Lisa's Booby Trap Tries Turf in Riskaverse

The next chapter in the storybook tale of Lisa’s Booby Trap will be written Thursday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, when the undefeated filly goes for her fifth straight win in the second division of the $70,000 Riskaverse Stakes.

The saga thus far: Club-footed and blind in one eye, the gangly filly cost her owner and trainer, Tim Snyder, a mere $4,500 earlier this year, for which he put down $2,000 cash with the promise to pay the rest from her winnings. Named in part for his late wife Lisa, who died of cancer in 2003, and in part for a gentlemen’s club in Florida that offered free lunch, Lisa’s Booby Trap promptly rewarded Snyder’s faith and patient handling by winning her first three races at Finger Lakes by a combined margin of 36 ¾ lengths.

After mulling the options for the only horse in his barn, Snyder decided to bring Lisa to the elite meet at Saratoga Race Course, a few hundred miles in distance and a few thousand light years in ambience from Finger Lakes. Tucked away in the stakes barn, she attracted the attention of Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux, who offered to work her one morning. A few days later, with Desormeaux in the irons, Lisa’s Booby Trap came from off the pace to post a resounding six-length victory in the $70,000 Loudonville Stakes on August 6 much to the delight of the fans, the media, and of course, Snyder, who claims he feels a genuine connection with his late wife through the filly.

Since then, the story has been splashed across local and national media. A Hollywood screenwriter has come calling, and Dateline NBC is planning a one-hour special on Snyder and Lisa. But the journey from obscurity to media star hasn’t affected the 57-year-old trainer in the least. Having turned down as much as $500,000 for the  filly, Snyder is content to stay in a simple room a few yards from Lisa’s stall, where he can be found every morning before dawn to work with her.

It is a labor of love.

“My wife was a good lady,” he said. “She told her mother the last week she was alive that she was coming back as a horse, and now all this has happened. I’m having too much fun with her to ever sell her. I get cards and letters, people send over bushels of carrots and peppermints … I could never have imagined anything like this happening. And now, winning five in a row with her would be something really special.”

Lisa’s task in the Riskaverse will not be an easy one. Although she worked splendidly on the grass under Desormeaux, the one-mile turf race will be over a different surface than her previous four starts on the main track. As well, she will be facing a crowded field of 3-year-old fillies on the somewhat narrow inner turf course.

“I’ve been wanting to try her on the grass, I think she’ll love it,” said Snyder. “I don’t think it makes too much difference what she runs on.”

Unlike her first start at Saratoga, where she was listed at 12-1 on the morning line, Lisa’s Booby Trap is the early 5-2 favorite from post position 2 among the ten 3-year-old fillies who will enter the starting gate in Thursday’s second division of the Riskaverse, which will be run as the ninth of 10 races on the card.

Second choice at 5-1 on the morning line is the Tom Proctor-trained Queen of the Creek, winner of a one-mile optional claimer at the Spa on July 26, who is 3-0-1 from five starts on the turf. Khancord Kid, a graded stakes winner who most recently was a close-up fourth in the Grade 2 Lake George, is 6-1 on the morning line in the division, as is Go Ask Alex, who rebounded from an 11^th-place finish in the Lake George to finish third in an optional claimer on August 16.

Headlining the first division, which will be the fourth race on the card, at 3-1 on the morning line is Awesome Maria, who is making her 2010 debut after having won last year’s Grade 2 Matron and finishing second to Devil May Care in the Grade 1 Frizette.

The story of the day, however, remains Lisa – both the horse, and the woman for whom she is named.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I do feel a connection to my wife through the horse,” said Snyder. “Lisa’s Booby Trap could never be a replacement. But I know what I feel, and it’s real to me.”

The field for the first division of the $70,000 Riskaverse: