Popular ex-claimer, who bids to extend his winning streak at Parx on Saturday [Sept 21], is a horse of a lifetime for trainer Doug Cowans and owner Michael Foster
In a world obsessed with instant gratification, in a sport that has sold its soul to speed, the six-year-old gelding Next is proof that it doesn’t have to be that way, evidence that the road less travelled can provide a more rewarding journey.
Next is a throwback, a time-traveller from the past, from an era when things were done differently. His is a niche talent, old-school, unorthodox, like handwritten letters in blue-black ink, like the gramophone crackle of 78rpm.
But from that niche he has built himself an empire, become a specialist who has found his special place in the world and is rightly honoured for it. “The way he does what he does is poetry, it really is,” says his trainer Doug Cowans, almost dreamily.
Next’s owner Michael Foster is more prosaic but no less ardent. “He’s the claim of the century, the horse of a lifetime,” he says. “The stars aligned and I’m just the lucky guy who wrote the check. Best check I ever wrote? Damn right it was.”
Next is a marathon runner, the doyen of distance, an emperor of endurance; the only thing he knows how to do is keep on keeping on.
Long-haul brilliance
Long-distance races on dirt are a trace element in the wider spectrum of US racing, a neglected discipline, but Next has lifted them out of the shadows and into the light with his long-haul brilliance. Let the numbers tell some of the story.
The photogenic grey son of Not This Time has won his last six races, eight of his last nine, all in stakes including three G2s and a G3, those victories gained between 11 furlongs and 18 furlongs with a combined winning margin of just over 106 lengths. He doesn’t just win his races, he lays them to waste.
On his most recent start Next crushed meagre opposition in a mile-and-six stakes at Saratoga, serenaded by racecaller Frank Mirahmadi – “This is Next’s world, he’s all alone. Let him hear it from the crowd, ladies and gentlemen” – on his way to a 22-length score that was, despite the uncompetitive nature of the race, one of the standout highlights of the whole meet.
His derring-do dynamism has transformed Next into a statistical and athletic phenomenon, yet this has come about almost by accident.
In April 2022, Cowans saw an opportunity to make a smart move that has paid dividends far beyond the scope of his initial intention.
“I’m always looking for horses to claim and he came on my radar in a couple of races at Turfway Park,” says Cowans, 49, who has around 50 horses at his Kentucky base.
“The races he’d been in, horses had come out and won stakes, they were key races, so I jumped on him when I saw him in a claimer at Keeneland.”
At that point Next was trained by Wesley Ward and had been highly tried, even taking his chance in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He finished last.
At three his form blossomed – he won a low-key stakes at Churchill Downs over a mile on turf – but quickly faded, and he was a weary ninth in that seven-furlong Keeneland contest. Cowans made the only claim, got him for $62,500, Foster wrote the check. As he says, best check he ever wrote.
‘Now you’d call him a bargain’
“Of course, he could have gone the other way,” says Cowans. “He could have ended up in five-grand claimers. But now you’d call him a bargain, I’d say.”
Next became a bargain only because Cowans noticed something about him after he got him home, started trying the merchandise. There was more to the grey than met the eye.
“I recognised fairly quickly that he had unusual stamina,” says Cowans. “He showed it when galloping out after breezing, he’d go further and stronger than normal, and it gave me the idea of stretching him out. I wasn’t sure whether he’d go a mile and a half, though.”
Cowans rolled the dice in a black-type affair at Delaware Park in September 2022, a mile and a half on turf. It rained, and the race was moved to the main track.
Never mind the weather; Next strolled to victory by 18 lengths in track-record time, laying the foundations for his rise to prominence. A star was born.
“Every race has been special for us,” says Cowans. “It was incredible to win at Saratoga the last two years, but maybe the one that stands out for me was the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at Keeneland on the first day of the Breeders’ Cup weekend in 2022.
“It was the first Graded win for all of us, me, Michael Foster, jockey Luan Machado, and to do it on such a big stage was super-special.”
Cowans has held a licence since 1993 and has been running his own barn since 1998. He is not far off the 1,000-winner mark, and that accumulated wisdom allows him to train the best horse he’s ever had in bespoke fashion.
“Basically, he trains himself at this point. I know what he likes to do and it’s all about keeping him happy,” he says. “He’s a very laid-back guy, straightforward to train, although you’d better have some peppermints ready when you walk past his stall.
“To have a horse like him is great for the team, all the guys who have been with me for a long time. The attention the horse is getting is good for the whole barn.”
Foster, 74, is retired from a career with an asset management company on Wall Street. He says he doesn’t have a favourite race, says they’re all his favourites, but leans towards the G2 Brooklyn at Aqueduct in July, a race cut by a furlong from its usual mile and a half owing to the move from Belmont to the Big A and the shortest distance Next had tried since his transformation.
“That reduction in distance opened up the field to more horses, but it made no difference,” he says. “He beat them by nine lengths, ran fractions that suggested he might be able to cut back to ten furlongs. It gave me a new way to look at him.”
‘He’s like a machine, relentless’
Cowans prefers the old way of looking at him, the ‘if-it-ain’t-broke’ doctrine, wary that sending him over a shorter distance could be kryptonite to Next’s awe-inspiring stamina superpower.
“It would change everything about the shape of the race,” he says. “He wouldn’t be able to get into the same rhythm, and getting into his rhythm is crucial to the way he races.
“I’ve never seen a horse with his depth of stamina,” the trainer goes on. “He’s a freak; he’s a one-off. The further he goes, the faster he seems to get – he can pick up and keep going.
“He’s like a machine, he’s relentless, he never seems to get tired. People don’t want to race their horses against him, his rivals can’t keep up, can’t beat him.”
His resilience and out-and-out reliability have not only won Next a raft of races but also an increasing depth of affection among professionals and paying customers alike. You would never say that the adulation has gone to his head, but Next certainly plays up to his burgeoning celebrity status.
“People watch him now, notice him more,” says Cowans. “He did a strong breeze at Turfway the other day and other trainers stopped what they were doing to watch him.
‘He knows he’s a star’
“When he was done he just stood there taking it all in, putting on a show, everyone who wanted a photo got one. He likes the attention, he knows he’s a star.”
Next’s next step is the G3 Greenwood Cup at Parx on Saturday [Sept 21], a race he won last year by 25 lengths when rumbling gate to wire.
He pursues a carefully curated schedule, primarily because there are so few races in this division, so few alternatives. There are no G1s on the US calendar on the main track at his favoured distances, and his campaign this year has been identical to that of last year.
Despite this, Cowans has no intention of taking Next overseas to chase big money in Australia or Britain. However, he is thinking seriously about the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November, with the Turf over a mile and a half a more likely target than the ten-furlong Classic purely because he would rather switch surface than distance, given Next’s proven ability on the lawn. A decision will come after Saturday’s race.
“He’s already been a dream come true,” says Foster. “I’m so proud of the horse and we’re just going to take things one race at a time. We won’t do anything that might affect his spirit, the way he is.
“He’s a freak of nature, a very athletic horse. I’m not saying he’s Secretariat, but that horse was found to have a very large heart, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Next was built in the same way.
“He was great at five years of age, he’s doing great again at six, and hopefully he’ll be even better next year at seven. We do right by the horse, and he’ll do right by us.”
Next may never be a candidate for Horse of the Year – well, not unless he wins at the Breeders’ Cup – and Eclipse Award voters are not requested to make their selection for Horse of a Lifetime. That’s too nuanced, too subjective, too complicated an accolade to come from anywhere but the heart; we cast that ballot but once.
‘Enjoy him for what he is’
Cowans and Foster have already voted; they know there will never be another Next. “We’ll probably never see this sort of thing again,” says Cowans. “I tell people, when the horse runs, take it all in, enjoy him for what he is, don’t worry about any of the other stuff.
“I hope he can keep doing it for a long time. He dominates his division like no other horse dominates its division, and I’m just so happy to be a part of it.”
The last word goes to the man who wrote the check, who has turned down other, bigger checks since Next embarked on his exhilarating ascent to fame. Having alluded to Secretariat, Foster invokes another folk hero to underpin his point.
“I’ve had offers to sell him and I appreciate those offers, but it’s not about the money,” he says.
“It’s hard to explain what an honour, what a privilege it is to own him. I’ll never have another horse like Next. It’s a bit of a Seabiscuit-type story, isn’t it? We took a chance and found a horse who suddenly uncovers all this hidden talent.
“I’ll say it again, it’s not about the money, it’s about having a phenomenal horse who enhances the sport. This is a once-in-a-lifetime story and it’s getting better all the time.”
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