Aug. 14--Having a 15-1 morning-line long shot in Saturday's Arlington Million XXXIII doesn't daunt Quiet Force's owner, Kevin Warner, in the least.
Brain tumor surgery changes the way one looks at life.
"In 2012, two days before Christmas, I was feeling bad so I went to the hospital," recounted the 49-year-old owner of a health services company in Lexington, Ky.
"The doctors discovered a brain tumor about the size of my fist, and took it out. Nine days after the surgery I was driving and two weeks later I was back to work, much to the dismay of my neurosurgeon who thought it was too much too soon. But I had no issues at all.
"I told myself: 'From now on I'm going to live life to the fullest. I'm going to do what I've always wanted to do and get into horse racing.' "
Growing up in Lexington and going to the races at Keeneland had ingrained in Warner a love of the sport. Not surprisingly, he also became enamored with Kentucky basketball. When he went to the university, he was a student manager for coach Joe B. Hall's basketball teams and he spent his summer vacations grooming horses at the world-renowned Gainesway Farm, an experience that intensified his passion for thoroughbreds.
Warner said he "looked at every claiming race (around the country) every day" during the first two months of last year before putting in a claim for a 4-year-old he spotted in a $40,000 claiming race at Santa Anita.
Three others sought to claim the horse named Quiet Force but Warner's representative won the shake, and the well-bred son of Dynaformer was sent to trainer Mike Maker in Kentucky. Exiting the claiming ranks after his back-to-back triumphs in California, he was a competitive fourth in his debut for the new owner in Keeneland's Grade III Commonwealth Stakes on Polytrack.
Following a ninth-place finish on the dirt in another graded stakes race, the Grade II Churchill Downs, Maker switched Quiet Force to the grass. He won his next two starts, the second of which was an ungraded race July 2, 2014, at Indiana Grand.
For both the horse and his owner it was the first stakes victory, and it inspired Warner to make Quiet a candidate for last year's Million. However, the dream of running against world-class competition had to be deferred because of an injury.
Sidelined for almost 11 months, Quiet Force came back on May 26 to run third in a 1-mile, 40-yard allowance race at Parx Racing.
Next he went to Arlington and came from off the pace to capture the local Million prep, last month's Grade III Arlington Handicap. It was his third win in four starts at four tracks in four states since Maker made him a turf specialist.
Now, following his conquest of six opponents in the 13/16-mile prep, Quiet Force is being asked to outrun 12 of significantly higher caliber in the 1 1/4; -mile main event Saturday.
Robby Albarado, whose only ride on Quiet Force came in the stakes race at Indiana Grand, will be his jockey.
"I'm tickled to death to get Robby, a guy I have all the confidence in the world in," Warner said, "and we got the No. 8 post position, the one I told people in the Arlington racing office that I wanted. I love flying under the radar, a little guy with only three horses and one of them in partnership.
"I'm a little guy with a big horse in a big race."
Neil Milbert is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
