Just
Read It at Turfway because the filly had worked well at the sale over Ocala’s synthetic surface. But Turfway’s synthetic is not the same as Ocala’s, and Just Read It simply didn’t handle it, Handal said.
Handal said jockey Emmanuel Esquivel told him Just Read It “wasn’t extending and stretching out” at Turfway.
“She came back and cooled out fine after the race,” Handal said.
Also entered in the Cicada were Save, Salt Plage, and Exogen.
Miss Brazil targets Test
Trainer Tony Dutrow is freshening Ruthless Stakes winner Miss Brazil for a summer campaign, with the major target being the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 7 at Saratoga.
Miss Brazil went back to the track Wednesday for the first time since she finished second to Search Results in the Busher Invitational here March 6. Dutrow said Miss Brazil simply jogged with the pony.
Dutrow said he will consider one or two starts for Miss Brazil prior to the Test. The first option could be the $150,000 Jersey Girl on June 6, or he could wait for the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes on July 10. Both races are at Belmont Park.
“I backed off her a little bit,” Dutrow said. “In the big picture, the Test is the one I’m wanting to get to.”
◗ Weyburn, the Grade 3 Gotham winner, worked a halfmile in 50.93 seconds Wednesday morning at Belmont Park. He is expected to make his next start in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 3.