NEWS
Shake You Down retired, sent to Florida correctional facility
Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007 4:03 PM
SHAKE YOU DOWN
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by John Scheinman
Shake You Down, who won three straight graded stakes races in 2003 and finished third that year to Cajun Beat in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), has been retired by owner Robert Cole Jr. and sent to Marion County Correctional Facility in Ocala, Florida, which conducts a vocational training program in equine care for inmates.
Shake You Down, a nine-year-old Montbrook gelding out of the Rajab mare Mauvin Gway, was bred by Ocala Stud Farm. The horse won 22 of 65 lifetime starts and earned $1,442,014.
After breaking his maiden on January 28, 2001, at Suffolk Downs, Shake You Down raced mostly in mid- and high-level allowance races in the Mid-Atlantic region before being claimed for $65,000 by trainer Scott Lake in 2003.
That year, he went on to win in succession the Bold Ruler Handicap (G3) and the True North Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Belmont Park and then the Smile Sprint Handicap (G3) at Calder Race Course.
That fall, he finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and second in the Frank F. De Francis Memorial Dash (G1) at Laurel Park before closing out the year with a win in the Gravesend Handicap (G3) at Aqueduct.
The following year, Shake You Down won the Count Fleet Sprint Handicap (G3) at Oaklawn Park for his final stakes victory. The horse continued to race up until January 17 this year, when he finished fifth after making the lead in a 5½-furlong sprint for $14,000 claimers at Laurel Park.
Shake You Down, who last won a race in January 2006, was the subject of intense debate on Internet racing bulletin boards and blogs as to whether he should be retired beginning last fall.
Cole insisted the horse was sound enough to run, and said he wanted to send Shake You Down out on a winning note. The horse was entered several times for a $5,000 claiming price but never ran at that level.
The Marion County Correctional Facility program, where Shake You Down was sent last week, is overseen by John Evans, 59, a former farm trainer for Arthur Appleton and onetime general manager of Stoneway Farm in Kentucky. The program is managed by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association.
“I would say he would get pretty good care,” Evans said. “He’s really a nice horse. I’d say we have 17 or 18 stakes winners here. He’ll get the best care and the best feed. It’s top-notch.”
John Scheinman is a Maryland-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
