Tales from the Crib: Track Phantom

Apr 28, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Track Phantom as a yearling

Track Phantom as a yearling (Photo by Seclusive Farm/Baccari Bloodstock)

“Great attitude, good mover, wonderful horse to be around….I think that he will handle the circumstances of the Derby, and the crowd, all the pageantry of it, extremely well and show his best side.”

So trainer Steve Asmussen described Track Phantom, who will try to give the Hall of Famer an overdue first Kentucky Derby (G1) victory, in a recent interview with Jennie Rees. Interestingly, the talented colt inspired very similar comments from Chris Baccari, who’s known Track Phantom from the time he was foaled and raised at his Seclusive Farm.

Track Phantom was bred by Breeze Easy, originally a partnership between West Virginians Mike Hall and the late Sam Ross. After Ross passed away in December 2022, Hall has maintained the Breeze Easy nom de course. Although Hall didn’t get involved in Thoroughbred racing as an owner until 2016, he’s been a horseman since youth on his family’s farm.

It didn’t take long for Breeze Easy to become a major player in the sport, whether in the sales arena or on the racecourse. In 2018, the partners celebrated a win at the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting, when their filly Shang Shang Shang beat the boys in the Norfolk (G2).

“I'd rather wear a cowboy hat than a top hat, but I'll do what I have to do,” Hall told Jessica Martini of Thoroughbred Daily News ahead of his return trip to Royal Ascot in 2019.

While they didn’t add any further British laurels, Breeze Easy otherwise had a banner 2019 season. Their Four Wheel Drive captured the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2), the West Virginia win machine Late Night Pow Wow took the Barbara Fritchie (G3), and Imprimis scored in the Shakertown (G2) at Keeneland en route to his creditable sixth in Royal Ascot’s King’s Stand (G1) (which will be renamed this year in honor of King Charles III).

By that point, Breeze Easy had purchased another smart sprinter, Grade 2 winner Miss Sunset, who would become Track Phantom’s mother. The partners went to $825,000 for her at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale, right after she uncharacteristically trailed in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1).

Sired by Into Mischief, and foaled in California, Miss Sunset won or placed in 14 stakes and bankrolled $891,895. The Jeff Bonde trainee was based in her home state, but she raided Keeneland for her two most significant performances. In the fall of 2017, Miss Sunset justified favoritism in the Raven Run (G2), and in the spring of 2018, she missed by a nose in a blanket finish to the Madison (G1).

Miss Sunset was retired following her acquisition by Breeze Easy. She settled into her broodmare life by visiting Hall of Famer Curlin, and the resulting foal is a minor winner named O’Conner Sunset.

Bred back to Quality Road next, Miss Sunset produced a lovely bay that we know as Track Phantom. He would become the latest high-profile horse associated with Baccari’s Seclusive Farm in the Bluegrass.

A fixture at the sales, under his eponymous Baccari Bloodstock banner, he is also known for raising $2.2 million-earner Reynaldothewizard. The sprint legend began his career stateside before going on to a remarkable career in Dubai, where he competed at a high level for eight seasons, and became a Carnival favorite. Reynaldothewizard was a mainstay in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) on Dubai World Cup night. Winning it in 2013, he made four more appearances in that main-track dash, including his finale at the grand age of 12.

Baccari was the co-owner/breeder of Grade 1 heroine Salty, who scored her signature win in the 2018 La Troienne (G1) on Kentucky Oaks Day. Ironically, Salty has a couple of connections to Track Phantom: she is likewise by Quality Road, and she ran against Track Phantom’s mother. When Miss Sunset was a near-miss runner-up in the Madison, Salty was a hard-charging fifth.

“I’ve just had very good luck with that sire,” Baccari said of Quality Road.

Aside from the sire angle, Baccari appreciates that Track Phantom is out of an Into Mischief mare.

“Daughters of Into Mischief are really starting to work. That’s a trend that I’m seeing; it’s on my radar.”

Track Phantom signaled early on that he’d contribute to the emerging trend, presenting himself as a class act from day one.

Track Phantom at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale

Track Phantom at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale (Photo by Taylor Made Sales Agency)

“He was always athletic as a foal, very good-minded,” Baccari observed, adding that will serve him well at Churchill Downs.

Indeed, the combination of physical and mental soundness is necessary to rise to the occasion on the first Saturday in May. Otherwise, contenders can lose the race mentally even before they enter the gate, amid the hectic Derby atmosphere unlike anything they’ve seen.

“The main thing with him is he’s a very sound, durable horse, and he’s going to take the pressure of the Derby,” Baccari emphasized.

“That is something that can move him up – he has a good head on his shoulders.”

Baccari summed up Track Phantom’s hallmark qualities of athleticism, soundness, agility, and good-mindedness as the “key ingredients” for Derby success.

The colt’s potential was evident in the lead-up to the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he was consigned by Taylor Made Sales Agency. Cataloged as Hip no. 342, he was among the elite youngsters in Book 1.

Figuring to be popular in the sales ring, Track Phantom duly commanded $500,000 from Lee Levinson’s L and N Racing. Miss Sunset’s ensuing foals have been hot commodities as well. Last year at the same venue, Track Phantom’s yearling half-brother by Curlin sold for $1.1 million, and his baby full brother went for $335,000 as a weanling.

Levinson has had several high-profile horses with Asmussen, from champion Echo Zulu (in partnership) and her Grade 1-winning half-brother Echo Town to dual Canadian classic hero Tone Broke and the 2017 Derby runner-up, Lookin at Lee. In an arrangement that’s becoming familiar among the breeders of highly-regarded auction colts, Breeze Easy stayed in for a share of Track Phantom. Joining the ownership group were Clark Brewster and Jerry Caroom.

Track Phantom debuted around a one-turn mile at Churchill Downs Oct. 1, setting the pace before tiring to third. That was a loaded maiden, however, with Derby contenders Stronghold and Resilience running one-two. Track Phantom improved to finish second at the same track and trip Oct. 29, leading and going clear only to get caught late.

The stretch-out to two turns helped him to break through resoundingly under the Twin Spires on the Nov. 25 “Stars of Tomorrow II” card. Initially forcing the pace in the 1 1/16-mile affair, Track Phantom asserted his superiority by 4 3/4 lengths.

At his winter base of Fair Grounds, Track Phantom’s high cruising speed propelled him to victory in two straight scoring races on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the Gun Runner S. and Lecomte (G3). Those efforts elicited comparisons to Asmussen’s champion Epicenter, who became the 2022 Kentucky Derby favorite through the Fair Grounds series.

Unlike Epicenter, Track Phantom lost his final two preps, and he’ll have to find a way to reverse form with his Derby rivals. Sierra Leone reeled him in late in the Risen Star (G2). In the Louisiana Derby (G2), Track Phantom was relegated to fourth behind Catching Freedom and Honor Marie.

How might the free-running colt turn the tables going 1 1/4 miles in the Run for the Roses? Asmussen’s hypothesis is that Track Phantom isn’t a need-the-lead type; he’s just naturally found himself there because the others haven’t been fast enough for him. The Derby pace scenario is liable to be so hot that Track Phantom can get into a comfortable rhythm as a stalker, and if Asmussen is right, he’ll work out a trip more beneficial to him.

In another interview with Rees on the Kentucky HBPA YouTube channel, Asmussen said that Track Phantom got out of that rhythm in the Louisiana Derby. Thus he’s adding blinkers, in the view that it could help him stay consistently in his zone during the race.

Asmussen has had five placings in the Derby. Runner-up with the aforementioned Epicenter and Lookin at Lee, as well as Nehro (2011), he has also finished third with future greats Curlin (2007) and Gun Runner (2016).

It would be one of the fascinating twists of history if Track Phantom earns him that elusive Derby trophy, by beating Gun Runner’s son Sierra Leone, in the very year that Gun Runner himself was voted into the Hall of Fame.

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