Cash Storm hopes the Slipper fits

Claiming Crown races highlight today's schedule at Ellis Park

By Cliff Guilliams (Contact)
Saturday, August 4, 2007

Tim Glyshaw The Harrison graduate taught school before switching to horses.

Trainer Tim Glyshaw of Evansville discovered an extraordinarily rare yet easy method of having a horse to run in his name today in Ellis Park's $600,000 Old National Bank Claiming Crown.

He developed a good reputation at his craft, and he answered his phone.

Late last week, trainer Clinton Stewart called from Iowa, asking that Glyshaw saddle Cash Storm in today's $75,000 Claiming Crown Glass Slipper for fillies and mares going six furlongs.

The 4-year-old bay daughter of Aptitude, owned by Steve Pallardy, is 6-1 on the morning line. She breaks from post position No. 1 under Brian Hernandez Jr. in the field of 11.

Will the Slipper fit?

"It happened totally out of the blue," said Glyshaw, a 38-year-old Harrison High School/Indiana University graduate who taught school for two years before making horses his vocation instead of teenagers. "I've been around almost 15 years and never had a deal fall in my hands like this one. It was totally unexpected.

"I've heard stories that it happens a lot. Maybe if Cash Storm runs well somebody will take notice and send me a couple of others to train regularly. It certainly can't hurt."

Stewart claimed Cash Storm from a winning effort back on June 12 at Prairie Meadows for $10,000. He had too many horses entered today at Remington Park to make the trip to Ellis.

By coincidence, Stewart's assistant trainer, Diane Treadway, had been stabled next to Glyshaw and his wife, Natalie (who serves as Ellis' track photographer), for three seasons at Hoosier Park.

Treadway saw Glyshaw's meticulous handling and helped broker the deal.

On the eve of a big race, there's not a lot of training involved.

"It's more or less walk her, jog her, make sure that she's as calm and relaxed a possible and then run her," said Glyshaw. "I never expected her to run in my name. But Clinton said go ahead and do it that way. He called the stewards and cleared everything for the transfer."

Glyshaw receives his usual per day training rate and half of any purse money that Stewart would earn. "Can't beat a deal like this," he said.

Cash Storm, 5-6-1 from 16 lifetime starts, isn't the first horse that Glyshaw has lent his name and ability to. He worked many years as an assistant to Bob Holthus, helped develop numerous good ones including the hugely talented Lawyer Ron who raced for the late Jim Hines of Owensboro, Ky. before being sold and sent to trainer Todd Pletcher.

Glyshaw maintains a six-to-eight-horse outfit but still regularly saddles horses on race days when Holthus and guys like Lynn Whiting can't make the trip and has stalls ready when their horses are shipped in from Churchill Downs.

"Nobody can do well in this business alone," said Glyshaw. "It's about relationships and helping people. Sooner or later, if you keep helping others, it's going to pay off."

Each horse running today is eligible for various reasons.

Some come from tracks where there isn't much claiming done in the $15,000 variety. There are the old "safety claims." Trainers run a horse cheap to make them eligible, have friends drop in claims, then "buy" them back privately. It's legal and usually time foolproof.

Some others fall through the cracks, run cheap and get good all at once.

Then there's the rare, absolute freak like Golden Hare. A winner in 12 of his last 13 starts, he was actually claimed for $3,500 and turned into a tiger for Scott Blasi and Steve Asmussen.

Few people would have guessed that among a dozen 2-year-olds trainer Bob Holthus sent to his assistant, Tim Glyshaw, a lanky chestnut named Lawyer Ron would develop into something special.

But he has. Riding the crest of a six-race winning streak including a 2¾-length triumph in the Arkansas Derby, Lawyer Ron will be no worse than third betting choice in Saturday's 132nd Kentucky Derby.

"Each time we worked Lawyer Ron as a baby, he recorded a bullet (fastest time)," said Glyshaw, an Evansville native whose love for horses began when his family took him to Ellis Park as a child. "I was so certain that he was going to be a nice horse that I told Bob White (racing manager for the colt's late owner, Jim Hines Jr. of Owensboro) to nominate him for the 2-year-old stake (James C. Ellis Memorial) so we would have somewhere to run him after he broke his maiden."

Enthusiastically, Glyshaw told Holthus the same thing. It prompted the veteran horseman to smugly respond, "Lawyer Ron doesn't want any part of Red Raymond."

Holthus knew best at the time. Lawyer Ron was trying to buck shins and was unsuccessful last summer in three attempts over Ellis Park's turf course.

Being a son of top turf sire, Langfuhr, Holthus naturally wanted to try Lawyer Ron on the grass. It's about the only mistake he has made.

Last September, Lawyer Ron also failed to win in two starts over Turfway Park's polytrack. That's forgivable. Results over that surface have sometimes been as strange as the footing. It was a different story last Oct. 21 when Lawyer Ron ran over Keeneland's wet main track. He won comfortably by 3¼ lengths.

Last November, after losing twice more on Churchill's turf course, Holthus said never again.

The colt hasn't lost since. He's a throwback. Unlike most of his generation, Lawyer Ron seems to thrive on a heavy workload. Many refer to him as the "Iron Horse." He's started 14 times, more than any other Derby starer, fashioning a 7-1-3 record and earning $1,220,008. A 1987 product of Harrison High School and Indiana University, Glyshaw never will forget Jan 14, 2006. Not only did he marry his wife, Natalie, who works for Churchill/Ellis track photographer Reed Palmer, but Lawyer Ron won the Grade III Risen Star Stakes run at Louisiana Downs.

"I called Bob (Holthus) and we exchanged congratulations. Then I told him that 'I don't think Red Raymond wants any part of Lawyer Ron now.' We both laughed."

After using his education degree to teach two years, he realized a dream by swapping students for horses.

In 1995, he went to work at Taylor Made Farm in order to learn basic horsemanship. Soon afterwards, he walked into the office of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association seeking direction. John Griffith of the HBPA suggested Holthus as an employer/mentor.

A relationship was struck between the trainer who rarely reads anything besides Daily Racing Form and the college graduate who once perused Shakespeare and the classics.

Glyshaw walked hots for four months and groomed for six. Holthus saw promise, realized that Glyshaw was a quick learner who also understood racing's business end and made him an assistant.

Currently, Glyshaw, who also trains a small stable of his own, is headquartered at Turfway Park. As usual, last month, Holthus sent him 13 more 2-year-olds to prepare.

Saturday, however, Glyshaw will be at Churchill to bring Lawyer Ron to the paddock.

"It's going to be a special day for all of us," said Glyshaw. It may be a once in a lifetime experience. The only down side is that Mr. Hines (who died on Feb. 21) isn't here to see it. He put a lot of time and money into this business. He deserved to be part of this."

By CLIFF GUILLIAMS Courier & Press racing writer equic1@aol.com
July 15, 2005

Most horse trainers are superstitious. Not owner-trainer Tim Glyshaw of Evansville.

The 36-year-old had all the confidence in the world Thursday when he saddled the 13th Ellis Park starter of his career in the ninth race.

Go Cassie Jo, a 6-year-old mare, rewarded Glyshaw's confidence. She made all the pace over the muddy footing and won by a half-length under Calvin Borel in the 6-furlong test for $4,000 claiming fillies and mares.

"I had six second-place finishes by horses I owned or trained last year here from 12 starts and couldn't win one," said Glyshaw, who has served as the top assistant to Bob Holthus for several years and still handles numerous chores for him. "I never really thought about this being the 13th until someone mentioned it."

Many horsemen refuse to be stabled in a barn if it is numbered No. 13. Some even go to the trouble of taping over the number if it's imprinted over a stall door. "I never believed much in that superstition thing," said Glyshaw, who graduated from Harrison High School in 1987 and from Indiana University in 1992. "I will tell you this: My mother, Diane Whipkey, and my stepfather, Jim Whipkey, have been to every race we've run here.

"I'm not saying they've been a jinx, or I might lose my rent-free housing for the summer," he added while taking congratulatory call after call on his cellular telephone. "But I was about to tell them I was going to buy them TVG (Television Games Network) so they could just stay home and watch the races in comfort."

Besides overseeing 16 horses for Holthus, Cassie Go Jo is the only horse Glyshaw had personally prior to Thursday. His one-horse outfit doubled when Keith Plaisance, a New Orleans police officer, made a deal to send Glyshaw a veteran turf sprinter for the rest of the summer.

"He's a high-priced claiming horse and a former stakes winner. So all-in-all, it was a great day," said Glyshaw. "Go Cassie Jo earned $4,270 and I doubled my stable. I'd like to do that a few more times this summer."

Cash Storm hopes the Slipper fits

Claiming Crown races highlight today's schedule at Ellis Park

Mission accomplished: Darrell H wins, claimed