Once a Colt Nobody Wanted, Vanderkaay Wins Dancing Count Stakes

Trainer Ferris Allen was down at a horse sale in Florida last winter, working his cellphone trying to find someone to buy a colt he liked. When none of his clients would open his wallet, Allen drove to the beach, lay down in the sun and put the phone by his head.

A little while later, he got the call he wanted -- University of Michigan swimming coach Bob Bowman, who had found Allen's message on his voice mail, called with piqued interest.

"Tell me about this horse you're calling about," Allen recalled Bowman saying.

Allen used the proper amount of persuasion, and Bowman and his partner Frank Morgan bought the horse for $50,000 and named it Vanderkaay, after Peter Vanderkaay, a Bowman protege who helped the U.S. 4x200-meter freestyle relay team win the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

At Laurel Park yesterday, Vanderkaay the horse came down the lane that opened along the rail and did his namesake proud, launched out of eighth place to victory by jockey Anna Rose Napravnik in the $70,000 Dancing Count Stakes for 3-year-olds.

"Things are going swimmingly here for Vanderkaay," track announcer Dave Rodman said as the colt crossed the finish line in front of the late-moving Ghostly Thunder by 2 3/4 lengths in 1 minute 10.70 seconds for six furlongs.

In the winner's circle, Allen sounded proud of finding a nice horse for a moderate price that no one wanted when it passed through the Calder sales ring.

"At these select sales, you see all these high-priced horses going for $1.4 million, $1.5 million, but he's just a fabulous little package of a horse," Allen said.

Allen, who stables at Laurel, had Vanderkaay with his Delaware contingent that shipped down to Florida for the winter. After two narrow sprint victories at Calder Race Course, Allen tried Vanderkaay in a stakes race at Tampa Bay Downs, and the horse made a strong move up the rail before getting squeezed by another runner and finishing fourth.

Early yesterday afternoon, before the Dancing Count, Allen and Morgan watched the third-place finisher from that Tampa stakes, Surrealdeal, finish second at 50-1 in the Grade II Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park on a monitor in the clubhouse.

The performance could only raise their confidence, even though Vanderkaay was let go at high odds of 8-1 by Laurel bettors.

When the gate opened, Philadelphia-based speedster Vigors Storm quickly overhauled long-shot Copelan's Ridge and opened a two-length lead, racing through a quarter-mile in 22.08 seconds and a half in 46.01. Several horses moved to challenge on the turn and Vigors Storm began to tire.

Eight of the nine runners in the race turned wide for home, and Napravnik had a giant gap to shoot through.

"I worked him at Delaware before he'd even run," said Napravnik, the leading rider at the Laurel winter meet. "I never got to ride him because he went down to the warm weather."

Then she looked at Allen. "Maybe I'll get down to the warm weather," she said.

"I gave her 10 bucks to gallop the horse," Allen said, ignoring the request for a sunny sojourn.

For now, Vanderkaay will stay in Maryland with his next assignment likely the $70,000 Miracle Wood at seven furlongs on March 1.

Racing Notes: Two Laurel-based horses, 2007 Maryland Juvenile Championship winner Apple Special and promising Cave's Valley, traveled to Aqueduct and struggled in the $109,000 Whirlaway Stakes for 3-year-olds, finishing fifth and sixth behind winner Barrier Reef.