Melisandre making a name for herself

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This article was published 04/06/2021 (1881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hail the underdog and her new rising star.

Trainer Lise Pruitt saddled three-year-old Manitoba-bred filly Melisandre to win the $20,000 Sail to France Overnight Stakes on Monday, and it wasn’t close.

It was Melisandre’s first start of 2021 and her first with Pruitt at the helm as trainer, after a perfect four-for-four season as a two-year-old. The pressure was on, as multiple stakes-winning conditioners Jerry Gourneau, Shelley Brown, Craig Smith and Devon Gittens all took their shots against the two-year-old champ, as did numerous handicappers who thought Melisandre wouldn’t be ready off the bench.

Gourneau had two winter-raced allowance horses in the race; Shelley Brown saddled the multiple stakes-placed Fire On Command and the talented Orange Theory; Craig Smith ran the multiple-stakes placed Temple of Zoom; and Devon Gittens thought he had a good chance with Prairie Magic, who finished second behind Melisandre in the Buffalo Stakes last year. Prairie Magic was ready, but not prepared for the fireball she was about to encounter on the front end.

Prairie Magic went after Melisandre as soon as the gate opened and managed to stay with the champ to early turn before regretting her decision. They went fast too, or too fast, depending on who you were sitting on. Stanley Chadee Jr. was aboard Melisandre, as he has been in all five of her starts.

Melisandre ran the first quarter mile in 22.60 seconds, which would have been quick enough to soften up an ordinary horse, but this chestnut daughter of Going Commando-High Pioneer by Pioneering is far from ordinary. She ran away from her field, getting the half mile in a quick 46.20 and drawing off to win by four lengths in a rapid 58.60 for the five furlongs. She paid $6.50 to win.

“She’s amazing,” said trainer Pruitt. “I’m speechless. She’s that much and then some. I just can’t get over it.”

The 49-year-old Pruitt inherited the job of training Melisandre and 19 more horses for Arnason Farms and True North Thoroughbreds when Don Schell decided not to come back from Phoenix this spring, but it’s not like she never earned it.

Pruitt has always been known as one of the hardest working people in the backstretch, and she’d spent the winter working for Arnason Farms. She’d also helped out Mike Nault last year when he was in charge of the training duties. Pruitt knew the horses after months of working with them on the farm and when decision-time came it was an easy one.

Pruitt started working as a groom at Assiniboia Downs for the “Silver Fox” John Gray during her final year of high school and never looked back. She got her assistant trainer license with Barry Hodgson and later worked for top caretakers Patti Ross and Jack Robertson. She won her first race as a licensed trainer on July 4, 1997 with Sports Reward and kept that horse until he died of natural causes at the age of 27. “He was my first winner,” said Pruitt. “I just had to.”

At the same time, Pruitt was on her way to compiling a record of 129-110-161 from 1,107 starts and purse earnings of $1,172,145. She also married former top ASD jockey Jerry Pruitt and the couple have two daughters, Lexi (20) and Ciera (18). Jerry retired in 2017 after 40 years in the saddle and 2,564 victories, and you could tell he was proud to be back in the winner’s circle leading Melisandre for owners Arnason Farms and True North Thoroughbreds, and for his wife.

“We make a good team,” said Lise.

Daughter Ciera works in the barn as a groom with two other relatively new grooms who “work hard and show up every day,” said Pruitt. Richie Ricketts rounds out the team, and he is the veteran groom who cares for Melisandre.

A top hand in Jamaica who has spent his whole life with horses, Ricketts came to Canada more than 10 years ago and has been here ever since. Before working for Pruitt, Ricketts worked for trainers Emile Corbel, Carl Anderson, Tanya Lindsay and Shelley Brown.

“It takes a village to win a race, and we’ve got a village helping us here,” said Pruitt, who also won the race prior to the Sail to France with Manitoba-bred maiden Impressive Sense.

“The horses are happy and they looked really good leading up to their races. When the stake race got cancelled the week before, I worked Melisandre three-eighths of a mile and I was like, ‘Oh Lord!’”

And she ran like it.