Team Adams Claimed Goats on a Tree with One Race in Mind: Saturday’s Claiming Crown

A chance interview seen by Sal Perito left the former college basketball referee impressed with Kinnon LaRose, a former Division 1 hoops player and the Tom Amoss assistant who took over the stable when the veteran trainer retired in April.

Perito cold-called Kinnon in May. He wanted to claim the 5-year-old mare Goats on a Tree for $50,000 with one race in mind: This Saturday’s $150,000 Claiming Crown Tiara at Churchill Downs.

“It was all because I wanted to run in the Claiming Crown, because I knew she was starter $25,000 eligible,” Perito said after Goats on a Tree won the Tiara’s automatic qualifier race on Colonial Downs’ Claiming Crown Showcase card Aug. 22. “I started out at Mountaineer Park, running a $4,000 claimer. Here we are now winning a qualifier to go to the Claiming Crown. When we claimed her, I told Kinnon I wanted to work backward and have the Claiming Crown at Churchill as the last race.”

The Claiming Crown series, expanded to nine races this year, is back at Churchill Downs for the fourth time in five years as the day in the spotlight for the hard-knocking horses — and their owners and trainers — who form the backbone of American racing.

Perito, who with childhood pal Tracy Adams race as Team Adams Racing, had run one horse previously in the Claiming Crown. That second-place finish in the 2022 Glass Slipper with 12-1 Maoilin had him craving a return ever since. So much so that he made his hotel reservations in Louisville months ago.

Until Maoilin, Perito had never run a horse under the Twin Spires. His horses at the time ran mainly at Mountaineer Park, his local track. He’d never heard of the Claiming Crown, but after claiming Maoilin for $12,500, the Churchill racing office called to say she’d fit in the Glass Slipper.

“We decided to take a chance and go down there with Maoilin,” Perito said recently by phone. “We were just a bunch of hillbillies down there having the time of our life. They treated us like royalty. From Mountaineer Park, right? And then you turn around, and you’re running at Churchill, and you run second in the Claiming Crown.

“…. Some people’s dream is just to go to the Kentucky Derby. We’re realistic. There’s nothing that says you can’t go out and claim a horse for $30,000 or get a 2-year-old for $40,000, and then who knows what happens? But I don’t look at that, honestly. Ever since we ran in the 2022 Claiming Crown, I’ve been chomping at the bit to go back. Yeah, granted, we ran second. We could run fifth, and we may not have as much fun. But we’re going to have fun Friday night, and we’re going to have fun Saturday.”

Perito is exactly the type of owner the National Horsemen’s Benevolence & Protective Association (NHBPA) and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association (TOBA) had in mind when launching the Claiming Crown in 1999 at Minnesota’s Canterbury Park.

Perito and Adams grew up playing Little League together in Follansbee, W.V., birthplace of legendary football coach Lou Holtz and 20 miles from Mountaineer Park. Perito now lives in Columbus, Ohio, while Adams lives in California. They have upped their game, paying more for their stock and racing in Kentucky, with “Goats” one of their four horses. Team Adams paid a premium to get Goats on a Tree because she was eligible to run in the Tiara, a 1 1/16-mile grass race restricted to fillies and mares that had run for a $25,000 claiming price or less in 2025-2026. She finished third in last year’s Claiming Crown when trained by Mike Maker, the all-time Claiming Crown win leader.

Team Adams and LaRose have raced Goats three times. Her first and most recent starts were disappointing but could be attributed to those races coming off the grass. In between, she won the $75,000 Colonial Downs qualifier.

The Churchill Downs-based LaRose says that Claiming Crown horses might have been relatively inexpensive at one time, but they are really good racehorses at their level.

“There are some hard-knocking older horses in there,” he said. “You come to the Claiming Crown, and it’s tough. There are horses from all over the country who have pointed for this race. You got to bring your A game.”

It’s been a whirlwind six months for LaRose, who has won 25 of 183 starts since his April 2 training debut for purse earnings of $2,223,236. He earned his first graded-stakes victory when Stress Relief won the Grade 3 Adirondack at Saratoga.

“It’s certainly not just one person running the show. It takes all hands on deck,” LaRose said. “I’m so lucky I’ve got a great support system, including Tom. I was lucky enough to keep the same team Tom had. Lucky enough to have good people in my corner who claimed the filly for $50,000. Just trying to keep everything simple with Goats and with training as a whole. You let the horses talk to you, and you have to listen to them.

“… Tom had just so many loyal clients, and for them to stick with me, to trust Tom and trust me, I’m very grateful for it. I just got a call from Sal out of the blue. He watched one of my interviews. I used to play basketball and he refereed, and I felt that connection with him. We hit it off right away. To be able to win for him a couple of months later is very gratifying. The Claiming Crown is an awesome showcase of horses that maybe don’t get a chance to be on a big stage every day. For us to have a horse in it is special, especially for Sal and Team Adams.”

Tyler Gaffalione, who picks up the mount on Goats on a Tree, will wear Team Adams Racing’s blue and gold silks created in honor of Adams being a big WVU fan and Perito a big Notre Dame fan. About that name: goats on a tree is a real thing, with Moroccan goats climbing the Argan trees to eat their fruit.

“I didn’t know the story behind it, but I looked it up, and you could see the picture of goats on a tree,” said Perito, who had ballcaps made up with the mare’s name and an embroidered tree populated with goats. “We didn’t name the horse, but we claimed it and we’ll take it all day long.”

Story by Jennie Rees, National HBPA communications 

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