Many Roses has been worth holding onto

Ellen Jackson has had 3,209 starters in her 27 years as a trainer, but her first entrant in a graded stakes race comes Saturday when the speedy Many Roses runs in the Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields.

Jackson’s situation is by design, because she also operates a successful breeding operation — Victory Rose Thoroughbreds in Vacaville — and she funds it by selling nearly every horse she raises.

“My finances are such that when I get a good horse, they need to move on to a new home,” she said. “My business is to breed them and sell them at the racetrack — not at auction. As soon as they show some talent, somebody buys them.”

In the case of Many Roses, she owns the 4-year-old gelding with Jerry and Margaret Martin.

“My partners want the fun of running the horse and I’m happy to do that,” Jackson said. “I love it. It’s an opportunity I never had before. Now I’ve got a partner who wants to share the bills. It’s always fun when you watch one you bred, but it’s even more fun when the horse is in your hands and in your care.”

Many Roses has won four of 11 starts, and although Saturday’s race will be his first in a stakes event, he proved he belonged by coming within a half-length of beating four-time stakes winner G. G. Ryder in an allowance Feb. 26.

That near-win came after Many Roses set the fastest pace ever recorded in a two-turn race on Golden Gate Fields’ Tapeta Footings synthetic surface while being hounded by another front-runner. The San Francisco Mile is on grass, which Jackson believes Many Roses prefers.

“I do believe he is better on grass, although he’s pretty darn good on Tapeta,” Jackson said. “He’s the easiest horse I ever had. He trains well, eats well, is sound as can be — never even had a cold — and he gets along with his riders.”

G. G. Ryder, who won the San Francisco Mile in 2015, is running in Saturday’s race along with defending champion Alert Bay, a nine-time stakes winner whose $1,168,555 in earnings are the most of any horse stabled at Golden Gate Fields.

Even with a mere $103,560 in earnings, Many Roses is the richest horse Jackson has trained.

“We had quite a large offer on him, and normally I wouldn’t be able to turn it down,” she said. “This horse is awfully good.” Larry Stumes is a freelance writer.