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Grant Hoping For Evening Attire/Patriots Double
Posted by: admin on Saturday, January 19, 2008 - 05:57 PM
	From NYRA Grant Hoping For Evening Attire/Patriots Double By Eric Donovan \| January 17, 2008 This is a big weekend for 58-year-old Boston native Joe Grant. In addition to rooting on his beloved New England Patriots in the American Football Conference Championship Game Sunday afternoon, Grant will be glued to a TV in Saratoga on Saturday around 3:50 p.m. to watch Evening Attire, the veteran gelding he owns with his wife, Mary, and retired Hall of Fame trainer Tommy “T.J.” Kelly, make his 10-year-old debut in the 89th running of the $75,000 Aqueduct Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth. Those connected with Evening Attire have enjoyed an unbelievable ride that began on a January morning at Hialeah Park in Florida, exactly eight years prior to the day of the Aqueduct Handicap. “I remember walking across the barn area at Hialeah with my wife and T.J.,” Grant recalled. “It was the morning of his first published workout and before Evening Attire got on the track, T.J. turned to me and said, ‘We’ve got something special.’ Watching him come down the stretch, you could see he was such a long-striding horse. Eight years later, he’s still putting smiles on our faces.” Evening Attire has taken the Grants and Kellys to the Breeders’ Cup twice, won them more than $2.7 million and produced 10 stakes wins, including the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2002. The son of Black Tie Affair’s best days probably passed him about six years ago, but the veteran is still proving he loves to race and can be competitive near the top levels of the sport. He comes in off a Grade 3 win in the Queens County Handicap last month. “Back when he was doing exceptionally well, we were getting offers to sell him that probably would have made us better off financially now, but that’s not why we’re in this game,” Grant said. “I really believe he keeps T.J. (who turns 89 later this year) young. T.J. was crying after he won the Queens County.” In Friday’s Daily Racing Form, Pat Kelly, T.J.’s son and the trainer of Evening Attire, was asked to rank the gelding’s career achievements from one to 10. Pat chose the Jockey Club Gold Cup victory as his favorite moment, but Grant had a different view. “The most excited I’ve been through his career was when he won the Discovery Handicap (2001),” Grant said, fondly remembering the day Evening Attire pulled off a 65-1 upset over heavily-favored Street Cry. “I remember watching TVG and listening to them saying he didn’t deserve to be in the race against Street Cry. “My second-favorite moment was when he broke his maiden at Saratoga. It was so close, we couldn’t tell if he won or not.” In the early days, Evening Attire was trained by Pat’s brother Tim, who retired from training in the fall of 2000. Unfortunately for Tim, it was not until Evening Attire was brought back for his three-year-old season that he transformed into a stakes winner. “We gelded him because his testicles were undescended and growing inside of him,” Grant said. “He showed a lot of promise in his first start with blinkers, which was a turf race he finished sixth in, but got into a lot of trouble. That race led us to taking a shot in the Discovery.” Fast forwarding to Saturday’s Aqueduct Handicap, in which Evening Attire finished second in 2004 and 2006, Grant said he is a little concerned about the mile-and-a-sixteenth distance, especially considering the gelding’s habit of walking out of the starting gate. “Obviously, we’d love a mile and an eighth, but there aren’t many spots to run him in,” Grant said. “We’ve been lobbying to bring back the Saratoga Breeders’ Cup (a race Evening Attire won in 2002) at a mile and a quarter, but I don’t think that will happen.” When reached at his home in Boston, Grant said he had just gotten off the phone with T.J. Kelly. The two were discussing, amongst other things, who to breed Evening Attire’s dam to. Concolour, who is now 20, has produced 11 foals but none of the other 10 have come close to Evening Attire’s accomplishments. “Evening Attire is a once-in-a-lifetime horse,” Grant said when asked if he was disappointed in the other horses Concolour has produced. “Most of them are hard-knocking horses that have earned over $100,000. Only two that have raced haven’t won. That’s a pretty good record.” On Sunday, Grant will turn his attention to the Patriots, who host the San Diego Chargers in the AFC Championship Game. “I’ve been a Pats fan for a long time,” Grant said. “In fact, one of the first dates I took my wife on was to a Patriots game. They were playing the Jets and both teams were so bad, I remember them calling it the ‘Toilet Bowl.’ The Patriots were punting and I think the ball went backwards once it got up in the air and they lost 10 yards.” Grant held season tickets to the Patriots for a long time, but gave them up a few years ago. “When I first got the tickets, I couldn’t give them away,” Grant said. “Now they’re the hottest ticket in town. I don’t really miss going to the games. I’d rather watch them at home in front of the fireplace with some wine and cheese.” Grant, one of the more colorful characters at the track, surprisingly said he does not bet much. But even he would have to get down a proposition bet of Evening Attire onto the Patriots if such a wager was offered.

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