Hamilton Enjoying Ride with Fioretti

Anthony Hamilton, who has been training on his own for just under three years, will have his first Breeders’ Cup starter when Fioretti (Bernardini) goes postward in Saturday’s GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Sprint. The 5-year-old mare has already given Hamilton, as well as jockey Sophie Doyle, his first graded stakes victory with her 17-1 upset win in the Oct. 3 GII Thoroughbred Club of America S. (video). That race was a Win and You’re In event and earned Fioretti an automatic berth into the F/M Sprint.

A third-generation horseman, Hamilton purchased Fioretti for $35,000 out of last year’s Fasig-Tipton Summer Horses of Racing Age Sale.

“She was on our list and was in our ballpark figure, so it all just worked out,” Hamilton said of the purchase. “Mainly we were looking for horses that had run before and had some back form, back class. And she fit the body type–she is a good-looking filly. She ticked all the boxes. We thought she would be between $30-$50,000. So we were really happy with the price, actually.”

Bred by James Bell, Fioretti was a $92,000 Keeneland January yearling in 2011 before RNA’ing for $230,000 later that year at the Keeneland September sale. She began her racing career in the barn of Bill Mott and broke her maiden in her sixth start, romping home by nine lengths at Parx in January of 2014, for trainer Graham Motion. She was winless in her next four starts before selling at Fasig-Tipton last summer.

Hamilton purchased the mare along with Two Hearts Farm, launched by Anthony Braddock and his father, the late Joe Hamilton, in 2006. The elder Hamilton, who passed away in January, brought in longtime friend Don Janes.

“Two Hearts Farm was started by my father and Tony,” Hamilton explained of the ownership group. “Dad sold Don Janes a piece. [Janes] is a Louisville man and he was friends with dad. He absolutely loves coming to the races, whether we are going to River Downs, Churchill, Keeneland, he is always there. He just really enjoys it, so dad partnered on a few horses with him.”

The 32-year-old Hamilton knew early on that Fioretti was well worth her purchase price.

“The first day I got her to the racetrack, I kind of knew she was going to be OK and I was thinking we got a very good deal,” Hamilton said. “But I didn’t realize she was going to mature into what she has. We knew we were good, especially at $35,000.”

After a pair of Churchill allowance starts last September, Fioretti made two starts in the claiming ranks before finding her way to the winner’s circle again, taking a December allowance over the all-weather at Turfway by three lengths and she added an optional-claimer victory in Florence in January.

Fioretti earned the first stakes win of her career with a 3/4-length tally in the June 20 Roxelana S. She set the pace before finishing a narrowly beaten runner-up going one mile in the GIII Groupie Doll S. at Ellis Park Aug. 8 and it was on to Keeneland with an automatic berth to the Breeders’ Cup on the line.

“After the Roxelana, we were working towards the TCA,” Hamilton recalled. “We said if we ran well in the Groupie Doll, we would skip the Open Mind and go straight to the TCA, because if we won we wanted to go fresh into the Breeders’ Cup.”

Sound simple?

“Well, we had it in mind,” Hamilton acknowledged with a smile. “It was a stretch, but that was the plan.”

In the six-furlong TCA, Fioretti came from just off the pace with a four-wide move into the stretch as champion Judy the Beauty (Ghostzapper) was trapped in traffic along the rail. She surged to the lead with a furlong to run and determinedly held on for a 3/4-length victory over HeykittykittyKitty (Tactical Cat) with Judy the Beauty in third.

Looking ahead to his strategy for Saturday’s F/M Sprint, where Fioretti will have an extra furlong to navigate against a tough group of fillies, Hamilton said, “I don’t know. There are a lot of horses that I thought would have speed that people are talking about taking back. We’ll just have to see how it shakes out when the gates open.”

Hamilton is the grandson of horseman Ham Hamilton. He trained steeplechase horses before becoming an assistant to his father Joe eight years ago and eventually taking out his own trainer’s license nearly three years ago. He currently trains a dozen horses, mostly for Two Hearts Farm.

Descended from horsemen on all sides, Hamilton admitted he never thought of doing anything other than train racehorses.

“This was always it,” he said of training. “It’s been the family business–both sides of the family–and that was always where we were going.”

Asked what advice his late father might give him going into the Breeders’ Cup, Hamilton said simply, “Don’t change anything. Keep things as routine as possible.”

On a soggy Wednesday morning at Keeneland, Hamilton seemed to be taking Breeders’ Cup week in stride.

“We are ready to get this going,” Hamilton said. “She’s ready, we’re ready.”