Caleb’s Posse, who spoiled 2010
juvenile champion Uncle Mo ’s
bid for a winning comeback in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Foxwoods King’s
Bishop, emerged from the race in good shape and headed back to his home base at
Arlington
Park early Sunday morning in an attempt to avoid the
stormy weather Hurricane Irene brought to
Saratoga Springs .
“Everything looks good,” trainer
Donnie Von Hemel said by phone Sunday morning. “He ate everything last night and
walked on the van this morning like he’d done something.”
Caleb’s Posse, 2-for-2 at the Spa
this summer, having taken the Grade 2 Amsterdam on August 1 before nosing out
Uncle
Mo in the Foxwoods King’s Bishop, departed the
Spa at about 4:15 a.m. on Sunday, Von Hemel said.
“We were planning to leave today
or Monday and figured we better go ahead and get on out of there,” Von Hemel
said. “We’re almost to Buffalo now and it takes about 12-14 hours to get
back.”
Von Hemel, who said he had no set
plans for Caleb’s Posse, was especially pleased that Saturday’s victory came for
longtime clients Don McNeill and Everett Dobson.
“Winning a Grade 1 at
Saratoga is high on the
list of any trainer,” Von Hemel said. “I’m just so happy for the clients, and
for the horse. It’s all good right now – there are so many times when it isn’t,
you really have to appreciate when it is.”