Restless Con Elates Trainer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Filomena Gia, when she was the mainstay in the barn, gave him no excuse to travel from San Francisco to Saratoga Race Course to run for $1 million and one of racing’s most prestigious titles. Nor did Ute Peak.

The lights never have been this bright or the stakes this high for Duane Offield. Until Restless Con arrived, Filomena Gia and Ute Peak were the best horses to pass through his 23-year career as a thoroughbred trainer.

“Never been to Saratoga before,” Offield said Thursday, while taking in the scenery before Saturday’s Travers Stakes. “I’ve been watching the weather, though. It’s a lot like San Francisco this time of year.”

Until Restless Con, the big horses in Offield’s career were of the type known more for the reliability of their earning ability than their stakes victories. Important horses are defined by the Grade I races they have won and the millions they have earned.

Filomena Gia and Ute Peak are defined by their earnings--more than $100,000 apiece, according to Offield’s recollection.

Offield seldom wandered from the Bay Area and the Northern California fair circuit until Restless Con showed promise as a 2-year-old and prompted his trainer to begin thinking seriously about the Triple Crown.

While the Triple Crown cast of characters was falling to injury or dependency upon Lasix for their success, Restless Con was demonstrating to Offield that his promise had not diminished.

Offield shipped Restless Con to Monmouth Park for the July 28 Haskell Invitational, where he accelerated away from Rhythm on the stretch turn, won by two lengths in respectable time and assumed a position at the upper end of the 3-year-old division.