Millionaire Special Report takes aim at Graduate final

May 16, 2008

Special Report rebounded from foot and knee injuries to become harness racing�s newest millionaire last week and on Saturday night he will try to continue his rise to the top of the pacing ranks in the $284,000 Graduate final at the Meadowlands.

Special Report is the 9-2 third choice on the morning line from post nine in the Graduate, which is slated as race eight. Driver-trainer Larry Stalbaum will be in the sulky behind him. The Graduate shares the spotlight with the $200,000 Arthur J. Cutler Memorial for older trotters.

Since entering their barn in October 2006, Special Report has been a project of patience for Stalbaum and Kim Asher, his wife and training partner. Stalbaum purchased the gelding from veteran Michigan horseman Jack Cobb at the end of his 4-year-old season for Hugo Iodice of Bayonne. Cobb paid $10,000 for Special Report as a yearling and campaigned him to more than $200,000 in earnings.

�I tried to buy Special Report from the time he was two, but he wouldn�t even price him,� Stalbaum said. �Then, after his 4-year-old season, he priced him at $100,000. I told him that was fine and we would take him. Actually, I talked to him yesterday and he has another one he thought I might be interested in. I never haggle over the price.�

Special Report won 10 of his next 19 starts for Stalbaum, but was plagued by a bone chip that ultimately caught up with him in the $239,700 Molson Pace final on June 1, 2007 at Western Fair Raceway in Canada.

�When we bought Special Report we actually didn�t vet him out and we found he had a chip in his left front knee,� Stalbaum said. �He was a little sore and after we raced him a little, we had him x-rayed. He raced okay, but Dr. Riddle (Dr. Thomas Riddle of the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Ky.) said this chip was just sitting there and had to come out. When he came back from Canada after finishing sixth in the Molson Pace at Western Fair he just wasn�t the same. So we stopped with him and he had the surgery. He had six months off and came back in December (2007).�

During the time Special Report was sidelined, Stalbaum and Asher moved their stable from Monticello Raceway to the Meadowlands' backstretch. They targeted the 2008 Presidential Series in January as the first stakes goal for Special Report and he proved up to the task, winning two preliminary rounds of the series. Special Report was a close third in the $126,500 Presidential final, won by Mr. Feelgood on Jan. 26. Stalbaum then shipped Special Report to Pompano Park in Florida for the Isle Of Capri Series, where he finished second in both legs and the $267,0000 final.

However, another minor injury came to the surface at Yonkers last month. Special Report won the $50,000 opening leg of the six-week Levy Series on March 29, but was a disappointing fourth in the second round. Stalbaum�s suspicion that a pus pocket had formed in the gelding�s hoof was confirmed.

�His other problem was when he came back from Florida this winter,� Stalbaum said. �He had a high white count in his blood. He scoped clean, I thought it was an infection in his foot (a pus pocket), and sure enough he eventually had blown it out in two different spots. He would race well and when he finished fourth in the Levy Series (on April 5), he stopped on the lead. That�s not him. The night he finally blew it out (the abscess came through and drained) was when he lost by a nose (on April 19). He should have won.�

With his hoof now healed, Special Report won his next two starts and surpassed the million-dollar mark in earnings in the $390,000 Levy final on May 3.

�In the Levy Series he was so consistent, but it doesn�t really matter what kind of track he races on,� Stalbaum said. �He�ll just do anything you ask him to do and he tries so hard. With as much speed and ability that he has it�s his manners that separate him from a lot of simply fast horses. You can leave with him every week in 26 seconds and next week take him off the gate with two fingers.

�This Graduate field has a lot of horses that have done great things in the past and maybe some are going the other way right now,� he continued. �Even the 4 year olds haven�t come all the way to the surface and we haven�t got any real shining stars right now, so far anyway." (with files from Meadowlands)

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