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Best of 2024: Million-dollar mare Venti Valentine

by Keith McCalmont

Just three live race days remain in 2024 to complete a remarkable year of racing action on the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) circuit. To celebrate the season, the NYRA Press Office checked in with a selection of trainers, owners, jockeys and racing personalities to share their reflections on the memorable year.

NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds’ popular New York-bred Venti Valentine enjoyed a Hollywood-ending to her racing career by capturing the Empire Distaff in her final career start in October at Belmont at the Big A to secure her seventh career stakes win and surpass $1 million in career earnings.

The 5-year-old Firing Line chestnut, with Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the irons for trainer Jorge Abreu, took command at the quarter-pole of the nine-furlong test and staved off the late rush of Sterling Silver to win by a nose.

Bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, the half-sister to multiple stakes-winner Espresso Shot and dual stakes-winner Landed was subsequently sold privately to Randy Gullatt of Twin Creeks Farm.

A stakes winner in each of her four years of racing, Venti Valentine banked $1,056,100 through a 25-8-6-5 record. She captured the state-bred Maid of the Mist in 2021 as part of a juvenile campaign that saw her miss by a neck to Nest in that year’s Grade 2 Demoiselle en route to honors as NYTB Champion 2-Year-Old Filly.

Venti Valentine added the Listed Busher Invitational and a state-bred win in the Bay Ridge as a sophomore, while her 4-year-old campaign included state-bred scores in the Johnstone Mile Handicap and Jack Betta Be Rite. This year, she prevailed in the state-bred Critical Eye in June during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival in addition to her dramatic swansong in the Empire Distaff.

Dan Zanatta, co-managing partner of NY Final Furlong Stable, took time to reflect on the stellar career of one of New York racing’s most popular mares.

Q. Take us through the stretch run of Venti Valentine’s Empire Distaff win and just what it meant to you to see Venti Valentine make the coveted list of New York-bred million-dollar earners?

DZ: “As much as we enjoyed watching her, so many of our friends and family also joined in on that experience the last few years. People who wouldn't normally come to the racetrack would always want to come and see Venti run, so there were a lot of people there for Venti's final start.

“That win did a lot of things - it got her to a million dollars; for us, as New York-bred filly owners, to win that year-end championship stakes was important as we'd never won that before; and also on the line was Champion Older Dirt Female for New York-breds. I think that race is between Venti Valentine and Sterling Silver so the fact that the two of them battled down to the wire was emblematic not just of winning the race, but also winning the division. The way it unfolded, you couldn't have drawn up a better finish. It was very exciting.

“She won Champion 2-Year-Old New York-bred and I so wanted her to win Champion honors again. Hopefully, that race accomplished a lot for her by winning in the final stride.”

Q. Tell us about the impact of the late Glory Gold, who you purchased in foal with Venti Valentine for $13,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. This talented mare produced multiple stakes-winner Espresso Shot [24-5-3-4, $516,625], who you purchased as a yearling for $69,000 and subsequently sold for $300,000; and dual stakes-winner Landed [7-4-1-2, $298,010], who brought $500,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale.

DZ: “It all started with Espresso Shot. We bought Espresso Shot as a yearling and right before she earned blacktype, Glory Gold came on the market. We were able to buy her for $13,000 having the full faith Espresso Shot would be a blacktype earner and increase the value of Glory Gold. It was a purchase as a broodmare pinhook, and it turned into so much more.

“When Venti was born everyone was telling us how nice she was, and everyone had great things to say about her through her weanling and yearling year. We were convinced not to sell her, and we've obviously reaped a lot of benefits through breeders’ awards over the years and by selling Landed. That whole experience with Espresso Shot and Glory Gold helped launch Final Furlong into the main stage and helped us grow. Financially, it definitely helped the balance sheet and allowed us to buy better weanlings and yearlings at auction. It really meant a lot to our partnership.

“Glory Gold passed last week [in early December at Ballysax Manor in Kentucky]. Landed was her last foal. She ended up having cancer and she went downhill so quick, and we had to make that tough decision. She's a Champion mom. That's her legacy. Espresso Shot is with Spendthrift and I'm sure Venti will have lots of support and in time Landed will be a great broodmare, too. There's lots of tails to that family that can live on.”

Q. Venti Valentine was tremendous through her first two years of racing, pushing eventual 3-Year-Old Champion Filly Nest to the limit with a close runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Demoiselle. As a sophomore, she won the Listed Busher and was second in the Grade 3 Gazelle en route to a troubled off-the-board effort in the Kentucky Oaks. Take us through that experience.

DZ: “It was the first time we had a horse that belonged in graded competition. She was multiple grade stakes placed in her career. She had some of the best speed figures and was top of the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard that spring which was hugely exciting for us.

“We thought distance was a question mark going into the Oaks and we contemplated going to the Acorn a few weeks later which would have meant as much to me as a New York manager. But the partners wanted the experience of the Oaks, and we went down that path and she just had a dreadful trip that day and everything went wrong. But it was a great experience, and everyone had fun. You listen to all these interviews with people talking about how getting to the Oaks and the Derby is a lifelong goal and it attracts you to wanting to get back.

“We're now striving to buy the type of horse that belongs in that league where before it wasn't even a dream. Now, I feel we have the program in place that we can get back there one day. If it wasn't for Venti, we wouldn't have had that dream.”

Q. What is Venti Valentine’s disposition at the barn, and does she make an impression on prospective partners for Final Furlong?

DZ: “Everyone loved to go feed her peppermints and carrots. She was pretty sweet, and she was a filly, looking back on it, you almost took it for granted that was always there. She always had the stall that was closest to the office. Now she's not there anymore and everyone at the barn misses her.

“The partners loved to go see her. Even partners that didn't own her but had pieces of other horses would always want to go and pet Venti. She was a lot of fun.”

Q. What is your own personal favorite moment with Venti Valentine?

DZ: “Winning the Maid of the Mist. Belmont is our home racetrack. I live five minutes from Belmont Park and the Belmont fall meet is my favorite meet. When she won the Maid of the Mist it was a very gratifying sense of excitement because we knew we had wrapped up the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly. We were cheering ‘Champion 2-Year-Old’ on the way to the winner's circle.

“Her two wins that she put together this year were a little more special. This last year was just special in general, and it was her most accomplished year in terms of earnings. The Critical Eye win came during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga. That was a lot of fun and our partners really enjoyed that. My daughter, Piper, was born just two months earlier and that was one of her first wins as well - to be in the winner's circle with her, that was special.

“The Belmont Stakes Racing Festival was very memorable for us. As a racing fan, so many more people engaged. So many people were calling me asking how they could go and how to get up there. That was a really innovative concept. I know it was a function of necessity that the Belmont Stakes ended up there, but innovation is something racing needs more of. To me, that was a wakeup call that we can do new things to engage excitement in people that wouldn't normally go racing. I would say 4-or-5 friends would generally call me about going to the Belmont Stakes at Belmont - this year, my phone was ringing off the hook with people wanting to go and wanting to learn about it. As a racehorse manager and syndicate manager and as a fan, we need more of that.”

Q. Tell us about the Final Furlong business model and why developing New York-breds is such a key part of the plan.

DZ: “The New York-bred program stood out to us when we were starting out 10-plus years ago. When we studied the economics of it, it quickly became evident that New York-bred fillies offered the most value. The fact that we're only competing against a few hundred fillies from each crop and we're buying five or six fillies within that crop, it just dramatically increases your chances of having a stakes horse. Each year now for the past eight years we've had a blacktype earner. I'm not sure how many partnerships of our small size can say that, but that, to me, it moves above earnings per start and win percentage - to be able to say you have that quality of stock and that you're picking the quality of stock to do that is really special.

“Espresso Shot was from a year we bought one yearling - ever since her we've been able to grow the pool of horses we buy every year. This year we were able to put seven 2-year-olds on the track. That just shows the growth of our model.

“We've grown from a racing stable. We buy weanlings to pinhook. We buy broodmares. We're fully invested in all facets of the New York-bred program. Regardless of whether we're breeding or pinhooking, everything is always New York-bred.

“We specialize in New York-breds and we've accomplished so much as a New York bred program that I don't think we're going to stray from that strategy. Trying to find those elite New York breds that can benefit from competing in open company races and ship around against open stakes horses is definitely attractive to us. We're buying fewer but better fillies every year, so it has helped us reshape our scope and strategy for what we try to accomplish every year.”

Q. Who are some of the rising stars that Final Furlong hopes to see shine in 2025 and how do you find them? Examples of potential stars include Honest Mischief progeny Stone Smuggler, winner of the $500,000 NYSSS Fifth Avenue, and recent maiden winner Oklahoma Smoke

DZ: “Brandon and Ali Rice are our key success factors. They help us select any horse that we buy at auction. They raise and break and start all of our horses whether it’s getting rest on the farm, time off, soup to nuts they handle all of our farm work and are really key to our success. They've taught us how to select horses and worked with our trainers and us when we got to the sales narrowing down our lists of what to look for to find a horse that's going to be exceptional.

“Honest Mischief was a sire we were really drawn to when we started looking at them at the weanling sales and yearling sales. We've owned 3-or-4 of them now. Some of them we pinhooked but Stone Smuggler and Oklahoma Smoke are our two best ones, and I think they've overdelivered for us so far.

“Oklahoma Smoke was later maturing. She was a bigger, stronger, heavier-made horse and took a little more time. Stone Smuggler was a stakes winner at Finger Lakes earlier this year, but we always thought that Oklahoma Smoke was better than Stone Smuggler so we're excited to see what she can do this winter.

“Stone Smuggler has performed well. She ran into With The Angles twice including first time out. I feel she would have won any other maiden race this year. We thought high enough of her that we ran her in a stakes when she broke her maiden in the Lady Finger and then she ran into With The Angles again in the Key Cents. For a $57,000 yearling, she's really performed.

“We have a filly named Kay Cup who was third first time out with a little bit of a troubled trip. She only lost by a length and a half going seven eighths at Saratoga and I think she has the most upside. She's at the farm right now getting some time off and will return early spring. We have a few more that will be debuting in the spring.”

America’s Day at the Races will present live coverage and analysis of the Aqueduct Racetrack fall meet on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit https://www.nyra.com/aqueduct/racing/tv-schedule/.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Aqueduct Racetrack, and the best way to bet every race of the fall meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at www.NYRABets.com.