00:00Whether the Grade 2 Troy runs on dirt or turf this weekend, the connections of Thin White
00:06Duke are confident that their horse will show up.
00:09We spoke with the hard-knocking six-year-old's trainer, David Donk, as well as his breeder,
00:14former trainer, and now owner, Phil Gleaves.
00:18I had won the Travis here for Russell Reinemann.
00:23And after he passed, his family took over their horses, and they wanted a downsize.
00:29They asked me if I was interested in any of their broodmares.
00:33So I took a chance on that mare, whose name was Aberdeen Alley.
00:36She was an unraced mare, and by distorted humor, who I also trained early in his career.
00:44And so from Aberdeen Alley, I started breeding.
00:47And one of the horses I bred was Thin White Duke.
00:50And he ran for me as a two-year-old up here.
00:53He broke his maiden in a stake named the Funny Side up here in Saratoga.
00:59And in 21, I came back up here with Thin White Duke.
01:02Didn't have a good year on the racetrack within that year.
01:06But I decided at the end of that year, I wanted to retire.
01:10And told my partners, or suggested to my partners, that I wanted Dave Donk to train our horses.
01:15I'd known David for a long time.
01:16When I left Woody Stevens in 85, David was the one that got my job.
01:22So we had a great relationship, Dave and I, and still do.
01:25And just as importantly, he came from the Woody school of wanting to run horses frequently.
01:33Yeah, you know, honored.
01:36You know, that he trusted us enough, and I'm a year-round guy in New York.
01:42I don't have the deep pedigrees and the high-priced horses like some of the bigger outfits have.
01:48But I've got a lot of great clientele.
01:50It's been a great association with Phil, Steve Crisp, Kenda Grant, Brian Hiller.
01:55Yeah, so it's been a lot of fun.
01:57You know, Thin White Duke, he was, you know, listen, he was a good horse.
02:01We'd like to say he was a baked cake.
02:03He'd already won a couple of stakes as a two-year-old on the dirt.
02:07I know I ran him once on the dirt at Aqueduct, and he didn't run well at all.
02:11I'm like, I really think we need to get this horse to the grass.
02:14And the first time we sprinted him here, he was off the pace and had a really big run.
02:20And like, wow, that's what he wants to do.
02:22David has managed to win two more stakes with him.
02:26The Lucky Coin, five and a half on the turf here.
02:29Then we won the Lucky Coin the next year, but it was renamed the Harvey Pack.
02:34And that was phenomenal because it was the first running of the Harvey Pack.
02:37Steve had come up under Harvey Pack and had been on the show many, many times back in the day.
02:44And so it was very important for Steve to be in the race and then to win it was just super.
02:50And Thin White Duke and Jose Lozcano to win the Harvey Pack.
02:56We don't have a lot of options with Thin White Duke at the moment.
02:59I mean, he's won his conditions.
03:01You've only got a couple of stakes here to run in.
03:04Little odd to have a race canceled the day of the race, but he was coming back really quickly.
03:10So another week certainly doesn't hurt us.
03:13I think the elements of the weather will be different for some horses.
03:17It's certainly going to be, if it's on the grass, it's going to be a bit on the soft side.
03:20If it comes off the grass, you know, he's got a track record of running well on the dirt.
03:26So we'd be pretty comfortable either way.
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