The 76th renewals of the Grade
III Arlington-Washington Futurity and Grade III Arlington-Washington Lassie – Chicago’s
twin traditional events for 2-year-old Thoroughbreds – will both be contested
this Saturday at Arlington
and both have attracted juveniles with unusually spirited potential.
One of four trainers with
horses entered in both the Futurity and the Lassie – but the only one shipping
in with Kentucky-based contestants for both stakes – is Tom Amoss, formerly a
major presence at Arlington
but one who has not kept a local string here in recent seasons.
Amoss, a 49-year-old native of
New Orleans, Louisiana,
who has won eight training titles at Fair Grounds, spoke about Jerry Namy’s
Futurity contestant Shared Property and Pop-A-Top LLC’s Lassie runner Always
Here Too when reached by phone in Kentucky
Wednesday during Arlington’s
training hours.
“I’ve always liked (Shared
Property),” said Amoss of his Scat Daddy gelding who won the only start of his
career by four lengths at Ellis Park on July 30. “In fact, I had enough
confidence in him that in that Ellis Park race that I told the jockey (Leandro
Goncalves) to take him back at the start, and I never give instructions like
that.
“Shared Property is owned by
Jerry Nemy, who is in the oil business and lives in Dallas,”
Amoss said. “Jerry is an actively involved owner who enjoys his horses
very much, and his stable is likely to expand rapidly if this horse is as good
as I think he is.
“I expect Always Here Too is
going to turn out to be a nice filly as well,” said Amoss. “She broke her
maiden impressively in her last start at Ellis (by 3 3/4-lengths on July 31)
but I thought her race before that at Churchill was a good one, too. She
had a tough trip that day but she never gave up and was coming on at the
end. Pop-A-Top is the stable name for Paul Blake and his wife Shirley,
and their daughter is involved as well.
“These races Saturday are the
ones we have been pointing toward all along,” said Amoss. “Of course,
both horses will be running over a different surface this time and both will be
asked to go another quarter of a mile, but both have shown that great
combination of tactical speed and the ability to rate so I don’t think the
added distance will be a problem for either of them.”