Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Badlands Nitro Seeks Hempt Victory

May 18, 2008

Badlands Nitro, one of the elimination winners for Saturday’s $301,072 Max C. Hempt Memorial Pace for 3-year-old colts and geldings at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs made a rare trip outside his neighborhood pay off in a big way. Despite being on the outside through the half-mile marks, he won his elimination by 2-1/4 lengths in 1:51, tying his career mark.

The colt, winner of eight starts and $173,721 in his career, won six races last year without leaving the Delaware/Maryland area. A standout in the Delaware-sired events last year, trainer/co-owner George Teague Jr. said after all his local competition was over, he and co-owner John Celii felt the colt was ready to step up his game.

“The only big stakes race he was in was the Matron and we supplemented him to that. He’d done some pretty wicked things, like set the track record here at Harrington in (1):53 and a piece [actually 1:53.4] in a very, very nice way; same thing at Dover [1:51.1 in a Matron Stakes elimination]. When we raced him at Dover, he just looked like a bearcat doing it,” said Teague of the 13- length win.

But the good times did not carry on through the Matron.

“We got knocked down, literally got knocked down,” Teague recalled. “Tony Morgan had First Rate and he’d won his elimination and we won ours. He had the three and we had the two and he left hard, so did we and his horse jumped right straight up in the air and just karate chopped us. We had to get stitches in Badlands Nitro’s hock; he got chopped pretty good.” The colt came out of that race in sixth place, but with no lasting injury.

His performance throughout 2007 led to a more aggressive staking schedule for 2008.

“Mr. Celii, who owns the other part of him and owns [the horse’s sire] Badlands Hanover, was excited about him and we decided to stake him a little harder this year.”

Teague, who’s known for his ability to find top racehorses among yearlings with a modest sales price, ceded shopping duties to his partner in the Badlands Nitro case.

“He [Celii] looked him over before he got to me; he liked the way he looks and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in going partners with him and I said yes. He did all the research him, he’d owned the mare [prior to the current owners]. We bought him at Harrisburg for $16,000. I looked at him at the sale and I didn’t see anything I disliked about him. He’s a good-looking horse. He shows versatility in all his races. He’s a very, very intelligent colt; he doesn’t have to be on the front end.”

Badlands Nitro welcomed his younger half brother, by The Panderosa, to the Teague Stable this fall, when John Celii bought Bunkmeister at the Harrisburg Sale for $47,000. In fact, Teague was jogging the 2-year-old during the interview for this story.