Patience rewarded with ‘Rita’

The trainer Doug Anderson said Sunday he has no defined plans for Prairie Meadows Cornhusker winner Remembering Rita. And that’s fine. What still feels most important is the obscure path Remembering Rita took to the Cornhusker rather than the road he’ll follow the rest of the summer.

Anderson claimed Remembering Rita for $50,000 out of a maiden race Nov. 5, 2016, at Churchill Downs. Remembering Rita got a couple standard postrace rest days in his new stable, returned to the track to train, and showed signs of injury.

“We did some X-rays and he had a chip in his ankle,” Anderson said. “We did some surgery on him, and the surgeon said it was a little worse than what we initially thought. He kind of warned us there was a chance he’d never race again.”

So rather than providing some quick return on investment, Remembering Rita required further investment – of time, of money.

“We waited,” Anderson said. “We gave him plenty of time to let him heal up, then put him on an Equi-Ciser for 45 days to get him a little fit before we ever put any weight back on him. It seemed to do the job. That leg’s been ice cold since we got back to training on him.”

It took more than a year to get Remembering Rita back to the races. He performed well enough from the start while racing in maiden special weights, markedly improved from his prelayoff form, but despite a couple fairly serious tries at Oaklawn Park over the winter, Remembering Rita came to Prairie Meadows in May for the summer Thoroughbred season there as an eight-race maiden.

In fact, his final pre-Prairie start, a Keeneland maiden race, was a step back from his best Oaklawn performance, but it was the Keeneland failure that sparked the Prairie Meadows success.

“He never really ran much that day, and Gary Stevens, who rode him, came back and said he doesn’t even know what he’s doing out there – wasn’t paying any attention at all,” Anderson said. “He said he could use some blinkers.” Good call, Gary. “Since then, he’s just been a different horse, just trained so much better and got so much more aggressive,” Anderson said. “It was like the light turned on and here we go.”

On May 25, Remembering Rita won a maiden race by more than 11 lengths. June 13, he won a first-level allowance race by a similar margin. The Cornhusker was coming up. Anderson and owner Jeral Adams figured they had nothing to lose by taking a shot. The race last Friday night unfolded at a walking pace, with Remembering Rita and Alex Birzer stacked outside Kent Desormeaux and Dalmore. Desormeaux floated Birzer far out into the track turning for home, but Remembering Rita remained unfazed. He pushed past his pace rival and won a $300,000 race in his stakes debut.

Adams has owned a handful of lower-level claimers. Remembering Rita is his only horse right now. He lives in De Witt, Ark., population 3,292, and because his home sits on Radar Lane, people call him Radar.

Remembering Rita popped up on the screen before anyone had heard of him and snuck off with the biggest racing prize in Iowa.

No set plans for She’s a Julie

She’s a Julie came out of her breakthrough race this past Thursday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks in good condition, trainer Steve Asmussen said, and is back with Asmussen’s string at Churchill Downs. The filly’s connections haven’t revealed a concrete plan for She’s a Julie’s upcoming race schedule, and getting a stakes win on her résumé last week was a big deal for She’s a Julie. But from the way she looked at Prairie Meadows, She’s a Julie might be ready to fish in a bigger pond.

Tracking a strong pace under Ricardo Santana, She’s a Julie pulled away from her competition so rapidly in upper stretch that the Iowa Oaks was over at the eighth pole. Geared down late, she still got a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.

She’s a Julie, by Elusive Quality, is owned by the Whispering Oaks Farm of Carrol Castille.

◗ Bob Baffert had mentioned Saturday’s Indiana Oaks as a possible spot for the filly Rayya, but said via text message Monday that he has no plans to start Rayya or any other horse at Indiana Grand this weekend. The Oaks, the Indiana Derby, and the rest of the Saturday card were to be drawn Wednesday.

◗ Canterbury Park has an appealing 10-race program Thursday night (first post 6:30 p.m. Central) featuring several allowance races and a pair of 2-year-old maiden special weight sprints.