Mad House and jockey Paco Lopez get the upset in the $400,000, Grade 2 Gallant Bob. (Racing. Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)
Tom Law/Parx Racing
BENSALEM, Pa.—Mad House shipped more than 1,200 miles from Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota to Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, and came away with a monster upset in the Grade 2, $400,000 Gallant Bob Stakes on Saturday’s Pennsylvania Derby Day undercard.
James Thares’ 3-year-old Vekoma gelding sprang a 23-1 shocker in the Gallant Bob, defeating the 83-1 Gateskeeper by 2 3/4 lengths with the 56-1 Fire Pit another half-length back in third and 2-5 favorite Barnes fourth. Paco Lopez rode Mad House for trainer David Van Winkle, who came to Parx with more than 1,180 victories but never a graded stakes score.
The Gallant Bob upset triggered huge payoffs – a $49 win payoff, $2 exacta of $1,017.20, 50-cent trifecta of $3,889.50 and 10-cent superfecta of $1,584.21.
Van Winkle left with a Grade 2 after Mad House battled with Fire Pit through sizzling fractions of :21.58 and :43.94. He shrugged off that foe into the stretch and opened up past 5 furlongs in :55.98. Gateskeeper made a late run on the outside while Barnes, last early under Tyler Gaffalione, did the same on the extreme outside. Mad House held them all off to win in 1:08.77.
Mad House, making his first stakes appearance since a fourth in the Sophomore Stakes in late March at Tampa Bay Downs, improved to 4-for-9 and boosted his earnings from $64,315 to $281,815.
Quotes
Winning jockey Paco Lopez: What did you know about this horse coming in? “Not much. Watching the (Daily) Racing Form, I saw there was a heavy favorite, so maybe we can be second. The trainer said, ‘I want him to go to the lead.’ You don’t have to tell me twice. I like the speed, but sometimes you have to wait a second. Then the owner came up behind the trainer and said, ‘I want him on the lead.’ You don’t have to think twice. He broke well, I sent him, and I was waiting for another horse, and nobody caught me.”
Winning trainer David VanWinkle: “The meet at Canterbury was coming to a close so we looked for a 3-year-old stakes race that he could fit in and we found this one.
You weren’t scared off by the quality of the field? “Oh, it scared me a little bit, trust me.”
With a heavy favorite like Barnes, were you thinking second would be a good result? “Even if we got a piece of it, I would have been happy. Paco did a job riding him. He did exactly what we told him. I said he runs better if he can make the lead and he said, ‘We can do that.’”
Were you surprised Barnes never threatened? “Yes. I wondered if 6 furlongs might be a little short for that horse, but he’s a very nice horse. You can never underestimate a horse like that. Once he turned for home and he looked like he was on the lead pretty comfortably I thought we might be alright.”
It took six starts for him to break his maiden. Did a light go on? “The first race at Tampa was a very tough maiden race that Brad Cox won with a good horse, and we figured we probably had something here. You never know. It did take him a while. We tried him going long and he didn’t have a very good trip his second out. We started sprinting him and I think this is what he wants to do.”
Trainer Jade Cunningham (Gateskeeper, second): “I am very thrilled, we are very pleased. I told myself I was going to keep my composure like Wayne Lukas, but I did not (after her first graded stakes placing; she has been training for two years and is a former assistant to the late Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas). By the time we hit the quarter pole, I was losing it. We are just really proud of him. This is a real cool achievement for my career.
This is my first horse for (owner) Gervais Racing. I don’t think we had super high expectations when we bought him but when we pulled him off the van and I started training him, I told the Gervais’ that I really liked this horse, and he had a lot of talent. If we took our time with this horse, I thought we would do well. As long as you keep him where he wants to be, he’ll give you everything he has. Fortunately, he has a lot to give.”
Jockey Tyler Gaffalione (Barnes, fourth): “Early he just didn’t want to get going. He took himself out of position and he was fighting the kickback. Midway around the turn he really started to pick it up great, but he just had way too much to do there. He got over the track down the lane. It’s really tough to say if it was the track, but he just wasn’t there for me early. Obviously, he got something out of it. I always look for positives and for me it’s the way he finished. We’ll definitely be able to get something done in the future.”
