First Time Open Winner Bound to Be a Star
Owners Dennis and Simone Noud have had horses at Saratoga Casino Hotel going back a couple of decades. The Saratoga Springs residents’ horses were trained by Simone for much of that time. The Noud stable featured Spa veteran Paradise Willie for the entire duration of his lengthy career.
Paradise Willie was forced, by USTA rule, to retire from pari-mutuel races at the conclusion of his fourteen year old season in 2017. That rule rarely comes in to play of course because a very small percentage of horses are healthy and still potent enough to compete at that advanced age. When Paradise Willie’s career came to an end, he had earned over $304,000 in an incredible 402 lifetime starts. The Nouds did a good job of keeping Willie healthy which is a combination of a good job of taking care of their former stable star and of course a fair amount of luck as well.
As Paradise Willie was wrapping up his career, the Nouds had some other horses emerging as the new key members to their stable. Entrusting their prized pacers to a couple of other trainers, the Nouds saw a new trio come to the forefront for them. Sassy Hanover, Brigadoon and In A Single Bound all displayed a fair amount of talent in the early going of their careers, and each of them have gone on to enjoy success in the past few.
Sassy Hanover began under the guidance of trainer Cheryl McGivern for the Nouds who have wound up bringing him to a host of different trainers over the years, both locally and out of town. Sassy Hanover hasn’t only been a “solid” horse during his time but has won the local Open on two occasions. In each of the past two seasons, Sassy Hanover has recorded one win in the Open Pace. Currently trained by Jaymes Mcassey, Sassy Hanover may be a notch below Open caliber at this point in the eight year old’s career but he is still racing at a pretty high level. On Saturday night, the veteran finished fourth in a $10,000 pacing event at the Spa just two weeks removed from a local victory while competing in a lower class. Sassy Hanover is just a few thousand dollars shy of reaching the $300,000 plateau in career earnings for the Nouds.
Brigadoon has followed a somewhat similar career path to Sassy Hanover for his owners. Starting out of the McGivern barn before moving on to several different trainers’ stables, Brigadoon had his breakout campaign in 2016 as a three year old. Competing in large part in the Excelsior A division of the New York Sire Stakes, Brigadoon enjoyed an eightwin sophomore season and recorded nine second-place finishes as well en route to almost $90,000 in earnings. Simone currently trains Brigadoon, who has three races under his belt in ‘19, winning one of them. Much like Sassy Hanover, Brigadoon usually resides in the upper level conditions and classes just below the Open in his local starts.
While Sassy Hanover and Brigadoon continue to compete at a high level, it is In A Single Bound who has emerged as the star for the Nouds. Under the guidance of trainer Monica Krist, In A Single Bound was impressive right from the getgo. In his two year old season, In A Single Bound rattled off four consecutive victories and headed into his three year old campaign as a star in the making. In A Single Bound’s sophomore season saw him race just fourteen times and record an incredible ten wins. Making those