Jay Briscione, one of the six owners that make up Atlantic Six Racing, knows how lucky he has been. Some two years ago he and his partners privately bought a Jersey-bred son of Bucchero (Kantharos) out of a mare named Adorabella (Ghostzapper). At the time, Bucchero was an unproven sire and Adorabella never made it to the races. Briscione admits all he was looking for was a horse who could win New Jersey-bred races at Monmouth. What he got was a winning lottery ticket named Book'em Danno.
It's been quite the story, the Jersey-bred who, with his win the in the GI Forego Stakes at Saratoga, has emerged as the fastest sprinter in the East. To talk about Book'em Danno and the ride he has taken his owners on, Briscione joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of The Week.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would have anything like this,” Briscione said. “I don't think anybody else thought he was the racehorse he is.”
Book'em Danno, a 4-year-old gelding, has won three straight stakes races–the Forego, the GII Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes and the GIII True North Stakes–all of them at Saratoga. He also won last year's GI Woody Stephens Stakes at the Spa. He's earned $1,855,425, the most ever by a horse bred in New Jersey.
“To dream when you buy young horses, it makes you feel like you're a little kid again,” he said. “You're getting an at-bat in Little League, trying to hit a home run. You're thinking you're going to win the game. When you buy young horses, you're always thinking, 'Hey, maybe this one's the one.' But at the level we play at, chances are that's never gonna happen. In this case, our dream came true.”
Surprisingly, trainer Derek Ryan is on the record saying he is opposed to running in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. Briscione said it's too early to make a final decision.
“It's a cliche, but I'll say it anyway,” Briscione said. “We'll sit back and take every race as it comes, one at a time. We'll have to see how he comes out of it. For the most part, he's been a pretty resilient race horse. He comes out of these races very good. We can get him back to the track pretty quickly, which is great. Obviously, we know that the Breeders' Cup is out there. Whatever has been said has been said, but the Breeders' Cup is in the picture. Where we're going to go, I think that would also depend on what he looks like over the next couple of weeks. We'll try to do maybe a more extensive physical just to see where he is.”
He's from humble origins and has a catchy name, reasons why he has become one of the more popular horses in the sport.
“So the name is catchy to the 40-and-up crowd,” Briscione said. “I think a couple of things are playing into this. We're the underdogs. We're the little guys. It's nice to see the little guys do good. And the horse is from New Jersey, so everybody says he's of modest means. Again, I disagree with that. I think Bucchero is an up-and-coming sire. He's just a very cool horse and, like I said, we're really blessed to be involved in something like him. It's really a dream come true. A couple of my friends always say, probably after a couple of drinks, what's your passion in life? Your passion may not be what you do. I'm in real estate. My passion is horse racing.”
The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was GI Travers winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief), who got a 115, the highest Beyer figure any horse has run this year. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar.
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/st TV, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders' Association and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley and Randy Moss talked about the passing of Secretariat's jockey, Ron Turcotte. They reviewed the other Grade I stakes on last Saturday's card at Saratoga and looked ahead to the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, the GI Pacific Classic and the meet at Kentucky Downs.
Click here to watch the podcast and click here to listen.
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