Flash of Glory bound for glory

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This article was published 16/07/2021 (1728 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Long gone are the days when you could buy a horse for $500 and win a stakes race. But it appears spending $3,000 might get the job done, especially if you’re stabled in trainer Mike Nault’s barn at Assiniboia Downs.

It certainly didn’t take the 53-year-old conditioner from Laurier, Man., long to recover from losing the two best horses in his barn over the past two years to other trainers. Not only did Nault win the $35,000 Derby Trial Stakes last Monday, he also turned loose a sizzling Manitoba-bred filly to win the first two-year-old race of the year on Wednesday.

In 2019 Nault won seven races in a row with Hidden Grace and in 2020 he won four in a row with Melisandre, both champions. Hidden Grace was moved to trainer Murray Duncan’s barn in 2020 and shipped to trainer Tim Rycroft in Alberta in 2021. Melisandre was moved to trainer Lise Pruitt’s barn this year. Losing two of the best horses on the grounds to other trainers is not only a financial blow, but it can also be devastating mentally.

Nault is bouncing back on both fronts.

The resilient conditioner won a five-horse photo in the Derby Trial with Flash of Glory to take home the trophy for Pat Beavis, Phil Allard and Grant Sissons of True North Thoroughbreds — and the team now has one of the local favourites for the $100,000 Manitoba Derby on Aug. 2. Nault knows the horses will be much tougher in the Derby, but he’s also quite sure Flash of Glory will get the 1 1/8-mile distance of Manitoba’s most prestigious race. And, he does have home court advantage.

Flash of Glory was still a stallion when he was purchased for just $3,000 by trainer Don Schnell in Phoenix this past winter, and he was such a rogue that Schnell was the only person that would paddock him. After being gelded, Flash of Glory won twice — on both turf and dirt — and he obviously had his mind back on racing.

“I guess he was a nasty son-of-a-gun,” said Nault. “They couldn’t handle him. He was bad. He’s getting better now.”

“He sleeps with his head in my lap now,” said Nault’s assistant trainer Hanna Dilts. “Regardless of where he finishes in the Manitoba Derby, we’ll be proud of him because of all the development he’s shown.”

Flash of Glory is a son of multiple Grade 1 stakes-winning turf router Point of Entry out of Gulfstream Park allowance winner Sandi’s Ready, a daughter of multiple graded stakes-winner More than Ready, who was fourth in the 2000 Kentucky Derby. That’s enough pedigree to get the distance of the Manitoba Derby, with some high class added in for good measure.

Nault always wanted to win the Manitoba Matron, the Manitoba Derby and the Gold Cup as a trainer. He got his Manitoba Matron with Hidden Grace in 2019, he’s now got a Manitoba Derby contender in his barn, and he also has his eye on the Gold Cup with another horse.

Nault has already proven he can handle the pressure of local stakes races, and he was exposed to it at the highest levels when he was flown to Oaklawn Park in 2019 to exercise and paddock Manitoba-bred millionairess Escape Clause for Schnell before her career best performance in the $750,000 Apple Blossom-G1, where she was beaten by less than an inch by the best mare in the world at the time, Midnight Bisou.

“One more jump and we had it,” said Nault. “Mike Smith (jockey on Midnight Bisou) thought we won it. Everybody treated us really well down there. They all came to see her in the test barn and congratulate us, to say what a nice mare she was. It was wicked good.”

The same could be said for the second winner Nault turned loose this week for True North Thoroughbreds on Wednesday night. Manitoba-bred two-year-old filly Bankin On Betty was never asked to seriously run when she galloped away from six rivals in the first baby race of the year.

Purchased privately from breeder Dr. Betty Hughes, the bay filly by Vengeful Wildcat had eight workouts, including three from the gate, before the race, and Nault thought he had a big shot to win. This despite facing Unscripted, a big good-looking filly by 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome who is a half-sister to Grade II stakes winner Mutasaabeq, among six other rivals, all of whom were rumoured to be runners.

When asked before the race if Bankin On Betty knew who she was up against, Nault answered confidently, “Do they know who they’re up against?”

They do now.