Issue link: http://nytbreeders.epubxp.com/i/817947
20 New York Breeder | nytbreeders.org | May 2017 Bill Parsons and David Howe's Summersault is on a roll ADAM COGLIANESE/NYRA ANNE M. EBERHARDT Bill Parsons, right, with Summersault afer the grade 3 Orchid Mark Hennig has been training for Parsons and David Howe since 2001 ON APRIL 1, XPRESSBET FLORIDA DERBY day at Gulfstream Park, owner Bill Parsons stood on the steps leading to the horsemen's area. Nearby was his trainer Mark Hennig, along with Hennig's wife, Rosemary, and two of Parsons' friends, watching as the horses loaded for the Orchid Stakes (G3T). Parsons' Summersault, co-owned and -bred with his partner David Howe, was the longest shot in the fve-horse feld at 9-1. "I'm not sure she fts," Hennig had admitted the day before at his barn. But he had decided to take a shot with the 5-year-old New York-bred mare by Rock Hard Ten out of Saratoga Sum - mer, by Smart Strike, hoping that the feld might come up light with some of the high-powered turf trainers pointing their horses to races later in the month at Keeneland. Heading into the Orchid, Summersault was two-for-two over Gulf - stream's frm turf course, both of those wins coming in allowance op- tional claiming contests. The Orchid was her graded stakes debut, and she was facing a multiple graded/group stakes winner in Olorda and the multiple graded stakes-placed stakes winner Quiet Kitten. Summersault and jockey Paco Lopez raced well back of the paceset - ter in the early going, and Parsons watched intently but calmly as the feld made its way past the grandstand for the frst time. But as the dark bay or brown mare began to make her move heading into the far turn, both Parsons and Hennig became more animated, and, situated per - fectly to see her overtake the leader, exulted when she crossed the wire three-quarters of a length in front of favored Olorda. "She ran just great," said Parsons a few weeks later. "She's a home - bred, and we didn't really know if she could get the distance (1 3 ⁄ 8 miles). To watch her run down the favorite—what a thrill." It was a thrill Parsons nearly didn't get to experience. When Hennig headed south in the late fall, he was admittedly stymied by what to do HEAD OVER HEELS B Y T E R E S A G E N A R O