Gelner Has High Hopes for Louisiana-bred Secret Faith

Norman Stables' Secret Faith (Aurelius Maximus) continued her demolition of the Louisiana-bred stakes ranks with a front-running 7 1/4-length victory in the fillies' division of the Louisiana Futurity at Fair Grounds Sunday. The 2-year-old filly has now won six of her seven starts to date, with five stakes wins at four different tracks. She has a combined winning margin of 40 1/2 lengths, led off by a 14-length score in the D.S. Shine Young Futurity at Evangeline Downs in August.

Jayde Gelner purchased Secret Faith on behalf of owner Robbie Norman for $75,000 out of the 2023 Texas Thoroughbred Association Yearling sale. The trainer had already had success with the family when he signed the ticket on the yearling. He conditions her multiple stakes-winning half-brother Strong Promise (Broken Vow) for Norman.

“She looked almost exactly like her brother,” Gelner said of his early impression of Secret Faith. “Her half-brother started out his career in the same way, five for five, but he just never got any bigger. He was a nice-sized 2-year-old, but he never grew after that. When I saw her at the Texas sale, she caught my eye. She looked exactly like him, same markings almost. Size-wise, she was about the same size as he was, but she was only a yearling.”

Where her brother failed to grow, Secret Faith has just continued to improve, according to Gelner.

“She is still growing,” he said. “She just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

The 24-year-old Gelner followed both his father and grandfather into the trainer ranks when he went out on his own in 2022. Shopping the regional markets improves his chances of making a profit at the racetrack, he said. Gelner purchased Divining Humor (Divining Rod) for $12,000 at the 2022 TTA Yearling Sale and the filly went two-for-two, winning the TTA Futurity in 2023 and earning $109,620. Secret Faith has already rewarded her $75,000 purchase price with current earnings of $367,022.

“I've been focusing on the regional market since I started,”Gelner said. “It's not all about money, but owners want to at least recover their investments and it's an easier market to recover your investments. If you own a stakes horse that is in open company, you have to be really good, instead of just being good. And Louisiana's program is getting better and better. It makes it a little bit tougher to win, but you are able to recoup some of the expenses your owners have when purchasing a horse. So that's what I like to do.”

Gelner had high hopes for Secret Faith right from the beginning.

“I thought she would be good as soon as we got her,” he said. “She just looked so athletic. After her first breeze, she showed she was going to be very nice.”

Secret Faith opened her career with a 6 1/4-length victory going 4 1/2 furlongs at Evangeline Downs in June and followed that maiden score with a win in the TTA Futurity. Following her 14-length romp in the D.S. Shine Young Futurity, she added stakes wins at Delta Downs and Fair Grounds. The gray filly suffered her first loss when a head short of a stubborn Blue Fire (Aurelius Maximus) in the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie Stakes Dec. 14, but rebounded to end her juvenile campaign in style in the Futurity.

Asked what he thinks as he watches the filly come home far in front of her nearest pursuers, Gelner admitted with a laugh, “Hopefully, we don't see a shadow on the track. I am a little superstitious and it's not a win until they cross the line. No early celebrations. Just a grin. You're just waiting for the finish line. It can't come fast enough, no matter if you are 20 in front or you win by a nose. It can never come fast enough.”

Secret Faith's wins have come from 4 1/2 to seven furlongs, but Gelner thinks the filly has a future at longer distances.

“I think she is going to be a really good two-turn horse going forward,” Gelner said. “She just has such a high-cruising speed that she can use going a route of ground instead of the sprinting distance. She is very close to the pace sprinting, but she can carry her speed further. She does whatever you want her to do. She's is just so talented, she can do it sprinting, too.”

Secret Faith is expected to make her next start going seven furlongs in the Feb. 1 Louisiana-bred Premier Night Starlet at Delta Downs, but Gelner thinks the filly will eventually make it to the open ranks.

“Numbers wise, she will definitely be competitive [in open company],” Gelner said. “And in my mind, she is a really nice horse and she should be able to compete with a lot of good open horses. We are just taking the 'per se' easier route for now and letting her develop. The purse structure is so good in Louisiana that it doesn't make any sense to run any harder than you have to run, especially during this time of year with the Fair Grounds and Delta and the stakes schedule they have out there for just Louisiana-breds.”

With two years under his belt, Secret Faith is Gelner's highest-earning runner so far, but she may have competition from the newly turned 3-year-old Whata Moon (Gormley), who was a narrowly beaten runner-up in the Dec. 21 Letellier Memorial Stakes in just her second start after breaking her maiden by 9 1/2 lengths at Delta Downs Nov. 21.

“Secret Faith is probably one of the nicest ones [I've trained],” Gelner said of the filly. “We will see how she does in her 3-year-old year, but not many of them can start their career like she has.”