Some of the biggest names in horse training had an entry in Monday's General George Handicap at Laurel Park, a $150,000 race that was billed as the marquee event during the track's SprintFest Weekend. The card — which included horses trained by Todd Pletcher, Rick Dutrow, King Leatherbury and Kieran McLaughlin, among others — almost could have been mistaken for a weekend race at Churchill Downs.
But when the dirt settled and the handle was counted, it wasn't one of racing's big names standing in the winner's circle. It was instead Penn National-based trainer Stephanie Beattie, who helped guide 6-year-old No Advantage to a surprising win.
Even Beattie — a self-described "country girl from Pennsylvania" — seemed a bit stunned by the result. Although she has won 976 races in her career, she almost exclusively works with claiming horses, so winning a Grade II stakes race, even with a quality sprinter like No Advantage, left her somewhat at a loss for words.
"I was terribly nervous," Beattie said. "I was thinking earlier, 'This is not me.' I'm used to working the back of the barn, galloping my own horses, all that stuff. ... This is a awesome."
It was thrilling to watch, as well. A stunned crowd saw jockey Manual Chaves guide No Advantage along the outside for most of the race, a spot he couldn't help but occupy after the horse drew the widest post position in the field. But it seemed to work in No Advantage's favor. He was sixth at the one-half-mile mark but surged ahead and took a big lead when the pack reached the stretch run. A hard-charging Laysh Laysh Laysh closed quickly but ran out of room and finished a neck behind in second. Heritage Hall finished third.
"The horse normally breaks a little bit slow, so I just let him find his stride going down the backside," Chaves said. "He just gets comfortable and gets into the race and responds whenever I ask him. He's an amazing horse. He knows where that wire is. He's got an enormous heart."
No Advantage, who paid $23.80 to win, is owned by Suarez Racing Inc., which is run by Pablo Suarez out of California. All his jockeys wear Superman's emblem on their racing silks, and Chaves looked like the Man of Steel — albeit a much shorter version — the way he was leaning hard into the breeze as he roared across the finish line.
"This is the best win of my career," Chaves said.
Beattie was effusive in her praise of Suarez after the race, grateful that the owner had expressed enough confidence in her to keep the horse in Pennsylvania after he acquired it.
"For Pablo to keep the horse with me means a lot," Beattie said. "He has a lot of faith in me. I really appreciate that. Because he could have taken him anywhere else. This is the first horse I've got for him, and I'm just tickled to death he stayed."
Suarez might want to send more horses her way, unless he has any objections with the unusual diet Beattie says she feeds No Advantage. As a 6-year-old, he may be getting up there in years, but No Advantage eats like a high school teenager.
"He's the coolest horse," Beattie said. "He eats candy canes. He eats cupcakes. We give him soda. Everyone that walks by [his barn] gives him candy. We have to put a sign up telling people, 'Don't mess with him!'"
Beattie, who grew up the daughter of a horse trainer in Grantsville, Pa., said she feels like her experience training claiming horses, which are typically older, probably helped her figure out which buttons to push in the months and weeks leading up to Monday's race.
"I think when you train older horses, you get to know their little quirks," Beattie said. "You get to know how to work them through little issues. But the main thing with an older horse is you've got to keep them happy. If they're happy and healthy, they're going to go out there and run hard. And he's a happy horse."
Beattie said she hopes to have No Advantage ready to run again in the $1 million Charles Town Classic April 16.
kevin.vanvalkenburg@baltsun.com
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