Tampa Bay Downs trainer Gregg Sacco knows what it feels like to enter a winner’s circle in New York after a graded-stakes victory. He did it five times from 2018-2020 with the Kentucky-bred Mind Control: in the Grade I Hopeful Stakes and the Grade I H. Allen Jerkens, both at Saratoga, as well as the Grade III Bay Shore Stakes, the Grade III Toboggan and the Grade III Tom Fool, all at Aqueduct.
But even though he trains 4-year-old colt Crazy Mason for owners Donna Wright and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Sacco elected not to travel to New York for Saturday’s Grade II, $300,000 Carter Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets at Aqueduct. His son, 24-year-old Will Sacco, has been handling the elder Sacco’s New York string this season, and Dad decided it was appropriate to watch the race from his home near the Oldsmar oval while Will ran the show in the Big Apple.
“He’s done such a tremendous job for us in New York that I didn’t have one ounce of worry with him being on the big stage,” Gregg Sacco said this morning, less than 24 hours after Crazy Mason’s thrilling come-from-behind neck victory from Quint’s Brew in the Carter. “Will is a very detailed young man and is blessed to have a good crew there working with him, and that made my choice a lot easier.”
Just in case (you know how fathers are), Gregg had sent Will a succinct but heartfelt text Friday night: “Good night, I love you. Will, you’re on a big stage tomorrow. Enjoy it.”
Crazy Mason and jockey Manuel Franco did the rest, recording the colt’s fifth victory from 13 starts and his first stakes triumph. The time for the 7-furlong distance was a solid 1:21.95.
“The track was favoring speed, and it was one of the few races (Saturday) where a horse won against the bias,” Gregg noted.
Dad had done a fair amount of traveling recently, and that probably factored to a small extent in his decision to stay here. He and his wife Kate traveled to South Carolina last week to visit their daughter Sydney, who graduates from the college this spring. And on Tuesday, Will came to Florida to meet Dad in Ocala and look at horses being prepared for the upcoming Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s Spring Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Also, it was Will, together with bloodstock agent Nick Sallusto, who had picked Crazy Mason out at a yearling sale in 2022, purchasing the son of Coal Front-Izshelegal, by Maria’s Mon, for $27,500 for Donna Wright and her husband Phil Wright, cementing Will’s connection to the horse at an early stage.
Plus, it was 50 degrees and showery in New York on Saturday, and. … fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, which was the idea behind sending Will up north in the first place.
“All the horses there are in my name, but he has run the whole show at Aqueduct all winter and won eight races (from 25 starters, the highest percentage among all outfits with at least 15 starts) during the winter meet,” Gregg said. “So I let him guide the ship in the big one, and he came through with flying colors.
“Actually, I think it was more nerve-wracking to watch the race at home on TV. With Crazy Mason’s (off-the-pace) style, it’s hard to gauge how far behind he really is.”
In fact, the official Equibase chart noted that Crazy Mason “grew detached at the tail of the field” early, more than 10 lengths behind, before Franco launched the prolonged rally that denied 4-year-old gelding Quint’s Brew, the favorite, his third consecutive stakes victory.
Crazy Mason paid $12.60 to win as the co-fourth choice.
Both Saccos are plenty proud of the strides made by Crazy Mason since they brought him to Tampa Bay Downs last season at the end of his 2-year-old campaign. After a solid second-place finish to Patriot Spirit in the Inaugural Stakes and an allowance/optional claiming victory at a mile-and-40-yards in his 3-year-old debut, Crazy Mason was found wanting in the track’s 3-year-old Grade III showcases, finishing sixth in the Sam F. Davis Stakes and seventh in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.
Taken off the Kentucky Derby trail, Crazy Mason next finished third on May 11 in the Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth. After that race, convinced they had yet to tap into the breadth of Crazy Mason’s ability, Sacco and the owners decided to give him four months off from training before returning him to competition as a sprinter.
After a fourth-place finish in his return on Nov. 30 at Aqueduct in a 6 ½-furlong allowance, Crazy Mason won back-to-back allowance sprints at the Big A on Jan. 18 and Feb. 21 – rallying from last place in both and setting him up beautifully for the Carter.
“It all worked out to perfection. He has come back strong and has a great finishing kick. He has found his niche,” Gregg Sacco said. “It doesn’t always work that way. Good horses are not easy to come by, and you have to cradle them, get a little racing luck and then hopefully, the chips fall into place.”
Gregg said Crazy Mason could start next in the Grade I Metropolitan Handicap or the Grade III True North Stakes, both on June 7, Belmont Stakes Day, at Saratoga.
“Will was on Cloud 9 last night, and it was great all the way around,” said Gregg. “Training horses is a labor of love, and you have to roll with the punches and turn the page when things don’t go your way. A trainer can only be as good as his horses and the people who work for him.”
Those kind of on-the-job lessons are likely to serve Will Sacco well in the long run.
Around the oval. Jose Ferrer rode back-to-back winners today. He captured the fifth race on the turf on Lucky Twist, a 3-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Ballybrit Stable and trained by Mike Dini. Ferrer added the sixth aboard Angelas Party Girl, a 5-year-old mare owned by Donald G. Hunter and Thunder Stride Racing and trained by Nik Goodwin.
Dini won the seventh race on the turf with Ejtimaa, a 4-year-old gelding he also owns. Sonny Leon was the jockey. Ejtimaa sped the 1-mile distance in 1:33.47, .56 seconds off the course record.
Leading jockey Samuel Marin rode two winners. He was victorious in the fourth race on Dune Road, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Averill Racing and trained by Gerald Bennett. Marin also won the eighth with Thee New Beginning, a 3-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Yenise Rosario-Colon and trained by Darien Rodriguez.
Thoroughbred racing continues on Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs with an eight-race card beginning at 12:48 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is open every day except April 20, Easter, for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
