by K. T. Donovan

If Circle E Racing’s, Caesar Kimmel’s, and Philip Solondz’s Timber Reserve had any luck at all, he probably would be a much shorter price for the $750,000 Whitney Handicap (G1) on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course.
 
The Forest Camp colt has been plagued with problems throughout his career, but trainer John Kimmel thinks they finally are behind him.

Ankle surgery cut his juvenile season short after a win and a second from four starts, and he returned off the layoff with a victory last July. He continued to demonstrate his potential with a victory in the Pennsylvania Derby (G2) in his next start, beating Grade 2 winner Zanjero and Grade 3 winner Xchanger.

“He was bleeding in the winner’s circle at Philadelphia Park,” Kimmel said, recalling how Timber Reserve shed his frog during the running of the race. “We gave him time but when he would grow it out, it would split. That happened twice.”

Kimmel thought he finally had it under control and four months later, he ran Timber Reserve in the Hal’s Hope Handicap (G3) on January 6 at Gulfstream Park with a rubber patch on the frog. The colt’s poor tenth-place finish indicated that he was still uncomfortable. Kimmel knew the colt had ability, but his heels sheared during the race.

He called Dr. Scott Morrison D. V. M. from Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, who cauterized the foot on February 5. He put a hospital plate over it, with maggots underneath to eat the old, rotten tissue.

A new shoe allowed the heel to grow, and he had the colt jogging by spring. Every month, Morrison came to Kimmel’s barn and kept the bar shoes on.

“He had his first breeze with the plate off on July 11th, and he went five furlongs in :58.60, six in 1:11, and out seven in 1:25,” Kimmel said with a smile. “His action changed. He had been running with a lot of knee action before and when he got the plate off, it was like he switched from combat boots to Nike sneakers!”

After another solid work, Kimmel declared the horse “ready to go.”

“It’s a bad post, the 11 hole, but he has tactical speed and he’s a good gate horse, so hopefully he won’t be fanned too wide into the first turn,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel said he understands that the Whitney is a big step up in class but noted that Curlin and other horses of his caliber are not in the race, so he wanted to give the four-year-old a chance.

Kimmel has several other horses in his barn also looking to make some waves during the Saratoga meeting.

Those coming off of layoffs include Chief Talkeetna, a four-year-old Chief Seattle colt who won his first race in January 2007 at Gulfstream Park but soon after suffered a soft tissue injury; and Freedom Bay, a winning Forestry colt who ran a credible second at Gulfstream Park in his second start despite coming out of the race with a hairline fracture.

Also scheduled to start during the meeting are Break Water Edison, a two-year-old Lemon Drop Kid colt who won his debut at Belmont Park by nearly five lengths and is being pointed toward the Saratoga Special Stakes (G2) on August 14; and El Sultry Sun, who scratched from the Virginia Derby (G2) on July 19 because he lost a shoe and stepped on the nail. He is aimed for the Hall of Fame National Museum of Racing Stakes (G2) on August 4.

K. T. Donovan is a Lexington-based Thoroughbred Times contributing writer