The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Story Of Keep Your Promise

Original article written by Jack Meyer posted 9 years 1 week ago

Some horses are just the kind of horses that make their owner scratch their heads, pull out their hair, send AJ 50 prize plugs in a matter of 2 minutes, whatever they make you do, they do it very well. I believe that these types of horses are the most frustrating in the SIM as well as the most satisfying when they flip the switch and blaze the track in winning fashion when you least expect it. This reading will highlight the story of one such horse, and what his owner has went through with the ups and downs of this remarkable, yet challenging horse that he has grown to love.

Keep Your Promise - the name fits here - seems to have kept the promise of being something special with an owner who is patient enough to stick with him until he righted what was wrong. I was able to catch up with his owner Mike Bryant, and he agreed to take a few minutes so we can get to know him and his mighty diamond in the rough, Keep Your Promise.

Having reached the 4000 win milestone, Mike Bryant has pretty much mastered the winning side of the SIM, and coming fresh off his first Steward’s Cup win with Keep Your Promise, I was wondering what was missing from those stats, and was wondering what his next goal would be? “My next goal is winning the Desert World Cup and back-to-back victories in the Stewards Cup Classic with KYP!"

I for one don’t think that’s too much to ask - another win by his prized horse Keep Your Promise.

To avoid just blurting out what I was sure was the highlight of Mike’s SIM career thus far, I went ahead and asked him. “My biggest highlight by far was winning the Stewards Cup Classic last year in which I missed the race call in the chat that day. I would love to hear it still if there is any way possible." It is a true shame that the horse Mike holds dearest to his heart ran his biggest race on a day he couldn’t be there to hear it.

A little background on Keep Your Promise is needed here before we push forward. He ran 2nd in his maiden debut before scoring a victory with a modest 78 Speed Figure his second time out, nothing spectacular, just an ordinary race by an underachieving colt. He was totally absent from anything resembling a solid race for 7 starts following his maiden win; he was shipped just about everywhere to try and get his footing, but he just wasn’t responding. By the time he made his 4YO debut, he had run for Mike 3 times, none of which were better than a 4th place finish, so I’m sure Mike was covering his eyes once he sent him to post in his first Stakes race since his 3rd career start, I don’t blame him. Something shook whatever was hiding loose that day, Keep Your Promise blasted the field in the Skill Stakes by over 3 lengths earning a career high 82 Speed Figure.

I’m certain Mike wasn’t counting his lucky stars just yet after just one solid race, he stepped him up into Graded company, the Deals With The Devil Stakes. He again just exploded when asked pushing his margin of victory to 2 ¾ lengths, and recording a SF of 9. It was then that Mike probably felt that thumping in his chest telling him he had something special. A win in the California Stakes and the Iowa Steward’s Cup with a second place finish in-between to Grant in the Metropolitan Handicap was proof that he was now among the top of his class, an eye on the big prize at the end of the tunnel was on the horizon, a trip to the Steward’s Cup.

The Steward’s Cup drew a very talented group of colts and horses including Year 38 Derby winner Grant, Long Island Gold Cup winner Anointed, current Derby winner Castle Keep, Midsummer Classic winner Dobra, and Inglewood Gold Cup winner Horcrux, the talent was there, we knew we would see what Keep Your Promise was made of. I remember the call very well, Keep Your Promise just kept coming, he beat Anointed, Castle Keep, and Grant to the punch getting the jump on them, then just focused on ruinning down the trip of speedsters in Horcrux, Dobra, and Parzival, he was just a machine that day, he became a true champion. That win put him in the spotlight, no matter what odds he had to overcome, he overcame them all that day, he was the best of the best.

With the story behind the myth now told, I then thought to myself, “I know what I look for in horses in The Steward’s auction’s each year, I wonder what drew Mike to Keep Your Promise." He told me this, “I wasn't the original owner of KYP, actually I am his third owner! Phil Hoeflich originally purchased KYP in the two year olds in training for $589,524 and then was sold to Karl Smythe as a 3 year old for $350k, then 3 races later I purchased him at the age of 3 for only $75k, I figured at that price being a Steward bred I would take a chance in which paid off in my favor." What a story, his first owner dumped him off within 4 months taking a small hit, his second owner dumped him off after 2 months for an even bigger hit, no one wanted to deal with the patience needed here, well, until Mike Bryant came calling, and the rest is SIM history as they say.

I wanted to know if there was a reason behind his rough start early on, and just how close Mike came to throwing in the towel on Keep Your Promise, lord knows there was plenty there to warrant the action. “A rough start, yes that is how it begun for him, as far as me throwing in the towel on him it was kinda hard not to. Luckily I try to give all Steward bred stallions till the middle of their 4th year before I decide on what to do with them just to see if they are a late bloomer." This is actually a good piece of information to use when looking at Steward bred horses, or nicely bred horses, they could be late bloomers, especially routers, so you newbs be aware of this point.

Of course I had to know what he did, if anything to recharge the tiring battery of this mammoth of an animal: “Nothing but his maturity level and a lot of patience on my part is what it took to get KYP headed in the right direction."

With the Steward’s Cup already in the bag for Mike and Keep Your Promise, I had to know, the SIM had to know what was next for the pair. “As far as future goals for KYP..........victories in the Desert World Cup, Oceanside Classic, Long Island Gold Cup, and repeating in the Steward's Cup Classic!" Now, those are pretty specific goals, I’d say if you are going to go for it all you should just shoot for the stars, maybe Keep Your Promise has a few more promises to keep before hanging up his racing hooves for time in the shed, you never know…

To wrap things up, I wanted to make sure there we no more surprises from the Mike Bryant barn, I wanted to know what other hidden gems are flying under the radar, “What I have special hiding in my barn this year I would have to mention 3 different horses, The Hoopster, Warthunder, and Spread Like Fire. Those 3 horses are all 2 year olds and those 3 are all sired by stallions that I own and 2 of those 3 are already Stake Winners”. There is absolutely nothing like having a homebred steal the show on the SIM’s most prestigious racetracks on the SIM’s most prestigious days, and Mike has his eye on three of his very own that he’s pinning his hopes and dreams on.

You know, I usually don’t like to share my own stories when writing articles because I don’t want readers to focus on what I have, but I really can’t help it here because Mike’s story reminds me of one of my own in many ways. I purchased a Quarter Horse gelding by the name of Simcoe way back when I was a newb from the AJ barn; I stayed up very late to catch him in dispersal. He had one win, a third, and a miserable 11th I believe to his credit when I got him, so there wasn’t much there except nice works and decent SF’s. I grabbed him up and worked with him a bit and realized he was going without the right equipment, and the previous owner just gave up on him. He reeled off seven straight wins for me before failing badly in his final prep for the Steward’s Cup, that 6th place finish really tested my new player mind because I was set on him going to the Steward’s Cup, but didn’t expect that. I went ahead and sent him to the Cup, and was rewarded with my first Steward’s Cup win, and my first SIMMY award for best Older Quarter Horse, imagine what that did for a newb like me, it was unbelievable, the jest of the story is that horses have a way of finding their home, some are destined to be in your barn just as Keep Your Promise was destined to be in Mike’s.

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