English Minister Hitting His Peak…At Age 9

Trainer Michael Trombetta doesn't understand it either.

Some horses don't develop and run their best until they are five or maybe six. But it seems beyond the realm of possibility that a horse would find their best form at nine, which is exactly what has happened with the recent Maryland-bred stakes winner English Minister (English Channel).

“It's the million-dollar question,” the trainer said. “What he's doing, there's no doubt it's very unusual. I can't explain it.”

English Minister won the Aug. 17 Find S. at Laurel for Maryland-breds. It was his first stakes win and he ran a 90 Beyer Speed Figure. In his previous start, he won an optional claimer at Laurel by three lengths, earning a 95 Beyer, tying the best number of his career. After starting his career with a four-for-50 record, he has now won four straight races.

“He's always been a classy individual,” Trombetta said. “We've had him for several years now, since he was a 2-year-old. He came out running good this year and training well. He gets the winters off. Maybe his vacation, combined with being fresh, and maybe he found some of his old spirit. He's running hard.”

Though he rarely won, English Minister, who is owned by his breeder Bob Meyerhoff, was one of those horses who did just enough to keep giving himself another chance. Through his 8-year-old season, he had earned $427,615 and had hit the board in three stakes for Maryland-breds.

“The owner never got frustrated,” Trombetta said. “He's very patient. Even if he was a little slow to win, he always made more than enough to pay his expenses, so everybody was fine with him.”

English Minister was zero-for-9 in 2018, but Trombetta said it was a lost season because it was a particularly rainy year and it seemed that every time he entered the veteran, the race either came off the turf or the turf was soft, which he does not like. Desperate for a spot, he even ran him in a claiming race, a $50,000 claimer at Belmont in October. But there were no takers. That was his last start of the year before he was given his annual winter break.

Trombetta said that over the winter and when the horse returned to serious training this spring, he really didn't notice anything different about him.

“There was nothing terribly out of the normal with him,” he said. “He always acts and trains well. He always shows up. He might have had a hard time finding the winner's circle in some of those races, but he always comes running and puts in a good effort.”

The year started in typical fashion for English Minister. He ran in a “non-winners of two other than-optional claimer” allowance at Laurel and finished an even fourth. His Beyer number was a 77, one point higher than in his final start as an 8-year-old. His next two races were in allowance races at Presque Isle, where he won both, but his best Beyer number of the two was an 81.

He then stepped up into tougher allowance company at Laurel and won the grass race by 2 1/4 lengths, earning a 95 Beyer. It tied his highest Beyer, which had come in a Feb. 13, 2016 allowance race at Gulfstream, where he was fourth. It was also a sharp departure from the numbers in the 70's and 80's he had been consistently running since his 7-year-old season.

Knowing how well his horse was doing, Trombetta pointed for the $75,000 Find S. for Maryland-breds and went into the race with confidence. The reward was a maiden stakes win at age nine.

“It was a very important race for me to win with him,” he said. “I had it on my radar for some time because I thought it was a race where he had a good chance of winning. To pull it off was really exciting.”

Trombetta is so confident that English Minister can maintain his current form that he's shopping for an open-company stakes race.

“There are only so many Maryland-bred turf races left out there,” he said. “We're running a little short on the calendar. It's almost September, so we only have a couple more months on the turf, so there aren't a lot of options out there for him.”

The race he is considering is the Sept. 21 Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup.

“I know an open-company race like that will be a lot harder than what he's been running in, but I think he's up to it,” he said.

Some time in the late fall he will be given his winter break and will continue to be pampered. As one might expect, he has become a barn favorite.

“He's probably one of the coolest horses we've ever had in our barn,” Trombetta said. “He's at Fair Hill and he loves to go outside every day. We put him in the paddock every morning. He's completely different than the rest of the herd.”

As for next year, Trombetta sees no reason not to bring English Minister back at 10. But he also knows, even as well as the horse is running now, age will have to catch up with him at some time.

“I wonder about [next year],” he said. “The age is up there, there's no doubt about that. We'll just have to evaluate him after he spends his winter off and see if it's worth coming back and trying to hone in on a couple of select races. We won't be greedy with him, but if he's up for it, I don't see why we wouldn't give it a try.”

They always say age is just a number. English Minister hasn't figured out he's nine and not supposed to be what he's doing, running like a 4-year-old. Can the 10-year-old version be a case of more of the same? For a horse who has already defied conventional wisdom, why not?