“I don’t have a polished answer … Phew,” she said, pausing to gather her emotions, and not quite doing so. So much so that, when it came up in the post-race press conference, the question was prefaced with an assumption that, by then, she must have had a “polished answer.” Once Arcangelo made it to the Belmont, the 47-year-old Antonucci fielded non-stop questions about her potential place in history. The next time Max Player ran, he was in Steve Asmussen’s barn. In 2020, Linda Rice, the most accomplished woman currently training in the U.S., trained Max Player to a third-place finish in the Belmont and another third in the Travers. When you label her as such, it sounds monumental, because it is, but doesn’t take into account that women have rarely had horses in the Belmont horses, and none until 1984. That’s why we’re here.”īecause they oversimplify the dearth of opportunity for women to make careers as trainers in Thoroughbred racing. And Jena, every owner is her friend, and she treats them all with the highest respect and gratitude. With bigger trainers, I think they pick and choose which owner, and favor certain owners. “In bigger barns, I don’t think it’s the same. “She will try her best for each owner,” Ebbert said. “… Yeah, I used her as a buffer, and they called her and she said, ‘Stop right there, the horse isn’t for sale.’ “It wasn’t ‘kind-of’”, Antonucci interjected with a laugh. Actually, I kind of used her as a buffer …” “People offered me a lot of money for the horse,” Ebbert said. The fact that Arcangelo was even still in Antonucci’s barn after his Peter Pan victory was a testament to loyalty and the mutual respect she and Ebbert share.Īnytime a promising horse wins a big race, like Arcangelo did, offers to buy the horse or at least secure a partnership come out of the woodwork. After that, he did it himself turning for home.” I had to move a little early to secure my spot. “I go with the flow with the horse, and it’s amazing how he did it, a young horse going through a tiny hole. I went through a little bit, I know Johnny V, with National Treasure, had a lot of horse on the lead, and I don’t want to get my horse squeezed and stop the momentum.
But the only chance I had was inside on the rail.
“But at the three-eighths pole, two, three horses angled out a little bit, and my goal was to put the horse outside and let him roll. We have to be patient to find the best rhythm in the race.’ “I had to say, ‘Not yet, not yet, buddy, it’s a long way to go. “The way he developed himself in the first turn, in a good way, he wanted to run today, and I had to be patient with him,” Castellano said. Just inside the eighth pole, there were five horses on equal terms across the track chasing Arcangelo, and none could catch him, as Forte won the race for second place, a length and a half back. Then Arcangelo made actual physical contact with National Treasure, a brief bump and brush, as Castellano steered him through along the rail at the quarter pole. Castellano picked his spots to maintain contact with those two around the first turn and down the backstretch. In the Belmont, Preakness winner National Treasure, as expected, was on the front early, along with Tapit Shoes. Then the 45-year-old Castellano exercised patience in the Belmont, fulfilling a long wait for him to win the race for the first time in his Hall of Fame career, five weeks after he won his first-ever Kentucky Derby, on Mage.
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