Concerto’s Trainer Follows a Different Track to the Derby

This is the season when the trainers of most able-bodied 3-year-olds are preoccupied by the Kentucky Derby. They meticulously schedule every workout and every race so that a colt will attain peak condition on the first Saturday in May.

Such efforts, of course, usually end in failure.

Amidst all of this obsessiveness, trainer John Tammaro III has displayed a revolutionary approach. He made no long-range Derby plans for his good colt, Concerto.

While other top 3-year-olds went south to train for the classics, Concerto remained at unfashionable Laurel Race Course. While others Derby contenders had their final tuneups in famous, traditional prep races, Concerto will race Saturday in the Federico Tesio Stakes at Pimlico.

If Concerto wins the Tesio as expected, his record will show seven victories in his last eight starts--a streak marred only by a narrow loss to Captain Bodgit, the probable Derby favorite. With a combination of good speed and a solid pedigree for the 1 1/4-mile distance, he will rank as a prime contender at Churchill Downs. Not bad for a colt once considered a second-stringer.

Tammaro occasionally trains a horse for New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who puts his best prospects in the care of Nick Zito at Belmont Park. So when Tammaro was sent a 2-year-old son of Chief’s Crowd last year, he recognized, “This was not the top horse they had. They thought he’d fit better in Maryland and New Jersey.”

Concerto showed last fall that he had ample talent. After finishing second to Captain Bodgit in the Laurel Futurity, he won a $200,000 stakes at Churchill Downs.

But even after those performances he was only No. 2 in the Steinbrenner operation. Its No. 1 colt, Acceptable, narrowly lost the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile after a difficult trip, and looked as if he might be the best runner of his generation. And his trainer, Zito, has the knack for getting young prospects to the 3-year-old classics; he has won two of the last six runnings of the Kentucky Derby.

Tammaro knew he had to keep Concerto out of the path of Acceptable, whose main objectives were the Florida Derby, the Blue Grass Stakes and the Kentucky Derby.

The trainer consulted with Hank Steinbrenner, who directs his father’s racing operations, and picked an alternate objective for Concerto: the Jim Beam Stakes at Turfway Park March 29. It was worth $600,000, it might be an easy spot, and it wasn’t on Acceptable’s agenda.

For five months, Tammaro focused almost exclusively on the Jim Beam. Concerto won a pair of minor stakes to prepare for it, though he displayed a bad habit of swerving abruptly in the stretch.

And then, in the Beam, he delivered a superb performance. Although he was parked wide all the way on a track where the rail is an advantage, he scored an authoritative 2 1/2-length victory.

Tammaro then took the colt back home to prepare for the Tesio, the next step on the schedule designed to keep him out of Acceptable’s way.

While Concerto was distinguishing himself, however, his stablemate couldn’t get out of his own way. Acceptable lost a pair of stakes in Florida by a combined 31 lengths, and then was a soundly beaten runnerup to Pulpit in the Blue Grass Stakes last Saturday. He no longer rates as a serious Derby contender. But Concerto does.

People regularly remind Tammaro what happens to people who manage for Steinbrenner and don’t fulfill his expectations. The trainer said, “Everybody tells me I’m not going to last long. But (the Steinbrenners) have never once interfered with the training of their horses.” He added: “They do want results.”

Tammaro and Concerto may or may not be be able to produce the desired results at Churchill Downs, but this much is certain: The trainer no longer has the luxury of approaching the Kentucky Derby in a relaxed fashion.

Taking a contender to the Derby is a high-pressure assignment, even when the owner’s name isn’t Steinbrenner.