John Ballis Press Release: Cutlass Reality Makes Trainer Craig Lewis a Wanted Man

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) October 7, 2009 -- There seems to be no accurate count of how many trainers Cutlass Reality had before he was put in Lewis' hands, but there have been enough to fill a stretch limo. Lewis, with just a passing interest in Cutlass Reality early in his career in New York, can name at least four, and since his owner back there was John Ballis , it's likely there were several others. Ballis , a Houston real-estate developer, played a merry game of dial-a-trainer when he raced Groovy, one of the top sprinters of this decade.

Last December, for an undisclosed amount, Ballis sold Cutlass Reality to two investment bankers--Howard Crash of Beverly Hills and Jim Hankoff of New York--and they had a relationship with Jim Benedict, a Northern California trainer who sometimes handles horses for Lewis when they run at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields.
After running fourth at Golden Gate on May 1 in only the second grass race of his life, Cutlass Reality was shipped to Lewis' barn at Hollywood Park by former owner John Ballis.

The new owners seemed to be following a plan that literally worked like a million several years ago for Sam Rubin. He sent John Henry from New York to California, put him on grass and retired him a few years later with record earnings of $6.5 million. Cutlass Reality won one of two starts on grass at Hollywood, and Lewis' options include a return to the turf, but the Californian and the Gold Cup were on dirt.
At Golden Gate, Cutlass Reality bled from the lungs and he now races on medication for that condition, besides using an analgesic for soreness in the legs. In 59 starts, the one-time $13,000 yearling, a grandson of 1967 horse-of-the- year Damascus, has been asked to run over all kinds of surfaces.
"When I first saw him, I thought he was a nice horse," Lewis said. "He had to be, because he had made a half-million dollars, and once last year he outran a good horse like Java Gold.

"He's big and powerful, and he has an enormous stride. He covers a lot of real estate. He's blossomed since I got him. He seems to have regained his confidence and he's getting better as time goes on."
There are still the skeptics who wonder what Cutlass Reality would do against top horses at equal weights. In the Californian, he carried only 115 pounds, 11 less than Gulch, Judge Angelucci and Ferdinand, the only other horses in the race. In the Gold Cup, Cutlass Reality's weight was 116 pounds, with Alysheba at 126 and Ferdinand at 125.

The answer to the weight question will be found in the months and races ahead. But meantime, Craig Lewis has a horse who's dangerous every time he runs, and the trainer doesn't have to worry about losing him because somebody drops a slip into the claiming box.