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Category: Equine Sales of Louisiana
Classy John the Definition of a Happy Accident
By Brian DiDonato
- Classy John & Dallas Stewart. Sarah K Andrew photo
The story of 2-year-old colt Classy John (Songandaprayer) looks like a pretty interesting one on paper, but is even more so than meets the eye. A $12,000 Equine Sales of Louisiana purchase in May off of just a gallop, the Valene Farms-owned Dallas Stewart trainee shipped up to Saratoga last Saturday to romp by six lengths at 12-1 odds in a typically tough GI Travers S. day maiden special weight (video replay).
The Louisiana-bred beat a pricey group in the process, defeating the likes of an $850,000 2-year-old acquisition and a $650,000 yearling as well as several fashionably pedigreed homebreds.
Classy John was an excellent value purchase to be sure, but as it turns out, he wasn’t an intentional one.
“We got a little confused. I was on the phone, and I thought I was bidding on 15, but it was 14,” owner Murray Valene revealed. “But it turned out to be a pretty good buy, huh? We didn’t have any idea what the horse looked like, but that’s the way it goes. You never do know. It turned out to be a really nice little horse, with some decent pedigree.”
Classy John is the third foal and first to race out of Kitty’s Got Class (Old Forester), who handily won her first three races, including two stakes, as a Woodbine-based juvenile.
After looking at the colt’s page, and him as an individual, Valene began to come around to his purchase.
“I took one look at him when he got in and said, ‘Boy, I like the looks of this colt.’ So we sent him up to Dallas because he looked like he was above average. He was just a good-looking horse.”
Hip 15, an Eskendereya filly who went for $9,000, has not yet started or been credited with an official work.
Once in Stewart’s program, Classy John gave some indication that he was a nice horse, but he really caught his trainer’s attention after blazing through five panels in a bullet :58.60 from the gate at the Churchill Downs Training Center Aug. 17.
“Two or three weeks before [the race, on Aug. 9,] he worked in [1:01 4/5], but in the last work, he worked in :58 3/5 from the gate,” Stewart noted. “So I called the clocker to make sure that was legit–I was up here [in Saratoga]. The clocker said he might have even gone a little faster than that–it was unreal. So I talked to Murray and told him there was a race on Travers Day. Murray’s always game for anything, so he said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
Valene and Stewart already had another runner for the card in last year’s local GI Hopeful S. third Givemeaminit (Star Guitar), who checked in eighth in the GI H. Allen Jerkens.
Stewart admitted to wondering before the race if his decision to ship Classy John up to the Spa was the right one.
“I got to thinking that maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do with the crowd and everything,” he said. “We’d have to fly him up on Wednesday, gallop him Thursday and Friday and then run Saturday. So I was a little concerned about that, but it looked like it would be the first race of the day, so we went with it and he handled it great.”
A fast work doesn’t necessarily mean a fast race, but Stewart was confident in Classy John’s ability.
“He worked so good, and we had the video of the work, so I saw it,” he said. “Plus, I talked to [jockey] Jack Gilligan who worked him and he said, ‘He is really, really nice.’ So we just got him up here and that’s how it went–he just slaughtered ’em.”
Classy John shipped back to Kentucky Sunday morning, but will likely return to New York for the Oct. 6 GI Champagne S. He is not Breeders’ Cup nominated.
What made the performance even more special was that Classy John is named for Valene’s father, John Valene, who passed away last Tuesday at the age of 100.
“My father passed away on Tuesday, and I flew up on Friday to watch the races,” Valene said. “So, just given the name and the circumstances and everything else, it’s extra special and I think he’s going to be a nice little horse. Hopefully, he stays healthy, because in this game you never know, but I think he’s for real.”
John Valene, who had attended the races at Canterbury Park just a couple weeks ago, first got the family involved in racing in the early 1960s when he claimed a horse who Murray Valene says subsequently won his next seven starts.
Murray Valene’s racing interests later grew significantly, and at one point Valene Farms had around 140 horses in training. He now has about a dozen on the track. Valene is also associated with Louisiana’s Clear Creek Stud, of which he jointly owns the property that it stands on. Valene has mostly campaigned Louisiana-bred or sired horses, including champions in Minnesota and Illinois.
But this wasn’t by any means his first win up at Saratoga.
Valene Farms took the 1993 GII Adirondack S. with $7,000 purchase Astas Foxy Lady (Zuppardo’s Prince), and doubled up in the same race (via DQ) exactly 20 years later with the Stewart-trained Designer Legs (Graeme Hall). The latter was a $10,000 yearling acquisition.
“It just goes to show you–you never know based on what you paid for a horse what you’ve got,” Valene said. “It’s all about the heart and what’s on the inside. Nobody knows that until they run.”
Equine Sales Launches Redesigned Website
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July Calendar of Events
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Equine Sales Yearling Consignment Final Deadline, Tuesday. July 3
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June Calendar of Events
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Midnight Lute Filly Tops Equine Sales Company 2-Year-Old Sale

Three Horses Work :10 Flat for Fastest Time at Equine Sales 2-Year-Old Breeze Show
(Opelousas, Louisiana – May 7, 2018) — A trio of horses worked an eighth-mile in :10 flat during Sunday’s breeze show for Equine Sales Company’s 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale. The auction with a catalog of 73 head will be held Monday, May 7, at 1 p.m. in Opelousas, Louisiana.
The three horses to work the fastest time included Hip 18, a filly named Sallee Sumthing from the first crop of Sum of the Parts. Consigned by Ricky Courville Sales, agent, the accredited Louisiana-bred is out of the stakes-winning Lit de Justice mare La Salle Glory, whose four foals to race are all winners.
Hip 62 was another filly by a first-crop sire to post the co-fastest time. A Kentucky-bred daughter of Fed Biz, the unnamed February foal is out of the A.P. Indy mare Court Reception. That broodmare’s foals include eight winners, topped by Grade 2 winner Ruby’s Reception. The filly is consigned by Twin Oaks Training Center, agent.
Completing the trifecta of runners at :10 flat was an accredited Louisiana-bred by Yes It’s True. From the consignment of Pike Racing, agent, the colt is out of the stakes-placed Officer mare Cute Cadet, whose other registered foal has yet to start.
“In addition to the three working in :10 flat, we had numerous others within range of that time and I think that reflects well on the quality of the catalog from top to bottom,” said Foster Bridewell, sales director. “Overall it seemed like the consignors and buyers were pleased with the results from the breeze show, so we are looking forward to a good sale.”
Replays of the breeze show, along with the sale catalog, are available at www.equinesalesofla.com. Live video of the sale will also be available on the website.
All graduates of the sale will be eligible for the $75,000 Equine Sales Oaks and $75,000 Equine Sales Derby to be run next year at Evangeline Downs. The 2018 editions of the races were run earlier in the week with Coteau Grove Farms LLC’s Special Blessing, a Flat Out filly who sold for a sale-record $110,000 last year from the consignment of Pike Racing, agent, winning the Oaks, and Four Star Racing’s Double Star, a $9,200 colt by Star Guitar from the consignment of Clear Creek Stud last year, taking the Derby.
DOUBLE STAR SHINES IN THE EQUINE SALES DERBY
COLT’S THIRD CAREER VICTORY IS HIS FIRST STAKES TRIUMPH

Equine Sales Derby
Evangeline Downs, 5-5-18, 1 Mile, $75,000
3yos
DOUBLE STAR
Star Guitar–Bond Queen
Breeder: Thomas Edward Vinci & Bill Mayfield
Owner: Four Star Racing
Trainer: Robert D. Schultz
Jockey: Jose Andres Guerrero
2nd
Honor My Speed
To Honor and Serve–Unbridled’s Secret
Breeder: Barry Simpson
Owner: Rodney J. Verret
Trainer: Allen Landry
Jockey: Timothy Thornton
3rd
Discreetly D
Discreetly Mine–Evening Muse
Breeder: Michael Villar & Cynthia Villar
Owner: Set-Hut LLC
Trainer: Jerry Delhomme
Jockey: Colby J. Hernandez
OPELOUSAS, LA – Four Star Racing’s Double Star claimed the first stakes win of his career on Saturdaynight at Evangeline Downs in the $75,000 Equine Sales Derby. Regular rider Jose Guerrero was aboard for the victory for trainer Robert Schultz.
Double Star had to overcome being wide on both turns in the race. The colt was hung five-wide on the first turn and ended up getting a wide run up the backstretch as well, while sitting in mid-pack. Tensas’s Boy set the early fractions of 24 seconds for the quarter-mile and 48.39 for the half-mile. Double Star commenced a four-wide rally on the far turn and was able to power past the early leaders by the top of the stretch. From there, the colt withstood the closing efforts of a 17-1 longshot, Honor My Speed and the 2-1 second choice, Discreetly D, to win by 2-3/4 lengths in a final time of 1:40.21 for the one mile over the fast track.
The winner was sent off as the even-money favorite in the Equine Sales Derby. Double Star paid $4.20 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.20 to show. Honor My Speed finished second and paid $10.40 to place and $5 to show, while Discreetly D finished third and paid $3.20 to show.
Double Star is a 3-year-old colt bred in Louisiana by Thomas Edward Vinci and Bill Mayfield. He is by Star Guitar and out of the Stormy Atlantic mare, Bond Queen. Double Star now has three wins in his 10-race career and the $45,000 first-place purse increased his lifetime earnings to $110,820.
Evangeline Downs will resume live racing on Wednesday night with a nine-race program. First post time on Wednesday will be 5:50 pm Central Time.
For more information on the Thoroughbred season at Evangeline Downs, visit the track’s website atwww.evdracing.com. Evangeline Downs’ Twitter handle is @EVDRacing and the racetrack is also accessible on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EvangelineDownsRacing.
SPECIAL BLESSING IS INDEED SPECIAL IN THE EQUINE SALES OAKS
FILLY CLAIMS THE FIRST STAKES VICTORY OF HER YOUNG CAREER

Equine Sales Oaks
Evangeline Downs, 5-4-18, 1 Mile, $75,000
3yo fillies
SPECIAL BLESSING
Flat Out – Langsyne
Breeder: J. Adcock
Owner: Coteau Grove Farms LLC
Trainer: W. Bret Calhoun
Jockey: R. Morales
2nd
Yes Gorgeous
Mass Media–Isn’t She Gorgeous
Breeder: J. Adcock & Montgomery Equine Center
Owner: Scott Gelner
Trainer: Scott Gelner
Jockey: Diego Saenz
3rd
Bella Cajun
Bellamy Road–Cajun Candy
Breeder: Cypress Bend Farm
Owner: Dore, Ralph and Gautreau, Keith
Trainer: Ralph J. Dore
Jockey: Cristina Bonilla
OPELOUSAS, LA – Special Blessing, owned by Coteau Grove Farms, LLC and trained by Bret Calhoun, won the first stakes race of her five-race career in the $75,000 Equine Sales Oaks at Evangeline Downs on Fridaynight. The filly was ridden to victory by Roberto Morales, who was riding her for the first time ever.
Special Blessing sat just off of a very slow pace being set by an 18-1 maiden, Bella Cajun and Yes Gorgeous, who was the only horse in the field with multiple victories entering Friday night. Those two dueled through dawdling fractions of 25.69 seconds for the quarter-mile and 51.24 seconds for the half-mile. Special Blessing made her move on the far turn and she and Yes Gorgeous went on to engage through the stretch before Special Blessing put her rival away to win by 1-3/4 lengths in a final time of 1:40.33 for the mile over the fast track.
The winner was sent off as the 6-5 favorite in the field of seven by the betting public. Special Blessing returned $4.60 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show. Yes Gorgeous paid $2.40 to place and $2.20 to show, while Bella Cajun held third and paid $5.80 to show.
Special Blessing is a 3-year-old filly bred in Louisiana by J. Adcock. She is by Flat Out and out of the Langfuhr mare, Langsyne. Special Blessing has now won two of her five lifetime starts and the $45,000 first-place purse increases her lifetime earnings to $85,930.
Evangeline Downs will resume live racing on Saturday with a nine-race program. The featured event on the Saturday card is the $75,000 Equine Sales Derby with Double Star listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the field of eight. The track will also be offering the simulcast of the 144th Kentucky Derby from Churchill Downs at approximately 5:50 pm and the live racing program will start shortly thereafter.
For more information on the Thoroughbred season at Evangeline Downs, visit the track’s website atwww.evdracing.com. Evangeline Downs’ Twitter handle is @EVDRacing and the racetrack is also accessible on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EvangelineDownsRacing.
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