Claiming Crown: Revak, Fuentes Come Up Smelling Like Roses with Miracle Ball

Trainer Ruben Fuentes and Miracle Ball at Churchill Downs. Photo by Gwen Davis/Davis Innovation

Horse owner Justin Revak and trainer Ruben Fuentes had a huge Kentucky Derby Day this year. They just didn’t realize it at the time.

Revak, who runs his partnership’s horses as Rocket Wrench Racing, wasn’t in the Kentucky Derby, any undercard race or anywhere close. He was 600 miles from Churchill Downs at his hometown track in Minnesota to watch the Derby simulcast at Canterbury Park. He bet Renegade, the Arkansas Derby winner who lost by a neck to Golden Tempo. That wasn’t his only loser on the day, as he tried to claim the hard-knocking 11-year-old Payne out of a $12,500 claiming race at Oaklawn Park but lost the “shake” to the other person in for the gelding.

Fuentes was even farther away: 1,500 miles from Louisville at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz. He finished second in a cheap maiden-claiming race with one of his own horses. But that also was the eventful day when Fuentes put in the claim on Revak’s behalf for a 5-year-old mare named Miracle Ball out of an $8,500 claiming race. She finished third at 13-1 odds.

Running back at Canterbury four weeks later for a $12,500 claiming price, Miracle Ball again finished third. She has not lost since. Fast forward six months, and Revak and Fuentes are having their equivalent of Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

Miracle Ball brings a six-race victory streak into Saturday’s $100,000 Claiming Crown Empress, one of nine big-money Claiming Crown starter-allowance races totaling $1.2 million under the Twin Spires. The six-furlong Empress is for fillies and mares that have started for a claiming price of $16,000 or less in 2025-2026.

Miracle Ball has led virtually all the way in those races while competing in starter races, allowance-optional claiming and allowance races at Canterbury and Iowa’s Prairie Meadows. The diminutive mare has five wins, a second and a third in seven starts at the Empress distance. She has five more wins at either 5 1/2 furlongs or 6 1/2 furlongs.

“She’s the kind of horse you dream about,” Revak said. “I’ve been in the claiming game a while, and she’s the kind you want to find.”

But back on May 2, he recalled in a text, “I was way more excited about (Payne) than Miracle Ball. He was close to the $1 million mark, and I was already planning a big party for when he crossed a million. We lost a two-way shake for him. But I sure wouldn’t trade MB for him now!”

The Claiming Crown was launched at Canterbury in 1999 by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent & Protective Association and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to give claimers — the industry’s workhorses who fill out programs with little acclaim across the country — their own day in the spotlight in a championship-style format similar to the Breeders’ Cup.

When Revak and Fuentes claimed Miracle Ball, the Claiming Crown had not staged a sprint stakes for fillies and mares since 2021. Revak is president of the Minnesota HBPA, which represents racehorse owners and trainers at Canterbury. Six days after Miracle Ball’s third win for her new barn, the National HBPA convened its semi-annual executive-committee meetings at Canterbury.

“I was sitting at the table, and Eric was talking about the Claiming Crown,” recalled Revak, referencing National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback, “and he said, ‘We’re going to add a race this year.’ As he started to say it, I thought, ‘Oh, I hope this is going to fit her,’ and he said, ‘for fillies and mares who have started for $16,000 at six furlongs on the dirt.”

No, he didn’t jump up and yell, “Yes!”

“I was maybe doing a little fist pump under the table,” Revak said. “Then I was texting my trainer during the meeting, saying, ‘Hey, they’re adding a race for our horse.’”

With Luis Saez to ride, Miracle Ball is the 7-2 second choice in a capacity field of 12 entrants, with Churchill Downs-based Talkin In Cursive bringing in a three-race win streak as the 5-2 favorite in the morning line. Unknown is whether Lady Annabelle, winner of eight straight, will ship in from Parx to run. She ran this past Tuesday, winning her second straight stakes for Pennsylvania-breds.

Starting out in California, Miracle Ball has never competed in any kind of stakes. The Claiming Crown races are held as overnight races, with the purse and feel of a stakes. Revak would be in Louisville anyway this weekend for the National HBPA’s semi-annual meetings, but also being in the Claiming Crown at Churchill is beyond what he could have imagined when he claimed the mare.

“The Claiming Crown is truly the Breeders’ Cup for people like us,” Revak said. “Once you go there, it’s so much fun. Just hearing you’re running a horse at Churchill Downs is a really big deal to people in Minnesota. It is the championship for claiming horses. That’s what we try to do when we look for a horse to claim, to go to the highest level you can with it. This is kind of the day for that.”

Miracle Ball been claimed four times, including for $6,250 in December at Los Alamitos before landing in Arizona, where Fuentes raced over the winter.

“One of the cool things is she’s done it the hard way,” Revak said. “Her last race at Prairie Meadows had a really nice purse ($43,142), but most of those (purses) were $24,000 down to, I think, $12,000 or $14,000. So she’s really won that money the hard way.

“It’s cool when you look at her. Those races, it’s just ‘1’s all the way across. She gets out of the gate, and the jockey doesn’t have to hustle or nothing. She’s just right to the lead, and she gets real brave. So, it’s been really exciting.”

Revak was a kid of “12 or 13” when he attended the very first day of racing at Canterbury in 1985. “And I’ve been there in some capacity ever since,” he said.

He said Minnesota horsemen take a lot of pride that the Claiming Crown started there, with the late Tom Metzen, who served as both executive director and president of the Minnesota HBPA, instrumental in getting the program launched. (The Claiming Crown’s $150,000 turf sprint is named the Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial.)

“Before I ever thought I’d own a horse, I remember going to the Claiming Crown and thinking, ‘Wow, this is really cool having all these horses ship in for this race,’” Revak said. “To get there now is really a lot of fun.”

Revak’s ownership began in 2010 when he paid $300 to buy a tiny share of a horse named Rocket Wrench — so named because of his big wrench-shaped blaze. Two years later, the breeder ran out of money, wanted to get out the game and gave Revak the horse. He went on Craigslist and found 10 partners who put in $1,000 each. Rocket Wrench in 2012 gave Revak his first win, in a $5,000 maiden-claiming race for Minnesota-breds. The gelding never won again, but Rocket Wrench Racing was born.

“Some of those people are still my partners today, and some of my best friends,” he said. “So yeah, it’s been a pretty cool ride.”

Winning six straight? “It’s never happened to us,” Revak said. “ I think we won four in a row once. But that was a $4,000 claimer at Delta Downs, just beating the same horses…. She’s just such a cool horse that tries so hard every time.”

From a family of jockeys, Fuentes rode races for seven years, including winning Santa Anita’s Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile by a nose on 9-1 shot Ohio in 2019. He was riding at Canterbury in 2022 when he broke his neck in a spill. The suddenly retired jockey bought a couple of horses and became a trainer. Revak gave Fuentes his first outside horse to train.

“It’s my third year training now, and it’s been a lot of trial and error the first two years,” said Fuentes, who still gallops his horses in training. “I think I kind of figured out things. You never stop learning in this business, but I’m at that point now where I’m more comfortable, and I make better decisions day by day.”

The stats back him up. Fuentes, who currently is based at Remington Park and trains 16 horses, has a 24-20-16 record in 117 starts this year for purse earnings of $374,927. Miracle Ball is his top earner to date.

“For my owner and me both, it’s been thrilling,” he said. “I’ve never had a horse win six in a row at any level, and I think at any level that’s pretty tough. She’s got a big heart, and she’s here to give a good race.

“We’re all chasing those Grade 1 winners, those champions, right?” he continued. “But at the same time, what keeps this business going is the claiming horses — your everyday horse. These claiming horses, they deserve a day like this where they can show off for themselves.”

Illinois HBPA’s Watkins brings Defending Albert to Rapid Transit

Jim Watkins joins Justin Revak as presidents of HBPA affiliates who have horses in Saturday’s Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs. Watkins, president of the Illinois HBPA that represents racehorse owners and trainers at Fairmount Park, has 9-2 shot Defending Albert in the $125,000 Rapid Transit. That seven-furlong race, which attracted a field of 14, is for horses that have started for a claiming price of $16,000 or less in 2025-2026.

Watkins, who is also an owner but trains Defending Albert for Cathy and Paul Schroer, calls the Claiming Crown horses “the hard-hat and lunch-pail type.”

“They’re still talented; they still work hard,” he said. “They’re still competitive, just at a little lower level. This is such a great thing, showcasing those those hard-knocking claiming horses.

“Having just attended the Breeders’ Cup, I mean that’s the creme de la creme of horse racing. But certainly the Claiming Crown is, if you will, the creme de la creme of the claiming ranks. If you’re entering one in there, you know you’ve had a good year and made a good claim, which is always a high level of satisfaction.”

The 4-year-old Defending Albert only raced once for a claiming price, but that was all it took to make him eligible for this year’s Claiming Crown.

The $250,000 Keeneland yearling purchase did not race at 2. He won his debut last year at Lone Star Park, but a subsequent pair of disappointing starts against allowance company sparked his drop into a $16,000 claiming race during Ellis Park’s 2025 summer meet. Watkins snapped him up for the Schroers, who had been in partnerships but wanted their own horse. Defending Albert now has four wins, a second and three thirds for his new barn.

Defending Albert’s only off-the-board starts since being claimed came over turf and Turfway Park’s synthetic surface. He won a $20,000 starter allowance at Churchill Downs in his last start, Sept. 26, at six furlongs.

“He’s a surface horse, so that’s why I’m excited about him being 1 for 1 at Churchill,” Watkins said. “We ran him on the turf and the Poly. He just didn’t like it at all. So I like the idea that he really took to the Churchill surface, and that kind leads me to believe I’ve got a live chance.”

Story by Jennie Rees, National HBPA communications