Adventurous Debut for Runhappy

9th-TPX, $22,950, Msw, 12-28, 2yo, 6 1/2f (AWT), 1:17, ft. 
+RUNHAPPY, c, 2, by Super Saver 
     1st Dam: Bella Jolie, by Broken Vow 
     2nd Dam: Jolie Boutique, by Northern Jove 
     3rd Dam: Mimi La Sardine, by Tank’s Prospect 
Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $14,400. O-James McIngvale. B-Wayne, Gray & Bryan Lyster (KY). T-Laura Wohlers. Click for the brisnet.com chart, brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree or VIDEO. 
    When a horse wins by 8 1/4 lengths, you can usually assume he had an uneventful trip, but Runhappy’s debut victory at Turfway Sunday was anything but textbook. The bay colt broke slowly and was at the back of the field in the early strides, only to surge forward along the rail and explode to the lead after a opening quarter in :22.81. He immediately opened a clear advantage and was some seven lengths in front approaching the stretch when he drifted out to the middle of the track. Jockey Adrian Garcia got his young charge straightened out, only to have Runhappy begin drifting out once again. Weaving in and out down the lane, the colt was still well in front at the wire. 

Unable to make it to the races himself, owner Jim McIngvale watched the race unfold via a computer. 
“I walked over to the computer and my sister-in-law was saying, ‘He broke very badly,’” McIngvale recalled with a chuckle. “Then we saw him coming up the rail like a wild horse and it was just hilarious. We just broke out laughing and then he just started running all over the track like he was drunk, then he stopped to get a hot dog and he still finished eight in front. It was crazy. It was just too much.” 

Runhappy is one of three horses McIngvale, owner of the Gallery Furniture retail stores, has in training and the colt is conditioned by McIngvale’s sister-in-law, Laura Wohlers. The two knew they had something special in Runhappy. 

“We had a pretty good horse named [Churchill allowance-winning juvenile] Killingit (Candy Ride {Arg}), who ran in an allowance race two races before,” McIngvale said. “I had asked Laura to breeze Killingit with Runhappy and she said, ‘I can’t do that. I said, ‘Why not?’ She said, ‘Because it will kill Killingit’s confidence when Runhappy kicks his butt.’” 
McIngvale purchased Runhappy for $200,000 as a Keeneland September yearling in 2013. 

“The vet we used said he had the best conformation of any horse he’d ever seen,” McIngvale said of early impressions of Runhappy. “He is a big, good-looking athletic horse and he had a very good mind. So there wasn’t anything we didn’t like about him. He was one of the horses that we really liked in the sale and we were thrilled to get him and now we’re thrilled that he ran like that. And he has a pedigree with which, hopefully, he can go a long way.” 

Runhappy was working at Monmouth Park over the summer before relocating to Kentucky. The colt had plenty of preparation for his debut. He worked four furlongs at The Thoroughbred Center in :48 Dec. 13, returned to work five furlongs in :59 Dec. 17 and turned in a five-furlong breeze in 1:01 4/5 Dec. 20. 

“We breeze those horses three times a week,” McIngvale said. “We like the three we have right now and moving forward, we’ll keep training them hard and hopefully get some good results.” 

McIngvale was particularly pleased to get Runhappy’s debut run in before the end of his juvenile year. 

“The goal was to get him to run as a 2-year-old so he has a chance to win the GI Kentucky Derby,” McIngvale explained. “Because you have to run as a 2-year-old to have a chance to win the Kentucky Derby. So we got it in right there at the wire. And he gave us all some excitement and some humor yesterday. And we thought it was great.” 

Runhappy will relocate to Louisiana for the winter and McIngvale expects the colt to start next either at the Fair Grounds or at Oaklawn Park. But the outspoken owner may be taking an unexpectedly conservative route. 

“My tendency has always been to skip conditions, but I’ve never done well that way,” McIngvale smiled. “So I am going to try to hold my exuberance and let him run in an allowance.” 

Still, don’t expect Runhappy’s name to be out of the entry box for too long. 

“He needs racing so he can learn how to run straight,” McIngvale said.    -Jessica Martini