American Classic came to Jon Arnett’s barn as an inexperienced 4-year-old who had never even been tattooed, but thanks in part to the trainer’s hard work and patience, the Florida-bred gelding will leave his barn as a stakes winner.

Arnett said American Classic will be transferred to another trainer for a summer campaign following Saturday’s $50,000 Bill Thomas Memorial Stakes at Sunland Park, though the trainer is hopeful that the horse will return to his barn in the fall.

“I’m going to miss having this horse in my stable and in my care, but the racing here after April gets pretty cheap,” Arnett said. “Last year, we turned him out because the racing got cheap, but he’s not getting any younger, and he needs to go on somewhere else. It’s the right move for the horse. I’m not the type of guy who’s going to move, so it’ll cost me this horse, but hopefully he’ll come back to me in the fall.”

With the way American Classic has been performing for Arnett recently, it’s easy to see why the trainer is hoping for a fall reunion. The son of Distorted Humor, bred by Gilbert Campbell at Stonehedge Farm South in Williston, has been a part of the exacta in eight of his 10 career starts, earning $126,340 for owner Brian Mundell.

American Classic earned his first stakes victory Feb. 6 at Sunland Park, rallying from just off the pace to take the $50,000 Budweiser Stakes by a head. Prior to that, the 6-year-old horse finished second in a pair of races at Sunland, including his stakes debut, the $50,000 KLAQ Handicap.

The Budweiser covered just five furlongs, and the Bill Thomas Memorial is 6 ½ furlongs. Arnett said he thinks the added distance should suit American Classic’s come-from-behind style. “I really do,” Arnett said. “I think there’s enough speed in this race that he can sit off the pace like he did the last time. I always tell the rider to make it a California race – let him close in the last quarter or quarter and a half.”

American Classic was installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a field of nine 3-year-olds and up and will break from the No. 5 post under Agapito Delgadillo, who steered him to victory in the Budweiser. The horse scored a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure in his stakes win, the highest last-race mark of any horse entered in Saturday’s race.

“The horse is doing great, we drew a great post position in the middle, and I think he’s the horse to beat,” Arnett said. “The horse has really trained well, so it seems like everything’s going right, and we just have to have a little bit or racing luck on race day.”

American Classic will face some familiar rivals in the Bill Thomas Memorial, including Happy Humor, another Arnett trainee who beat him in the KLAQ Handicap and was fourth in the Budweiser after a wide trip. Happy Humor is a 6-1 choice on the morning line.

The 7-2 second choice is Sky Jedi, who has hit the board in all seven of his starts, including a runner-up finish in the Budweiser, where he set the pace before getting caught at the wire.
The field also includes Quiet Again (4-1) and Song of Navarone (9-2), the second- and third-place finishers behind Florida-bred Red Lead in the $50,000 Curribot Stakes at Sunland Park last month.

–E-mail Nick Fortuna at nick@wiretowire.net.

–Photo of Florida-bred American Classic by Coady