Trainer Will VanMeter and his father Tom were treated to quite the thrill in the Saturday nightcap at Oaklawn Park when their sophomore filly Remember Lucy (Tale of Ekati–Faraway Legend, by Mr. Greeley), stormed past eight rivals to post a 4 1/4-length debut victory .
Surely, the dynamics of the six-furlong event added to the excitement: the chestnut spotted the field roughly 10 lengths at the start before launching a sustained, wide rally from last to first. But on a more personal level, Remember Lucy's namesake holds a special place in the hearts of the father-son duo.
Will VanMeter said the filly was named in honor of his late aunt, Lucy VanMeter, who passed away from a brain aneurysm in 2010 at the age of 49.
“Lucy was a wonderful lady and a very good person who was active in the community,” said VanMeter. “We were bouncing around names. My girlfriend and I came up with that name and it stuck.”
The VanMeters first became involved with the filly at the 2012 Keeneland November Sale, where Will and father Tom–long-time Kentucky horseman and owner of VanMeter Sales–purchased her for $23,000.
“My dad and I bought her,” the trainer noted. “We spotted her in the back ring and I think I had looked at her once before. I remember they said she was a big, strong filly.”
As the big, strong filly continued to develop, the father-son team had hopes that she would attract increased attention in the sales ring during the 2013 season.
“The original plan was to pinhook her, and we took her over to the yearling sales thinking that we were going to look pretty smart with her,” explained VanMeter. “But nobody else really ended up liking her, so we bought her back for about what we had in her. So then we kicked around the idea of taking her to the 2-year-old sales, but we decided to give her a shot and try to get her to the races.”
Remember Lucy was broken by Will's girlfriend–and assistant trainer–Kristin Fischer, before arriving in the conditioner's care in Kentucky. Brought to Oaklawn Park as part of a 10-horse string on hand for the winter meet, VanMeter said the filly made a favorable impression in the mornings.
“You obviously get high on horses and hope that they're going to do something good, but you never get too confident,” noted VanMeter. “She had been working well with some other really nice horses we had down [at Oaklawn]. She was kind of a green maiden and you could tell she was doing it all off talent.”
Despite his tempered enthusiasm, VanMeter said he gained further confidence that the filly would run well after her workmate, Radiant Ruby (Tale of the Cat), graduated first-time out in a Jan. 30 Oaklawn maiden event. The trainer noted that, although he liked what he saw from both fillies in their training, Remember Lucy often appeared slightly stronger when the two worked in tandem.
But when Remember Lucy drew the rail post for her debut, VanMeter admitted that he thought it would be too much for her to overcome. Those suspicions seemed to be confirmed when she hesitated and broke multiple steps slow.
“Whenever a horse breaks like that, you kind of throw your hat on the ground,” VanMeter quipped. “But once she got her feet up under her, I could see she was kind of running like she was for us in the mornings. I thought she had a shot, and when they went :22 and change [for the quarter-mile], I thought that falling out of the gate was almost a blessing in disguise.”
Blessing or not, VanMeter said that Remember Lucy's victory ensured an enjoyable day at the track with family and friends. The 31-year-old, a former assistant to Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, began training on his own in the autumn of 2013. He saddled his first starter in the spring of 2014.
While VanMeter said his family is a close group, he acknowledged that owning Remember Lucy in partnership with his father is more circumstantial than planned.
“It's not something that we're actively trying to do, but he's my dad, and it's fun to own horses with him,” VanMeter added. “He's had a lot of good luck and knows what he's doing. He helps me out and steers me in the right direction with some horses. I'm sure she'll be the first of a few more somewhere down the line.”
–Ben Massam
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