CLASSIC MILE ISSUE 31_Jerkins feature.qxd 10/02/2014 12:14 Page 2
CLASSIC MILE
CLASSIC MILE
Thriving training facitily Nearly three decades after his plan to open a racetrack in Ocala, Florida, failed to materialize, Domenic Martelli’s Plan B is still flourishing. Martelli, a New Jersey real estate maven, thought legislation to approve a racetrack in Ocala was imminent in the mid ’80s. He didn’t wait for that approval, instead purchasing a 704-acre parcel on U.S. Highway 40 near the now-late Fred Hooper’s farm, and building a one-mile racetrack with a seven-furlong turf course, a three-furlong training track and 26 barns with 776 stalls, each barn featuring several paddocks for turnouts. WORDS: BILL HELLER PHOTOS: SANDRA MADISON
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E named his facility Classic Mile and planned to have a mixed-meet of Thoroughbred and Quarter Horses. He was sure racing would be approved. “It looked like a piece of cake,” Martelli told Dave Goldman in his October 12, 2006 story in the Daily Racing Form. “Boy, was I wrong.” No matter. In Ocala, which bills itself as the “Horse capital of the world,” Classic Mile has thrived. “It’s a wonderful atmosphere to develop a young horse,” said trainer Michael Cooke, who has literally trained horses all over the world, from his native Ireland to Kentucky to Canada to Dubai to England to Florida. He’s been training at Classic Mile for seven years. Trainer James Kirk, who’s been training horses at Classic Mile for more than 15 years, echoed Cooke’s assessment: “Young horses seem to do better here.” Its location certainly doesn’t hurt. “Ocala is just a real nice area to be in,” said trainer Joe Davis, who is based in Indiana and has been spending his winters at Classic Mile the last five years. The bottom line for these three trainers and dozens of others at Classic Mile is the performance of their horses on the racetrack. Nobody appreciates that more than Davis, who decided to spend the winter of 2008-2009 at
Classic Mile. “I had a bunch of Indiana-breds, and I didn’t get enough stalls at Turfway Park,” he said. The following summer, he was the leading trainer at Indiana Downs, and he’s been a fan of the training center ever since. “It’s night and day difference from a racetrack,” he said. “It’s not rush, rush, rush. The horses really love it. They get refreshed. Horses have paddocks to relax in.” Davis, now 53, has been training horses for 25 years. “I grew up on a cattle farm in Indiana,” he said. “My uncle had some horses.” Racing on the Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky circuit, Davis has had great success with horses owned by his father-in-law Fred McCrary. Their first great horse together was a gift – literally – a gelding named Derrick. “He was Indiana-sired, but they never did the paperwork on him,” Davis said. “He wasn’t eligible to anything. He was given to my fatherin-law as a yearling for free.” Derrick turned out to be one of the very few Thoroughbreds who have won races on turf, synthetic, dry dirt, and wet tracks. By the time he was done racing at Ellis Park, Turfway Park, Churchill Downs, Indiana Downs, Hoosier Park, Oaklawn Park, Monmouth Park, Beulah Park, Evangeline Downs, and Keeneland, he had 16 wins, 16 seconds and 11 thirds from 68 starts
from 2003 to 2010 with earnings of $171,638. They lost him twice on claims and claimed him back twice. “He was just a fun little horse to have,” Davis said. “We retired him and gave him to a girl in Indiana. She’s still riding him.” Davis had a short but successful run with Nightly Ritual, whose four wins in 12 starts from 2008-2010 included the $100,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes. The mare also finished second by a neck in two other $100,000 Indiana state-bred stakes and made $164,805. Geordie, another of their horses, won the $100,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes by 4¼ lengths in 2008. Another horse Davis trained, Down by the Sea, finished second by three-quarters of a length in the $100,000 Bassinet Stakes at River Downs in 2003 before winning three straight, including the $74,0000 Miss Indiana Stakes and the $38,000 Indiana Stallion Stakes by six lengths as the 1-5 favorite. This year, through mid-December, Davis has 16 wins, 17 seconds and 17 thirds from 114 starts with earnings of $292,414. He’s happy to be spending another winter at Classic Mile. “We don’t train quite as hard here because we don’t have to hurry,” he said. “There’s no rush to race.” One thing you need to know about James Kirk is that his middle initial is C., not T. for Tiberius, as in the captain of the USS Enterprise
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