Webb Carroll Grads Enjoy Sizzling Summer Weekend

Firenze Fire | Sarah K. Andrew

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When Webb Carroll Training Center graduates Dream It Is (Shackleford) and Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) captured Saratoga's two opening weekend juvenile stakes on successive days last Friday and Saturday, it gave the St. Matthews, South Carolina operation an impressive double. Founded in the early 1980s by longtime horseman Webb Carroll, the training center has seen standouts such as 2002 GI Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem (Our Emblem), 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace (Saint Liam) and Grade I winner and sire Tale of the Cat pass through its gates. With an eye to the future, Travis Durr, an integral member of the training center's crew since 2007, said the past weekend's accomplishments augment an already successful start to the juvenile racing season.

“We've had a great year so far with 2-year-olds running and winning,” Durr said. “I think we've had seven or eight 2-year-old winners already and had a few seconds at Saratoga with first-time starters already. It's shaping up to be a great year, especially for the 2-year-olds.”

Durr said it was particularly rewarding to see Dream It Is successfully transition to a six-furlong trip over a dirt track in Friday's GII Schuylerville S. at Saratoga [video] after previously winning a pair of races over the Tapeta track at Woodbine. Durr helped the Hudson family's Hoolie Racing Stable identify and acquire the filly–one of three yearlings purchased by the fledgling stable last year (click here for a TDN feature by Jessica Martini)–for $50,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Sale. According to Durr, Dream It Is gave indications that she possessed significant talent from the day she began to breeze.

“Helping the Hudsons buy that filly, helping them get lucky, makes it pretty special,” Durr said. “Once we started going quarters and three-eighths with her, she would be going with two or three other horses and spurt away from them really early–she'd have to wait on them.”

Durr added that while Dream It Is is not a big, rangy filly, she has a sprinter's stride and a different gear to call upon in race situations. Firenze Fire, however, came along at a decidedly different pace at the training center. A relative unknown by the freshman sire Poseidon's Warrior, Saturday's GIII Sanford S. hero [video] was more workmanlike than brilliant in his early days, according to Durr.

“Towards the end, he started doing really well,” Durr said, explaining that the colt was part of the first crop of horses sent to Webb Carroll by Ron Lombardi's Mr. Amore Stable. “But he's one of those colts that took a while to come around, and when he did, he just kind of did his job. Did I know he was that kind of horse? No. He showed ability, but the way he ran the other day was really well–he's definitely gotten better since he went to the racetrack. [Trainer] Jason Servis has done a great job with him and we've had some luck for [Mr. Amore Stable].”

With a pair of juvenile stakes winners at the Spa and a number of other promising 2-year-old graduates waiting in the wings, Durr emphasized that Webb Carroll treats each horse differently within the broader context of their training regiment.

“We take them as individuals,” Durr said. “We get them all to a certain point, and then try to send the early ones that we think will race early. And if some take some extra time, that's what we'll do. But, in general, a lot of these horses will wake up when they go to the racetrack.”

The training center's weekend success was not limited to 2-year-olds, with Ami's Mesa (Sky Mesa) annexing Woodbine's GIII Ontario Matron S. Saturday [video] and Abel Tasman (Quality Road) taking down the fourth Grade I win of her career in Sunday's Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga [video]. Durr deflected much of the credit to trainer Bob Baffert for the latter filly's development.

“Abel Tasman is just getting better and better [under Baffert],” Durr said. “She's going to be tough down the road for the rest of the year.”

Could the coming weekend prove to be as memorable as the last for Durr and friends? The Webb Carroll team is traveling to Saratoga and making a special stop at Monmouth Park for Sunday's GI Haskell Invitational to watch hometown hero and training graduate Irish War Cry (Curlin) take on a talented field of sophomore rivals.

“This is what we do it for,” Durr concluded.

 

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