Claiming Crown: Joseph Looking for More ‘Concrete’ Results in Express

Even though the 6-year-old gelding Concrete Glory has competed in graded stakes and most recently won a top-level Saratoga allowance race, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said owner Frank Rupolo has been talking about Saturday’s 27th Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs since mid-summer.

And why not? Last year Concrete Glory and Rupolo came to Churchill Downs for the $100,000 Claiming Crown Ready’s Rocket Express, resulting in a 7 1/2-length victory that avenged his fifth-place showing as the favorite in the 2023 Express in the slop at the Fair Grounds.

The Claiming Crown was created in 1999 to give American racing’s everyday workhorses their own day in the spotlight.

“From last year, we wanted to get back to the Claiming Crown,” Joseph said by phone. “The owner and his daughter, (racing) as Big Frank, they don’t have stakes horses. The Claiming Crown is his Breeders’ Cup. The emphasis is to get in the Claiming Crown every year. He’s been talking about this for the last three months, four months.”

Joseph says Concrete Glory, a $6,250 claim in his last start of 2022, is every bit as good this year as last, if not better.

“He’s been a model of consistency, a hard-knocking horse,” the Florida-based Joseph said. “He’s come a long way for an $8,000 claimer. We gave him a little break after Saratoga. He’s come back and had some good works. He’s probably a little heavier than he normally is, but he’s gotten older so you think you’d carry more weight.”

In five 2025 starts, Concrete Glory has two wins and a second in the $140,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes. His subsequent start, in the Maryland Sprint Stakes on the Preakness undercard, proved a disaster. Wearing an extended blinker on his right eye, Concrete Glory had his head turned sideways to his left at the start. Not only did he not make the lead, he was never in contact with his four rivals that day, ducking in toward the gap in upper stretch before being pulled up.

“He couldn’t even see the gates were open,” Joseph said. “After that, we took off the extended blinker so it wouldn’t happen again.”

Concrete Glory had an excuse when seventh in his next start, New York’s Grade 3 True North: Pushed by the speedy Grade 1 winner Mullikin, Concrete Glory unleashed a half-mile in 44.72 seconds before not surprisingly weakening.

“When you’re in front of Mullikin, it shows how fast you’re going,” Joseph said. “Just fast and class, probably, took a toll on him.”

Concrete Glory is 16 for 38 lifetime, with six seconds and two thirds, for earnings of $459,734. As far as the Claiming Crown, Concrete Glory is a gift that keeps on giving as the Express is for horses that have competed for an $8,000 claiming price or less at any time in their career. (Most of the Claiming Crown races have a 2024-2025 claiming eligibility.)

But, said Joseph: “It’s come up really tough this year.”

Regardless, he says Concrete Glory will be the one to catch in the six-furlong Express.

“Speed’s his game,” Joseph said. “He wants to go to the lead and take it as far as he can.”

Concrete Glory is one of three Joseph-trained Claiming Crown entrants with big shots, the others being Navajo Warrior in the $200,000 Jewel at 1 1/8 miles on dirt and Mister Abarrio in the $175,000 Emerald at 1 1/16 miles on turf. Irad Ortiz rides Concrete Glory and Navajo Warrior, with Jose Ortiz on Mister Abarrio.

Navajo Warrior, a private purchase over the summer by Mark Cornett of C2 Racing, brings a five-race win streak into the $200,000 Jewel, including both starts with Joseph. His last race, Sept. 25, was an entry-level allowance at Churchill Downs.

“We ran him last time in the allowance there, trying to plan backward from the Claiming Crown,” said Joseph, a five-time winner of Claiming Crown races. “He drew a little wide (post 12 of 14), but Irad (Ortiz) is very good about working out a trip. We feel the horse could develop into a stakes horse, and we’re going to use the Claiming Crown on that path.”

The 5-year-old Mister Abarrio, a $35,000 claim for Skymac Stables in March of 2024, has won three of his last five starts, with a second.

“He’s been quite a consistent horse, picked up a lot of checks,” Joseph said. “He’s won five races overall for us, and we feel like he deserves a chance in the Claiming Crown.”

A cool 100 horses are entered in the bodies of the eight Claiming Crown races, with only the 10-horse Express attracting less than capacity.

“They’re all tough. They’re good handicapping races,” Joseph said. “They’re like Breeders’ Cup races, just not at that level. But definitely it’s a great thing. Even though we have stakes horses, we enjoy having Claiming Crown horses. It gives everybody a chance to have a horse on the big day. The Breeders’ Cup, normally, you have to have a horse that’s quite valuable. The Claiming Crown, you can claim a horse for $8,000, $16,000 or $25,000, and you have a chance to run for these big purses.

“It was a great idea a long time ago. I remember watching it at Canterbury and now it has evolved into Churchill, a premier track. Credit to the people who put all the effort into it.”

Van Berg hopes to “Dance” into the Jewel winner’s circle

There may not be a better-bred horse in the 2025 Claiming Crown than Grit to Glory Racing’s Dance Some Mo, who will run in Saturday’s super-charged $200,00 Jewel at Churchill Downs.

The 7-year-old gelding reflects six generations of Canada’s Sam-Son Farm, which for decades was a bastion of highly quality racehorses, breeding stock and Canadian champions. Dance Some Mo’s fourth dam is Hall of Famer Dance Smartly, a $3.2 million-earner who regularly defeated males in Canada and won the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. Dance Some Mo’s pedigree is flooded with leading stallions such as Danzig, Mr. Prospector, A.P. Indy and Awesome Again. Also in the family is Dance Smartly’s half-brother Smart Strike, a Grade 1-winning racehorse whose bigger legacy came in the breeding shed, including siring two-time Horse of the Year Curlin and grass champion English Channel.

Dance Some Mo himself is by Uncle Mo, one of the world’s top sires before his death last year.

One might think that claiming horses, after a time, are what they are, with pedigree merely an interesting aside. But pedigree is an important component when trainer Tom Van Berg researches horses to claim.

“When we look at claiming horses, we look really at the bottom side and the female families of the horses we’re interested in,” Van Berg said. “It knocks out a lot of horses. The way we train, it seems more often than not that they get the speed from the sire line, and they get the stamina from the mare. So we’ve always looked for classic, longer-distance pedigrees on the bottom. He stood out because of the pedigree. That was part of the reason we looked to claim him.”

Van Berg claimed Dance Some Mo on April 12, 2024 for $30,000 at Oaklawn Park. But not before passing on him for $16,000 (when someone else claimed the gelding) and then $25,000 (when there were no takers). What convinced Van Berg to pay the premium was actually beating Dance Some Mo in a conditioned starter-allowance race with Grit to Glory’s horse Big Paper.

“Dance Some Mo finished second, but he had a ton of horse,” Van Berg recalled. “We thought we had something good with Big Paper. But Dance Some Mo had a lot of trouble. He got stopped a couple of times and had to weave through horses. He really was compromised.

“He had a huge gallop-out, something I love to see. He showed he wanted to go farther and could go farther. When he came back in for $30,000, we thought we were paying a premium for him. But we thought, ‘Let’s take a shot. We like what we see. We’re going to pay a little extra, but we think he’s worth it.’ And he’s turned out well. A very sturdy horse and of all the Grit to Glory horses we’ve claimed, he’s been the most consistent over the almost two years we’ve had him.”

Dance Some Mo most recently won a Horseshoe Indianapolis allowance race. Van Berg made him eligible for three Claiming Crown races, opting for the overflow Jewel when entries were taken Saturday. He thought the seven-furlong, $125,000 Rapid Transit was not an optimal distance. The gelding, though a winner on grass, just didn’t seem as good on turf for the $175,000 Emerald. Van Berg landed on racing at a higher level (starter $35,000 condition vs. the Emerald’s $25,000 and the Rapid Transit’s $16,000).

“The Jewel is tougher than I thought it would be,” he said. “By the same token, we knew we were taking a shot (in any of the races). There wasn’t an exact right spot. We thought if we were going to take a shot, the mile-and-an-eighth distance was the best for him. He’s got speed; typically Churchill plays to speed. He can sit comfortably. He’s not going to be rushed. It’s a bigger payday if he does jump up and runs big. A couple of horses we’ve competed against, and they’re going to be in the top four choices. We haven’t beaten Gilden Craken, but if we’re going to get lucky, we might as well get lucky in the biggest spot.

“These are tough races, very salty. You get excited when you get horses that are eligible. Then you kind of see what’s out there. You see horses coming from Parx or Laurel, New York, the preps at Colonial.”

The Claiming Crown was launched in 1999 by the National HBPA and Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. The 2025 Claiming Crown is staged in conjunction with Churchill Downs and the Kentucky HBPA.

— stories by Jennie Rees