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| Sumita Pawar |
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After winning Saturday's Gr.2 Cigar Mile, Hoist the Gold will enjoy a well-deserved break for a couple of weeks at a farm in Kentucky. Following this period of rest, the talented horse is expected to resume training before embarking on a journey to the highly-anticipated US$20 million Gr.1 Saudi Cup in February at King Abdulaziz Racecourse. Jim Culver, president of Dream Team One Racing Stable, shared these exciting plans for the future of their champion.
In the recent Ras Al Noof Cup, Harb made a triumphant return to the season. The Kentucky homebred put up an impressive performance, earning a career-best 109 Beyer Speed Figure for his front-running win in the Cigar Mile. The 4YO Mineshaft colt was trained by Dallas Stewart and piloted by Hall of Famer John Velazquez.
Harb zipped through splits of 22.41, 44.88 and 1:09.04 en route to a 4 1/2-length score over the late-running Señor Buscador in a final time of 1:34.28. Despite not being able to attend the race in person due to a back injury, Culver, who previously operated Dream Team One as a syndicate, was thrilled with the impressive performance.
“I was jumping up and down in my living room like crazy watching it,” Culver said. “It was pretty exciting.”
Velazquez, who had won the Cigar Mile three times before, chose this race after Hoist the Gold's disappointing sixth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. It is worth noting that this performance followed a strong win from the inside post in the six-furlong Phoenix Gr.2 at Keeneland in October.
“We finally figured out what he likes to do. He does not like to take dirt in his face. He shies away from it, and it just kills him in a race,” Culver said. “He got him out front quick in the Phoenix and he won, but in the Breeders’ Cup he got stuck on the rail behind the leaders and he just took too much dirt that day.
“Johnny said, ‘he gallops out tremendously, so let’s go a little longer and he’ll win this race for fun,’ ” added Culver. “Johnny picked the race for us and he was right. I was a little surprised when he got that five-length lead at the top of the stretch. Wow. It was just a tremendous performance.”
Culver is a well-known figure in the horse racing world, having owned multiple Group One winning multimillionaire Mucho Macho Man. He campaigned with Reeves Thoroughbred Racing for much of the horse's career, which included a third-place finish in the 2011 Kentucky Derby. Dean Reeves eventually bought the horse outright in 2012, and Mucho Macho Man went on to win the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic, one of five career graded scores.
Culver shared that he bought Mucho Macho Man as a yearling off the farm and raced him before Dean bought a majority interest. They stayed in partnership for a long time before selling the rest of him later in his career to Dean, who ended up owning all of him.
In 2015, Culver purchased Tacit Approval, the dam of Hoist the Gold, for US$62,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky February Mixed Sale. Tacit Approval was owned by West Point, and a couple of the West Point partners approached Culver about buying her with the hopes of racing her again. Although Tacit Approval didn't show enough in training to move forward with their dreams of racing her, the Tapit mare has performed beyond expectations as a broodmare, producing three foals to race thus far, all winners, including Hoist the Gold and Mucho Macho Girl, by Mucho Macho Man.
Culver decided to breed Tacit Approval, and about every three years, they skip a year of breeding her just to give her a break. She has done well for them, and Culver said he was a big fan of Hoist the Gold's sire Mineshaft. The son of A. P. Indy earned honors as horse of the year and champion older horse in 2003 for a seven-win campaign that included Group One wins at Belmont Park in the Suburban Handicap, Woodward, and Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Hoist the Gold RNA'd at the 2020 Keeneland September yearling sale, but this has proven to be a fortunate turn of affairs for Culver as the 4YO dark bay has now banked more than US$1.1 million with a record of 26: 5-6-3. Culver shared that they didn't plan to keep him and were going to breed and race every other year's horse. They put him in the sale, but he didn't bring what they'd hoped. They put him in training, and it turned out to be the right decision.