by Brett Sturman

From 13 career starts to date, top Pepsi North America Cup prospect Fallout has only raced twice at Woodbine Mohawk Park. But he, along with driver Tim Tetrick, made those races count last September when they swept the Metro Pace elimination and then the $1 million Metro final.

I’ll make the case that now, both horse and driver return to the scene of that triumph with maybe a little something extra to prove.

Fallout remains, unquestionably, one of the top 3-year-old pacers in North America, but it seems hard to believe that he only has a single win following his victorious Metro. And that came two weeks afterwards when he crushed by 10 lengths at Lexington in an International Stallion Stake in 1:48.4, which bested his Metro win in 1:49.1. Since that time, he’s raced bravely in all four subsequent starts, including throughout the Breeders Crown and then two races to kick off 2025.

As Tetrick readies for Saturday’s (June 7) eliminations in which Fallout goes in race 7, he sounds confident.

“I’m super happy with [Fallout],” said Tetrick. “He hasn’t won yet this year, but you can’t knock him either time he got beat. He got beat by an older horse in his first start back who had just gone in 1:49, and then he got beat from the pocket by maybe the best 3-year-old in the country who will probably be the Cup favorite in Louprint. He’s raced well both times.”

The stakes landscape does look a little different today for Tetrick than it did just two years ago when he came to Ontario with eventual 2023 Horse of the Year, Confederate. His driving record in terms of UDRS still remains in the .350 range where it has been for many years, but his overall number of stakes commitments beyond Fallout — at least for this current time being — has been reduced.

Typical ebbs and flows of driver demand for stakes bookings aside, I was interested in knowing if Tetrick’s mentality is any different with Fallout than it was in other years given that, currently, it’s the assignment with the best stakes potential. Is there added pressure on him to make the most of what he has?

“There’s always pressure to do well no matter the circumstance,” said Tetrick. “It’s always been there in my career, and I’ve always tried to do well, and to do well in the big races and I’ve have had plenty of success in that thinking. There’s an equal amount of pressure no matter if you have one stakes horse or if you have 20 of them. Every time I go behind the gate, I treat them all individually but with the same overall mindset.”

Tetrick summarized it well, “I drive my horse to the best of my ability. If I have a 50-1 chance, I’m still trying to win but I’m also trying to make money for myself and for the owners.”

To that point, a great example of that can be found from just two weeks ago in the Auger Invitational at Harrah’s Philadelphia. In that FFA stake, Tetrick put 56-1 long shot Spring Inhis Step A into play early from an outside post, worked out a pocket trip and finished second to Bythemissal, besting several other potential FFA stars for the upcoming year.

“I didn’t understand why he was that high; I thought he was a contender,” Tetrick said. “If anybody saw my comments when Heather [Vitale] interviewed me before the race I said that this horse is a sleeper and not to discount him, and he almost won.”

Back to the North America Cup, there are parallels in Fallout entering his elimination this weekend and when he came here last year for the Metro. Fallout had been racing well last year immediately prior to Mohawk with a series of 1:49-timed miles at The Red Mile but without a recent win on view to show for it and was dismissed at 7-1 in his elimination. It’s similar today with the couple of close-up seconds, and you could even include those hard-fought races in the Breeders Crown to end last year. Just as he used the Metro to make his presence known as a top freshman, Fallout is entering the Cup eliminations this weekend looking to solidify his status early in the year with another key win – one that would make him a $1 million race winner in two straight years.

Likewise, I can think of reasons why winning this year’s edition of the North America Cup would be sweet for Tetrick. He’s a two-time winner of the race, but the last one came 10 years ago with Wakizashi Hanover and the other one was two years prior to that with Captaintreacherous (sire of Fallout, trained too by Tony Alagna). By winning, Tetrick could avenge the defeat of Confederate in this race while at the same time giving silence to any of his doubters.

Tetrick will enter confidently with the horse and will do what’s always worked for him.

“All you can do is try hard and give it your best and at the end of the day hopefully it works out,” he said. “It can be a tough game sometimes. It can be hard with everything so speed-oriented these days. And you still need to have something between the shafts; it takes a good horse to win, and they’ve got to be good on that day.”

For Team Fallout, here’s hoping he’s good this Saturday and maybe even better the following one.