This gelded son of Wiseman's Ferry harkens back to the time of other great gelding runners like; Forego, John Henry and more recently Lava Man. Starting out his career in somewhat obscurity for little known trainer; Charlie Lopresti, he broke his maiden as a three year old at Turfway Park in the dead of winter sprinting on their polytrack. Lightly raced, he attempted the Breeder's Cup Sprint off of just four career starts. Unsuccessful then and in his next four starts after that, he made a career switch to turf on July 4th 2011 and the legend was born.
Since winning the Firecracker Handicap, he has been nearly unbeatable winning all but one of his grass starts with 14 victories! In addition with these graded stakes victories on the weeds, he's excelled on polytrack with a first & second on dirt in the Clark Handicap and Stephen Foster. Since his off the board effort on October 11th 2011 in the Shadwell Turf Mile, Wise Dan has started 18 times running no worst than 2nd with 16 victories. An amazing record for a gutsy chestnut who has been nearly unbeatable for almost four years. For his near perfection, he has been the best horse in training and won two straight Horse of the Year titles. Everything has been going this horse's way until mid May when something went drastically wrong.
His trainer Charlie Lopresti noticed something wrong with Wise Dan after his gutsy win in the Woodford Reserve on the Kentucky Derby undercard. One of the worst things imaginable next to a leg injury is colic in a thoroughbred, which Wise Dan had developed. A life threatening issue for horses, Wise Dan was taken to Rood and Riddle equine hospital for emergency surgery. On May 16th a procedure was done to correct the flip portion of his small intestine. Miraculously, the flip part returned back to normal and the surgery was very simple. Now, was the recovery time and how long it would take for Wise Dan to get back in training and hopefully make it back to the races.
He returned to training in less than two months and would be pointed to return to the track sometime during the Saratoga meet. Unable to defend his Fourstardave Handicap title, it was in the Bernard Baruch Handicap on the final weekend of the meet. With the world watching, how would he be after his three month ordeal away from the races. Well, the old timer showed he didn't miss a step, like he was never away or a horse that had major surgery. He was victorious in the only style he knows, game as ever! Now, once again he is in the picture to defend his Horse of the Year title. If he can win the upcoming Shadwell Mile at Keeneland and repeat in the Breeder's Cup Mile, his connections could return to dirt in the Clark Handicap and cap an unbelievable season. This with either of the three year old runners faltering (California Chrome & Shared Belief) and Wise Dan would be a shoe in for a hat trick with top horse honors. Anyway you look at it though, Wise Dan is a champion on track and a champion with a big heart under all circumstances.
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