Wendelssohn early this year, the start of his 4-year-old season, moved from the California stables of his trainer, owner, and breeder, Mick Ruis, into the Midwest barn of trainer Chris Hartman.
The early returns at Oaklawn Park were favorable. Second to the sharp sprinter Banishing in his stakes debut, Wendelssohn in his second stakes start ran considerably better, second in the Commodore behind Booth, a very fast horse going good at the time. Wendelssohn hit a high note romping in the restricted Eclipse on March 29 but didn’t race again until October, when he finished a highly creditable third in a Keeneland turf sprint allowance.
The jury now is in: Wendelsssohn has picked up this fall where he left off last winter and spring.
Traveling like a winner for most of the race, Wendelssohn was a winner in the $175,000 Thanksgiving Classic on Thursday at Fair Grounds.
Stalking from third under Marcelino Pedroza Jr. as Komorebino Omoide pressed outside of pacesetting Goodlookinjustice, Wendelssohn pounced at the quarter pole, and while Komorebino Omoide offered resistance, Wendelssohn had his number, pushing out to a 1 1/2-length victory in the six-furlong Thanksgiving.
“I was just waiting to ask him at the top of the stretch,” Pedroza said, “and he really responded to me.”
The powerful-looking Wendlessohn, a 4-year-old Mendelssohn colt, has bulk and length and looks as much miler as sprinter. He never showed super quick-twitch acceleration Thursday but sustained his run through the long Fair Grounds homestretch, posting a time of 1:09.66 over a fast track. Wendelssohn drifted late to 5-1and paid $12.60 as the fourth choice in a nine-runner race. The Wine Steward, favored for much of the betting, played no part while finishing sixth, as Komorebino Omoide, racing at a distance short of his best, wound up the 9-5 chalk. The Donegal Clan, a 62-1 shot, got up for third.
Ruis bred Wendlessohn by mating Mendelssohn with the Broken Vow mare Gangbusters. The older-male, dirt-sprint stakes schedule comes up light at Fair Grounds, but Oaklawn has plenty such races, and Hartman runs a string there. What Wendelessohn began last winter in Arkansas he figures to take up there again – perhaps a faster horse than a year ago – in coming months.
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