Jimmy Toner on Verge of Milestone in $70,000 Empire Builder

Siege of Boston Favored to Give 86YO Trainer 900th Career Victory

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – In the twilight of a career that has touched parts of seven decades, trainer Jimmy Toner finds himself on the verge of a personal milestone that Siege of Boston is poised to help him reach in Sunday’s $70,000 Empire Builder overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park.

Joseph Allen’s 7-year-old homebred Siege of Boston will face six rivals in the Empire Builder, scheduled for one mile on the grass, in an attempt to give Toner – who celebrated his 86th birthday July 7 – lifetime win No. 900.

“I didn’t even realize it until my daughter said to me a couple weeks ago, ‘You know, you’re getting close to 900’ and I was like, ‘What? You’re kidding,’” Toner said. “Every time I run one now, it’s like, ‘Maybe this time.’ We’ve got this one Sunday and one Monday. I think I run one every Monday for the rest of August so hopefully I can get it done.”

Siege of Boston will be making just his third start this year and 30th overall in the Empire Builder, coming off a rallying 3 ¼-length triumph in a 1 1/16-mile optional claimer May 30 on the Laurel Park turf. He has been third or better 18 times with five wins and $603,171 in purse earnings.

Toner took over Siege of Boston’s training prior to his 3-year-old campaign in 2022. The son of War Front has raced four times on the grass at Gulfstream, winning an optional claimer at 4 and finishing second by a half-length in the Canadian Turf (G3) and fourth by 1 ½ lengths in the Fort Lauderdale (G2) at 5. He has breezed four times at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, for his return.

“We’ve had him for a long time. He’s a warrior. He’s just a neat horse to be around, he really is. He gives you everything he’s got every time he runs. We found that spot at Laurel, shipped him up to [trainer] Brittany [Russell] and she ran him for me, and he ran big,” Toner said. “I thought maybe I’d leave him up there for the summer, but we brought him back and he’s been training good.”

Siege of Boston has three seconds and four thirds in 15 prior stakes starts, with three Grade 3 placings. Toner, whose last stakes victory came with Monimou in the 2019 Caress at Saratoga, picked up win No. 899 courtesy of Time of Rivals in Gulfstream’s July 5 opener. He has had two subsequent starters, the most recent being Name It in a July 19 turf claimer where the 5-year-old gelding ran fifth as the favorite.

“We ran one last weekend I thought had a good chance and he wound up getting in all kinds of trouble. You don’t know when it’s going to happen,” Toner said. “It’s a tough business. You have good years and bad years, up and down, but it’s been great. It really has.”

Siege of Boston, favored at 9-5 on the morning line, will carry 123 pounds including jockey Samy Camacho from Post 2.

“The mile is probably a little short for him but right now it’s a question of running. He can do the mile, and it sets him up for what we want to do with him the rest of the summer,” Toner said. “There’s a race at Kentucky Downs in September we’ll look at. Wherever he goes, he gives you what he’s got and he tries, that’s the main thing.”

On the year Toner has six wins, six seconds and three thirds from 30 starters, and is 2-4-1 from 11 starters at the Royal Palm Meet that runs through Aug. 31. He is spending the summer in South Florida after bringing his modest string from the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. His daughter, Catherine, is an immigration attorney who recently relocated back to Washington, D.C. after launching her business, International Equestrian Sport Group, in Wellington, Fla.

“I’ve been at Fair Hill the last four, five years, but I’m low on horses and I wasn’t sure if I was going to go back,” Toner said. “I leased a barn and I had like 10 or 12 horses, but we retired a couple and sent some home, sold some, and now I’m down to six. So, I just stayed here and got a place. We’ll try to get through the summer and next winter and go from there.”

For his career Toner has won 54 graded-stakes, 15 of them Grade 1, and banked more than $36.5 million in purse earnings. Among those graded wins are Soaring Softly in the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), held at Gulfstream, and 2008 Gulfstream Park Handicap (G2) with Sir Whimsey.

Toner is best known for his success with turf fillies, among them Grade 1 millionaires Soaring Softly, the champion grass female of 1999; Memories of Silver, Wonder Again and Memories of Silver’s daughter, Winter Memories, as well as Grade 1 winner Time and Motion, an earner of nearly $968,000.

“Winter Memories was a super horse, and her mother was great, too” he said. “We’ve had some nice fillies over the years. At the time you’re not paying too much attention to it because you’re so involved with everything. It’s not until you take a step back and realize it’s really something special. It was pretty neat. We definitely have some good memories.”

Arindel’s 4-year-old homebred Tank (Post 1, Diego Herrera, 120, 6-1) has been third or better in seven of 11 lifetime tries on the Gulfstream turf with three wins – the April 25 FHBPA Turf and 2025 Not Surprising, each at 1 1/16 miles, and one-mile English Channel last spring. In his last start he was pressed on the lead for six furlongs and tired to be sixth in the 1 1/16-mile Soldier’s Dancer July 4.

BC Racing’s Prevent (Post 3, Micah Husbands, 120, 10-1) is a 5-year-old synthetic specialist with seven wins and three seconds in 16 tries over Gulfstream’s all-weather Tapeta course. Three of those wins have come since last fall in overnight handicaps at a mile and 70 yards, the latest a determined neck score in the Jan. 24 Carousel Club. He has gone unraced since finishing seventh in the one-mile Appleton March 28 on the Gulfstream turf, where he is 1-for-10 lifetime.

Michael and Jules Iavarone and TCC Stables’ Missed the Cut (Post 4, Jonathan Ocasio, 124, 2-1) won back-to-back Grade 3 route stakes on the Santa Anita turf in the winter of 2023 before coming east, where his last six starts have been for trainer Bobby Dibona. The 7-year-old was a determined nose winner of an April 24 optional claimer at the course and distance and followed up running second in the 1 1/16-mile Mr. Steele and third in the Soldier’s Dancer.

Private Thoughts (Post 5, Leonel Reyes, 120, 12-1), owned by David Romanik and trainer Ron Spatz, exits a front-running optional claiming score going a mile and 70 yards on the Tapeta July 11. By millionaire Neolithic, the 5-year-old has the most wins in the field with nine, three of them on turf, the last a head triumph in the 1 1/16-mile Jet Propulsion overnight handicap last October.

Just For Fun Stable, Inc. homebred Indecisiveness (Post 6, Edgar Perez, 122, 9-2) and Amy Dunne and Patrick Biancone’s I Know I Know (Post 7, J.G. Torrealba, 119, 8-1) complete the field.