Dancing from hell to heaven

Nijinsky went from being scratched in the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals to a Pepsi North America Cup champion for trainer Tony Beaton.

by Dave Briggs

As Nijinsky danced free of cover and exploded past stablemate Legendary Hanover and two others in deep stretch of last Saturday’s (June 15) $1 million Pepsi North America Cup at Woodbine Mohawk Park, trainer Tony Beaton felt his body turn cold as driver Louis-Philippe Roy pumped his whip skyward in victory.

“I got a cold chill. [It was just] excitement,” Beaton said. “I just wanted to make sure Louis didn’t fall off, that was the main thing. When you get that close, it would be awful, right?”

“Roy flips off cover. Here’s Nijinsky breathing fire. Still there Captains Quarters. Nijinsky sails by and it’s Nijinsky in deep stretch drawing clear. Nijinsky hauls home the Pepsi North America Cup.”

— race caller Ken Middleton, Jr.

Nijinsky defeated Captains Quarters by 1½ lengths. Funtime Bayama was third, Captain Albano was fourth and Legendary Hanover grabbed the final check. In a wide-open field, Nijinsky — who is undefeated in all five 2024 starts — was sent off at 5-2. The mile was 1:48.1 (replay here).

Beaton is loath to talk much about it, but winning the Cup marked a remarkable trip from hell to heaven for the trainer.

Eight months prior, at this very same track, judges with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) scratched all four of the horses Beaton had entered in the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals — including Nijinsky — as well as two others the trainer was scheduled to race that night in overnights. Based on an anonymous tip, judges accused Beaton of abusing a yearling during the breaking process. He was slapped with a two-year suspension that effectively ended his season. However, on Valentine’s Day, Beaton won his case on appeal to the Ontario Horse Racing Appeals Panel (HRAP) with his lawyer, Jean-Marc MacKenzie, calling the complaints against the trainer “highly exaggerated.” Beaton’s license was immediately reinstated.

“We were having a good year last year and it was cut short,” Beaton said. “I just want to do well and try to have some success and that’s kind of the name of the game in this business, right?”

While Beaton is reluctant to say much about the case, Nijinsky’s co-owner Casie Coleman is quick to rush to the defence of her friend and former protegee.

“I still can’t believe what happened, happened,” Coleman said. “I have fired people for simply yelling at a horse too loudly and scaring them. If anyone knows me at all and knows what I’m like with my horses in my barn and how I run my operation — and [Beaton] worked for me for that many years — it was unbelievable that what happened, happened and they got away with suspending him for as long as they did. It’s bull- – – -. It finally came out in the end, where everybody that got him scratched, all their stories were different. Obviously, [the HRAP] did right and got him unsuspended but they could’ve ruined this guy’s career and he’s a fantastic horseman, a good person and far from abusive to a horse.”

Beaton said he’s just happy Nijinsky and his owners — Coleman, Ross and Margaret Warriner, Mark Dumain and first-time Cup winner John Fielding — had an opportunity for redemption.

“It was the [other] end of the spectrum,” Beaton said of Super Final night. “It’s very unfortunate that all of the owners had to suffer — and myself and everybody involved — but it is what it is. We’ve got to move on and get stronger from it.”

As for his ongoing working relationship with Coleman, Beaton said he’s blessed to have her in his life.

“The horses are exceptional horses,” Beaton said. “I’m very fortunate to get my hands on them.”

Beaton spent more than 10 years as a second trainer to Coleman before going out on his own in 2015. He was on Coleman’s team when she won the 2010 NA Cup with Sportswriter, but opened his own stable late in the year before Coleman’s Betting Line won the 2016 Cup. Coleman, who is based in Florida year-round, now sends her Ontario horses to Beaton to train.

He said he’s proud to have had a lot of success as part of Coleman’s team when she was the trainer, but having his own name down as the winner of a Pepsi North America Cup is special.

“Sometimes you can build on that when you get your name out there,” he said.

The working relationship between Coleman and Beaton is paying major dividends beyond winning stakes races.

BEATON INSTRUMENTAL IN NOT GELDING NIJINSKY

Today, Coleman is hailing Beaton as something of a hero for opting not to geld Nijinsky as she recommended. After a stirring NA Cup triumph, the son of Bettors Delight out of Pirouette Hanover is now at least in the discussion for a potentially-lucrative career as a stallion.

“There were multiple times I was going to geld this horse, very many times,” Coleman said. “I’ll never forget, it was the last time I trained him in Florida and he did it again – he was being a little jackass and he made a break training in Florida and I said, ‘That’s it, I’m gelding him.’ And I was looking at when the shippers were coming, but I didn’t want to geld him and then put him on the truck for a long ship. So, I literally told Tony Beaton, ‘When this colt gets here, I really like him and he’s very talented, but he needs to be gelded. I should geld him now, but it’s too close to the ship. So, when he gets there, we’ve got to geld this horse.’

“I’m very thankful that Tony never did geld the horse. Saying that, all through the summer, there were different times when he did make mistakes and I still felt, ‘We’ve got to geld him’ and it just didn’t work out with when his next Gold was or when his next stake was.”

Apparently, the universe was trying to tell her something when it came to Nijinsky.

“This year, I had totally intended to geld him after [his 2-year-old] season was over,” Coleman said. “I said, ‘Okay, for sure we’re gelding him.’ The owners all okayed it. I like to keep them jogging when I geld a horse, so you don’t just geld them and turn them out. So, he went to Anvil and Lace for his turn out and I said, ‘As soon as I ship him back to Florida, I’m going to geld him right away.’ We shipped him back and my vet that does my gelding just wasn’t available, so we waited, waited, waited.

“Then, his manners were a lot better. So, I thought, ‘You know what? He’s growing up and he’s matured… He’s got a lot to prove before we can say he’s going to go to stud, but winning the North America Cup doesn’t hurt any so he’s got that possibility if we can win some more big ones down the road… he could be a future stallion, so I’m very, very happy we didn’t geld him at this point and he doesn’t have those bad manners anymore.”

Beaton laughs when he hears this. “Yeah, we were talking about that the other day,” Beaton said. “I said, ‘You’re pretty lucky I didn’t make an appointment to get him gelded, because you told me, ‘If he’s bad when you get him just go ahead and geld him.’ He was never really dirty or bad or rough with anybody, just a colt that liked to play. If he wasn’t too bad and we could deal with him, I didn’t mind giving him the opportunity and I’m very glad we did give him the opportunity now.”

SNYDER ADDS A FIFTH CUP

That Nijinsky was bred by the man that has won more Pepsi North America Cups as an owner than anyone else in the race’s 41-year history is a fun fact. Jeffrey Snyder of New York City said he was watching and cheering Nijinsky on to victory despite no longer owning his dam, Pirouette Hanover.

“That was great,” Snyder said. “I was rooting for Nijinsky, of course [and now] I’m involved in a fifth one,” he said of the Cup victory to go along with the four he won as an owner: Cams Card Shark in 1994, Red River Hanover in 2002, Rocknroll Hanover in 2005 and Well Said in 2009.

“[Pirouette Hanover] won the Sweetheart out of the 10-hole with Ron Pierce driving and that was great,” Snyder said. “She had soundness issues as a 3-year-old. So, we decided to keep her.”

Snyder, once a force in the pacing side of the business, has recently turned his attention to trotters. Despite the fact Pirouette Hanover made more than $600,000 for Snyder on the track and produced both Macadoodledoo ($449,091) and Alexa Skye ($560,774) for him, he sold Pirouette Hanover — in foal to the Bettors Delight colt that would become Nijinsky — at the 2020 Standardbred Horse Sales Company mixed auction at Timonium, MD to All American Harnessbreds for $53,000.

Turns out, that was quite a deal for All American.

Rob Tribbett of All American told HRU he named the foal Nijinsky.

“It’s an homage to [famed ballet dancer] Vaslav Nijinsky, since the dam’s name is Pirouette Hanover,” Tribbett said via text message. “[Nijinsky’s name was also] inspired by the thoroughbred champion of the same name.”

As for how Coleman and partners ended up buying Nijinsky for $120,000 at the 2022 Standardbred Horse Sales Company yearling sale in Harrisburg, PA, Snyder believes pedigree had something to do with it.

“She had another horse that she trained that was racing against Pirouette Hanover as a 3-year-old,” Snyder said. “I remember having conversations with her and she said, ‘You know, you’ve got the best filly there this year.’”

Coleman said pedigree certainly played a part, but it was Nijinsky as an individual that sold her. She picked out the colt and asked the others if they wanted to buy in.

“I’m one that goes off the horse itself, the individual, and then it’s the breeding second,” she said. “I’m always the individual first. Yes, I want breeding, too, but I don’t like paying a lot of money if I can help it.

“[Nijinsky is] an average, typical Bettors Delight. He’s medium-sized, some might say he’s on the small side, but he’s a medium-sized Bettors Delight colt. Big, thick ass, big shoulder, very long barrel. He wears a long hobble. That’s exactly the kind of horse I like. I want a horse that’s not too big, with a long stride on him, long barrel and just a thick ass, thick shoulder, smart head.

“I don’t know what it is, but I’ve had good luck with horses with white on them. He’s got a white strip down his nose. That’s just a superstitious thing, nothing to do with him, but it seems like all my good ones have white on them and he’s got white on him.

“Also, I loved his video. The farm that raised him, All American, I’ve had some very good horses that I’ve bought off the way they raise them, such as Stag Party, Alexis Faith. They do a fantastic job raising them.”

WHAT’S NEXT ON THE DANCE CARD?

As for what’s next, Beaton and Coleman said both Nijinsky and Legendary Hanover are likely headed to the Meadowlands Pace.

“That’s our intention now,” Beaton said. “We’re gearing them up. They had a light week this week. I know they haven’t raced much, but they’ve been going tough because there’s no easy trips at that level. We gave them a lighter week and then we’ll ramp it up this week and get them prepped for the Meadowlands Pace. Hopefully everything stays good with both of them and we’ll do the eliminations and hopefully the final.”

Asked what race he’d most like to win next, Beaton laughed.

“I’ll be honest with you, I want to keep winning them all if I can,” he said. “I don’t want to get too greedy, but it would be nice to get a little greedy.”

After the experience he had last fall, can you blame him?

Pushed to pick one race he’d love to win now that he has won the NA Cup, Beaton said The Adios.

“It’s a very good race with tradition and everything and The Adios is one cool trophy,” Beaton said. “It’s a great day. We were second last year with Redwood [Hanover] and we had a flat tire from the half on and he still just got beat at the wire. It would have been very nice to win that one last year with my own horse.”

In the meantime, Beaton is still recovering from a wild victory barbecue Coleman threw on Wednesday (June 19) for Nijinsky’s connections at Classy Lane Stables.

“I will say, Thursday wasn’t the greatest day,” Beaton said, laughing.

Coleman said the celebration was “awesome… I think there were over 100 people there. We started at 1 p.m. and I left around 9:30. Tony and [his wife] Lisa said it all shut down around 11 p.m.

“I’m a big believer in it’s a team on these horses. It’s not just the trainer, it’s not just the driver, not just the groom, there’s a huge team behind these horses. You’ve got your blacksmith, your feed people, your vet, your dentist, your chiropractor, and just friends and family and everybody that’s behind you.

“To me, doing parties like that and taking care of them, it shows them how appreciated they are. I think they work harder. They want you and your horses to win just as badly as you do and I just think they appreciate it, so I think it keeps the barn morale good and keeps everybody really wanting to win that little extra.”

Beaton said he appreciated Coleman throwing the party for all involved.

“She never goes short when it’s time for a party,” Tony said. “She’s very generous to everybody when it comes to that. If she has success, she wants to share it with a lot of people. Like I said to somebody, ‘She does it right when she does it.’ I really appreciate what she did there. She stayed up in Canada for a few extra days just so we could have a party.”

In the end, Coleman’s pride was on display on social media like much of her life usually is.

“To win it as an owner, picking [Nijinsky] as a baby, training him down and watching Tony do the actual hands-on getting the job done… I think I posted on my Facebook a picture of Tony and the Cup and said, ‘Two of my students,’” Coleman said.

As for that party, Coleman said it was about more than winning the Pepsi North America Cup. It was also a release after the stress the Beaton barn had at the end of 2023.

“We had a lot of celebration drinks and great barbecue with everyone that’s been part of the team and on Tony’s side the entire time and everything… Besides winning the North America Cup, it was kind of a release, a double party.”