Claiming Crown: Molly’s Rose a Winner Just Making it to the Races

No matter where Molly’s Rose finishes in Saturday’s $150,000 Claiming Crown Tiara, for Lexington-based owner-trainer Erin Riefenberg the 4-year-old filly is a winner just making it to the race at Churchill Downs.

Or any race for that matter.

“There are not a lot of horses that could go through everything she went through and even want to run at all,” Riefenberg said of her one-horse stable. “She just loves it so much.”

Riefenberg’s journey with Molly’s Rose started 2 1/2 years ago when she purchased the filly at the OBS June sale in Ocala for $2,500. That’s one-tenth the claiming price Molly’s Rose had to run for (or cheaper) at some point to be eligible for the Tiara at 1 1/16-mile on turf.

Molly’s Rose’s dam, the More than Ready mare My Rose, ran only twice, failing to hit the board and earning all of $500. All the same, trainer Phil D’Amato told Riefenberg that My Rose had ability.

“He said she was a pretty talented horse; he just really couldn’t get her to the races,” Riefenberg said.

Also: Molly’s Rose’s timed work for the 2-year-old in training sale was, “really slow, that’s probably why no one wanted her,” Riefenberg said. “It was one of the slowest breezes ever. But she’s big and I said, ‘You know what, she’s going to go two turns anyway. She had no idea what she was doing in that breeze.’ She clean X-rayed, scoped and everything. I said I’ll take her anyway.”

Riefenberg named the daughter of Classic Empire for her puppy Molly, a German Shepherd service dog. “They are best friends,” she said.

As it turned out, the breeze was the least of Molly’s Rose’s challenges.

One: The filly came back from Florida with a severe case of shipping fever and almost died.

Two: Riefenberg took her time with the filly and had her in California. Just as Molly’s Rose was doing really well, she contracted a severe case of EPM, an equine neurological disease.

Three: More time off. Back training well again at Santa Anita. And a nuclear scan revealed the very early stages of what could develop into a tibia fracture.

Four: A lot of time off. One workout from running. And waylaid by a bad case of colic.

“That was toward the end of her 3-year-old year,” Riefenberg. “We thought, ‘This horse is never going to run.’ Then we actually got her out of the colic, and we actually got her running.”

With Riefenberg working as an assistant and exercise rider for trainer Graham Motion, she sent Molly’s Rose to New Mexico to a trainer friend. “I just didn’t have the time,” she said. “I said, ‘You can get her started there.’”

That was this past February. Molly’s Rose was reunited with Riefenberg at Lexington’s The Thoroughbred Center this spring after accumulating two fourths and a fifth in three maiden sprints at Sunland Park. If Riefenberg knew Molly’s Rose’s future would be racing long on turf, not sprinting on dirt, the time in New Mexico served its purpose in getting the filly ready.

Of course there would be another setback, this time a hock infection. But it had a silver lining: That’s how Riefenberg met her boyfriend, Dr. Alex Sano, a veterinarian with Hagyard Equine in Lexington and the son of and former assistant to prominent Florida trainer Antonio Sano.

Finally, Molly’s Rose debuted for her owner with a third in a $32,000 maiden-claiming turf race at Horseshoe Indiana on July 2. A month later she won the same type of race, handing Riefenberg her first victory as a trainer. Molly, the German Shepherd, sits proudly with her peeps in the winner’s circle photo.

That joyous moment was followed by a couple of bad runs in allowance company, one a race that came off the turf. Not surprisingly, Molly’s Rose went off at 40-1 odds in a $25,000 optional claiming race Oct. 30 over the Indiana turf with Alberto Burgos aboard for the first time. Molly’s Rose rallied to win by a head. Molly the dog was back in the winner’s circle.

Sano encouraged Riefenberg to run in the Claiming Crown, for which that race made Molly’s Rose eligible. Burgos, Horseshoe Indianapolis’ leading rider, will be back aboard.

“She’s just a big filly who probably wants to run two miles, to be honest,” Riefenberg said. “It’s pretty amazing, the fact that she just has so much heart. That’s why I get so emotional with her. She tries so hard to overcome everything she’s had to overcome.”

Riefenberg, who grew up in Chicago, has spent her life around horses and worked for some of the top trainers in the country as an assistant and exercise rider in California before relocating to Kentucky. While Molly’s Rose currently is her whole racing stable, she expects to have more horses this winter, including some that California trainers want to send her to run at Turfway.

She has never run a horse at Churchill Downs. But Riefenberg certainly is used to winning in Louisville, having been an accomplished saddlebred rider who frequently competed at the World’s Championship Horse Show in nearby Freedom Hall.

Now Molly’s Rose again faces long odds. She is 30-1 in the morning line for the Tiara’s field of 11 fillies and mares. She has the least earnings ($36,593) and only one horse has fewer than her two wins. The favorite, 4-5 Dana’s Beauty, boasts three stakes among her 10 victories for earnings of $633,033. She was third in last year’s Tiara taken off the turf and in April sold at auction for $450,000 to Resolute Racing’s John Stewart, who sent Dana’s Beauty to Mike Maker, the Claiming Crown’s all-time win leader.

“I’m realistic about beating that filly,” Riefenberg said. “I’m hoping for fourth or better.”

If Molly’s Rose defies the odds this time, she again will be joined in the winner’s circle by her buddy, the original Molly.

After all, Riefenberg said, “She’s my good luck.”