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Claimer Calgary Cat has provided huge dividends for trainer Kevin Attard

Nov 1, 2016 | 3:00 PM

He’s a definite longshot but trainer Kevin Attard believes Calgary Cat has earned the right to compete against the world’s best thoroughbreds.

The six-year-old will run Saturday in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita Park. Calgary Cat is listed as an early 20-1 longshot but has continually defied the odds since being claimed by Attard for $25,000 three years ago.

The gelded chestnut has posted a record of 10-2-3 from 20 starts and earned more than US$750,000 over that span. In 2014, he was Canada’s champion sprinter.

“We’re a longshot, obviously, but I’m confident in my horse and don’t think he’ll disgrace himself,” Attard said via telephone from California on Tuesday. “He owes nobody anything and that’s why I think he deserves to be here.

“I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t think we had a chance.”

Preparing a horse to run in the Breeders’ Cup is heady stuff for Attard, who grew up dreaming of winning the Queen’s Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown and the country’s most prestigious thoroughbred race. He came agonizingly close in ’07 when Alezzandro finished second to Mike Fox as Emma-Jayne Wilson became the first female jockey to win the race.

“It was the hardest defeat I’ve ever experienced because it was almost like it was within my grasp,” Attard said. “But never at that point or any point before did I say to myself, ‘You know what? I need to be at the Breeders’ Cup.’

“But now that I’m here and you’re on the world stage where the best meets the best from all over the world, it’s definitely something very special.”

Calgary Cat qualified for the Breeders’ Cup with a stirring win in the Grade 2 $300,000 Nearctic Stakes last month at Woodbine Racetrack. Jockey Luis Contreras rallied the 15/1 longshot from the outside to nip Stacked Deck and Conquest Enforcer in a three-way finish.

It was Calgary Cat’s 12th win in 27 career starts and boosted his earnings past $1 million. And he’s finished in the money in five of his six turf races — two wins, twice second, once third — and captured over $276,000.

“I’m not here looking to rub elbows with Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert (both Hall of Fame trainers),” Attard said. “Any time a horse has won as many times as Calgary Cat has in his career, those horses are warriors.

“They’re competitors, they know how to win and I don’t think you can ever disrespect a horse like that.”

Attard claimed Calgary Cat from Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse’s stable in 2013. Casse, eight times Canada’s top conditioner, said Calgary Cat was coming off a career-threatening tendon injury.

“The problem is when you have an injury like he had, most horses never come back from it and if they do you never know how long they’ll be around,” said Casse, who’ll saddle seven horses at the Breeders’ Cup. “Maybe I pushed the panic button or something, but Kevin has done a great job with him.

“As a two-year-old, we thought he was an extremely good horse but sometimes it’s just circumstance. Does it hurt that he was claimed off me and we didn’t do better? Of course. Do I regret it? Of course. If given the same scenario would I do it again? Yes.”

Attard said he wasn’t aware of Calgary Cat’s injury when he bought him.

“When you’re claiming a horse, it’s buyer beware,” Attard said. “He just had a presence about him and the instant I made eye contact with him I just felt he was the horse.

“Listen, they’re animals and at the end of the day what might trigger one in one particular barn may not do the same in another. I think by coming to our barn, which was smaller than Mark’s at the time, he just kind of blossomed into the horse everybody thought he’d be at one point.”

Attard, 40, of Tottenham, Ont., arrived at Santa Anita on Sunday with Calgary Cat and Melmich. The latter, another horse Attard claimed, will run Friday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Marathon on the Breeders’ Cup undercard.

Calgary Cat will be Attard’s first Breeders Cup starter but this isn’t his first trip to horse-racing’s marquee event. He was an assistant for his father, Tino, in 1997 when Kirby’s Song was fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park.

The father-son tradition will continue at Santa Anita as Attard’s 13-year-old son, Joshua, is scheduled to arrive Thursday.

“Obviously I am where I am because of my dad and the opportunities he gave me,” Attard said. “Now to have my son come with me is very special, it’s a proud moment.

“I can’t wait for him to be by my side that day.”

Until then, Attard has more than enough to do and keep his mind occupied. That is, until race day.

“Right now we’re just trying to get this horse as prepared as we can and that’s what keeps my mind off things,” Attard said. “But come Saturday morning when there’s not much else to do, then I’m going to feel it.”

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press