Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Bill Parcells - August Dawn Farm (Maple Leaf Mel)

The juiciest thrill for a Thoroughbred owner is having an undefeated young horse. You don’t know, the trainer doesn’t know, and nobody on the planet knows when that undefeated horse will stop winning as he or she climbs up in competition.

NFL Hall of Fame former New York Giants Coach Bill Parcells, who races as August Dawn Farm, knows about thrills, having won the Giants’ first two of four Super Bowl victories.

Since becoming a Thoroughbred owner in 2011, he’s had 59 victories from 353 starts and more than $4.5 million in earnings.

But he’s never had a Grade 2 victory, let alone a Grade 1, and now his undefeated New York-bred filly Maple Leaf Mel is poised to add that Grade 1 score to her resume in the Grade 1 Test Stakes at Saratoga August 5th. 

Handy victories in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness at Pimlico and the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont Park made the New York-bred five-for-five. She’s won all five wire-to-wire.

Growing up in New Jersey, Parcells used to go to Monmouth Park with his father. Showing a tender side he might not have displayed on the Giants’ sidelines, Parcells named the filly for her young trainer, 39-year-old Melanie Giddings, who survived ovarian and endocervical cancer in 2020 and went on her own this spring after serving as an assistant for Jeremiah Englehart. Maple Leaf Mel’s 2 ½ length victory in the Victory Ride was the first with Giddings listed as her trainer.

Parcells bought her for $150,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale. She is a daughter of Cross Traffic out of City Gift by City Place.

“When Bill said he was going to name her for me, I kind of thought he wasn’t serious,” Giddings said. “When it happened, it was an honor, when a guy like that names a horse for you. He loves Saratoga. He really does love the New York-bred program.”

He’ll love it even more if Maple Leaf Mel keeps winning open-company stakes. “She’s great,” Giddings said. “She’s a pleasure to be around. She does everything perfect. You can’t ask for any more. Work her fast; work her slow; work her behind horses. You wish you can find more like her.”

Giddings currently has eight horses in her barn. “When you don’t have connections, it’s a tough go,” she said. “You have to find ways to get horses.”

Parcells could use Maple Leaf Mel’s earnings to remedy that. With just under $400,000 in earnings, she is already Parcells’ fifth highest-earning horse behind Saratoga Snacks ($523,600), Play Action Pass ($480,935), Hit It Once More ($390,102) and Three Technique ($366,615). Saratoga Snacks won the 2013 Empire Classic for trainer Gary Sciacca. 

Another Parcells runner, Forty Under, won the 2018 Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes. “He’s a pleasure to train for,” Giddings said. “He likes to joke around. At the end of the day, he says, `Do whatever you like.’ He’s up at 5 a.m. every day. He goes to the gym. He goes to the barn every morning. He tells me right now I’m more popular than Taylor Swift. I said, if that’s the case, Belmont would have been packed.”

Belmont hasn’t been packed too many times. And Parcells was one of the no-shows for Maple Leaf Mel’s last glittering performance. “He’s a little superstitious,” Giddings said. “He hasn’t been there recently for her races. He was feeling a little nervous like the rest of us. He stayed here in Saratoga and watched her.”

She was sensational. “Her last race was her toughest field,” Giddings said. “It seems like she’s getting better. When Joel (Rosario) asked her, she responded. Then he wrapped up on her.”

After the race, Rosario said, “She’s very nice. She goes out there and just does her job. She was very relaxed and was never worried about someone challenging her because she was moving so well. She goes out there and shows her speed and says, `come and beat me.’”

Nobody has. And most young horses improve in their first few starts. “You hope so,” Giddings said. “You keep them happy. A happy horse runs well. I’ve done this so long for a lot of people, I feel like it’s second nature.”

Beating cancer saved and changed her life. “When you go through that kind of sickness, you may not wake up in the morning,” she said. “I’m more easy going. I want to live a life worth living.”

She’s already jump-started her training career with Maple Leaf Mel. “I didn’t really set any goals,” she said. “I’d be super happy if I can say I won a race at Saratoga. If the Test was that race, that would be something, wouldn’t it?”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Jon Ebbert (Arcangelo)

Article by Bill Heller

Arcangelo showed Jon Ebbert life can begin just before turning 40 years old. Three days before his 40th birthday, Ebbert was standing in the Belmont Park winner’s circle after Arcangelo, his $35,000 yearling purchase, won the Belmont Stakes by a length and a half, making his trainer, Jena Antonucci, the first woman to win a Triple Crown race.

That wasn’t the only history Arcangelo made. He gave his Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, who contributed a brilliant ride, his first victory in the Belmont Stakes after 14 misses. Just five weeks earlier, Castellano ended his zero-for-15 schneid in the Kentucky Derby with Mage. In between, Hall of Famer John Velazquez won his first Preakness Stakes with National Treasure after a dozen Preakness losses.

Dabbling with Hall of Famers and winning the final leg of the Triple Crown? Really?

Ebbert, who works in real estate in Pennsylvania and races as Blue Rose Farm, was introduced to racing at the age of six by his grandmother. He and his family were picking her up to go out for dinner on the first Saturday in May and she told them she couldn’t go until she saw how her horse in the 1988 Kentucky Derby fared. Two years later, Ebbert told his parents he wanted to begin riding lessons, and the rest is history, a very slow-developing history.

Ebbert displayed remarkable patience and persistence as an owner with little success over the past 15 years. The first horse he bought, Daydreamin Boy, cost $3,700 and went zero-for-14 for him.

There were no real highlights. Before Arcangelo made his career debut last December, Ebbert was two-for-37 with earnings of $86,950 racing under his name. Racing under Blue Rose Farm, he’d been zero-for-two with earnings of $1,000.

One horse and one trainer changed all that.

Ebbert met Antonucci by chance the day before the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He told Dave Grening of the Daily Racing Form in his June 9th story that he went to the sale looking to buy a son of Classic Empire who could take him to the 2024 Breeders’ Cup. Ebbert found a son of Classic Empire, Classic Bourbon, and purchased him for $100,000. Through June 2023, Classic Bourbon is zero-for-nine with earnings of $6,170. He is also trained by Antonucci.

Fortunately for Ebbert, another yearling caught his eye, one by Arrogate out of the Tapit mare Modeling. Ebbert bought him for $35,000.

Antonucci started Classic Bourbon twice as a two-year-old on August 27th and September 18th. 

She brought Arcangelo along a bit more slowly at Gulfstream Park. He finished second in his debut December 17th, then fourth on January 14th with Jose Ortiz aboard both times. On March 18th, with Castellano in the saddle for the first time, Arcangelo won by 3 ½ lengths.

Shipped to Belmont Park, Ebbert and Antonucci asked Arcangelo to take a giant step up in the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes, the traditional prep for the Belmont Stakes, May 13th. Arcangelo gamely edged Bishops Bay by a head after a protracted head-to-head stretch battle.

That presented Ebbert with a crucial decision. He had not kept Arcangelo eligible for the Triple Crown, but he could supplement him to the Belmont Stakes for $50,000, $15,000 more than he had paid to buy him.

Ebbert didn’t blink, putting up the $50,000 for a chance to win the final leg of the Triple Crown. “He made the money; we’re going to go for it; we’ve got faith in the horse,” Ebbert told Grening.

The faith was justified. Castellano’s flawless ride gave Ebbert his greatest victory. Arcangelo is now a key contender in the widest-open three-year-old division in many years with races such as the Grade 1 Travers Stakes on the horizon. 

His grandmother would have been very proud. 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Chase Chamberlin, Commonwealth Racing (Mage)

Article by Bill Heller

When Chase Chamberlin, a successful entrepreneur who partnered with Brian Doxtator to create the very successful, Kentucky Derby-winning Commonwealth Racing, was in the second grade in Kalamazoo, Michigan, he said he wanted to be an entrepreneur. “My uncle, John Handelsman, was an entrepreneur,” Chamberlin said. “He had a very successful leasing company.” 

Don’t read too much into it. The year before, Chamberlin wrote down orthopedic surgeon. “Another uncle was one,” he said.

In the third grade, he wanted to be a defense attorney. “I watched way too much TV,” he said.

He didn’t know then, but an even earlier passion, riding and loving horses, would ultimately land him, Doxtator and maybe 100 or more of the 382 micro-share Commonwealth partners into the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle when Mage won the 2023 Kentucky Derby. “It was very hard to process,” Chamberlin said. “It was so overwhelming. It was an out-of-body experience, completely surreal.”

But not his first. In 2022, Commonwealth’s first horse it offered on its app, Country Grammer, finished second by a half-length to Emblem Road in the $20 million Grade 1 Saudi Cup. He then won the $12 million Dubai World Cup by 1 ¾ lengths over Hot Rod Charlie. He finished second in the Saudi Cup again this year  by three-quarters of a length. Though he was seventh in the Dubai World Cup and fourth in the Grade 1 Gold Cup in his two most recent starts, he’s banked nearly $15 million. “When Country Grammer won the Dubai World Cup, I had $120 in my personal checking account,” Chamberlin said. “He’s a very special horse, an incredibly special horse.”

So was his first Thoroughbred, Katie. Chamberlin was 4 when he climbed aboard her. “She stopped to graze and I slipped down her neck and landed on my feet,” he said. “I was always fearless. I jumped right back up there. The trainer, Ken, said, `I think this is going to stick.’”

Did it ever. He became a two-time national champion in saddle seat riding, a style of English riding designed to show off the high action of various horse breeds which is prevalent in the United States, Canada and South Africa. “I’ve trained national champions, too,” Chamberlin said. “I’ve been very fortunate. It is my greatest love. I tried to quit a couple of times and I’ve been unsuccessful.”

Chamberlin, whose lone sibling Ashley is eight years older, learned to work hard from his parents. “My dad was in a paper mill; my mom owned a hair salon,” he said. “I grew up with extraordinary, hard-working Midwesterners. My mom, a type `A’, was always pushing us to try new things. I was always around adults.”

Ashley and Doxtator were very good friends. Doxtator kind of knew Chamberlin.

Both graduated from Western Michigan, Doxtator in 2004 and Chamberlin in 2012. “I had several show horses when I was choosing a college,” Chamberlin said. “My parents said `You can go to a school in-state and keep the horses or out-of-state and we’ll sell the horses.’” 

No brainer. Western Michigan is in Kalamazoo. “Western had a top sales program, out-competing the Ivy League,” he said. “It was an easy decision.”

In college, Chamberlin was the captain of Western Michigan Broncos’ equestrian team. Out of college, Chamberlin helped turn around a home health care company, then did consulting, showing and selling horses for a year before returning to business. He spent four years working in sales and video strategy for one of the world’s largest digital video studios, Epipheo.

A chance meeting with Doxtator in a Barnes and Noble store changed his career and his life. “He hadn’t seen me since I was a little boy,” Chamberlin said. “He sent me a message: `I’ve got an idea I think you will love.’”

Doxtator started his business career working as an analyst in mergers and acquisitions for Legg Mason, an investment banking firm in Baltimore. He then moved to New York to work in corporate group strategy for AIC, a tech and media holding company. Next up was a move cross country to San Francisco, where he joined a new company, Playhaven, a marketing platform for mobile app developers. “We grew Playhaven from five people and zero revenue to 200 employees and $50 million annual revenue,” Doxtator said in the Western Michigan alumni magazine. When Playhaven got sold, Doxtator helped his wife, Christy, launch a bridal business, LOHO Bride.

Then Doxtator came up with an idea. While exploring financial technology startups, he became intrigued with new regulations allowing apps to sell shares in assets. He thought that could be applied to sports, particularly horse racing. And he knew just who to call to find a partner.

In January, 2019, they launched Commonwealth, which allows investors to buy horses for as little as $50. Commonwealth is about to launch a similar platform for golf fans.

Chamberlin and Doxtator didn’t wait long to make a huge connection with WinStar Farm. Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar, said on Commonwealth’s website “We are excited to enter this partnership. We have seen the micro-share space grow, and believe that offering the horses that WinStar Farm races to the public will bring excitement and energy to the sport.”

You think? Country Grammer and Mage!

At the 2019 Saratoga meet, Chamberlin had the good fortune of being introduced to Ramiro Restrepo. “We became friends,” Chamberlin said. “We talked about connections.”

In 2022, Chamberlin got a call from Restrepo, who had teamed with trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. to purchase Mage for $290,000 – more than they had budgeted – at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Two-Year-Olds-in-Training Sale. “He said, `I’ve got this nice Good Magic colt. We’re looking for somebody to take 25 percent,’” Chamberlin said.

Chamberlin watched the video of Mage’s breeze and gallop-out. “I loved them, but I wanted to see the horse in person,” he said. “I see our horses in the flesh before we buy them. I want to have convictions on every horse we offer.”

Chamberlin went to see Mage at the Lexington Thoroughbred Training Center and decided instantly: “The moment I saw him, I said, `Done, we’ll take him!’ He’s built like a bull.”

Commonwealth offered shares of its 25 percent interest in Mage to the public on its app, and 382 people bought in for as little as $50. “It was an incredible array of people,” Chamberlin said. “Professionals, doctors, factory workers, young tech guys.”

Now all of them have a memory of a lifetime: the Kentucky Derby. “I was more emotional when I saw the reactions of my partners,” Chamberlin said. “This is what we give to people. What good is a great horse like Mage if you don’t share him with others? Sharing it with other people made it special for me.”

Actually, horses have been special to him since he was four, 29 years ago. “Horses have been great to me,” Chamberlin said. “They are my greatest passion. It’s absolutely what I love. I hope I get to do horses until the day I die.” 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Kris Chandler (Spirit of Makena)

Article by Bill Heller

Spirit of Makena wins the 2023 Triple Bend Stakes at Santa Anita.

When Kris Chandler’s five-year-old horse Spirit of Makena, owned and bred by her recently-deceased husband Bruce, captured the Grade 3 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita, March 1st, in his stakes debut, Kris Chandler watched on TV. When trainer George Papaprodromou pointed Spirit of Makena to the Grade 2 Triple Bend Stakes at the same track May 27th, Chandler decided to watch the race in person. “It was the first time I went to the track in four years,” Chandler said.

It was worth the wait. Spirit of Makena won the Triple Bend by a length and a quarter under Joe Bravo, making him four-for-five lifetime. “It was emotional on a lot of levels,” Chandler said. “Horse racing was his passion, and he waited a lifetime for this. He had horses for over 40 years and never had a horse like this. So it’s beyond special.”

Patience allowed Spirit of Makena to develop. A variety of issues delayed his career debut until August 5th, 2022, when he won by 2 ¼ lengths as a four-year-old. A head loss finishing second in an allowance race has been his only blemish. Working around quarter cracks, Spirit of Makena won an allowance race before tacking on a pair of graded stakes victories. 

The one with Chandler there was unforgettable. “She was very happy, very emotional,” Papaprodromou said. “She wished Bruce was there with her. I got to meet Bruce. They’re great people and he’s a nice horse. I’m grateful to train a horse like that and I would like to thank the owners for giving me a horse like that. It’s great to train for them. We are looking forward to a nice future with him.”

That future will help Chandler move on with her life after losing Bruce last October 16th, the day before their anniversary, following a four-year battle with cancer. “I met Bruce in Maui in Hawaii 26 years ago,” Chandler said. “Bruce and I did horses together. I’ve always loved horses, since I was a little kid, with my dad.”

Bruce Chandler’s family owned The Los Angeles Times and its parent, the Times Mirror Company, for decades. 

Kris Chandler got more involved with her husband’s horses over the years. “Because I paid attention to the breeding,” she said. “He named me Director of Breeding. That was his title for me. He was breeding to horses in California. I convinced Bruce to breed to Ghostzapper (in Kentucky). I said, 'This is a great sire.’ I convinced him that if you want to get a good horse, you must breed to a good horse.

Spirit of Makena’s dam, Win for M’lou by Gilded Time, was bred by the Chandlers and named for Kris’s mom. “My mom got so excited,” Chandler said. “She was going to be famous.”

Somewhat. Win for M’lou became the Chandler’s first $100,000 winner ($115,230), surpassed only by Mai Tai ($140,405). Spirit of Makena has taken the Chandlers to a new level, having already earned $347,600 in just five starts.

Unfortunately, Spirit of Makena took forever to make it to the races. And Bruce became ill. “He got sick in 2019,” Chandler said. “He wanted to keep going. Our favorite place in the world is Maui, and part of it was because he had to live there the past few years. I’ve been taking care of my husband for the last four years. His mobility got worse and he couldn’t travel. Horse racing was the only thing he could watch. It’s still emotional being without him right now.”

She’s had and still has a ton of support from her Hawaiian community. She lives on Makena Road in Makena. “Everyone in Hawaii is behind the horse,” Chandler said. “The McKenna Golf and Beach Club are like family. The general manager, Zak Fahmie, sent a letter to all the members about this horse, a once-in-a-lifetime horse. He’s kind of like a miracle horse. We didn’t think he was going to get to the racetrack. He was at the farm in California for two years. For him to be a horse like this, it’s a miracle. From being so injured to being such a great horse. It’s a great story. We took our time with him. He’s getting better. He’s just a wonderful horse, very intelligent. You can pet him.”

Spirit of Makena keeps her and her husband connected. Initially, after her husband passed, Chandler thought she was going to get out of racing. Now she has a horse who may take her to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at his home track, Santa Anita. “I’m trying to get out, but this is getting me very excited,” she said. “Having a horse like this, I kind of feel Bruce’s spirit. I think he just knows.”

Hunter Valley Farm

Article by Bill Heller

A Mo Reay

Six days before St. Patrick’s Day, the four Irish partners of Hunter Valley Farm near Keeneland found their elusive pot of gold, not at the end of the rainbow, but in the final 10 yards of the Gr.1 Beholder Stakes. That’s where their filly A Mo Reay thrust her nose past odds-on favorite Fun to Dream, giving the Irish quartet their first Gr.1 stakes victory at Santa Anita; half a world away from the Irish National Stud in Kildare, where two of the four, Adrian Regan and Fergus Galvin, met in 1991.

Hunter Valley Farm’s John Wade, A Mo Reay & jockey Flavien Prat.

“It was a surreal day,” Regan said. “When we set up the farm, the thought of having a Gr.1 was never even thought about. We were hoping to make the farm viable. We’ve been very lucky. Without my partners, it never would have happened for sure.”  

Asked if he could ever have imagined such a feat when he was a younger lad in Ireland, Adrian’s buddy Galvin said, “It was nowhere near the front of my mind.”

Certainly, their two somewhat silent partners, Tony Hegarty and John Wade, had no idea. Those two friends met in a tavern in Chicago, then became business partners, founding A & J Construction, a successful construction company in Lockport, Illinois, 30 miles southwest of Chicago. Hegarty and Wade started out as carpenter contractors and eventually switched to land developers and custom home builders. “We’re doing okay,” Wade said.

Okay enough to speculate in Thoroughbreds. “It turned out to be an amazing adventure,” Hegarty said. “We’re more or less silent partners. Fergus and Adrian pick the horses.”

They do so adeptly. “Those guys—they come up with some good ones,” Wade said.

Both Galvin and Regan credit their fathers for their equine education.

“It was part of my childhood,” Galvin said. “My father ran a small stud farm in Dublin. I have him to thank for my early grounding and the early education. He had a couple of horses in training. From the age of eight, I was by his side most of the way. I have him to thank for where I am now. He’s doing great—keeps a close eye on the U.S. My dad is 84.”

Galvin said both his parents visit the United States. “They came over last spring to Keeneland,” he said. “They really love Kentucky. There’s no place like Kentucky in the spring. Kentucky is almost my home away from home. In Ireland, everyone has some involvement. There’s a large part of our population who has connections in the horse business. They have a deep love of horses.”

They frequently pass that love on to the next generation, a tradition Galvin and his wife, Kate, who works at Godolphin, will likely instill in their four young children, Marie, 10, Harvey, 8, and twin boys Joseph and Nicholas, 6.

Adrian Regan & Flavien Prat

Galvin’s experience at Irish National Stud helped shape his future. The Stud, founded in 1918, annually offers a six-month residential course which begins every January. Its goal is “to equip learners with the knowledge, skills and competence required to perform effectively in responsible positions in the Thoroughbred industry.”

It’s where Regan and Galvin became life-long friends. Regan, too, credits his father: “I wanted to be a trainer like my father T.A. was. When I left school, I went working for him.”

Both Galvin and Regan honed their skills before deciding to buy a farm. “I’ve been lucky enough to have some great employers before we started out,” Galvin said. “First I was at Pin Oak Stud for five years. Then I ran a small operation, Newgate Farm, and did a six-year stint at Ashford. It was very invaluable to me going forward. That really sent me on the path we are on today.”

Regan spent four years at Langford Farm breaking yearlings. “I loved my time there,” he said. “It gave me a great foundation.”

Providence brought Hegarty and Wade together. “Myself and Tony became friends when we got to this country in March 1981,” Wade said. “I had just come over here in the middle of March. He came around the same time. We hung out together. We were buddies. We started our own construction business.” 

Like Galvin and Regan, Wade had a love of horses growing up in Ireland. “I loved them,” he said. “I didn’t have the funds to buy any.”

Then Wade went to Kentucky. He watched Unbridled win the 1990 Kentucky Derby—as his trainer Carl Nafzger called the stretch drive for owner Mrs. Genter—and was hooked. “That’s what probably did it,” Wade said. “I had another Irish friend who would go to Keeneland: Pat Costello. He advised me to take a run out to Lexington to see the farms. I met a bunch of my countrymen. Every now and then, some of them did syndicates. I said, “If you do it again, count me in.” Then I talked my partner, Tony, into getting involved.”

Hegarty didn’t have an early equine education in Ireland. “I’m from northwest Ireland,” he said. “Horse racing is in the other parts of Ireland. Up my way, there was no horse racing. There are no tracks.”

Yet, he was all-in joining his friends to buy and breed Thoroughbreds. Together, the four Irishmen purchased Golden Gate Stud in Versailles in 2004 and renamed it Hunter Valley Farm. In its first year of operation, its first yearling that went to auction was Scat Daddy. All he did was post five wins, including the Gr.1 Florida Derby, in nine starts, earn more than $1.3 million and become the sire of 69 stakes winners, including undefeated Triple Crown Champion Justify before dying at the age of 11. Hunter Valley Farm had sold him as a yearling for $250,000. “Unbelievable to have that quality of horse in our very first year,” Wade said.

In November 2022, the Irishmen bought three-year-old A Mo Ray for $400,000 in the Fasig-Tipton Sale. Trained by Brad Cox, she won a $97,000 stakes at the FairGrounds and the Gr.3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

A Mo Reay and jockey Flavien Prat (#5) dug in to edge out Fun to Dream to win the Gr.1 2023 Beholder Mile at Santa Anita Park.

Cox shipped her to Santa Anita to contest the Gr.1 Beholder Stakes March 11. The filly she had to beat was Bob Baffert’s Fun to Dream, who had won four straight and six of her seven lifetime starts. She went off at odds-on, A Mo Reay was the 7-1 third choice in the field of eight.

“It was funny going back to Santa Anita,” Regan said. “I did a short stint with Bob Baffert years ago.”

In deep stretch, Baffert’s favorite was desperately trying to hold off the rallying A Mo Reay and jockey Flavien Prat. They crossed the finish line in tandem. 

Hegarty and his wife, Sheila, were watching the race from their home. “We were screaming our heads off,” he said. “You’re screaming at the TV, egging her on, egging her on. I thought she got up.”

She did. 

Wade was asked if it occurred to him that the race was six days before St. Patrick’s Day. “It did not,” he said. “But we celebrated like it was St. Patrick’s Day.”

John Ropes

Article by Bill Heller

John Ropes, jockey Miguel Angel Vasquez, trainer Michael Yates and connections celebrate Dorth Vader’s Davona Dale Stakes win at Gulfstream Park.

A realistic outlook and a sense of humor are mighty handy tools for breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. John Ropes is blessed with both.

“If you’re in this business to make money, you’re in the wrong business,” Ropes said. “Once you’re infected, you’re hooked. The only way out is bankruptcy.”

Ropes is the head of Ropes Associates, an international executive search firm specializing in real estate development and related financial services in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, established in 1975. He began his Thoroughbred involvement five years later and opened Rosegrove Farm in Ocala in 1985. 

He has yet had the misfortune of bankruptcy to get out of the Thoroughbred business, but last year certainly tested his resolve. “We lost seven foals for a variety of reasons,” he said. ”It was extreme bad luck. You just have to put it behind you and keep moving on.”

And then a horse like Dorth Vader changes everything, giving Ropes his first graded stakes victory by taking the Gr.2 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, March 4, earning enough points to get into the Kentucky Oaks. Making the victory even sweeter were her odds: 46-1 in the field of 11. “Frankly, I thought she’d win,” Ropes said. “46-1? That was crazy.”

And fun. “We’ve had some fun in it,” Ropes said. “Horse racing should be fun. It’s an exciting business. I’ve been in it way too long. I love the business. You have to.”

His love of horses traces back to riding horses during a summer spent in England. “I always liked it,” Ropes said. “My parents always went to the track on New Year’s Day every year. But you had to be 21 to get in.”

He would get into racing at a level he could never have envisioned. He bought a riding horse when he was a senior in college, and he thanked a girl who worked for him, Dana Smithers, for getting him into Thoroughbreds. “Her father, Andy Smithers, is a trainer in Canada and in Florida,” Ropes said. “She told her dad I was interested, and Andy, who was then training at Gulfstream Park, found a horse for me. His name was Half French, and he was a $15,000 claimer who hadn’t won a race in a long time. I said, `Andy, why are we buying this horse?’ He said, `Look at those feet. These are grass feet.’”

Smithers was right. 

Dorth Vader

Shipped to Canada and switched to grass, he won two allowance races and finished fifth in $50,000 stakes. Ropes got an offer for $50,000 for his horse and turned it down. “Then he broke his leg,” Ropes said. Half French returned to the races after a year, but he was never the same horse. And Ropes hadn’t waited for his return before escalating his interest in Thoroughbreds.

Ropes’ burgeoning business, Ropes Associates, allowed him to pursue his passion. Ropes earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Florida and his Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Miami. He began Ropes Associates in 1975, and he became an important business leader in Fort Lauderdale. He became a governor in the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit research and education organization for real estate developers with offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong and London. Ropes served as chairman of the ULI’s Southeast Florida/Caribbean Real Estate Opportunities Conference held in Miami in 1993 and in Puerto Rico the following two years. He is also a licensed single-engine pilot.

Half French had given him an intriguing taste of Thoroughbred success, and he didn’t wait for his recovery to buy another.

“Half French broke his leg, and I had to buy other horses,” Ropes said. “Some had success, and some had not. I started breeding some fillies, and I knew nothing about breeding. Andy helped me. And then I said, `Why don’t I buy a farm?’”

He bought Rosegrove Farm in Ocala in 1985. His timing stunk. “That was just before President Reagan changed the tax laws,” Ropes said. “The market crashed for a horse farm. It was a brutal time. But somehow we lasted through it. Life is about experience.”

Seeking another experience, Ropes began training a few horses and selling horses before deciding to concentrate on breeding. “I bought all my own mares,” Ropes said. “I had mixed success. I had to step up my game. I got an agent, Marette Farrell. We were buying very good broodmares.”

He bought a really good one, Hardcore Candy, a daughter of Yonaguska out of the Thunder Gulch mare It’s a Girl. Hardcore Candy had won eight of 40 starts on the track and earned just over $100,000,

Bred to Girvin, Hardcore Candy foaled Dorth Vader. Ropes explained the name: “My significant other for the last six years is named Dorothy Harden. She’s an attorney. She said, 'You name a horse after all your family, but you’ve never named a horse for me.’ She liked Star Wars. We came up with Dorth Vader almost instantly. When I suggested it to her, she was a little shocked, but after a while, she liked it.”

Ropes usually breeds horses for the sales, but he had the good fortune to hold on to Dorth Vader. “Everyone at the farm loved Dorth Vader,” Ropes said. “Gayle Woods said she had a beautiful body, but that she was a little offset in her right front. I knew I wouldn’t get what she was worth at the sales. Gayle was so high on her, and so was everybody else on the farm. Gayle said, `She’s more of a runner.’”

She was. Trained by Michael Yates, Dorth Vader won three of her first five starts, including a four-length victory in the Just Secret Stakes for Florida-breds and a 2 ¼-length score in the $100,000 Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. She then tired badly to finish a distant sixth in a $50,000 stakes at Tampa as the 7-5 favorite.

She was taking a mighty step up in the Gr.2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park and went off a huge price under jockey Miguel Vasquez. But she didn’t race like a hopeless longshot, disposing even-money favorite Red Carpet Ready in early stretch and powering away to a 4 ¾ length victory.

She’d given Ropes his first graded stakes. “It was a thrilling experience,” Ropes said. “Of 18,700 foals born, only 14 get into the Kentucky Oaks. She has enough points to make it, so we don’t have to do anything else. Nothing is as thrilling as winning a Gr.1 or a Gr.2 stakes. It’s excitement! It’s why we're in the business. I had never won a graded stakes before. Now I have.

Dorth Vader wins the 2023 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Andrew Warren

Article by Bill Heller

Raise Cain

Not selling a pair of two-year-olds turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to Andrew Warren. Both Raise Cain, the emphatic winner of the Gr.3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, Warren’s first graded stakes victory, and Scoobie Quando, a trouble-plagued second in the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway Park that same evening, are now live Kentucky Derby contenders off powerful performances hours apart. Earlier this year, Scoobie Quando gave Warren his first stakes victory, taking a $120,000 stakes at Turfway by a neck in his first career start. As if that wasn’t enough, Warren’s Wizard of Westwood finished second in the Baffle Stakes at Santa Anita the day after the Gotham and the Battaglia.

That’s quite a feat for Warren, who followed his dad into the business with the intent to buy one mare in 2019. “It’s amazing,” Warren said. “It’s hard to believe. To be in this position, it’s definitely rare and unusual—kind of a shock.”

A very happy shock for Warren and his wife, Rania and their adorable three-year-old daughter Valentina. “Having a young child at home, she likes it quite a bit,” Warren said. “She likes all animals. She loves to go to the zoo. She loves our two dogs. She likes the excitement of racing.”

Raise cain

She is the next generation of the Warren family, who have a legacy of continuing success in their Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Warren Petroleum Oil Company and a deep love of Thoroughbreds. 

“My grandfather got involved very early on,” Warren said. “He started the company. He was sort of a pioneer in the business. He wound up selling it to Gulf Oil.”

William Kelly Warren, who was born in 1897 and lived to 1990, was philanthropic. “He started a hospital—St. Francis,” Andrew said. “Now there’s a second hospital. It’s the largest healthcare system in Eastern Oklahoma. That was something he was passionate about.”

His grandfather also had a passion for horses. “He didn’t own horses, but my grandfather was a fan,” Warren said. “That’s how my dad got interested in it. They had a vacation house in La Jolla. My dad grew up going to Del Mar with his dad. He bought his first horse in 1983.”

Warren’s father William and his mom Suzanne had a slew of top horses, including 2005 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam and City of Light, who captured three Gr.1 stakes, the 2018 Triple Bend, the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and the 2019 Pegasus World Cup.

Warren’s parents also had two Kentucky Derby starters, Knockadoon, who finished seventh in 1995, and Denis of Cork, who finished third in 2008. “We got to experience those thrills, those highs, as a family,” Andrew said. “I was 13 in 1995. It was a great time to be a kid and go to the Derby.”

He also saw other family horses who didn’t fare as well. “I saw a lot of the industry—a lot of ups and downs,” Warren said. “My takeaway was that it’s very difficult and very hard to do. The odds are not in your favor for success.”

Yet, he was intrigued about the breeding of Thoroughbreds. “I’d been to sales with my father,” Warren said. “I saw horses selling for quite a bit of money. I thought breeding was very interesting. He liked the racing and [was] not too excited about breeding.”

Specifically, he wondered who were the best mares to be bred to City of Light when he retired from racing. “He was getting some interest,” Warren said. “I thought this was intriguing. It’d be fun to breed a mare to him. I asked City of Light’s trainer, Michael McCarthy, what he thought, and said, `I think that makes sense.’”

They went to the OBS Sales and perused a list of potential mares. “We watched videos of breezes,” Warren said. “We picked one. Then we picked another. I had a lot of enjoyment of picking out the horses, the analysis of trying to find the right one. I wound up getting a colt. In 2019, I went through every sales catalog. I bought two mares in foal to City of Light. I went further down the rabbit hole.”

He had no idea. He currently has 23 horses racing.

At the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Warren purchased Raise Cain, a son of Violence out of Lemon Belle by Lemon Drop Kid, for $180,000, and Scoobie Quando, a colt by Uncle Mo, for $160,000. 

Warren tried pinhooking both, but Raise Cain went through the sales ring unsold for $65,000, and Scoobie Quando failed to reach his reserve at $125,000. “I knew they had a lot of ability,” Warren said. “If you don’t get the price you want, you keep on going with them.”

For as far as they’ll take you, both horses have thrived under trainer Ben Colebrook, who had to sprint from Aqueduct to JFK International Airport after Raise Cain won the Gotham to get to Turfway Park that night for Scoobie Quando.

Warren watched the Gotham from home. “I was there with my mom and dad in front of a computer,” Warren said. “I was happy to get him into the race with a live chance. He came in at 30-1 on the morning line (he’d go off at 23-1).”

Raise Cain, ridden by Jose Lezcano, was far back early. “I lost track of him with the mud,” Warren said. “Then I saw him coming. I said, 'That's Raise Cain.’ He’s moving faster than the two horses in front of him. I’m thinking, `We’re going to win this! We’re going to win this! We were losing our minds.”

After not having a stakes winner in his first four years of racing, Warren had one. “After a long time wandering in the desert,” he laughed.  

Raise Cain

Bing Bush - Abbondanza Racing and Philip Shelton - Medallion Racing

Article by Bill Heller

In racing partnerships, do opposites attract? If they’re successful, who cares? 

Bing Bush’s Abbondanza Racing and Philip Shelton of Medallion Racing have been cranking out graded stakes winning fillies the last six years, including Going to Vegas, who won consecutive runnings of the Gr. 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes in 2021 and 2022. 

“Bing is great—absolutely a first-class human being, a good friend,” Shelton said. “He’s got a lot of energy. I’m low key. It’s a good partnership.”

Bush agrees: “It’s been a sensational partnership. Phil is manager of Medallion. He’s extremely knowledgeable—a wonderful partner.”

They both started in Lexington, Kentucky, before traveling different roads to reach the same destination: the winner’s circle after major stakes in California.               

Bush, an incredibly affable fellow, remembers long mornings at his family’s five-acre farm: “Every morning: getting up, eating Cheerios, feeding the horses, cleaning the stalls, feeding the chickens, (in the winter) making sure the ice was broken, changing my clothes and getting on the school bus. I was usually up by 4:30 a.m.”

Bush and his close friend Glenn Graetz rode in 4-H and the pony club, hunters and jumpers. In his senior year at Lafayette High School, he galloped Thoroughbreds for trainer John Ward. He also galloped for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey. “I think the best I ever got on was Polish Navy,” Bush said.

He didn’t stay on Polish Navy for long. “I thought I had a clock in my head,” Bush said. “The first time I breezed him was the last time I breezed him. I thought I went in :37 and change at Keeneland. He went so, so easily. I’m walking him back on the outside rail. I saw Shug walking to me. He said, `What the hell are you doing? You went in :35.’” 

Bush also galloped horses for Rusty Arnold but decided to become a lawyer, attending the University of Kentucky Law School. “After my first year, I didn’t know if I wanted to be a lawyer anymore,” Bush said. “I went to San Diego to see my sister. Her boyfriend had broken up with her. She was sad. I drove to her home. In one day, my whole life turned around. I went to La Jolla. I saw the cliffs. The water was blue. The sky was blue. I’ll never forget my next thought: `Oh, my god, I’m an American. I can move here.’”

He did, and he began galloping horses at the San Luis Rey Training Center. “After about a year, I was getting on 20 horses a day,” Bush said.

It was hard labor. “I was in the jacuzzi every day,” Bush said. “I thought I had to get back to law.”

Bush did, returning to the University of Kentucky, graduated and moved to San Diego: “I think it’s very special. I can walk to Del Mar. My favorite is going to the morning workouts. I just feel so blessed.”

His law career has flourished, winning cases in California, Arizona and Kentucky. His success allowed him to start Abbondanza Racing in 2012.

In 2016, Bush partnered with Nathan McCauley.  They had immediate success with their gelding Free Rose, a horse McCauley had bred who captured the 2016 Gr. 3 La Jolla and the Gr. 2 Del Mar Derby back-to-back. In his next start, he was second by a half-length in the Gr. 2 Twilight Derby. “Free Rose put us on the map,” Bush said.

On its website, Abbondanza Racing says it is committed to three things: bringing friends to experience and admire top-level horses racing together; economic sustainability for you and everyone involved, and giving back at least 1 percent of all purse money won to charity.

Abbondanza means ‘abundance” in Italian. Bush picked the name to honor his wife Jewels, who was half-Italian. “She was the love of my life,” Bush said. “She got cancer in 2019, and passed away in May. I was devastated. In November, I had a heart attack and nearly died.”

He survived and has fallen in love again. “I majored in philosophy in college, and I got a call from my philosophy professor,” Bush said. “It turned out, he had his niece, Aseel, visiting from Washington, D.C. She’s an architect. She’s beautiful, inside and out. We spent some time together. We saw each other a couple of times. When Covid hit, I convinced her to move to San Diego, where her family is. I truly believe Jewels sent her. This heart had been shattered into pieces. She is now my fiancée. It’s special. I really had a miracle in my life.”  

In that same year, he hooked up with McCauley, Bush teamed up with Shelton, who had begun Medallion Racing as an offshoot of Taylor Made Farm. Taylor Made will always be special to Philip, he began working there as a senior in high school in Lexington and periodically at the sales for them while in college.

His father, an attorney, owned a few cheap horses, exposing Shelton to horse racing. “I liked the gambling,” he said. “We’d go to Keeneland. When I was 12 or 13, I won a couple hundred dollars at the track. I started getting the Blood-Horse. I was already hooked.”

Later, he abandoned a career as a teacher and swimming coach to launch Medallion Racing on the advice of his wife, Taylor. Her maiden name was Keene, as in Keeneland, and their three-year-old son is named Keene. “She said, if I never pursue horses full-time, I’m going to regret it,” Shelton said.

He took her sage advice and began Medallion Racing. Abbondanza Racing advertises packages for new owners as low as $500. Medallion is different. “Our goal is to bring people into the highest level of racing,” Shelton said. “We’ve had 300 starts over the last six years, and about 23 ½ percent have been in Gr. 1’s. In 2021, we had four Breeders’ Cup starters: Bella Sophia, Going to Vegas, Horologist (also co-owned with Abbondanza) and Charmaine’s Mia. (Charmaine’s Mia was third in the Turf Sprint, and Bella Sophia fourth in the Filly & Mare Sprint). Last year, we just had Going to Vegas (she was 11th and 12th in the Filly & Mare Turf in 2021 and 2022). Bing is primarily in California. Our goal is to be nation-wide.”

Or international. “We took 22 clients to Royal Ascot,” Shelton said. “We want to leverage all the resources of Taylor Made to create an unmatched experience for all our partners.”

Trips to the winner’s circle after stakes races is a good inducement, and Bush and Shelton hit it out of the ballpark with their first horse in partnership: the Irish filly Goodyearforroses. She won three straight stakes beginning with the $90,000 Robert Frankel Stakes by 5 ¼ lengths on New Year’s Eve in 2016. She added on victories in the $79,000 Astra Stakes, and the Gr. 2 Santa Anna Stakes. After finishing fifth by 1 ¾ lengths in the Gr. 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, she returned to California, finishing second by a half-length to superstar Lady Eli in the Gr. 1 Gamely Stakes. “She’s in Lady Eli’s win photo,” Bush said. “I was never prouder to finish second.”

Going to Vegas has continued the partner’s success, winning nearly a million dollars through 2022.

“We focus on fillies and mares,” Shelton said. So far, their focus has been just fine.

Tim, Mark and Linda Cohen - Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal

Article by Bill Heller

Just one month after the Cohen family lost 89-year-old patriarch Jed Cohen, Dicey Mo Chara brought them back to the winner’s circle at Santa Anita, capturing the Gr. 2 San Gabriel Stakes. It was a familiar scene. Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal were the leading owners of the 18-day Santa Anita Autumn Meet with five victories. They were also the leading owners of the 2022 Santa Anita fall and winter meets, and dead-heated for first at the 2022 Del Mar meet with Nicholas b. Alexander.

California truly lost an impactful force when Jed passed.

“The San Gabriel was our first stakes win since he died,” Jed’s son Tim said. “It was really emotional—more than I thought it would be. You miss a good business partner. When he’s your father, it’s deeper. I know Jed would be happy for everyone.”

Tim’s grandfather, Harry, would have been happy, too. Harry, who lived in Long Beach, New York, would take Jed to the track. “He was just a fun-loving guy,” Tim Cohen said. “I was maybe 15 before he passed.”

Tim said his grandfather began betting at the track with three friends, who each chipped in fifty cents to make a $2 bet. “He’d go along with other people,” Tim said.

Tim’s father graduated from NYU with a law degree, but decided he didn’t want to be a lawyer. He had uncles living in California, and ventured there, becoming a successful investment banker. “He worked his way up,” Tim said. “He had a different perspective on things. He was a salmon. If everyone goes downstream, he was going up. That’s how he made a difference in investments.”

Jed was an advisor to Walter Heller, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors from 1961–64 who was an influential advisor to President John F. Kennedy.

Jed did well enough in business to follow through on his passion for horses and pass it forward to his sons, Tim and Mark, and his daughter Linda. In 1999, they purchased the historic, beautiful and multi-faceted 6,000-acre farm Rancho Temescal in eastern Ventura County—45 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Temescal is one of the oldest neighborhoods in North Oakland. The farm was founded on September 13, 1871.

The Cohens use it not only for Thoroughbreds, but also as a vibrant fruit farm, with 100 acres of avocado trees producing a million pounds of fruit a year— 100 acres of citrus trees yielding a half-million pounds of lemons and countless rows of blackberry vines. Another part of the farm is used for movie, TV and commercial locations, which has been used in the 2022 movie Babylon starring Brad Pitt, the TV series Westworld and CSI, and boasts a guest book that Tom Cruise once signed. As if that wasn’t enough, the family owns and operates a pizza restaurant in nearby Piru. “It keeps me busy,” Tim laughed. “Every now and then, I get to go to the races.”

Tim, who is 56, switched careers nearly 25 years ago. “I used to manage luxury hotels and restaurants. Now I manage luxury horse facilities,” he told Dan Ross in his March 4, 2019 story in the Thoroughbred Daily News. “What I knew about water and dirt was don’t bring the dirt in the house, and water went well with Scotch.”

Tim elaborated: “I went to school for business, Northern Arizona, that had a hotel and restaurant program. I did that for 15 years. I worked for Hilton and the Kimpton Group.”

How happy is he now that he changed careers? “I’m extremely glad we did it,” he said.” I always enjoy new tasks, new adventures. This was an opportunity to do something significant. It worked out well.”

And he got to see Tom Cruise, who was filming a movie, and Brad Pitt. “Our staff is always with them,” Tim said. “It’s a little disruptive. I always say it’s like your mother-in-law. You’re glad they came, but you’re happier when they leave. It can be a lot of work.”

Hard work never deterred his dad. “He ran hard,” Tim said. “He enjoyed his life. He was passionate. He was loyal.”

Then he got tired after battling diseases in his final years. “Most people would have given up years earlier,” Tim said. “His will kept him going longer than most. He was a fighter. He eventually wore out.”  

Riley Cofer was Jed’s first trainer. “He was his trainer for a long time,” Tim said. “Then Darrel Vienna. When Darrell retired (in June, 2016), I basically stepped in and took over the management and acquisition for horses.”

When Jed passed on November 27, Vienna shared his thoughts with Thoroughbred Daily News: “He was the perfect owner. If a horse needed rest, he absolutely was, `Let’s do the best by the horse.’ After I retired from training, we kept in close contact. We spoke regularly about life and politics. I’ll miss having access to his wisdom and his kindness. He was an exceptional listener. He was always paying attention. He was just a unique, extraordinary person. He’s a big loss to horse racing but an even bigger loss to anyone who knew him.”

Dicey Mo Chara’s trainer Leonard Powell was touched by Jed, too: “Jed Cohen was a patriarch. Jed always gave you confidence you were doing the right thing. He was always pushing you to do better. His trust was very satisfying. We really felt like we were working as a team. Tim and his family are continuing what Jed was doing. They love the game, and, hopefully, we have continued success.”

The Cohens use five trainers to handle their 65 horses: Powell, Jeff Mullens, Mark Glatt, Phil D’Amato and Michael McCarthy.

Tim will carry on his father’s legacy. “I love it,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful bonding experience. We’ll carry on in some form.”

The bar has been set really high. Their top horses include newly turned three-year-old Packs a Wahlop, who won the Gr. 3 Del Mar Juvenile Turf and the Gr. 3 Zuma Beach Stakes by 2 ¾ lengths on October 9. Previously, they have campaigned Gr. 1 winners Janet, River Boyne and two-time Gr. 1 winner Dr. Schivel.

Tim was asked what his grandfather might think of all their success and their spectacular Rancho Temecula: “I think he would shake his head and wouldn’t believe it.”    

Patrick O’Keefe - Kentucky West Racing

Article by Bill Heller

Growing up in Ogden, Utah, Patrick O’Keefe never saw a racetrack. But it didn’t prevent him from falling in love with a horse. 

Patrick did bond with his father through railroads. “I’m a two-generation railroad worker,” he said. “My dad worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. I worked there while I was going to college at the University of Utah. Just before I graduated, he had a heart attack and died. My railroad career ended at that point. So I hooked up with a good friend, Dennis Bullock. I loved golf. We went looking for a property to build a golf course. We looked all over the country. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of energy.”

Their search took them to Bear Lake, Idaho, near the southeast border of Idaho and Utah, and Patrick liked what he saw. They found the property owner and made a deal. “I gave him $10 down,” Patrick said. “I had to come up with $2,000.”

He did. They built a golf and country club, and then sold some 1,000 lots on the property. “I was pretty good at sales,” Patrick said.

On a fateful day, one of Patrick’s buddies from home, Wayne Call, paid a visit. He’d moved to the east and was back visiting family. “He lived right next to me in Ogden,” Patrick said. “His dad worked for Union Pacific.” Wayne, who had worked in bloodstock and trained a few horses, told Patrick he thought Bear Lake would be a great place to raise Thoroughbreds. Patrick told Wayne he thought it was too cold to raise horses but Wayne told him the cold kills parasites and limits disease. In Ray Paulick’s February 2022, story in the Paulick Report, Patrick said, “We have good water and several hundred acres, so I said I’d give it a try. I was dumb as a post. I had no background in racing whatever.”

So he leaned on Wayne and they took off for a nearby off-track betting facility in Evanston, Wyoming. “Wayne told me to look for a mare that’s won a lot of races that had good breeding,” Patrick said. He settled on Rita Rucker, a granddaughter of Danzig who’d won 21 races, including four stakes and earned $249,767. Her last start was in a $16,500 claimer, and Patrick got her for $7,500.

Patrick chose Kentucky West Racing—a courtesy to Wayne who once owned a hotel named Frontier West—as a stable name and bred Rita Rucker to Thunder Gulch. Patrick decided to raise the foal on his farm in Bear Lake. “My ranch is 200 acres,” he said. “We fenced a paddock. We had a little manger—a lean-to. When they unloaded Rita Rucker, she was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

Rita Rucker foaled a filly. Patrick named her Private World, fitting his farm’s secluded area. “I’d drive up to the ranch two or three times a day,” Patrick said. “She’d see me coming and start to run along the fence line. That was her. She just loved to run.”

One snowy evening, she ran away. “Lots of snow, and I came to watch her one night,” Patrick said. “The fence was broken, and she was gone. My ranch adjoins the National Forest. What happened was an elk got through the fence to go after my feed. I saddled another horse and got a lariat. She was at the top of the mountain. I worked my way up to the top of the mountain. It was snowing. It was amazing. It took me hours to get her.”

But he did. “She was just a yearling,” Patrick said. “I built a barn for her.”

When it was time to find a trainer, a friend recommended Bob Hess, Jr. Hess and Patrick quickly discovered they had a talented two-year-old filly. Private World won her first three starts, a maiden race at Del Mar, an ungraded stakes at Santa Anita and the $100,000 Moccasin Stakes at Hollywood Park.

“I’m offered a million and a half after the race,” Patrick said. He didn’t take long to say ‘no.’ “Let me tell you something, I was in love with that horse,” Patrick said. “I was in love with her from the day she was born. I just figured that this horse was going to be the start of something fantastic.”

Her next race was anything but. In the Gr. 1 Hollywood Starlet, Private World tired to finish last—11th by 20 ¼ lengths. She then finished second in a $96,000 stakes and fourth in an $83,000 stakes. She had posted three victories and one second in six starts and earned $166,058.

She never raced again. “She ran through an iron fence and broke her leg,” Patrick said. “I didn’t have any insurance. I lost her for racing, and I thought we would have to put her down.”

Patrick brought her back to Bear Lake, and she slowly recovered. “I spent months with her,” he said. “I hauled in bale after bale of straw. I slept in the barn with her. I bawled my eyes out for a month. I told her as long as she’s alive, I would stay in the business.”

He meant it, and now, at the age of 80, his business is thriving with a partner, Clarke Cooper. After Private World recovered, Patrick bred her to Giant’s Causeway and was rewarded with the three-year-old speedy colt Classic Causeway, who took Patrick and Clarke on a heck of a Triple Crown ride, capturing the Gr. 3 Sam F. Davis and the Gr. 2 Tampa Bay Derby for trainer Brian Lynch.

After Classic Causeway finished 11th in both the Gr.1 Florida Derby and the Gr. 1 Kentucky Derby, Patrick and Clarke switched trainers to Kenny McPeek. In his first start for his new trainer, the Gr. 3 Ohio Derby, Classic Causeway fought on the front end before weakening to third.

McPeek thought Classic Causeway would handle turf, and he gave his new horse quite the challenge: the mile-and-a-quarter Gr. 1 Belmont Derby at Belmont Park July 9. Sent off at 26-1 under Julien Leparoux, Classic Causeway went wire-to-wire, winning by three-quarters of a length. Subsequent good races, thirds in the Gr. 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational and the Gr. 3 Jockey Club Derby Invitational, leaves his connections plenty of options in a promising future.

Private World has since foaled a colt and a filly weanling by Justify, and she’s in foal to Maximum Security. “We’re loaded; we’re loaded with potential,” Patrick said. “I didn’t take the money when I needed it. I just wanted to go on this journey and see where it takes us.”

On August 31, the journey took him to a destination he’d never envisioned growing up in Ogden, Utah. He was named the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association September Member of the Month. And he knows who to thank.

Asked what he thinks of when someone says “Private World,” he said, “I think of love.”   

Donato Lanni - X-Men Racing

Article by Bill Heller

Thoroughbred bloodstock agent Donato Lanni cherished trips to the racetrack with his father, Giuseppe, who grew up in Italy and settled in Montreal, making a career as a construction contractor. He did well enough to pursue his passion. “My dad had a love and a desire for horses and horse racing,” Donato said. “He had some claiming horses.”

They were harness horses and Donato and his father shared evenings at Blue Bonnets Racetrack. “I grew up around it,” Donato said. ”As a kid, there’s something inside you that gets alerted. You catch the bug. I don’t think that’s a myth. I was eight or nine.

“Summertime, I got more involved. I spent all my time at Blue Bonnets going to the barn. I became a groom when I was 13 or 14. There I got to meet some really cool guys—some of the most legendary guys in harness racing: Andre LaChance, Sylvan Filion and Duncan MacTavish. Andre never talked and was not very pleasant to be around, but he was a hell of a horseman. He took a liking to me for some reason. I drove in qualifier (non-betting) races.” Donato was 16 when he bought his first horse.

Though Donato graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, he realized that he wanted to head south—far south. Taking advantage of a summer program at Concordia, Donato got a temporary visa to work in the United States, fixating on Kentucky.  

“I didn’t see a future in Canada,” he said. “I asked, `How am I going to make a living with horses?’ I thought I had to go to Kentucky and see what it was like. I left Canada, knowing I was never going back.”

But he had no connections in America. “You take a chance and go to work,” Donato said.

And when you can’t find work? Running out of money, Donato bought a tent and camped out at the Kentucky Horse Park.

He got a huge break when he met John Cashman of Castleton Farm, one of the premier harness farms in North America. “I got a job with John,” Donato said. “He was very nice to me. I became the yearling manager in 1996. I was 25. I kept working. Grind, grind. Eventually doors open and you meet people.”

He counts himself lucky for meeting and then working for John “Big Johnny” Jones, the founder of Walmac International Farm in Lexington, where such super stallions as Nureyev and Alleged stood. Jones was also the founding partner of Four Star Sales. Initially, Donato landed a job with Walmac selling stallion services. 

“If there was one person most responsible for any success that I had, it was Johnny Jones,” Donato told Murray Brown in his October 2021 story in Harness Racing Update. “Johnny was a noted bloodstock agent who ran Walmac International. It was from him that I learned my craft. He sold and bought horses. Eventually, so did I. While I was at Walmac, Johnny supported me on my first route towards becoming an American citizen.”

While with Walmac, Donato got to know Thoroughbred owner and movie theater magnate George Krikorian. He told Donato to let him know if one yearling caught his eye at any of the sales. One did—Starrer. She sold for $35,000 and won multiple Gr. 1 stakes on the way to becoming Donato’s first millionaire. In an article in Blood-Horse magazine, Krikorian said of Donato, “I don’t know anyone who had a better eye for horses than he does.”

Eventually, Donato worked for John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm as director of Bloodstock Services, and became friends with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. “I met Bob 20 years ago at a sales,” Donato said. “He took me around and showed me what to look for. We’re still pretty close. I learned my craft through Bob Baffert. He’s a great horseman. He’s the best.”

Donato has paid Baffert back by selecting two Horses of the Year: Arrogate (2016) and Authentic (2020).

In 2006, Donato reconnected with Canadian horsemen, specifically trainer Kevin Attard. Attard trained Leonnatus Anteas, a yearling colt Donato picked out for Nob Hill Farm. The following year, Leonnatus Anteas won all three of his starts and was named Canadian Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. “That was the start of our relationship together,” Kevin said. “He sent me a couple horses over the years. For me to be associated with him has been a boost to my career. He respects me as a trainer.”

A few years back, Donato decided to start a new team. He convinced several Canadian horse owners and hockey fans to form X-Men Racing and then partnered with SF Racing and Madaket Stables. Lanni nicknamed the partnership “The Avengers. We put a fund together and bought a dozen horses,” Donato told Murray Brown in his story. “They’re all guys that are in the horse business—some of them with Standardbreds. But what they all have in common, besides being friends with me, is that they’re all lucky.”

One of the original dozen X-Men Racing horses was Moira. All the filly did in August was defeat colts while taking the $1 million Gr. 1 Queen’s Plate by seven lengths in track-record time. Less than a month later, their two-year-old filly Last Call won the Gr. 1 Natalma. 

Through all the ups and downs, all the twists and turns of his colorful career, he never lost that feeling he first experienced when he went to the track with his father. “They’re majestic animals,” Donato said. “They’re beautiful to look at. You go work with them; it’s very challenging and it’s fun. We got started because we love the horse.”

Dr. Robert and Laura Vukovich

Article by Bill Heller

Going to the track with your father is a powerful experience for a little boy—a treasured memory. “I grew up on the Jersey shore, and my dad used to take me out to Monmouth Park,” Dr. Robert Vukovich of WellSpring Stables said. “I was probably nine or 10. He taught me how to read the Racing Form, and sometimes he would place a bet for me. I’ve always loved horses and horse people. I decided if I ever had the chance, I would try to get involved somehow.”

Seven decades later, he is involved up to his gills and wouldn’t want it any other way. The fact that he can share it with his wife Laura makes it even more special. “She’s been there every step of the way,” he said.

Why did he wait until the 1990s to get involved in Thoroughbred racing? “College and my pharmaceutical career got in the way,” he joked. “I started in pharmaceutical research.”

He eventually developed his own company, Robert’s Pharmaceutical, and sold it to a large United Kingdom company in the late 1990s. That allowed him to return to horses.

Asked if he ever misses his pharmaceutical career, Robert said, “No. I don’t miss all the pressures. I don’t miss all the deadlines and the regulatory commissions.”

That didn’t prevent him from being successful in his industry. “He came from nothing and has worked very hard,” Laura, a native of Brooklyn with no prior history with horses, said. “We both did. He’s just a warm, caring person even to his horses. He says, `You only go around once—no rehearsal.’”

He’s never been happier than he is now with horses. “I wake up in the morning, and I think of horses,” he said. “I talk to people all day about horses, and sometimes I even dream about them—horses like Leave No Trace. Could this be really happening? Did we win the Spinaway?” They did.

In 1999, the Vokoviches bought a horse farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey, where they now also live. “We started with 100 acres and added pieces,” Robert said. “We currently have 168 acres. Laura names most of our horses.”

She named their two-year-old filly star Leave No Trace after a movie she watched some time ago. “I didn’t see the whole movie,” she said. “It was about a father and a daughter and some tragedy.”

Their horse operation has been the complete opposite. They began breeding horses and then started buying them at auctions and racing them. “Over time, I got to appreciate that I could do better than breeding by carefully selecting horses at auctions,” Robert said. “We now buy most of our bloodstock.”

His initial success came with the help of late trainer Dominick Galluscio, who saddled Organizer and Dr. Vee’s Magic to consecutive victories in the rich Empire Classic for New York-breds in 2006 and 2007. “He was a great trainer and a friend,” Robert said.

Now he uses Phil Serpe and Jim Ryerson as his trainers. “After Dominick passed, I asked Jim Ryerson if he’d take a few horses,” Robert said. “He did. I asked him who would be useful to me as a trainer who races in New York and Florida, and he nominated Phil Serpe. Phil and I have been doing business for seven years. We train our horses in the winter down in Florida and bring them up in the springtime and decide whether to send them to Jim or Phil.”

Robert and Laura now have 15 horses in training, including eight yearlings and five weanlings. They have never done better than the last two years. In 2021, Safe Conduct won the Queen’s Plate. Unfortunately, Peter and Laura weren’t there at Woodbine. “We couldn’t get up there to watch in because of Covid,” Robert said. “We had a bunch of people here. When he crossed the finish line, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it. It was remarkable.” More recently he finished second in the Gr. 3 Monmouth Stakes. “He’s still a special horse,” Robert said. 

So is Leave No Trace, who followed a 2 ¼ length debut in a restricted maiden debut at Saratoga by capturing the Gr. 1 Spinaway there at 14-1. Serpe trains both Safe Conduct and Leave No Trace. Robert and Laura purchased Safe Conduct for $45,000 as a yearling at the Keeneland November Sale and Leave No Trace for $40,000 as a yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Fall Sale. Combined, they have earned more than $900,000 with a lot of racing still ahead of them.

But, again, Robert and Laura weren’t at the track when Leave No Trace won the Spinaway. “We were in Switzerland when she won the Spinaway,” Laura said. “We watched it on the telephone. It was around midnight. My husband went bananas. We were very proud. Now Phil is asking us not to be there in her future races. He said he’d buy us cruise tickets.”

Regardless, Robert and Laura are embracing the ride. “To see a little baby grow up and become a rockstar in horse racing, it’s very fulfilling.” Robert said.

Actually, they enjoy every horse they have, regardless of their performances. “Horses are very honest,” Robert said. “They’re the best employees you can have. They just give you all they have, and they never question it. Mother Nature created these animals so beautiful, so powerful and, for most cases, very gentle around you. You sit and watch them in awe. They always give you their best. They give you everything they’ve got. You can’t ask for more. I’m going to be 80. The horses keep me young.”

Stacy and Robert Mitchell

Words - Bill Heller

With a dollar and a dream, Stacy, a critical-care nurse, and Robert Mitchell, a surgeon, became horse owners. With a willingness to learn, they became Thoroughbred breeders after purchasing 92-acre Briland Farm in Lexington. And with patience and a commitment to race only home-breds, they created a niche—one made so much sweeter when their three-year-old filly Secret Oath took them to the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs by taking their first Gr. 1 stakes, the Kentucky Oaks, rather easily by two lengths under Luis Saez.

“They do it all themselves—pretty much a ‘mom-and-pop’ operation with just a few horses,” their Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “To have that kind of success is phenomenal. They’re very protective of their horses. Stacy foals out most of them herself. We’ve had a great relationship.”

Along the way, Stacy and Robert learned the ups and downs of racing. “The Thoroughbred industry can be as high as possible and the lowest of lows with foals dying,” Stacy said. “You just never know. Every time you get a good one, you say, `This is the one.’”

She was right with Secret Oath. “This was the one!” Stacy said. “It’s been exciting. Very satisfying.”

She’s certainly satisfied with her legendary trainer. “He’s great,” Stacy said. “He’s just classy. We can call him anytime. My husband talks to Wayne on the way to work every day. They both start their day at 3 a.m. He sees all his patients before they operate.”

Stacy and Robert met in the intensive care unit.

Born in western Kentucky, Stacy said, “I never had a horse. I always wanted a horse.”

Turns out, Robert did, too.

After they were gifted an older Quarter Horse, their realtor told them that horses usually like companions. The Mitchells found someone with a young mare with a decent pedigree. The man offered to give them the mare. “My husband didn’t want it for free,” Stacy said. “He did it for $1. That made it a two-way transaction.”

The Mitchells bred that mare, Chao Praya, to Level Sands and got Level Playingfield, who won nine of 49 starts and earned $664,822.

Upping  the ante, they bred Chao Praya to Empire Maker. They were rewarded with another star—Gr. 3 stakes winner Imposing Grace, who won five of 26 starts and made $326,743. 

The Mitchells then purchased Rockford Peach, who was in foal to Running Stag, for $36,000. She produced Absinthe Minded, a multiple-stakes winner who earned more than $600,000. She is the dam of Secret Oath. She was also the last Thoroughbred the Mitchells bought.

“The bottom line is we’ve never bought a race horse,” Robert told Meredith Daugherty in her February 23, 2022, story in the Paulick Report. “Every horse we’ve ever raced was born on our farm. We haven’t bought any Thoroughbred for over 20 years.”

How have they succeeded with only home-breds? “Luck—a lot of luck,” Stacy said. And a lot of work. “We went to so many clinics,” Stacy said. We became sponges for information. We read breeding books.”

Having a great trainer certainly helped, especially when their best horse, Secret Oath, showed a ton of potential. After breaking her maiden in her second start, she finished fifth in the Gr. 2 Golden Rod Stakes before winning three straight, an allowance by 9 ¼ lengths, the Martha Washington Stakes by 7 ½ and the Gr. 3 Honeybee by 7 ½.

That prompted a shot against colts in the Arkansas Derby, and she made a powerful rally in early stretch before tiring to third as the 7-5 favorite under Luis Contreras. “I thought she was going to be second, but she got tired because she made that big move,” Stacy said.

Lukas made a jockey switch to Saez for the Oaks, and he contributed a fine ride. “You’re nervous all day,” Stacy said. “You see them going to the gate. When she made the move, I just hoped it was a timed ride and she wouldn’t get tired. I was yelling, `Hang on, hang on.’ The rest of it was a blur. She didn’t want the lilies. I got the flowers.”

Secret Oath then finished fourth against colts in the Gr. 1 Preakness and is being prepped for a summer campaign, possibly starting in the Gr. 1 Coaching Club and/or Alabama. Stacy missed the Preakness. “My husband was there,” she said. “I was here foaling mares. I think she made a good run. I’m just happy that she finished in the top half and came out of it healthy.”

Health is very important to Stacy: “I don’t think I could do horses if I wasn’t a nurse. Keep the broodmares healthy. I’m able to do a lot of it myself.”

Stacy and Robert’s 22-year-old daughter Jessica is a registered nurse, hoping to go to grad school. Jessica’s younger sister Hannah is hoping to go to nursing school.

Asked if she’s proud of her daughters, Stacy said, “Oh, yeah. Being a mom is the best job I ever had. I couldn’t be prouder of my daughters.”   

And Secret Oath, the ultimate home-bred who will eventually become a broodmare, one with quite a resumé.

“We’ve been breeding since 2000,” Stacy said. “You always hope you have a Derby or Oaks winner.”

Now they do.

Fitri and Jim Hay

Words - Bill Heller

To racing’s “Golden Couple,” frequent fliers Fitri and Jim Hay, the United States is just one of many locales where their horses have had great success. They’ve won in England, France, America and Dubai—the base of Jim’s company JMH Group and where the couple now resides. “They’re racing enthusiasts,” Alex Cole, the Hays racing manager for the last 17 years, said. “It’s something they enjoy a great amount.”

Visiting the winner’s circle after graded and group stakes can do that to you. Their tremendous turf horse Cape Blanco (they owned 50 percent of the horse in partnership with Mrs. John Magnier, Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor) captured the Dante Stakes, the Irish Derby and the Irish Champion Stakes and was named the 2010 Irish Three-Year-Old Colt of the Year. The Hays had 27 winners in 2010, their highest total ever.

In 2011, trainer Aidan O’Brien sent Cape Blanco to the United States, and he quickly added to the Hays’ resume. After sweeping the Gr. 1 Man o’ War Stakes, Arlington Million and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, Cape Blanco was named the 2011 Eclipse Champion Male Turf Horse.

That same year, the Hays purchased a 50-percent share of four-time Gp. 1 winner Fame and Glory. His victory in the 2011 Ascot Gold Cup culminated an unforgettable day for the Hays. “Some days can be beyond fable,” Fitri told Catherine McQueen in her December 26, 2019, story in Ccercle, a luxury magazine. “We were guests of the Queen [Elizabeth} for lunch at Windsor Castle. Much to our surprise, this was followed by being included in the royal procession down the track in one of the queen’s carriages—an unbelievable experience!”

The success of Cape Blanco and Fame and Glory helped the Hays purchase Birch Grove, the former mansion of Prime Minister Harold MacMillian. The property includes a private golf course.

Jim was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and Fitri in Jambi, Sumatra. They met in Jakarta, Indonesia, and married on August 25, 1996. They have two daughters, Jasmine and Catriona, who both enjoyed considerable academic success.  

Horse racing has always added up for Jim, whose grandmother taught him addition by watching televised races and making pretend bets. “He was hooked after that,” Alex said.

Jim studied at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, earning a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy in applied chemistry. In 1975, he joined British Petroleum (BP) as an engineer and worked his way up to a senior executive.

After his 27-year run at BP, Jim founded the JMH Group, a private business with two divisions—one dealing with construction, the second with lifestyle and fashion. He also acquired Fosroc, a construction solutions firm.

He’d been increasingly attracted to Thoroughbred racing, and after he and Fitri moved to the United Kingdom in 1998, he began spending so much time at racetracks and sales that Fitri felt like a racing widow. So she took the plunge and fell in love with racing, too.

Together, they began buying horses to build a stable in 2001. They didn’t have their first winner, Baratjea Dream, until 2004, then progressed rapidly. In 2010, they had a breakthrough with Cape Blanco.

In the U.S., their horse—in partnership with Smith, Magnier and Tabor—Deauville, won the 2016 Belmont Derby at Belmont Park. 

More recently, Highland Chief, owned completely by Fitri, captured the 2022 Gr. 1 Man o’ War in his second start for trainer Graham Motion at Belmont Park. 

Paul Cole (Alex’s father) and Oliver (Alex’s brother) had been training Highland Chief in Great Britain. Four weeks after the Man o’ War, Highland Chief raced in the Gr. 1 Manhattan Stakes at Belmont, finishing a solid fourth.

More and more, the Hays have been shipping their top horses to the United States. “The way things are in Great Britain, they send them to the U.S. for prize money,” their racing manager Alex said. 

The Hays spend their racing year at Newbury, Newmarket, York, Dante, Royal Ascot, Sandown, Newmarket again, Goodwood, Longchamp, Deauville and Dubai. Away from the track, they enjoy hunting, shooting, fishing, golf, rugby and soccer.

They have shared their success. The JMH Group was a major donor in the establishment of the Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science at Jim’s alma mater, Strathclyde. The Group also supports various charities in the Middle East and in India including disaster relief. Fitri has supported various projects to help and educate street children in Indonesia.

Asked why she enjoys racing, she told McQueen in her article, “There are several aspects that cannot be defined in monetary terms. There is firstly the enormous thrill of owning a horse that wins a race. That applies to all races. The thrill is magnified when it happens in a big race. The thrill is further magnified when the horse has been bred by us.”

All made possible by not becoming a racing widow.

Terry Finley

Words - Bill Heller

“If horse racing was just about dollars and cents, very few people would be in this game because it’s a terrible investment,” West Point Thoroughbreds founder and CEO Terry Finley said.

Yet he has been passionately invested in Thoroughbreds for much of his life, bringing in more than 2,000 new owners through racing partnerships in West Point Thoroughbreds’ first 31 years. 

His father, a chemistry teacher who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, found relief from the demands of his job and raising seven children in Levittown, Pennsylvania, at the racetrack—first as a $2 bettor and then by getting involved in a partnership. 

Terry was 10 years old. “I saw how much fun they had,” Terry said. “It was teachers, plumbers, state workers and the like. I saw how much fun and enjoyment a partnership could be.”

His six older siblings didn’t take to racing, giving Terry additional, much-appreciated time with his father. They forged a special bond through their love of horses and horse racing, frequently doing double-headers: Thoroughbreds in the afternoon and harness-breds at night.

Most people would be surprised to learn that Terry has waged his private battle with stuttering much of his life. He rarely stutters now, if at all, but it was bad enough as a senior in high school that he thought it cost him his appointment to West Point. It did not.

Terry graduated from West Point in the star-studded Class of 1986, which featured many high-profile graduates including former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and four of Terry’s closest friends: Steve Cannon, the former CEO of Mercedes Benz who is now a co-owner of the Atlanta Falcons; Joe DePinto, the long-tenured CEO of 7-Eleven Inc.; David Urban, a CNN political commentator and a powerful member of the Republican Party and former FBI agent Jim Diorio. 

Working together, those five friends created the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund named for their classmate, Col. John M. McHugh, a fatal victim of a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2010. The Fund helps the children and family of fallen soldiers with college costs. Through 2021, the Fund has awarded $25 million in scholarships to more than 3,500 college students all over the country. 

After leaving the Army with the rank of Captain in November, 1994, Terry toiled in a job he hated, selling life insurance for a year and a half, before finally conceding to his life-long passion for horses.

Terry started West Point Thoroughbreds with a $6,500 claimer and now boasts 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Flightline, his undefeated four-year-old who is currently ranked fifth in the world after capturing the Gr. 1 Met Mile by six lengths. 

Terry’s wife Debbie and their daughter Erin are key members of West Point Thoroughbreds’ corporate team.

Debbie and Terry met in pottery class in the 10th grade, started having dates at racetracks, and have been together ever since. Terry especially admires her tenacity as a mother, specifically helping their children, Erin and Ryan, secure the coaching they needed to pursue their passions. “She wouldn’t take `no’ for an answer,” Terry said proudly.

Erin didn’t let a horrific hand injury when she was four years old prevent her from continuing her riding lessons and becoming a top equestrian, frequently transitioning former West Point Thoroughbreds to a second career.

One can only imagine how difficult it was for Erin to deal with her injury growing up. Then one day at Saratoga, Terry ran into Steve Asmussen and noticed that Steve was also missing part of his thumb. Terry brought Erin to Steve, and they connected immediately when Steve reached out his damaged hand. “There was this mutual feeling that we’re not the only people in the world that had this type of accident.” Erin said. 

Erin’s younger brother, Ryan, an All-American and professional soccer player, graduated from the prestigious Wharton School and will begin a business career with a consulting firm in Dallas in October.

Terry has been West Point’s general, deploying his Thoroughbreds around North America to one of a dozen top trainers, forming strategic alliances and relying on key officers, especially his wife and daughter, to oversee his troops day-to-day. Having been exposed to breakthrough technology in the Army, Terry has been ahead of the curve ever since, reflected in West Point’s website, television ads and customer service.

“He’s worked very hard at it,” his Kentucky-based trainer and buddy Dale Romans said. “I watched it from its infancy—Terry was smart enough to use the Internet and social media. I think he was the first one. He was very ahead of the curve. “

Along the way, West Point Thoroughbreds has taken care of its Thoroughbreds when their racing days were over, through its Congie DeVito Black and Gold Fund. Congie didn’t let his brittle bone disease prevent him from becoming Terry’s first employee after nagging him for months. Congie pioneered West Point’s technology—cutting-edge material at the time. “He was very valuable,” Terry said. “He was everything to our entire team.” Terry treated him accordingly, surprising Congie with an electric wheelchair and customized van that gave him mobility he’d never had his entire life. “It was the first time he could control his direction,” Terry said. “He did figure 8’s over and over. I’ve never seen a person happier or more content. He always wanted to run. This was the closest he could come. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.”

When Congie died in 2011 at the age of 35, he donated his two kidneys, saving two other lives. “The kidneys were his gift out the door,” his mother, Roberta, said. “He was the one who thought of it.” 

While trying his best to avoid the spotlight, Terry has quietly become an industry leader. “Terry’s a straight-forward guy, very honest and cares about the sport,” former NFL linebacker Robert “Stonewall” Jackson, a partner on Always Dreaming, said. “He wants to do the right thing for the industry.”

He does so quietly. “It’s pretty remarkable,” his son Ryan said. “Other people—you can’t get to shut up. That’s something I learned from my dad: being humble.”

Erin calls her father “the definition of the American dream: serving your country and taking a risk. I am proud of him for not giving up with two kids and not a lot of financial backing, and grinding it out.”

Terry said, “It’s a labor of love. I get to live my dream: to win races.” 

Jeff Drown

By Bill Heller

Highly successful Minnesota businessman Jeff Drown admitted that he didn’t like what he was seeing, watching his Kentucky Derby hopeful Zandon in the Gr. 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland April 9th. “When we were three-eighths out and dead last, I was wondering what was going on. That didn’t seem like the plan.”

But Zandon’s jockey, Flavien Prat, wasn’t panicking. And Zandon weaved through the horses in front him, found a seam and blew past Smile Happy to win by 2 ½ lengths, giving Jeff his first starter in the Run for the Roses on the first Saturday in May. That could give his trainer, Chad Brown, his first Derby victory. “Chad had him ready to go; he was high on him last fall and this spring. We’ve had high expectations for him all along.”

Drown was thrilled to share the Blue Grass victory with his mother and father, his wife Jill, and their five children. “It was fantastic; they had an absolute blast. Jill really likes it. She has a lot of fun with it.“

After the race, Drown was asked how many horses he owns. “I say, ‘Not enough.’ My wife says, ‘Too many.’”

Jeff Drown leads in Zandon after winning the 2022 Blue Grass Stakes

Having his father with him at the Blue Grass was special to Jeff. He got introduced to racing through his father and his friends when he tagged along for trips to Canterbury Park. “Lots of fun,” Jeff said. Years later, he got a group of friends together to buy a racehorse. “We had a little luck with it. I said, ‘Boy, this is fun. Let’s try again.’”

Drown’s ongoing success in business has allowed him to get into Thoroughbred ownership. 

He is the founder and CEO of Lyon Contracting Inc., and co-owner of Trident Development, LLC. Both businesses are in St. Paul, where Jeff attended college at St. Cloud State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in business management and real estate.

“I owned real estate before I got out of college. I bought a bunch of student apartments near college at St. Cloud State. Back then, the market was really depressed. I bought them and managed them. They became valuable, and I sold them. Then I bought an apartment building. Then I built a small one, and we kept getting bigger and bigger.”

He began Lyon Contracting in 2000, and it is now one of the region’s largest real estate developers providing premium design and building services, general contracting and construction management services. The company has now expanded into North and South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Trident Development owns several of the developments Lyon Contracting has built.

Asked of his love for Thoroughbreds, Drown said, “They’re fantastic animals, fun to be around, fun to watch race. It’s no different than being in business. You have to build a solid team. It starts with (bloodstock agent) Mike Ryan. Go out and find these horses to buy. Get them broken. From there, it’s finding the right trainer.”

Zandon, ridden by Flavien Prat, wins the 2022 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Racecourse

He thanks Mike for introducing him to Chad. Jeff and Chad’s first home run together was Structor, who sold for $850,000 as a two-year-old to Jeff and his partner, Don Rachel. Structor was three of four, taking the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and earning $710,880. “We hoped to bring him back to run in the Derby, but he had a slight injury and a breathing issue,” Drown said. “He went to stud in Japan.”

Zandon is also three-for-four and has earned $713,000. That number could grow quickly if he fares well in the Derby and the Triple Crown.

Jeff Drown celebrates Zandon’s Blue Grass win

Ironically, he could be one of two Minnesota-owned Derby starters beginning with the letter Z. Zosos, who finished second in the $1 million Louisiana Derby to Epicenter, is owned by Barry and Joni Butzow of Eden Prairie.

Drown wouldn’t trade his chances in the Kentucky Derby with anybody. “It’s my first Derby,” he said. “It’s  very exciting. There’s no doubt. You see these two-year-olds prepping and you wonder, ‘Can they make the Derby? Can they make the Oaks?’ There’s a lot of enjoyment taking a horse from a yearling being broken to watch him train and grow up and see the talent develop. It’s just a lot of fun.”

Clint & Mark Cornett

White Abarrio with Tyler Gaffalioneup beats the previously undefeated Charge It, to win the 2022 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park

By Bill Heller

Some rules are more flexible than others. Clint Cornett’s rule isn’t one of them. “I always said I wouldn’t go to the Kentucky Derby unless I had a horse in the starting gate,” he said. “It was a personal rule. My wife used to laugh at me and say, `We’re never going to the Derby.’”

They are now one step closer, thanks to White Abarrio’s victory in the Gr. 1 Florida Derby April 2nd.

Clint, the founder and CEO of Valutrac Software in Flower Mound, Texas, started going to the races in the late 1980s. “We’d drive down from Dallas to Louisiana Downs in high school,” he said. “I really enjoyed it. It was exciting. I loved the horses. I loved the sport.”

In the early 2000s, he and  his brother Mark, who now owns a roofing and construction business in Naples, Florida, formed Turf Express. “My brother started it and pulled me into it,” Clint said.

In 2010, Clint got out of racing to focus on his new company, Valutrac, and his family—wife Danielle, who used to go to the races at Lone Star Park, and their children, Whitney and Cameron, now 30 and 28, respectively.

Clint & Mark Cornett

Mark stayed in the game as a bloodstock agent and put together two ownership groups of a pair of 2010 Eclipse Champions: Blind Luck and Dubai Majesty. “Blind Luck—she was a great mare, wasn’t she?” Mark said. No argument there. The incredibly game mare never finished out of the money in 21 career starts, posting 12 victories, seven seconds and two thirds while earning more than $3.2 million. She was the Champion Three-Year-Old Filly. Dubai Majesty, named the Champion Female Sprinter, won 12 of 34 starts with seven seconds, six thirds and earnings topping $1.5 million.

In the summer of 2021, Clint called Mark and told him he was ready to return to racing, telling him, “My goal is to find a horse to go to the Kentucky Derby with.” Clint asked Mark to find a two-year-old prospect, “I trusted his expertise,” Clint said.

They created C2 Racing Stable, LLC,  on August 30, 2021. Clint is the operating manager and Mark the racing manager and bloodstock agent. Mark didn’t waste any time finding a Kentucky Derby prospect, though their first purchase, Beloved Warrior, was a bust. 

On September 21st, at Gulfstream Park, just three weeks after forming C2 Racing Stable, Mark watched La Milagrosa Racing’s two-year-old gray colt White Abarrio, who went off at 12-1 for trainer Carlos Perez, win his debut by 6 ¾ lengths. “He checked every box,” Mark said. “This horse had a presence about himself. I called Carlos. He had already received four or five calls. He said they wanted to keep a piece of the horse. I said, `No problem.’”

Clint and Mark purchased the colt and gave him to trainer Saffie Joseph, who has done wonders with him. White Abarrio followed a neck allowance victory in his debut for his new connections with a troubled-trip third by six lengths in the Gr. 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in his final start as a two-year-old. “He was behind a wall of horses,” Mark said. “He was third, dropped back to fifth or sixth, and when he finally got a little daylight to run, he came running.”

Clint said, “We were obviously disappointed he didn’t win, but it was his first time shipping. When he got bottled up, he could have just quit. It showed he wanted to compete.”

It also gave White Abarrio a race over the track. “When our ownership group won the Kentucky Oaks with Blind Lucky, I didn’t go to the Derby the next day,” Mark said. “I didn’t have any interest. I didn’t have a horse in the race.”

Until now. 

Tyler Gaffalione, White Abarrio and groom celebrate after the 2022 Florida Derby win

The brothers and Joseph gave White Abarrio a needed break and laid out a plan to get to the Kentucky Derby through Florida: the Gr. 3 Holy Bull Stakes and the Gr. 1 Florida Derby, both at Gulfstream Park. White Abarrio won the Holy Bull by 4 ½ lengths over Simplification. When Simplification then won the Gr. 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes by 3 ½ lengths, it said volumes about White Abarrio’s Holy Bull victory.”

In the Florida Derby April 2nd, White Abarrio beat previously undefeated Charge It by 1 ¼ lengths. Simplification finished third, another length back.

So, guess who’s going to the Kentucky Derby with a colt who has four wins and a troubled third in five career starts? White Abarrio is certainly one of the top contenders.

“It’s very surreal,” Clint said. 

Mark said, “Right now, I’m going over a million different things. I’m looking at the competition. Doing research. People want to buy him. Stallion farms are calling. It’s going to be a full-time job to get to the Derby.”

It’s a race the brothers have been waiting for their entire lives. 

Jerry Crawford - Donegal Racing

Mo Donegal,, ridden by Joel Rosario, beating Early Voting by a neck to capture the Gr2. Wood Memorial Stakes (2022), earning 100 Kentucky Derby points

By Bill Heller

With an old-school racing background from visits to Ak-Sar-Ben, a new-school expertise based on algorithms, and a unique approach to partnerships, Jerry Crawford has had amazing success with Donegal Racing. Mo Donegal, who bravely collared loose-on-the-lead Early Voting to win the Gr. 2 Wood Memorial by a neck and earn a starting spot in the Kentucky Derby, is his newest star. 

Mo Donegal will attempt to become Donegal’s seventh Gr. 1 stakes winner since it began in 2008 and improve on the third-place Kentucky Derby finishes by Donegal’s Paddy O’ Prado in 2010 and Dullahan in 2012. In 2015, Keen Ice finished seventh in the Derby, third in the Belmont Stakes and first in the Travers Stakes, when he defeated Triple Crown Champion American Pharoah in one of the Graveyard of Champions’ most stunning upsets.

Jerry Crawford

 Jerry has also had success using algorithms to connect on 34 Pick Sixes, though none recently. “I think I jinxed myself,” he said. Most of the scores were with partners; and he calls one of them—his close friend Ray Smith—a “good handicapper.”

Jerry has been a practicing attorney for 47 years and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at his alma mater, McCallister College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He founded and owned a successful minor league basketball team, the Iowa Energy, which won the 2011 NBA Development League Finals, two games to one, over the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. The Minnesota Timberwolves bought the team in 2017 and renamed it the Iowa Wolves.

Asked about his roots in horse racing, Crawford referenced Ak-Sar-Ben, which is Nebraska spelled backwards. “It was magnificent; it was like a less well-heeled Saratoga. Big racing plant. Routinely drew 20,000 plus on the weekends. It was racing from yesteryear. Horses would run once a week. I enjoyed it immensely.”

He said the inspiration for owning Thoroughbreds came from losing his Derby wagers every year: “My son, Conor and I—he was quite young—we were trying to figure out why we never won when we bet on the Kentucky Derby. We started with algorithms. What we discovered was we still couldn’t pick the winners. But if you choose one horse out of five, your odds get better.”

In 2008, he decided that the horrible state of the economy was an opportunity. “When the stock market collapsed, people stopped buying cars, houses and race horses,” he said. “I told my wife Linda I was going to the yearling sale at Keeneland. I’m going to take $300,000 and buy a horse to run in the Triple Crown. She grudgingly signed off on it.”

But instead of one horse, he bought eight. And instead of spending $300,000, it was $410,00. “I’m flying home in alimony-prevention mode,” he said. “But I had friends who had said they would go in with me. I found seven partners.”

And they experienced immediate success with Dale Romans-trained Paddy O’ Prado. He finished third in the 2010 Derby on the way to capturing five graded turf stakes, earning $1.7 million off five victories, one second and three thirds from 34 starts. Dullahan, who won three of 18 starts with two seconds and four thirds, also earned more than $1.7 million. Finnegan’s Wake made just under $1.6 million off eight victories, four seconds and four thirds in 37 starts. Arklow topped $2.9 million thanks to nine wins, eight seconds and two thirds in 36 races.

Every year, Jerry buys eight to 12 yearlings, and his partners share all of them. “This way, if you have a good horse, everybody’s in on it,” he said.

Donegal’s Keen Ice upsets Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to win the 2015 Travers Stakes

Keen Ice, who made more than $3.4 million with three wins, four seconds and five thirds in 24 starts, gave Jerry and his partners the thrill of a lifetime when he defeated American Pharoah by three-quarters of a length in the Travers. “It was an electric moment. The crowd, understandably, was stunned silent. People couldn’t believe what they saw. Larry Collmus had a great call—‘Keen Ice has got him.’ The crowd, once it caught their breath, was very appreciative. At the press conference, I thanked the Zayat team (American Pharoah’s owners) because they brought their horse here to race. They were true sportsmen. They could have ducked the race.”

Instead, Donegal Racing celebrated. “There were a lot of people involved in Donegal Racing there,” Crawford said.

Now Mo Donegal gets his chance to shine in Louisville on the first Saturday in May. The Wood gave him a record of three victories and a pair of thirds in five starts. He showed a lot of class running down Early Voting. “I think, in order to win, Mo Donegal had to be much the best. I was there all day Friday and Saturday, and not one horse closed against the bias until we did. We thought there was going to be a speed duel.”

There wasn’t because Morello broke slow, leaving Early Voting unpressured on the front end. “He was loose on the lead, and Mo Donegal still won,” Jerry said. “I think he’s awfully good.”

He’ll have a great time finding out just how good he is. 

Mo Donegal, ridden by Joel Rosario, and connections celebrate after winning the Gr2. Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, 2022

Frank Di Giulio, Jr.

By Bill Heller

“Patience” and “Thoroughbred” don’t belong in the same sentence, but prominent Canadian owner, breeder and industry leader Frank Di Giulio Jr., has it ingrained. His father, a life-long racing fan, waited until he was 71 to buy his first Thoroughbred, Truganini, on April 1, 1981 at Greenwood. “He was a four-year-old, $5,000 maiden claimer,” Frank Jr. said. “He won the day he claimed him, won his next two starts and got claimed for $7,500. My dad was mad when he got claimed.”

He shouldn’t have been. Truganini never won again, losing his final 21 starts.

Five years later, Frank Jr. got his first horse at half his father’s age when he teamed with his father to claim Sacred Rite for $6,260 on October 24, 1986. The Di Giulios had to wait 5 ½ months for Sacred Rite to locate the winner’s circle at Woodbine by a head. “The first win—it was great,” Frank Jr., now 60, said. “I remember dreaming about horses when I was a kid. As a teen, looking at claimers I couldn’t afford, I always wanted to name my own horse. You can’t do that when you claim one.”

This one they claimed, Sacred Rite, mirrored Truganini’s career, losing his final 16 starts. He was claimed away from the Di Giulios for $6,250, then lost his final 12 races.

The lack of success didn’t faze Frank Sr. who had emigrated to Toronto (Canada) in 1923. “He was originally a barber, then got into real estate,” Frank Jr. said. “He loved going to the track with his buddies. That rubbed off on me. I went to the track for the first time when I was 10.”

Frank, now 60, followed his father into the property management business and became one of the most successful Canadian owners and breeders. He has served as a director of the Ontario Division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society the last 26 years, and was named one of the “Top 25 Influencers in Canadian Thoroughbred Racing 2020,” by Canadian Thoroughbred magazine. 

Four-and-a-half decades later, Frank Jr. and his four partners in Entourage Stable purchased a yearling for $30,000. Frank Jr. had the opportunity to name this yearling, but it was one of his partners, Ed Longo, who came up with the name of Pink Lloyd, taken from the character Lloyd on the TV show “Entourage” and the rock band, Pink Lloyd.

Pink Lloyd winning the 2017 Kenora Stakes at Woodbine, a race he would go on to win again in 2018 and 2019

Pink Lloyd looked like he had a lot of talent but couldn’t make it into the starting gate. He would require a ton of patience.

“That was frustrating,” Pink Lloyd’s Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Bob Tiller said. “It was one thing after another. He came up lame as a yearling. We had to stop with him all the time. A hock. A bad shin as a three-year-old. Dead lame. We had to give him enough time to get over that. Then he had a muscle issue behind.

“I always believe in stopping with a horse when he has an issue. We knew he could run. When he worked, all he wanted to do was run by horses. He just loved chasing horses and going by them.”

Tiller dearly wanted to see this promising horse make it to the track. “I had the right owners to let me be patient. I’ve trained exclusively for the Di Giulios for 40 years. I started with his dad. They’re wonderful people. The management of this horse was outstanding.”

Waiting wasn’t easy for Frank Jr. “It was a frustrating thing,” he said. “He’d work a couple times. Something came up. Go to the farm. Come back. Nagging things, pulled muscle behind, a shin. All different things. Bob always really liked him. He didn’t run until late August in his four-year-old year. I never looked forward to a first start more than that with him.”

Man, was he worth the wait. This remarkable gelding won his first start in a sparkling 1:09 at Woodbine on the way to a three-race win streak to begin his career. Five years later, he finished his career with a three-race winning streak, taking his finale in the Gr. 2 Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine in 1:08 4/5. In between, he had an 11-race winning streak, which led him to be named 2017 Canadian Horse of the Year, and another five-race win streak.

“It’ll be another 100 years before you see another one like him—as good at 9 as he was at 4,” Tiller said.

Pink Lloyd had three victories, a second and a third in five starts in the Kennedy Road Stakes. He had four victories and one second in five tries in the Gr. 3 Vigil Stakes; and he posted three victories, including a track record and one second in four appearances in the Gr. 3 Jacques Cartier Stakes.

Frank Di Giulio Jr with wife Jennifer and children Luke and Olivia

His final numbers were 29 victories, including 26 stakes, three seconds and two thirds in 37 races and earnings of $1,884,584. All but his first three career starts were in stakes.

He never competed in the Breeders’ Cup, never raced in a Gr. 1 and never raced out of Canada. “He  liked it here,” Frank Jr. said. “He was kind of high strung when he was younger. He had a special stall lined in rubber because he liked to kick. There were a lot of people saying, `Run him in the U.S. and try the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. I said, `No.’ We were never really tempted. It paid off with six years of racing. It was all at the highest level.”

Along the way, Pink Lloyd was dubbed “The People’s Horse.” “I think people really liked him,” Frank Jr. said. “I do believe he had a fanbase. People did cheer for him.”

They could have cheered for his connections. “He retired sound,” Frank Jr. said. “He could have run this year.”

Frank Jr. was delighted to share Pink Lloyd’s career with his two children, 27-year-old Olivia, a teacher, and 24-year-old Luc, a financial analyst.

The Di Giulio’s decided to share Pink Lloyd’s retirement with the public, sending him to the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society in Erin, Ontario—the home of more than 50 retired Thoroughbreds. He was treated like a rock star when he arrived there December 8th. The farm’s manager, Lauren Millet-Simpson, said, “The second he walked off the trailer, he struck a pose. He's a true professional. It will be cool to work with a horse like that.”

Frank Jr. said, “It’s great for us because we’re fairly close, and it’s a good draw for them. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Asked in early January how much he misses Pink Lloyd, Frank Jr. said, “Right now, it’s just the off-season. He wouldn’t have been running. I’ll miss him a lot more once the season starts. He was a once-in-a-lifetime.”

Thanks to his patient handling. 

Calvin Nguyen

Calvin Nguyen grew up around animals on a farm in Vietnam. “I hung around the farm with livestock, but we didn’t have any horses,” he said. He would.

During the Vietnam War, Calvin’s father—a very religious Catholic—was a high-ranking officer working with the American forces stationed in Guam. “When he realized the South [Vietnam] was losing, he captained a ship to go back and get my mom and us,” Calvin said. “That’s how he was captured. He tried to get his family out. He was in prison for 10 years.”

Though he was only a child with three siblings, he felt the pressure of daily life of his family after Saigon fell, ending the war. “Vietnam was an oppressive country,” he said. “It was a Communist country, so my mom had arranged for us to get out for a better future.”

She did, but it took years.

Calvin’s mother tried to visit her husband. “She was denied many times,” Calvin said. “He was moved around a lot. She didn’t know if he was alive. Five, six years after his capture, she was allowed to visit him. He was in a labor camp. They tried to re-educate him to be a Communist.”

His father resisted.

Calvin was eight when his family came to America without Calvin’s imprisoned father. “The U.S. Catholic Church sponsored us, and we lived in Tallahassee, Florida,” Calvin said. “Then my uncle found out we had relatives in Southern California.” They settled in Anaheim.

Back in Vietnam, Calvin’s father’s health deteriorated so badly, they thought he was going to die. “They released him in 1985,” Calvin said. “He didn’t come to the U.S. for another five years.” When he did, his health returned. “Miraculously, he recovered,” Calvin said.

Calvin had seen pictures of his father, but meeting him was a whole different experience. “It was awkward,” Calvin said. “I really didn’t know him. I didn’t know who he was. I grew up in America and culturally, I was into certain things. My father was very religious. He had an interesting life. I was grateful to spend 30 years with him. He passed away a couple years ago. He was almost 80.”

Bob and Jackie and jockey Jose Valdivia Jr after winning the 2021 San Gabriel Stakes on opening day at Santa Anita Park

Calvin attended Western High School in Anaheim, and was two years ahead of classmate Tiger Woods. “I got to meet him,” Calvin said. “My best friend in high school was on the golf team. I don’t know if he remembers me. He was already a known figure.”

In Calvin’s senior year, he and a friend, Scott, wanted to go out on Friday night to see a California Angels’ game and watch one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, Nolan Ryan. “He was on his farewell tour,” Calvin said. “I was a big baseball fan,” Calvin said. “I loved Nolan Ryan.”

He had to love him from afar. The game sold out. “And back then, the Angels never sold out,” Calvin said. 

Now what? Scott said, “Let’s go to the racetrack.” Los Alamitos was just a few miles away. Calvin, who had never been to a track, was mesmerized: “I saw the horses. I saw the attention. A lot of people attended the races then. The roaring of the crowd, the disappointment when your horse lost, a lot of emotion. These majestic animals. I fell in love right there. I just fully enjoyed it. I liked all sports, boxing, basketball, football. Seeing these horses—they are so majestic in how they move.”

Owning a horse seemed highly unlikely. “I was 18. I grew up poor. But you dream.”

Calvin pursued his education, graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics and accounting. He considered becoming a doctor: “My intention was to go back to school and get my Master’s, but I never did it. I worked in insurance and in finance. I was just trying to find my way—something I was interested in.”

A single conversation changed his life. “I met a client who was buying nutrition products from Price Club and shipping it to China,” Calvin said. “I said, `You’re buying retail, and you can make money?’ He said, `Yes.’ I said, `What if I can source it out for you?’ He was buying 5,000 bottles of Vitamin C. I reached out to the manufacturer, and this guy’s volume was so high, they would deal directly with me. I was able to do that. If he was paying $10, I could get it for $6 and sell it to him for $7 or $8. Then I said, `What if we start making our products?’ We started to make products.”

Calvin founded and now serves as CEO of GMP Products, more than 25 years later. “I enjoy it, using my college tools and dealing with people,” he said. “It’s given me a good life.”

And disposable income.

Calvin, connections, and trainer Richie Baltas (far right) after Bob and Jackie’s San Gabriel win

Calvin was back at Los Alamitos, hanging out with George Baltas, whose brother Richie trains. When Calvin mentioned possibly buying a horse, George said, “You should talk to my brother.”

Calvin did, and on June 10, 1999, Calvin and Richie claimed a maiden, Freedom Crest, for $32,000. The gelding was second by a neck that day, then finished 5th, 10th, 2nd and 3rd before winning a maiden $40,000 claimer. He was on his way to 13 consecutive finishes in the money, capped by a three-length victory in the Gr. 2 San Pasqual Handicap, June 7, 2001. After Freedom Crest won the Gr. 2 Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap, Freedom Crest shipped to Belmont Park to contest the Gr. 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was 13th by 33 lengths to two-time Horse of the Year Tiznow. Freedom Crest finished his career seven-for-31, eight seconds, four thirds and nearly $650,000 in earnings—not bad for a maiden $32,000 claimer.

Richie took a 4 ½ year hiatus from training on his own from 2008 through the middle of 2012. When he returned, the trainer who had Calvin’s horses, James Kasparoff, decided to take a job with Santa Anita. He’s now the stakes director there. Calvin reunited with Richie. “We got back together,” Richie said. “He’s pretty loyal, which I love about him. We got back together, and he’s spending a lot of money.”

Idol was worth his yearling purchase price of $375,000. Now five, Idol finished second by a half-length in the 2020 Gr. 2 San Antonio Stakes, then third in the Gr. 2 San Pasqual. Then, on March 7, 2021, Idol won the Gr. 1 Santa Anita Handicap by a half-length.

“It was a surreal moment,” Calvin said. “To win that type of race was an incredible feeling. I hadn’t been to a racetrack in more than a year because of COVID. That was the first weekend they allowed owners to attend. No fans. My wife and two daughters were there. They made it more special. I still can’t believe it.”

Idol was training for last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic when he strained a muscle in his butt. “We couldn’t put him like that in that kind of a race,” Calvin said. “We decided to give him time off. He started galloping two weeks ago.”

His absence was eased by Bob and Jackie—a $195,000 purchase who made an auspicious first dirt start last December 26th, capturing the Gr. 2 San Gabriel when it came off the turf. On grass, he had finished fourth, third and second in a Gr. 2 stakes and second in a Gr. 3.

Idol and Bob and Jackie are the stars of Calvin’s 12-horse stable. When asked his goals, he said, “Just to have fun, [we] try to compete at the highest level. We don’t win all the time, but it’s what I like to do. Hopefully, we have another moment like Idol winning the Big Cap. That’s what you’re in this for. It’s indescribable.”