NEWS
Mare returns after nine-year layoff Wednesday at Churchill
Posted: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 12:14 PM
by Ed DeRosa
Grand Forks, a 12-year-old stakes-winning Quiet American mare, will make her first start in more than nine years on Wednesday at Churchill Downs in a $5,000 claiming race.
Kathleen Costello said she bought the mare privately from Rick Trontz of Hopewell Farm this spring after Grand Forks went five consecutive years without producing a foal. She delivered a Skip Away filly in 2004, but the foal died a month later.
“[Hopewell] basically gave up on her because she couldn’t carry a foal to term,” Costello said. “They were looking to give her away this spring, and I got the bug to start riding again, so I bought her.
“She loved to gallop and had so much spirit, so I decided to give her a shot and took her to the track.”
Ian P. D. Jory claimed Grand Forks for Trontz for $32,000 on August 7, 2000, at Del Mar. Trontz retired her soon thereafter. She won three of 11 starts, including a pair of stakes races at Turf Paradise, and earned $80,900.
Grand Forks’ start will not only be her first in more than nine years but also the first of Costello’s career.
“I’m definitely hoping to have more horses, but I’m a little strapped for cash right now,” Costello said. “I intend to bet on her, and she’ll be a big price, so maybe I can grow my stable that way.”
Costello named S. Justin Bishop to ride her mare. The ten-pound apprentice is winless in 86 starts this season, including ten at the current Churchill meeting.
Grand Forks is listed as 50-to-1 on the morning line in the 6 1/2-furlong race that attracted a full field of 12 entrants. She had three published workouts at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, including a gate workout in :50 for four furlongs on November 7.
A representative of the steward’s office said on Wednesday from Churchill that the mare is clear to run.
Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times
