Tempt Fate clear winner in Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes,
Jerry Caroom got a rush going to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort before he became a horse owner. With the new role comes responsibilities, not to mention paying bills, but so does the prospect of a photo session in the infield winner’s circle after a big race.
“Not many people have a racetrack in their hometown,” the Hot Springs native said after winning the $150,000 Nodouble Breeders’ for the second time in three years Saturday with Arkansas-bred Tempt Fate.
The meet’s first three-time winner, Tempt Fate got no rest on the lead but found a second wind after turning into the lane and won by 2 3/4 lengths, six furlongs in 1:10.14. Racing about two paths off the rail, the chestnut 4-year-old won for the second time under Joe Talamo after Florent Geroux rode the colt in his first two starts of the season.
An estimated 3,800 fastened on Tempt Fate as the heavy favorite and he paid $3.20, $3 and $2.60.
“He’s a funny horse, doesn’t like to go with the pony before the race, but I tell you what, (trainer Carl Deville) has done a hell of a job with this horse,” Talamo said. “He’s three for three this year. Last year, I was fortunate to win a race on him and I’m very fortunate that he put me back on him for this race.
“He broke well and when we turned for home, he was all horse.”
Tempt Fate has bankrolled
$193,800 in three starts this year, and Caroom has collected
$256,100 in 10 races from the colt that he bought privately from breeders Barry Butzow and Mac Robertson.
Butzow raced sire Hamazing Destiny, a 2009 Oaklawn maiden winner for Robertson who went on to run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and become a Grade
3 winner. Mare Naughty Sister was foaled by Archarcharch, the Arkansas-owned winner of the
2011 Arkansas Derby who died recently. The colt’s actual fourth birthday is not until May 10.
Pulling even with defending champion Mike Sisk (M and M Racing) and Danny Caldwell with his meet-tying seventh winner of the meeting, Caroom is reliving the glory with Tempt Fate that he experienced with Hoonani Road. Trained then by Wayne Catalano, now by Robertino Diodoro, Hoonani Road earned almost $500,000, winning three Oaklawn stakes including the 2019 Nodouble Breeders’. Caroom bought Hoonani Road from local horseman Bobby Lee Hall and credited the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, whom he met on a plane trip, with tips for an aspiring horse owner.
Winning the Nodouble Breeders’ allows one to collect a trophy from Dash Goff, son of the horse’s
famous namesake. The 1968 Arkansas Derby winner and a two-time champion, Nodouble set a so-far unassailable standard of $846,749, most by an Arkansas-bred horse, for the late Gene Goff of Verna Lea Farms in Fayetteville.
Even with two scratches, the 13th Nodouble Breeders’ came up especially strong. Reigning Rainbow and Arkansas Breeders’ champion Man in the Can was making his third start of the year and Bandit Point carried 13 board finishes from 22 Oaklawn starts into the race. J.E.’s Handmedown, bred and owned by former jockey David Whited, owned a stakes win over the track.
Early on, Talamo dealt with Bebop Shoes, whom trainer Renay Borel (wife of jockey Calvin) saddled in the race rather than defending champion K J’s Nobility.
A last-out winner for its threetime Kentucky Derby-winning jockey, Bebop Shoes (owned by Hot Springs’ Carson McCord), Bebop Shoes backed out of it after a half-mile in 45.61 seconds.
But with David Cabrera’s feet in the dash, Man in the Can loomed boldly at the head of the stretch. “I thought I had him,” Cabrera said. “I felt like I had plenty of horse.”
Though trainer Ron Moquett said the 4-year-old would prefer a mile, the bay colt hung on well for second in his best race since incurring injuries when stepped on in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland in July. That followed a nine-furlong win at Churchill Downs against opponents including future Ohio Derby winner Dean Martini, one that gave Arkansas breeders the brief hope of seeing one of the state’s own run for the roses.
Man in the Can finished a halflength in front of Bandit Point, who trailed early by 15 lengths in racecaller Vic Stauffer’s estimation. A workhorse for trainer Robert Cline, fiancé of jockey Kelsi Harr, was three lengths in second back of K J’s Nobility in the Nodouble Breeders’ last year.
“Speed’s just holding,” Harr said. “They cut that horse (Tempt Fate) loose on an early lead and he’s hard to outrun. I think we can beat home on a different day, but today wasn’t our day. My horse ran good. I was proud of him.”
Deville said the $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship, a mile-and-sixteenth race April 30, may be next for the winner. “We’re going to see if he might go two turns now,” the trainer said. “We’re going to train him a little bit and see.”
Look for his owner in the crowd wearing a sports hat. Younger brother Scotty also owns horses and their mom, Beegie Caroom, still gets to the track on occasion, Jerry says. Tempt Fate makes it easier for her to keep track: He runs up front.