By Claire Novak, Special Contributor
“Believe me, this is some Cinderella story,”
Mike Munna said one day at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. “Believe me!”
The owner was referring to his 3-year-old gelding
Comisky’s Humor –
specifically the fact that this horse purchased for $1,200 on the
second-to-last day of the 2010 Keeneland September Yearling Sale will
head postward Saturday to contest the 99th running of the
$1 million Louisiana Derby and maybe even earn a spot in the Kentucky
Derby.
The son of Sharp Humor bred in
Kentucky by
Buck Pond Farm has run to
back-to-back victories under the Mike Munna Racing Stable silks –
although no one initially thought he would make it to the winner’s
circle. He first started in a six-furlong maiden claimer
for $15,000 at Fair Grounds on Jan. 6 this year, and after pressing the
pace for a half-mile, he faded in the stretch and finished fourth – 10 ¾
lengths behind the winner. Less than one month later, on Jan. 29,
trainer
Ron Faucheux Jr. shortened him up and dropped him down to the bottom maiden level – $10,000 – and nobody tried to take him.
“He
never really showed huge flash,” said Faucheux, 29. “We kind of brought
him along pretty slowly, we didn’t ask him to show us too much.
He didn’t put it all together until his second race.”
Five
furlongs later, Comisky’s Humor was getting his picture taken as a
track-record setter, having gone the distance in 57.03 seconds with
a 14-length victory. Jockey Richard Eramia
included his input (“this horse wants to go longer,” he said), and
Faucheux remarked, “If this horse keeps running like he just did, we
should put him in the Louisiana
Derby.”
In his next start March 2, Comisky’s Humor ran in a six-furlong starter-allowance race and won by four lengths in 1:09.73.
“I
said, ‘Man, I’m all for it, let’s go,’” Munna recalled. “That second
race he stumbled coming out of the gate and he made up a lot of ground
quick. It’s something special to go back and dissect the race – in five
furlongs, he ran 11 and 1 each furlong to the end. To go the distance
and never slow down, that’s pretty special. Sometimes the light bulb
just clicks and they come around, and I’ll be
danged if it didn’t do just that with this horse.”
Munna
will never forget that, if it hadn’t been for a friend’s determination
to find a specifically colored horse, he might not even be listed
as the owner of record in Fair Grounds’ Derby Day program.
“We
usually go near the end of the sale to get closer to our price range,”
Munna explained of his buying strategy. “We’re not looking to spend
a million dollars. My limit is probably $20,000 for one horse. Me and
my buddy
Harold Delahoussaye pick them
out. He’s my mentor and best friend and we have a common interest in
these horses – he can’t live without them and I need him to help me with
them.”
On
the particular sales day in question two years ago, Munna and
Delahoussaye traversed the Keeneland Sale in search of runners. Tagging
along
was Vincent Rizzuto, who wanted to buy one specific kind of horse – a gray roan.
“Harold
and I did our homework, got the three horses we’d scoped out that we
wanted, and went and sat in the bar,” Munna recalled. “I walked
back out to look for Vincent, and there was this bay horse going
through the ring. He had a Quarter Horse rear end on him and I said,
man, I’m not going to let him go for $1,000. I still don’t know what
possessed me to buy him, but I made one bid, no one challenged
me, and that’s how I came upon getting this horse for $1,200.”
“I
told Vincent, ‘Here, take this one I just bought for $1,200, I know
you’re looking for a horse,’ and he said, ‘No, I want a gray roan,’
so I kept him,” he recalled.
As a yearling, Comisky’s Humor was shipped to Munna’s place in Sun,
La., a
42-acre farm that plays home to 40-some horses from broodmares and
foals to weanlings, yearlings, 2-year-olds, and layups off the track.
Munna, 57, was born and raised in
Chalmette,
La. and grew up the son of a Fair Grounds mutuel
clerk. He used to make $2 bets when he was still a student in high
school, far before he ever thought of owning racehorses.
“As
the years went on, I bet them a lot, and some days you’d have good days
and some days you didn’t,” he said. “I was playing horses and I
told my buddy, ‘I think the only way to really learn about these horses
is to have one of our own.’ We bought a 2-year-old that never did
anything and nothing went bad with the partnership, but I just decided I
wanted to do it by myself. I started claiming
and made some good, good claims. Harold said, ‘Be careful, this stuff
is contagious!’ I guess it is.”
Munna, who makes his living in construction, worked in the cleanup effort after Hurricane Katrina struck
New Orleans.
He said he “took a bad situation and made it good,” bringing in enough
funds during the recovery to purchase his acreage and develop a
Thoroughbred facility there.
Once
Comisky’s Humor learned the basics at the farm, he shipped back to
Faucheux, a 29-year-old who has been making noise at Fair Grounds with
about 25 horses in training since going out on his own in late 2009 (at
the current meet he’s winning at a 35% clip with horses finishing 58%
in the money).
The former barn foreman for Eclipse Award winning conditioner
Todd Pletcher is no stranger to good horses or to
New Orleans’ greatest races, having been born and raised here. His stepfather is
Louie Roussel III, the horse owner/trainer who used to own Fair Grounds, and in 2007 while working for Pletcher he shipped in with
Circular Quay to saddle that contender to a Louisiana Derby score and
Master Command to victory in the New Orleans Handicap.
“To me, growing up in
New Orleans,
this is my Kentucky Derby,” Faucheux said. “This will be the biggest
moment I’ve ever experienced as long as I’ve been in racing. To do well
at home at the Fair Grounds is what means
the most to me. This is where I’ve always wanted to be, and to be able
to compete on this stage at home is extremely satisfying.”
“That’s
every horseman’s dream to make it to a big race,” Munna remarked. “Mine
wasn’t that high, I just wanted a nice stakes contender. Since
the allowance win, I’ve been approached by people wanting to buy him
and I’ve passed on some pretty big numbers. I may live to regret it, but
I don’t think so. I’ve never been to a big race before with a horse,
and I just want to see this horse run on Saturday.
When things start clicking and they fall into place, you get a good
feeling. I really think we’ve got a good shot.”