So the basketball guy knows a thing or two about training horses.In beating a salty field of maiden fillies on Travers day at 10-1, Virabhadrasana (Jackie's Warrior) became the latest of four Saratoga 2-year-old winners for first-year trainer Kinnon LaRose.The 29-year-old, who was playing Division 1 college basketball six years ago before he got his start in racing as a hot walker for Tom Amoss, has enjoyed a banner summer in Saratoga. His meet culminates closing weekend as he makes his Grade I debut with a pair of promising juveniles. Stress Relief (Not This Time) will take on the GI Spinaway Stakes while Midnight Still (Curlin) steps up in the GI Hopeful Stakes.At 6-foot-3, LaRose is hard to miss on the Saratoga backside even if his quiet, head-down work ethic suggests he'd prefer to blend in. Looking out over his full shedrow as training wrapped up one morning, LaRose outlined his straightforward approach.“For people who don't know me, I would describe myself as soft-spoken, but a hard worker,” LaRose said. “I try to stay as even-keeled as possible and take the good with the bad because in this game, there can be a lot more bad than there is good. I just try to put the work in and let the results speak for themselves.” It's a refreshing mindset, to be sure, and one that has already paid dividends. Since Amoss passed over the reins of his storied stable to his assistant this past April, LaRose has compiled 20 wins and a 43% in-the-money rate from 128 starts. Among three stakes victories, Stress Relief handed him a first graded score in last month's GIII Adirondack Stakes.With 23 horses in Saratoga this summer, roughly 30 back at his main base at Churchill Downs, and another 10 at Churchill's Trackside training center, LaRose has every reason to be pleased with his first five months on the job. Looking back now, he can laugh about how the first few days after taking out his trainer's license on April 1 were such a contrast to the momentum that followed.LaRose saddled his first two starters at Oaklawn Park on a Thursday. Both finished fourth. The next day, LaRose made the long drive back to Kentucky for opening day at Keeneland. Oscar's Hope (Twirling Candy) came within a head of providing a fairytale first career win in the Lafayette Stakes. Two more runner-up finishes came within the same 48 hours.A young LaRose developing an early love for horses | courtesy Kinnon LaRose “At the time, you're kind of thinking, 'Man, it's tough to win a race,'” LaRose admitted. “But you just keep showing up and working hard and doing the things that you've been doing and eventually it turns in your favor.”The breakthrough came a week later when Arthur Jr (Authentic) re-rallied in the final yards at Keeneland to secure LaRose's first career win.Going into the Saratoga meet, LaRose understood just how tough the competition would be. Growing up in Ogdensburg, New York, Saratoga was where he first fell in love with the sport when his family would make the four-hour drive south to go to the races. Returning this summer as a trainer, he went to the winner's circle with his first starter there when Midnight Still broke his maiden on July 11.Selected by Amoss for Double Down Horse Racing as a $350,000 Keeneland September purchase, Midnight Still was third on debut to 'TDN Rising Star' Balloteer (Early Voting) at Churchill Downs in June. Next out at Saratoga, the colt settled off the pace before pulling away to win by over six lengths.Now, Midnight Still is pointing for Sunday's GI Hopeful Stakes, where he has drawn post position five with Junior Alvarado aboard. LaRose said the son of Curlin will relish the seven furlongs.Midnight Still breaks his maiden at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew“He's a horse that wants distance,” explained LaRose. “Being by Curlin, of course you think two turns right away. But if you look at him, he's not that big, robust Curlin you usually see. He's a bit of a lighter-framed Curlin, but he's bred to go long and he acts like he wants to go long. He's been like that since we saw him at Highlander Training Center over the winter. We were awfully excited about him then and are still super excited about him now.”Both Midnight Still and LaRose's second Saratoga winner, Intraosseous (Girvin), broke their maidens as second-time starters. It's a pattern LaRose noted reflects his long-game approach with two-year-olds.“The goal is for them to have a long career,” he said. “For me and with the way I approach things, we certainly have them ready to run first time out, but at the same time, we want them to have a good education to build on for the future.”LaRose admitted that winning his first graded stake during his first summer in Saratoga hadn't been on his radar, but Joel Politi homebred Stress Relief was able to provide the dream-come-true moment in the Adirondack.The daughter of Not This Time is out of the Amoss-trained dual stakes winner Littlestitious (Ghostzapper). Following an easy debut win at Churchill Downs, Stress Relief stepped up in the Adirondack, stalking the pace and drawing clear to a three-and-a-half-length score under Junior Alvarado.Stress Relief wins the GIII Adirondack Stakes | Sarah Andrew“We were very happy with the way she prepared up here, but of course you're running in a graded stakes at Saratoga,” said LaRose. “She had to step up off her maiden race and she did. She proved that she belongs with those kinds of fillies.”Surrounded by his wife, Sabrina, his mentor, Amoss, and a crowd of family and friends—including his parents and two brothers who had made the trip from Ogdensburg–LaRose had a full cheering section on hand to celebrate the milestone.“It was an unbelievable feeling and it just makes you want to get back there,” LaRose said.As he prepares for Saturday's Spinaway, LaRose isn't about to mess with what works, from his training routine with the talented filly to his spot in the grandstand on race day.“I was going to a different TV earlier in the meet and we weren't having any luck, so I went back over to Tom's TV by the Jim Dandy bar. It's where Intraosseous won and where Stress Relief won, so I'm probably going to stay there,” he said with a laugh.Race-day superstition comes naturally to a former athlete, but so does the discipline. LaRose was a team captain at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut and brings a basketball player's mindset to his training operation.LaRose saddles Virabhadrasana ahead of her maiden win | Tod Marks“Tom always taught me to get into the mind of your athletes,” he explained. “For me, I certainly understand the grind that goes into it. There's no taking many days off and you've really got to put your best effort forward to be able to produce when the lights are on. You show up every day and learn the horses. You learn what they like, what they don't like, which riders work for them and what certain training works for them. I absolutely love doing it.”LaRose admitted it feels like a lifetime ago that he graduated in 2020 with a master's degree in strategic communication and public relations and got his first job on a racetrack after emailing Amoss on a whim. He credits his wife for sticking by him as they packed up their lives and moved to Kentucky so he could turn a lifelong passion into a career.“We didn't know anybody in horse racing,” he said. “To be able to come into this game as outsiders and try to fit in the best you can, Sabrina has been with me for the whole ride.”Far from the outsider he once was, LaRose has built strong connections not only with Amoss, his longtime mentor, but also fellow trainers like Norm Casse and Grant Forster and retired jockey Joe Talamo. As he has worked his way from hot walker to running his own stable, LaRose has developed a reputation that has made him remarkably easy to cheer for, even among his competitors.“This was a new world for me,” he said. “But I came in trying to treat people with respect and treat people graciously. There have been a lot of people who have helped me along the way, certainly a number of trainers who told me to reach out to them if I needed anything. You don't really expect to see that from people when you're competing against each other. It shows how many good people are back here on this backside and I couldn't be more grateful for them.”As he continues to establish a reputation within the industry, LaRose said he wants his operation to be known as a well-run stable that always puts the horse first.“Of course you want to be a stable that certainly wins a lot,” he noted. “But at the same time, you're not going to win unless you're doing the right thing and you're putting in the work.”A Grade I victory during closing weekend would put a bow on a unforgettable Saratoga meet, but even bringing an elite-level score back home to Kentucky wouldn't alter the grounded mindset that has gotten LaRose this far.“If we win the Grade I, I'll probably go to dinner and go to bed,” he admitted. “Because I feel like, for me, that's the goal. That's hopefully the next step that we're heading toward. You can't get too high and you can't get too low, but you can enjoy the wins when you get them. Then the next day comes, you turn the page and you get back to work.”The post Head Down, Eyes Ahead: Kinnon LaRose Targets Grade I Debut appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.