Tales from the Crib: Un Ojo

Mar 17, 2022 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Un Ojo’s life changed forever one winter night in Kentucky, prompting his name – “one eye” in Spanish.
Early in 2020, a severe storm ripped through Cypress Creek Equine’s farm near Midway, when the yearlings were out in the paddock. The future Rebel (G2) winner became the inadvertent victim of a tree. 
“He got a branch stuck in his eye, and it had to be removed,” Cypress Creek Manager Ryder Finney said, adding that the injury was beyond repair.
That was a traumatic event for the youngster who’d had a straightforward babyhood. His dam, the beautifully-bred A.P. Indy mare Risk a Chance, was bought when she was carraying him in utero. His connections wanted to support their Jim Dandy (G2)-winning sire Laoban, then a first-season stallion in New York. Risk a Chance proved a bargain for $40,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Fall Sale, showcasing New York bloodstock, in 2018. 

Risk a Chance was sent to Fort Christopher’s Thoroughbreds in nearby Fort Edward, New York, where she delivered her dark bay colt on Mar. 12, 2019.

Christopher Shelli, the proprietor of Fort Christopher’s, remembered mother and baby well. 

“The mare was super-pleasant to work with, a professional to be around,” Shelli recalled.

“He was not born with any issues – a very healthy foal,” with a “pretty good head on his shoulders.”

Shelli observed that the colt was full of vim and vigor. 

“He was a super-animated foal…a rip-roarer from ‘go’ out in the paddocks.”

Risk a Chance was due to be bred back to Hall of Famer Ghostzapper in Kentucky, so she and her colt were soon off to their owners’ establishment in the Bluegrass. By the time the Ghostzapper foal was born in 2020, his half-brother had lost his left eye.

Needless to say, that loss affected Un Ojo’s personality, as he suddenly lacked visible clues to what was going on along his left flank. 

“He had a couple little quirks because of the loss of that eye,” Finney said. “You had to be careful coming up on that side.

“It made him a little bit nervous about stuff happening to him on that side. He was never a mean horse; if he reacted, it was out of nervousness.”

Un Ojo’s wariness was apparent when he went to school in Louisiana. Cypress Creek’s Kevin Moody is a Lafayette businessman, and Un Ojo took up residence just up the road at the Copper Crowne Training Center in Opelousas. That’s where trainer Ricky Courville is based, and his son Clay broke and galloped the youngster. 

Ricky Courville described Un Ojo’s adjustment as one of literally feeling his way; the sensory, tactile experience had to replace sight. 

“In the barn, he wouldn’t walk on the side of you. He’d get behind you and nudge you along.

“He couldn’t see you on that left side where you handled him. He needed that confidence he could get only by feeling you.”

Un Ojo was also liable to spook out on the training track, propping (planting the feet and stopping unexpectedly) and ducking.
“On the track he was really green,” Courville said. “Nothing major, but he was kind of scared of everything.”
Courville put a shadow roll on him to prevent his overreacting to any glimpse of shadows on the ground. But Un Ojo wasn’t focusing on the task at hand, still proving a handful to control. 
When Un Ojo developed minor baby issues that caused him to go easy for a while, Courville believed that the time had come to geld him. His behavior wasn’t only related to having one eye, and the operation figured to make him more manageable.
“He’s a one-eyed horse, he won’t be a stallion. Let’s go ahead and geld him,” his trainer recounted.
“After we cut him, he became a totally different horse. Before he was like a little kid.”
Thus Un Ojo’s mind was concentrated, and his latent ability could be developed. Ironically, Courville’s former top earner, Louisiana-bred stakes scorer Idefromthebayou, also had one eye, albeit after his racing career had already begun.
Un Ojo, who schooled by working from the gate behind horses, performed better when on the rail.
“He works better when he’s down on the fence,” Courville said. “He can see it in front of him, but not on his side.”
Yet Un Ojo has adapted so well that he can work out any kind of trip in an actual racing situation. And he’s even become a cool customer around the barn, having learned that it’s OK on his blind side.
“Now he’s fine and he walks on the side of you. You can walk on his bad side and touch him, and he never jumps,” Courville said.
Un Ojo’s six-furlong career debut at Keeneland ended up being a non-event, as he never got involved in eighth. But his second career start around two turns at Delta Downs was a different story. Ridden by Courville’s wife, Ashley Broussard, Un Ojo circled the field to win even more easily than his 4 1/4-length margin suggests. He couldn’t repeat that effort on a 15-day turnaround in the Jean Lafitte S., finishing fourth, but Courville revealed that the gelding was found to have “a little mucus.”
To capitalize on opportunities for New York-breds, Un Ojo was transferred to trainer Tony Dutrow at Belmont Park. Although he was overlooked at 23-1 in the Great White Way division of the New York Stallion S., Un Ojo launched a sustained rally to miss by just a neck. His placing in a state-bred stakes did not make him any more attractive to bettors in the Withers (G3), but again he exceeded expectations with a closing second at 28-1.
That was a harbinger of better still to come. Back in Courville’s care for the Rebel, Un Ojo was dismissed at 75-1 at Oaklawn Park. But the hard-trying gelding kept coming up the rail to thrust himself into the Kentucky Derby picture.
Courville finds that Un Ojo’s stint in New York has helped him mature.
“He hangs out in his stall, doesn’t get worked up about anything.”
Finney commends both Courville and Dutrow for bringing the once-skittish youngster so far. 
“It’s a testament to Ricky and to Tony,” Finney said, noting that “it takes a lot of horsemanship” to work through the quirks.
Un Ojo has also turned out to be a testament to his parents, who both sadly passed away last spring. While he is likely to play the underdog once more in the Arkansas Derby (G1), the role suits him. 
The Rebel stunner left Finney in a reflective mood. 
“His mother died, his father died, he’s one-eyed, he’s a gelding. He really is the ‘Last of the Mohicans.’
“He’s just so inspirational – the world keeps throwing these hurdles at him, and he keeps overcoming.”

Photo credits:
Foal photo courtesy of Cypress Creek Equine
Un Ojo training at Copper Crowne on Mar. 12, 2022, courtesy of Ricky Courville

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