By Dick Jerardi
Parx Hall of Famer Phil Aristone claimed Cold Hearted Pearl at Parx on Dec 20, 2020 for his longtime friend, owner Joe Imbesi. The price was $5,000. It was the eighth and final time the mare was claimed in a 55-race career that included 14 wins, 10 seconds, 7 thirds and earnings of $322,979. She raced at 13 tracks from 2016 to 2021.
“She had a problem with her breathing,” Aristone remembered. “I changed all her equipment and ran her back and she won. We ran her back in a starter and Angel Castillo got in so much trouble it was amazing.”
She finished third that day. As Aristone remembers, Imbesi was so mad he said that’s it, her career is over.
“He took her home and bred her,” Aristone said.
Imbesi was based in New Jersey for years and then came over to Pennsylvania to take advantage of the breeding program that has produced such talented horses for him in recent years as Buy Land and See, Gordian Knot and Flor de Sombra.
Home in the last few years is Florida for Imbesi’s mares and his terrific stallion Social Inclusion, the horse that he bred to Cold Hearted Pearl shortly after her retirement.
Aristone suggested the foal, born in 2022, be named Warm Hands Cold Heart. But Imbesi forgot and named her Social Fortress, which after two races, looks quite appropriate as the 2-year-old filly has been impregnable so far.
She won her maiden by 11 lengths in a 5-furlong race at Delaware Park before winning the 1-mile Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park by 7 lengths. Trained by Jamie Ness, she has led all the way in both races.
So how exactly did she end up with Ness who had no horses with Imbesi before?
“He had a couple of horses last year from Ocala that (former trainer Lupe Preciado) didn’t have room for,” Ness said. “He asked me if I had a chance to take a couple and I said bring them over…He liked our operation and he decided to send me this filly this year and thank God he did.”
Imbesi had wanted to buy Social Inclusion when he dominated his first two races a decade ago, but the colt got very expensive very quickly. The horse was third in the 2014 Wood Memorial, third to California Chrome in the Preakness, third to Bayern in the Woody Stephens and ended his nine-race career with a dominant win for trainer Carlos Guerrero at Parx.
After two years at stud, Imbesi was finally able to buy the horse with Glenn Brok of Diamond B Farm and Social Inclusion has been a solid sire with such offspring as Withers winner Uncle Heavy, Gordian Knot and Flor de Sombra.
“We thought we could raise better horses down there with more grass and more sunshine,” Imbesi said about the move to Florida.
Social Fortress’s next start will be in Saturday’s Grade I Frizette at Aqueduct. That race will tell the tale of how good the filly might be.
“We’re excited,” Imbesi said.
The Frizette is a special race for Imbesi because his father Anthony Imbesi’s Briardale Farm won it in 1963 with the great mare Tosmah who started 39 times with 23 wins and was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1984.
So how good is Social Fortress?
“To be determined,” Ness said. “Two runaway wins. Right when she came in, they liked her at the farm and she did everything right. Right off the bat, we knew that she was pretty good. Either she was really good or the rest of mine were really bad…We don’t know how good she is. I’m sure that test is going to come soon enough, probably the next race.”
Ness, a cinch for his fifth straight Parx training title, has won 264 races this year (second nationally) 4,444 races overall. But only four of them have been graded stakes, all Grade 3. He simply has never had access to the kind of horses that win those kinds of races.
What would it mean to win a Grade I?
“That would be great,” Ness said. “I haven’t run in very many Grade 1’s, let alone won one. I remember when I started out, all I wanted was to win one race. It took me 40 tries to win one race, I said ‘I just want to win one.’ ”
He only started his career 0-for-32, according to Equibase. But the point is the point. Winning is hard although Ness has made it look easier than most in his 25-year career.
But…
This is different. A fast 2-year-old, with a chance.
Social Fortress is her name. She is by Joe Imbesi’s prize stallion out of a mare that cost $5,000. Nearly four years after Aristone made that claim, Cold Hearted Pearl’s first foal will try to win Ness’s first Grade I in the same race Imbesi’s father won 61 years ago.
