Farrell Carries Chicago Hopes in Oaks

Times may be tough for Illinois racing, but when Arlington International Racecourse opens its doors on Kentucky Oaks Day, May 5, many of the thousands in attendance to unofficially kick off Chicagoland's summer season will also be cheering heartily for a home team contender in America's foremost 3-year-old filly event. Owned by Chicago-based Coffeepot Stables, trained by an 11-time Arlington champion conditioner Wayne Catalano and ridden by a locally based jockey Channing Hill, homebred Farrell (Malibu Moon) proudly waves the banner of the blustery burg into battle against the top fillies in the country in the $1-million Grade I event and is considered by many to be the horse to beat.

While the daughter of Malibu Moon has never raced in Illinois, a considerable amount of her early training took place at Arlington last summer under Catalano's watchful eye. A half-sister to Grade I winners J. B.'s Thunder (Thunder Gulch) and Carpe Diem (Giant's Causeway) and Grade II-placed Pegasus World Cup Invitational also-ran Semper Fortis (Distorted Humor), she impressed the three-time Breeders' Cup-winning conditioner so much that he nominated her to the Listed Arlington-Washington Lassie in late August. After nearly debuting her in said stakes event, he gave her a couple more weeks to mature and opted for Churchill Downs maiden company. After taking two starts in two weeks to break her maiden, she has gone on to win five of seven career tries and rides a four-stakes winning streak into the Kentucky Oaks, including three Grade II events.

“She's doing great right now,” Catalano said. “Everything has gone to plan so far and we just hope for the best. I like how relaxed she is right now. She's a high-energy filly and this race has been the goal for her all along. We have known she is a class filly since the beginning.”

Such sentiments are reserved for Catalano, who stated after the bay filly's romp in last fall's GII Golden Rod S. at Churchill Downs that he believed she would have won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies three weeks prior had things gone more to plan. Six months later, his starlet has set the sky ablaze with three facile victories in the Big Easy, sweeping the entirety of Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots sophomore filly series.

Bob Cummings and Annette Bacola, the principals of Coffeepot Stables, are reveling in the talent of their homebred. After selling her siblings, they kept Farrell and now stand in ever-increasing awe of her dam, standout broodmare Rebridled Dreams. A Grade II-placed filly who debuted at Arlington and won Hawthorne Race Course's Money Penny S. while under the care of Bret Calhoun, the daughter of Unbridled's Song has produced seven winners and four stakes winners from eight foals to race.

“She's clearly been very productive and we're hopeful that she can keep going,” Cummings said. “Her 4-year-old [Reddam Racing's Doug O'Neill-trained] Semper Fortis just had a bullet work and might have a big year, too. Hopefully Farrell keeps this good year going.

“We bought Rebridled Dreams at the winter sale [Keeneland January in 2004] as a racing or broodmare prospect and originally wanted to see if she could keep racing,” Cummings continued. “She didn't really show an appetite for racing anymore, so we converted her into a broodmare and her first foal was a War Chant who turned out to be a solid [multiple Group III-placed, listed stakes winner] in the U. K. named Doncaster Rover. We gave her the 2016 breeding season off because her most recent foal, a Giant's Causeway filly, was a late birth and was pretty stressful on her. She has been bred to Bernardini this year and appears to be in foal. Fingers crossed she can stay healthy because she's obviously very important to us and has been very good to us.”

Retiring partners from a private equity firm with multiple business ventures still keeping them busy, Cummings and Bacola currently have eight broodmares, a number inflated by recent retirements that will likely decrease in the coming year. The pair began owning horses in partnership in 1993 with Gary Drake of New Phoenix Stable (owner of 2002 GI Belmont S. winner Sarava), but in the late 1990s began branching out on their own. Longtime clients of Catalano, they campaigned GIII Arlington Matron winner Imposing Grace together, but have yet to have a runner as talented Farrell, whose $601,357 in earnings is tops among their honor roll.

“Communication with Wayne is always interesting,” Cummings said. “He's very cautious about signaling whether one is good or bad, but in about July or August he was starting to talk in superlative terms about her, so from Wayne, that means a lot and he knows she's good.

“It's incredibly exciting, obviously, and a pleasant surprise,” he continued. “We knew she had potential, but you never know until you get them on the racetrack and race them against other talented horses. Annette was there when she was born in Kentucky and immediately thought she was really exceptional and this is after we'd had horses like Carpe Diem and J. B.'s Thunder from [Rebridled Dreams]. So, we had some good comparative sources.”

Well-regarded, well-intended and with an increasing national fan base, Farrell and the only pilot she has known, Hill, will face their toughest test to date when they race on Friday afternoon in the Kentucky Oaks in front of about 100,000 screaming Louisville fans. Still, such pales in comparison to the third-largest U.S. metropolitan area with one of the richest racing histories in the country that will be rallying behind her and aligning itself with the quickened collective heartbeat of Coffeepot and Catalano.

“It will be quite a thrill,” Cummings said. “I don't think you ever stop having nerves when it comes to horses, especially one like her. It's a prayer every night that the horse is healthy the next day, but you get very few chances to be in this spot.

“She stood out from the beginning,” he concluded. “She was special and she keeps proving that over and over.”