Donald Lindsey focuses on the present with D A Adele

by Matthew Lomon

The education of D A Adele is still very much in its infancy, making any talk about her future a purely speculative endeavor.

So, rather than looking too far ahead, the 2-year-old trotter and her trainer Donald Lindsey are more than content to focus on the present.

“She seems to do everything right and has a good attitude up to this point,” Lindsey said. “But we’ll have to gather more information before we start thinking about her future at all.”

The returns, at least in the early stages of D A Adele’s development, have been encouraging, especially given the tight turnaround between schooling, qualifying, and her professional debut.

“She was really well-mannered during the qualifier,” said Lindsey of the July 3 baby race. “She schooled the week before at Grand River, but with Grand River not qualifying last week, we took her to Mohawk to qualify. She was good-gaited and didn’t do anything wrong, so we were happy with her.”

Pleased with the practice mile, Lindsey, along with his father Paul, who owns D A Adele, and driver David Boughton, had a collective decision to make.

“Typically, we would have qualified again, but since we were so close to Grand River and it wasn’t a ship at all, we decided to put her in the Prospect and get more education in her,” Donald said.

The plan proved prudent for all parties, as the debuting daughter of Muscle Mass—Adina flashed a fiery competitive spirit, holding on by a nose with Boughton in the race bike to secure the top spot in her $10,000 division of the Ontario Sires Stakes Prospect Series at Grand River.

Watching on as D A Adele locked horns with a late-surging Snowdream Hanover, Donald “wasn’t 100 per cent sure” she had gotten there in the moment, but his trotter had indeed passed the test.

“I was just glad she got through,” he said. “In the end, it worked out with a small field and being close to home that she could have both a valuable learning experience and pick up a check along the way.”

The successful outing was as informative for Donald as it was for D A Adele.

“She hasn’t trained and went with a lot of horses so far, so I knew she’d be green,” he said. “When Dave came off, he said she’d likely be better chasing, but also that she was pretty disciplined and trotted well.

“It just happened that she was a little green on the lead, but I’m not really worried about her being short or coming up short. After the race, she pulled up very headstrong and still looked good.”

D A Adele’s final time of 1:59.2 stood as the fastest of the three Prospect Series winners on July 8 at Grand River.

While labeling the feat a confidence-booster may be premature for a 2-year-old with such limited experience, it was, at the very least, another step in the right direction.

“I’ll need to gather more information to see if it would be confidence, but her being on the gate, being able to brush the lead, and cut a mile was encouraging,” Donald said.

“I hope it was just greenness on the end of the mile, and I think it was judging by the way she qualified and passed horses and trotted very strongly to finish her qualifier. It’s yet to be determined if it’s confidence, but she’s done everything we’ve asked so far.”

Getting D A Adele to the races has truly been a team effort. Between Lindsey, his father Paul, and Boughton, each has contributed to their young trotter’s ongoing development.

“I was laid up most of the winter, so my dad did pretty much all the training and driving,” Donald said. “Then Dave came around and trained her a few times when he got back from Florida. He took her to Grand River, trained her once and put her into school.”

D A Adele has also benefited from the expertise of Josey Shetler. A member of the renowned Shetler racing family, Josey handled D A Adele’s early-stage education after Paul privately purchased her as a yearling from trainer Bill McClure.

The sharp-minded brown filly has never been one to turn heads with her physical presence, but as Donald knows firsthand, success isn’t determined solely by what’s on the outside.

“She seems to get over the ground pretty well, trots well, and she’s smart… I’d probably compare her to a horse that I used to have called Keystone Orion – small, not a lot of substance, but once you put them behind the gate, they show that they have a good attitude and good racing instincts,” he said.

Keystone Orion, a recently retired son of Angus Hall—Ozone Hanover, enjoyed a stellar career between the rails, making 317 starts (50-43-44) and earning north of $543,000.

Donald, instead of letting his mind wander to what could be, has more immediate matters to tend to with D A Adele.

“I’ve not thought of a ceiling for her at all,” he said. “We moved quickly to qualify her last Friday [July 3] and then placed her in the Prospect for education. She’s only paid into the Sires Stakes this year, so that will be the focus for the year. Then we’ll see how she progresses and decide where to go.”

Whichever direction that is, Donald is prepared to embrace the journey.

“If we go to the Grassroots and she shows limitations, then we go head back to the Prospect,” he said. “If she goes to the Prospect and keeps developing, then we can go to the Grassroots. It’s a pretty fluid situation and not really a huge decision at this point.”