P-Forty-Seven ready for BC

P-Forty-Seven’s 2006 debut may have been delayed by a few months, but he is quickly catching up to his peers. Last year’s Little Brown Jug winner will make his fourth start of the year in the $500,000 Breeders Crown Open Pace this Saturday at the Meadowlands.

Trained by Kelly O’Donnell, P-Forty-Seven will start from post position eight in the evening’s 11th race, and was rated at 15-1 on the morning line. Yannick Gingras has the driving assignment.

P-Forty-Seven’s return to the races this year was pushed back when he underwent surgery in April to correct an entrapped epiglottis. The epiglottis is the triangular-shaped cartilage which lies at the base of the airway. The condition can become serious when the thin membrane lying below the epiglottis moves up and covers the epiglottis, thus obstructing breathing and impairing respiratory function.

“We had to do laser surgery on him,” O’Donnell said. “We were set to qualify on May 15 and couldn't, and we had to miss the Canadian Pacing Derby (in June). We lost two months."

P-Forty-Seven made his 4-year-old debut in an Open race on July 8 at the Meadowlands. He raced first-up and finished second, in 1:50.2. In Open company the following week he fell victim to a slow pace and finished seventh, but only three lengths behind the winner, and was individually timed in 1:49.4.

“He qualified well and was second in his first start,” O’Donnell said. “He got a bad trip in his next start and got stuck in traffic, so I wasn't sure if he would be real good (in the Breeders Crown eliminations)."

In last week’s $45,000 Breeders Crown elim he was again forced to come first-over, but held on and posted a strong third-place finish, two lengths behind Lis Mara in the latter’s 1:48.1 mile.

"He did well tonight, and he should be better off this start for next week,” O’Donnell said after the Breeders Crown elimination. “I was pleased with the way he raced. He has only had a couple of starts. I was a little worried about (the Crown eliminations) since I thought he was in the tougher of the two divisions, even though the other went in 1:48. He still showed he has some in him after only his third start."

At age three, P-Forty-Seven won eight of 17 races and earned $566,174. The son of The Panderosa was a $45,000 yearling purchase at the Standardbred Horse Sale, by O’Donnell and Mark Maynard of Cleveland, Ohio. When O’Donnell called Maynard to say that he had found a yearling for them to buy, Maynard was in the Cleveland Clinic, Unit P47, which led to the horse’s name.

Maynard co-owns Hy-Level Industries, a manufacturer of high-volume precision machine parts, and was a fan of racing who got into ownership after meeting O’Donnell’s longtime business partner and retired auto magnate, Ed Mullinax of Amherst, Ohio, four years ago. Maynard later sold a share of the chestnut colt to Mullinax. (Meadowlands)

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