Mr. Misunderstood Giving Young Owner a 'Flurry' of Success

Coming of age in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the home of Oaklawn Park, it's difficult to avoid horse racing in the winter and spring. It's even harder when your family owns a parking lot across the street from the track. That's where Staton Flurry, the 27-year-old owner of Flurry Racing Stables LLC, was introduced to the sport, and it's where he still spends most of his days, even as his nascent stable reaches an exciting new peak.

“I've grown up on the other side of that wall at Oaklawn and have always wanted a horse,” Flurry told the TDN Wednesday.

Now, he has 10 of them, and one in particular is putting his outfit on the map with a remarkable sophomore season.

Mr. Misunderstood (Archarcharch) is a dark bay gelding Flurry picked up for $130,000 at last year's OBS March sale, the third-highest priced progeny from his sire to sell in 2016, and he has gone from being dangled for a $30,000 claiming tag last December to a multiple stakes winner with a perfect seven-for-seven record on turf. The most recent of those seven victories came Saturday at Churchill, when Mr. Misunderstood rallied into a dawdling pace to earn his first graded score in the GIII Commonwealth Turf S.

“He's just really changed [things] for us,” Flurry said. “He's been our first superstar. He's made this game a whole lot more fun than it was a year ago. We were having fun, but this ride that he's taken us on is unbelievable.”

Trained by Brad Cox, Mr. Misunderstood graduated in his third career start over the Indiana Grand turf last October, but was a well-beaten seventh on the Churchill dirt next time out and appeared unlikely to live up to his price tag.

“He just wasn't very focused at that time,” Flurry recalled. “Brad said, 'We're coming off a bad race at Churchill, throw him in for 30. I don't know if he's worth more than that right now, if he proves he is and they don't take him, good for us, or if they do take him, good for us at the same time.' It was kind of a win-win situation, either or, but looking back, I probably wouldn't have been too happy if he had gotten claimed.”

Mr. Misunderstood was entered for the tag Dec. 29 on the Fair Grounds lawn and won by 3 1/2 lengths. He repeated in a pair of optional claimers there and, after finishing last in the GIII Illinois Derby on dirt, notched open-lengths triumphs in the Prelude S., Super Derby and Jefferson Cup before his heroics back under the Twin Spires.

“He loves his job, I guess that's the best way to put it,” Flurry said of Mr. Misunderstood's rejuvenation. “Once we gelded him and got him on the grass, he turned the corner, but as time goes by, he gets more focused. He loves his job and he knows what he's supposed to do out there. I'm not gonna say he knows where the wire is, but he's push-button, that's the term Florent [Geroux] used, and man, the horse just knows when it's time to turn it on and go.”

Flurry is heavily involved in his family's business, Dorothy and Staton's Parking, which owns most of the lots in the Hot Springs area. After graduating college in 2012, he started in the Thoroughbred game by claiming Let's Get Fiscal (Bandini) with Kevin Martin, assistant to former trainer Cody Autrey, that March. The filly won two starts later, and was claimed out of another win two starts after that.

“Once you win your first race, you're hooked,” Flurry said. “We just started looking for better horses each time and tried to move up the ladder.”

When Martin and Autrey split up, Martin, who had become like a big brother to Flurry, suggested he hire Cox, at that time a relatively small name in racing.

“He said, 'Hey, I want you to go with Brad,'” Flurry remembered. “'I think he's an up and coming guy and he's gonna treat you like you're his number one client no matter how many guys he has.'”

Flurry and Cox have steadily built a higher and higher quality partnership, and Mr. Misunderstood's success has emboldened them to invest at new heights.

“We still claim a horse here and there, but we've tried to buy young horses and develop them,” Cox said. “We've shifted our game plan. In the beginning, it was mostly claiming, but he's out for good horses and wants to win stake races. What this horse has done for him, those are the kinds of horses that he's looking for.”

Flurry made his biggest purchase to date at this year's Keeneland September sale when he privately bought Hip 1089, a full-brother to One Liner (Into Mischief)–winner of this year's GIII Southwest S. at Flurry's home track–from the Kingswood Farm consignment after the colt RNA'ed for $290,000. He went even further, albeit fruitlessly, during Tuesday's Horses of Racing Age portion of the Keeneland November sale, nearly snagging graded stakes-placed session topper You're to Blame (Distorted Humor), who hammered for $440,000 to Steve Young.

“We were the underbidder and we were in it until the end,” Flurry said. “It just went a little high, I didn't want to go 450. I like to stay around that 100-150 range. You can get some solid, solid horses for that price.”

That was the range that brought Flurry to Mr. Misunderstood after a :10 1/5 one-furlong breeze in Ocala. Flurry, who bounces ideas off of Cox, but otherwise makes all of his own determinations at the sales, was won over by the colt's gait, and has seen his horse's potential realized, although on a different surface than he expected.

“I just loved the way he worked, he was so smooth,” Flurry said. “I expected him to be a dirt horse. We knew he was going to need two turns, but his breeding had dirt all over it. It just seems like every time I buy a horse at the sale, Brad says, 'Hey, I think this is gonna be a grass horse.' I joke with him that I'm gonna sneak in one night to Oaklawn and plant some sod.”

The barn star will train for the next few weeks with Cox before a plan for his 4-year-old campaign is formulated. He and Flurry eventually would like to take a shot at the elite turf races, but are in no hurry.

“We're not gonna get too aggressive, we're just gonna keep him in spots where he can win,” Flurry said. “Granted, we all would love to win a Grade I and have a Breeders' Cup starter down the road, but in all honesty, we're just gonna spot him right, place him right and hope he keeps on winning.”