Mission Approved making the grade

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL -- You hear a lot about the big-time guys who train racehorses, about their top-level contenders and Grade 1 conquests. You hear less often of small-time trainers; their accomplishments aren't always as frequent or as flashy. But once in a while a horse comes along to change it all, catapulting his connections to the top of the game.

Mission Approved is that kind of runner, one who started for a $35,000 tag last June. This week, the former claimer is the 6-1 third choice on the morning line for the Grade 1 Arlington Million, a 1 1/4-mile event on the Arlington Park lawn that could lead to a start in the Breeder's Cup Turf.

Thank the horse's owner and trainer, Naipaul Chatterpaul, for the bump in class. With 35 total wins to his name from 363 starts to date in the U.S., Chatterpaul has flown mostly under the radar on the New York circuit for the past four years. But on Saturday, he'll saddle the 7-year-old son of With Approval to the biggest start of both their careers, attempting to take down top European thoroughbreds and the best from this country as well -- like multiple Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, who already won the Million in 2009 and ran second in last year's edition.

"It's the farthest I've been to saddle a starter away from New York," Chatterpaul said. "I've run horses in Philadelphia and New Jersey, but never really away from the East Coast."

Chatterpaul, 45, relied upon his experience as a former jockey when he took out his training license in 2008, but had ridden only in unsanctioned events in his native Guyana as a 17- and 18-year-old. In fact, it took multiple decades before the horseman, who emigrated to the U.S. in 1988, could get his start training at an American racetrack.

"I didn't have the financial backing; I was doing other things with my life," he said. "I wished I could have started right away, but I had to work on other things to build stability."

Those other things included selling jewelry, working at a bar and his first employment opportunity in the U.S. -- flipping burgers at McDonalds way back when. Finally, in 2009, Chatterpaul found success with Undocumented, a horse he'd claimed for $20,000 to finish third behind Haynesfield in the $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes. At the same time, he was watching Mission Approved through a series of not-quite-getting-there efforts for trainer Gary Contessa -- mostly in New York turf events like the John's Call Stakes.

"I was tracking him for the longest while, probably about two years, just waiting on the right price," Chatterpaul explained on Thursday morning before the Million. "I'm not a rich guy, and I waited long enough."

Twenty-nine days after plucking Mission Approved from the claiming ranks at Belmont Park in 2010, Chatterpaul saddled the first Grade 1 starter of his career when the horse ran second to Gio Ponti in the $600,000 Man O' War Stakes at Belmont Park. The margin -- former claimer going up against a champion -- was a neck.

"I don't know why they couldn't get him to run as good as he's running now," Chatterpaul remarked. "He's pretty much a classy horse."

The trainer, who has 12 horses all stabled at Belmont Park, has been known to take horses off the track, send them to the farm and bring them back freshened and full of run to hit at higher levels than they were in the past.

"That's one of the key tricks, I'd say," he said. "You freshen them up, give them some time off, bring them back, and they reward you for that."

Due to a quarter crack that developed during training, Mission Approved got an 11-month layoff between the Man O' War and his next start, this year's Grade 1 $400,000 Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park.

"I was getting him ready for the Sword Dancer and he grabbed a quarter," the trainer said. "Some guys would have patched it up and forced it, but I don't do that, I let it heal on its own. By the time it healed up it was the end of the grass season in New York and I don't race anywhere else for the winter. I needed to give him the time off and since I don't go south and run, I just figured I'd send him to the farm and bring him back this year."

Running for the first time in 2011 in the June 11 Manhattan, the second Grade 1 start of Chatterpaul's career, Mission Approved led every step of the way. He upset the 1 ¼-mile turf event by 1 ¼ lengths, a shocker at 21-1. Gio Ponti finished third.

"That was an awesome feeling," Chatterpaul said. "All those big name trainers have a lot of good horses handed to them, but I have to try to handicap and claim a good one to move it up. It's a lot of hard work and a lot of good luck in this game, and thank God I've been lucky recently."

Now, coming off a fourth-place finish behind Cape Blanco and Gio Ponti in this year's edition of the Man O' War, Mission Approved looks to add to his 8-5-1 record from 24 starts and earnings of $790,830 while offering his trainer a chance at career win number 36 in a $1 million event.

"He traveled really well to come here; he took a day at least to fit in, but he feels at home right now," Chatterpaul remarked. "He's a nice, classy horse, and I'm enjoying every minute I have with him."

Claire Novak is an award-winning journalist whose coverage of the Thoroughbred industry appears in a variety of outlets. You can reach her via her website.

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