Trainer Joshua Stein Wins in Debut at Sonoma

Joshua Stein scored a victory with the first horse he started as a trainer when Cleverly Beverly won a nose decision over favored Starfire Mist July 30 at the Sonoma County Fair in Santa Rosa, Calif.
           
In her previous start, Cleverly Beverly won a $25,000 maiden race as the final starter in the long career of trainer Roger Stein, who is Joshua's uncle. Roger Stein was forced to retire because of a physical problem affecting nerves in his hands and feet.
           
Joshua Stein, 26, saddled the 4-year-old filly July 6 for his uncle at Pleasanton, though he was not the trainer of record.

"I was on cloud nine after that race, but today I'm on cloud ten or eleven," the younger Stein said.

Juan Sanchez was aboard Cleverly Beverly ($15) in the 1 1/16-mile starter allowance race on the turf, the third on the Santa Rosa card Wednesday. Racing toward the rear of the field, the California-bred daughter of Terrell—bred and owned by Roger Stein and Stein Stables—saved ground before angling out between horses mid-stretch and getting up just in time.

Roger Stein, an extremely successful trainer of Standardbreds before embarking on Thoroughbreds in Southern California, was a 12-time graded stakes winner during a career that began in 1987. Southern Truce accounted for five of those graded wins, including the 1993 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap and the 1994 Santa Monica Handicap (both gr. I). He won 470 races, mostly on the Southern California circuit, from 4,179 starts, with total purse earnings of more than $14 million.