When two people who are passionate about horse racing join forces, the result can be extraordinary.

Such is the case with the dynamic duo of trainer Gary Contessa and Nick Beaver of Bell Gable Stable. They will send Nutella Fella, winner of the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at odds of 54.50-1, into the $500,000 Champagne Stakes on Saturday at Belmont at the Big A with much on the line.

The winner of the Grade 1 Champagne, part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, earns an automatic, fees-paid berth in the $2 million FanDuel Juvenile Presented by TAA. That race serves as the centerpiece of Future Stars Friday on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita Park and typically stamps the early Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve favorite.

Contessa and Beaver never imagined being in this position. Contessa briefly retired in March 2020 only to find that his love for the game was too strong for him to stay away. Beaver and his wife, Delora, formed Bell Gable only seven years ago. They had never won a graded stakes race before the Hopeful shocker with Nutella Fella, a $12,000 yearling they essentially stumbled on.

Nutella Fella wins the Hopeful. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Never underestimate the power of passion.

After seemingly ending his 35-year career, Contessa returned to the barn as a private trainer for the Beaver family in 2021 and 2022 and helped them to become leading owners at Delaware Park each season. In his short time away, he realized that happiness can come in unexpected forms.

“I’m happy at the track at five o’clock in the morning freezing my butt off,” he said. “I’m happy getting rained on and walking a horse with mud up to my ankles.”

Beaver has felt the tug of the track since he was eight years old. His mother, Linda, raised four boys on her own and eked out a living as a waitress at old Waterford Park (now Mountaineer Park) in West Virginia. Beaver made his way to the backside and found a father figure in trainer Rusty Harold and a second home in Harold’s barn.

“The next thing you know,” Beaver said, “they couldn’t get me out of that tack room because I just wanted to live with them horses.”

Beaver went on to serve in the Navy before eventually starting a labor contracting business that thrived. He and Delora live in Wesley Chapel, Fla., and have two children, Cory, 32, and Cami, 26. They purchased their first horse in 2017, claiming a filly named Important that won a couple of races for them at Laurel Park.

Somekindofmagician represented their greatest success before Nutella Fella as a winner of the Find Stakes at Pimlico in August 2021. There are 24 horses under the Bell Gable banner. The roster is comprised of 13 horses of racing age, seven yearlings, two weanlings and two broodmares.

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Beaver was not planning to buy as he watched Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale on his computer. Then a colt sired by Runhappy came along, and he had always been interested in having one of that stallion’s runners.

He called Anthony Farrior, one of his former trainers, to see if he was still at the sale. He was. Beaver asked Farrior to check the veterinary report on the colt. When it revealed only a few insignificant issues, he  authorized Farrior to bid on his behalf.

“We thought he would go for $30,000 or $40,000,” Beaver said. “When he went for $12,000, we said, ‘Take a shot.’ “

To some degree, they felt buyer’s remorse the instant the hammer fell. “We thought, ‘Wow, what’s wrong with this horse?’ “ Delora recalled.

Other than behavioral issues in the paddock and starting gate that Contessa and his staff have worked on steadily, Nutella Fella has been a tremendous find. Beaver said of the spur-of-the-moment purchase, “In this sport, you need a lot of luck. That was pure luck.”

The colt made a winning debut, going 5 ½ furlongs on July 26 at Delaware Park. He broke last of 10 for jockey Junior Alvarado in the seven-furlong Hopeful at Saratoga before launching a determined bid to beat favored Timberlake by 1 ½ lengths on Sept. 4. Timberlake was a $350,000 yearling purchase.

Nutella Fella has breezed twice at Saratoga since his Hopeful upset, most recently traveling five furlongs in 1:02.80 on Sept. 27. Contessa, no longer a private trainer for Bell Gable but still its general manager, is heartened by the youngster’s development ahead of the one-mile Champagne.

“This horse looks like Runhappy. He’s got a great big hip and a great big shoulder,” the trainer said. “We have to see how he handles the progression in distances, but I would like to take him to the Breeders’ Cup. That is absolutely on our bucket list.”

Nick and Delora watch the Hopeful replay almost every day. Sometimes it sends them off to sleep. “Even to win a graded stake of any type would have been huge for us,” Nick said. “This little horse has got us so excited, so pumped up.”

In his sweetest dreams in that Waterford Park tack room, he never could have imagined this.