Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Marsha Naify with Gold Phoenix

Words Bill Heller

Seeking a third consecutive victory in the Gr. 2 Del Mar Handicap August 31st, Gold Phoenix seemed hopelessly trapped on the inside in mid-stretch under Kyle Frey.  “It was a little scary,” said Marsha Naify, who owns the six-year-old gelding with Little Red Feather and Sterling Stable. “He’s in there and staying on the rail. I’m saying, `Oh, my god, what is going to happen?’ Then he goes through. He had enough gas in the tank. It was perfect. And we made history. Three in a row had never been done.”

Marsha knows about California racing history; she’s been part of it. She was the first woman to serve as chairman of the Thoroughbreds Owners of California and she used that position to launch CARMA, TOC’s Santa Anita-based retirement program, in 2007.

“When I was at TOC, I wanted to get some retirement program going in California. Richard Shapiro and our executive director Drew Couto helped. We looked at the Ferdinand Fee (a voluntary retirement fee supported by the New York Racing Association, the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association and the New York Thoroughbred Breeders), and we looked at the numbers in California. We came up with an outline that it would be so much per horse just for the owners. And it would be an opt-out program.”

It wasn’t a smooth ride getting it approved by the TOC and the California Horse Racing Board. “There were a couple of arguments,” Naify said. “One was that some owners do take care of their horses. The other argument was we would never get it passed. It was not an easy thing. Eventually, the TOC Board did approve, and CHRB approved. Thanks to Richard Shapiro and other people, it passed. It was my idea to call it CARMA. The rest is history. It’s been really successful.” 

“Marsha has done a lot for CARMA and California racing,” said Tom Clark, who manages her Rancho San Miguel, where she keeps her California-based broodmares. “She loves to race. She’s carrying on the tradition of her family. Her father owned horses back in the ‘80s and ‘90s - she followed in his footsteps. Martha will do anything she can to keep horses safe and sound as long as they can live healthily. She’ll do whatever she can, I have a ton of respect for her. We need about a thousand like her. She’s the best owner in the world.”

Asked if she knew her father would be very proud of her accomplishments, she laughed and said, “That’s true. He loved the horses, we love our horses.”

Her equine love affair began at summer camp when she rode for the first time. “I grew up in San Francisco, and went to all the tracks. When my dad retired, he started acquiring horses. It was a perfect segue - he loved the horses, he loved going to the races. He researched, he grew his stable and had a lot of famous horses like Bertrando and Manistique. The list is extensive. Whatever he tackled, he was very good at.”

Her father, Marshall, was president of UATC (United Artists Theater Circuit). “It’s the largest in the United States.  UATC started as a small company in San Francisco with my grandfather. My dad was president. He wasn’t your typical businessman, he had a real artistic sense about him. He would hang out in a coffee house, Enrico’s. He loved to just sit there and talk to people. He was a very caring, loving man. That came through in everything he did. He had a big heart.”

Naify worked for her family’s business while dabbling in real estate. 

When her father died in 2000 at the age of 80, Naify and her sister, Christina, decided to sell most, but not all, of his horses at auction: “We decided to buy a couple horses back, which we did. We raced them and acquired a few more horses. Christina’s husband was a trainer in France. In the early 2000s, he recommended we buy a couple of horses in France, which we did. Then my sister dropped out of it and I kept on.”

She currently has 20 horses with Phil D’Amato, who trains Gold Phoenix, Leonard Powell, Neil Drysdale and Karen Headley. She also owns 15 broodmares she keeps at Gainesway in Kentucky, where she also owns stallion shares. “I breed in Kentucky, that’s been very successful.”

Her list of successful runners, many owned in a myriad of partnerships, includes million-dollar Gr. 1 winner Surf Cat and multiple Gr. 1 winner Street Boss, who earned $831,800.

Golden Phoenix, who is 8-for-22 with earnings topping $1.5 million, may be Naify’s best. He captured the 2023 Gr.1 Francis E. Kilroe Stakes by a neck, which also was his winning margin in this year’s Del Mar Handicap.

“They spotted this horse in Ireland,” Naify said. “The horse looked good on paper. From the get-go, the horse showed tremendous ability, but his races were sometimes uneven. He has performed extremely well. He loves the Del Mar track.”

So does his owner. “My favorite meet is Del Mar,” Naify said. “I have a vacation home there. It’s 15 minutes to get to the barns. I love hanging out with the horses.”

Naify, who lives the rest of the year in Long Beach, said, “Going to the Breeders’ Cup is one of the things I really love.”

She would love it even more if Gold Phoenix can improve in his third Breeders’ Cup appearance. In the 2022 Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland, Gold Phoenix was a wide 10th at 41-1. In last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, Gold Phoenix finished fast to gain fourth at 51-1.

Maybe the third time’s the charm.

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Sean Flanagan with Chancer McPatrick

Words Bill Heller

The Gr. 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga September 2nd, must have felt like a Twilight Zone episode to Sean Flanagan. He’d been the underbidder on the $1.3 million favorite, Ferocious, and owned the second betting favorite, Chancer McPatrick, a colt he bought for $725,000 a month after missing out on Ferocious.

Both two-year-olds had won their maiden debuts impressively.

This is heady stuff for Flanagan, who fell in love with the sport on family trips to Rockingham Park and Suffolk Downs, and then fell in love with Saratoga after watching Riva Ridge and Secretariat win back-to-back editions of the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga in 1971 and 1972. He and Karen were married at the Big Red Springs on July 27th, 1991.

But Sean didn’t become a Thoroughbred owner until eight years ago. “I know how to bet an exacta, but having an eye for horses?” Flanagan said. “I’m getting better, but I’m still a novice.”

The novice now has one of the early favorites for the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and, dare we say, the Kentucky Derby.

Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, Flanagan’s family moved to Andover, Mass., when he was 14. “My father was a probation officer; my mother was a teacher,” Flanagan said. “She became the deputy superintendent of schools.”

He played a lot of hockey and baseball and enjoyed horse racing: “My folks used to go to Rockingham Park. I was four or five. I remember many Labor Days at Rockingham with five races in the morning, lunch, then nine more in the afternoon. It was just a great place. You could have a catch and play football. We went to Suffolk Downs and saw the Mass Cap.”

One of his first trips to Saratoga was to see the 1971 Hopeful, captured by Riva Ridge. The following year, he witnessed Secretariat’s incredible Hopeful performance when he rallied on the far outside around the entire field to win drawing away: “I saw Secretariat. My favorite for all time.”

While at Saratoga, the Flanagan family would stay in various motels: “We came up to Lake George, went to Fort McHenry. A lot of fun.”

Flanagan attended Brown University and lived in the Boston area. In 1996, he started a business, Cybergrants, a software company helping non-profit organizations streamline proposals for grants. “We worked with not-profit organizations. I ran it for about 20 years, sold it in 2015, but I held on to a percentage. I stayed on the board of directors for five, six years.”

The company has since been renamed Bonterra.

With enough revenue to explore Thoroughbred ownership, He and his friend, Phil Keon, bought into some racing partnerships eight years ago. 

“I remember taking my daughter, Grace, and her friends into the paddock at Saratoga,” Flanagan said. “She wanted to pet our horse. I said, 'wait until back at the barn.’ I had to explain I had partners, and she said, `Since when do you ever have partners?’”

Point taken: “I said, 'well, maybe I should try going alone.’ It’s not easy. I started out with John Kimmel. You have to put faith into good people. Kimmel is one of them.”

Kimmel, also a bloodstock advisor, was Flanagan’s first trainer. Flanagan moved on to Saffie Joseph and then Chad Brown, but Kimmel, as well as bloodstock consultant Nick Sallutso, have remained on Flanagan’s team buying new horses.

Flanagan and Brown had success with Top Conor, a million-dollar yearling purchase. He won his maiden debut by two lengths, then finished sixth in the Gr.1 Blue Grass Stakes and fifth in the Gr.2 Pat Day Mile. “He was training super in the beginning of May up at Saratoga, but he came up lame one day,” Flanagan said. “He had a hairline fracture. So we took care of that. He’s rehabbing in Kentucky.”

By then, Flanagan had nearly bought Ferocious, a son of Flatter out of Napier by Midnight Lute: “John (Kimmel) said this was the best horse in the sale (OBS, March). It was an interesting auction because I was sitting with John. He said, 'go to 6, 7 hundred thousand.’ Every time I bid; the other bidder answered right away.”

Flanagan’s final bid was $1.25 million. “I didn’t want to get caught speeding,” Flanagan said. He didn’t bid again. A partnership of JR Ranch, Ramiro Restrepo’s Marquee Bloodstock, trainer/co-owner Gustavo Delgado Jr.’s OGMA Investments, and High Step Racing got the colt for $1.3 million.

A month later at OBS, April, Flanagan bought Chancer McPatrick, a son of McKenzie out of the Bernardini mare Bernadreamy.

On July 27th, Chancer McPatrick made his debut for Chad Brown. Under Flavien Prat as the 2-1 favorite, McPatrick broke 10th, survived traffic jams and rallied seven-wide to win by a length.

One week later, Ferocious turned in a scintillating debut maiden victory, winning by 7 ¾ lengths. “I texted Chad that evening and told him I was the underbidder,” Flanagan said. “He said maybe if I did buy him, I would not have bought Chancer.”

Chancer McPatrick and Ferocious hooked up in the Hopeful. “If I could get a Grade 1 win at Saratoga, just from being a fan as much as I am, it would be the Hopeful,” Flanagan said. “In the early ‘70s, if you won, you were one of the favorites to win the Derby. To me, the Hopeful is my special race. It’s the race I remember the most, even more so than the Travers.”

The Hopeful began like a nightmare for Flanagan. Another poor start when Chancer McPatrick hit the starting gate coming out, then got hit by another horse. “Flavien said that night he got hammered in the gate, and one of his feet got out of the iron,” Flanagan said. “Then he got clobbered and we’re last again.”

Ferocious stalked the early pace, tried to take over at the top of the stretch, but seemed to idle. Chancer McPatrick, meanwhile, was once again hitting his late stride on the far outside. But when Ferocious saw Chancer McPatrick, he surged to go with him. “I thought that horse was done,” Flanagan said. “He eyeballed my horse and he picked up again. Turns out it was a tremendous race to beat that horse.”

Chancer McPatrick won by a half-length.

Let the dreams begin. Flanagan said, “What happens if this horse gets a clean trip? I’m looking forward to that.”

He did get a clean trip in the Grade 1 Champagne at Aqueduct October 5th, and he won by 2 ¾ lengths. On to the Breeders’ Cup.

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Karl Glassman with Arthur's Ride

Words - Bill Heller

What’s in a name? For Karl Glassman, who named his Gr.1 Whitney Stakes winner Arthur’s Ride, everything. “The horse is named after my dad,” Glassman said after the race. “He passed a year and a half ago and he knew before he passed away that I named the horse after him. And he said, ‘You didn’t have to do that.’ I said, `Dad, I really did. You had a great ride.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘I have.’ He was 91 and had a great life.”

         So has his son, an incredible business success who has become a champion in the fight against pancreatic cancer.

Glassman is the President and CEO of Leggett & Platt, a 141-year-old Midwest-based global manufacturer of bedding products, furniture, flooring, and textile products. With 135 production facilities in 17 countries, Leggett & Platt generates some $5 billion in annual revenue. Glassman joined the company in 1982 as a sales representative.

“My grandparents made springs, and I’ve slept on springs all my life,” he told Sheila Long O’Mara in her May 17th 2023 story in Furniture Today.

Growing up in Southern California, Glassman’s mother’s family owned De Lamar Bed Spring Corp, in Los Angeles. Glassman began working on the factory floor following his high school graduation, and later became the company’s production manager as he worked his way through college at California State University in Long Beach, where he earned his degree in business management and finance.

Leggett & Platt purchased the De Lamar Bed Spring Corp. in 1979, and Glassman joined the company three years later.

In 2009, a bedding industry executive urged Glassman to attend a major fundraiser for pancreatic cancer in Phoenix. Glassman was so moved, he immediately signed on. Glassman’s mom had died of breast cancer at the age of 54. “Funding for medical research is the driving force in pursuit of early detection, extending patient quality of life and ultimately finding a cure,” Glassman told Debra Gelbart in a November 2019 story on the SEENA Magnowitz Foundation website.

Leggett & Platt Inc. has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for pancreatic cancer research, and Glassman and his wife Cathi have personally donated substantially to the cause through the Seena Magowitz Foundation and the National Human Genome Research Institute in Phoenix.

Following Glassman’s direction, other mattress companies have joined the fight. “There aren’t a lot of industries where competitors come together over a common cause,” Glassman told Gelbart. “You can change the world one person at a time through this effort. We have a responsibility to try to leave the world better than it was before we got there. There’s no better way to leave a positive, lasting impact on the world.”

That’s a message Glassman and his wife have passed on to their three adult children, Ian, Nathan and Raychel, and their nine grandchildren.

         He’s also passed on the wisdom and achievements of his father. “He was so poor when he was little,” Glassman told Tom Pedulla of America’s Best Racing in his story on September 16th. “He spent the first 2 ½ years of his life being raised in a chicken coop in Nebraska. That’s how tough the Depression was.”

         Cathi described her father-in-law as a “great man, a very quiet, very humble, very kind man.”

         The Glassmans have been part of racing partnerships since 1995. They formed Glassman Racing nine years ago and now have 28 horses in training, half of them with partners. They also own five broodmares.

         They purchased Arthur’s Ride for $250,000 at the Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale in 2021 and gave him to Hall of Fame trainer Billy Mott. Freshened after finishing second in his first two starts as a two-year-old, Arthur’s Ride won his three-year-old debut at Gulfstream Park by one length.

         Then came the bad phone call. Arthur’s Ride had injured his tendon, and Mott gave him plenty of time to recover. Off for 13 months, Arthur’s Ride returned to win an allowance race at Gulfstream Park, finished fifth in an allowance and then dominated in another allowance race at Saratoga, winning by 12 ¾ lengths.

         It was impressive enough for Mott to enter his lightly-raced gray colt in the Whitney, one of the few Grade 1 stakes he hasn’t won. Beautifully ridden by Junior Alvarado, Arthur’s Ride made the lead and never had an anxious moment, winning by 2 ¼ lengths, giving the Glassman's their first Grade 1 victory. “The horse is named for my father and to share that with my siblings to watch it, and my dad watching from above, it doesn’t get better than that,” Glassman said. “To be part of Bill Mott winning his first Whitney – my goodness, we’ll wake up, but I don’t know when. I almost hope we don’t.”

         Unfortunately, they did. Arthur’s Ride finished fifth in the Gr.1 Jockey Club Gold Cup, but is heading for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. With his early speed, he should have a chance.

         After the Whitney, Glassman credited the people who made it possible: “Donato Lanni picked the horse; Dr. Barry Eisaman and his team in Ocala broke the horse. He had a little bit of a tendon issue and Barry got him back sound again. And Bill and his team are the best in the business. Bill gave him time. Bill Mott is as patient as they get. He’s the kind of horse that’s in perfect hands with Bill.”

         No matter what happens in the Breeders’ Cup, Glassman will enjoy the experience.

         “I’m not a particularly emotional person, but I will tell you that when he runs, it takes my breath away,” Glassman told Pedulla. “When he comes down the stretch, I always look to the sky.”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Atlantic Six Racing, owners of Book'em Danno

Whether you’ve been passionately involved in racing for decades, or was recently lured into the game by your brother, winning a Grade 1 stakes at Saratoga is as good as it gets. Book'em Danno gave six guys from Jersey, who race as Atlantic Six Racing, LLC, that thrill, taking the Woody Stephens Stakes on June 8th. “It was incredible; you had to pinch yourself,” Jay Briscione, the group’s managing partner, said.

Briscione, a 70-year-old real estate appraiser, began hotwalking at Monmouth Park in high school, then left college (Fairfield University) for one semester to be a groom at Hialeah. “I was in the same barn as Seattle Slew in his three-year-old season,” Briscione said proudly. “I watched him get ready for the Triple Crown. I had never been around horses at all. Being young, it was a pretty cool thing. Once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood.”

His partner Mark Rubenstein, whose family business was doing municipal revaluations in Jersey, knows that feeling: “I dropped out of law school (Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C.) to work at the racetrack. It was the best time of my life: seven days a week at Hialeah. I was rubbing and grooming three horses. I just loved being around the Thoroughbreds.”

Both Briscione and Rubenstein worked their way up at the racetrack before resuming a more stable livelihood. “As I got older, there were no vacations,” Briscione said. “If I had gotten tied up with somebody at the high-end of racing, I might have stayed. I went back to school and got into real estate soon after college.”

But his feelings for racing never left him completely. “Always, I stayed interested,” Briscione said. “We tried to buy a horse with two friends. It didn’t work out. I owned a couple bad horses. But I always went to the races in the summer and to the big races, the Preakness, the Belmont and the Breeders’ Cup.”

Rubenstein put together small partnerships with relatives, racing as Red Flag Stable in the ‘80s: “We claimed a mare, Cuca’s Lady, for $25,000, at Monmouth in the late ‘80s. She went on to win seven stakes for us.”

Cuca’s Lady became a turf sprinter. She broke the track record at Monmouth Park for five furlongs, and in her next start she set the track record at The Meadowlands for the same distance. Later, she won eight straight races. She finished her career with 24 victories from 70 starts with 10 seconds, 11 thirds and earnings topping $350,000. “She was our big horse back then,” Rubenstein said.

By then, Briscione had put together Atlantic Eight Stable “Jim Ryerson was our trainer and a friend,” Briscione said. “The third horse we owned, Relaunch Lass, won her debut by 6 ½ lengths on a sloppy track at Monmouth.”

She won an allowance race in her next start at Philadelphia Park and retired with 11 victories, eight seconds and 16 thirds in 80 starts, making $179,673.

“Then we bred her,” Rubenstein said. “She died in foal to Mining. The foal died, too. That was our only attempt at breeding.”

Atlantic Eight lasted until the mid-‘2000s, In 2019, Briscione started Atlantic Six LLC, which included two partners from Atlantic Eight, Jim Scappi, who does equipment leasing, and real estate broker Frank Camassa. Camassa brought along his close friend Jeff Reshnikoff, an attorney. “Jim and I have been friends for 30 years,” Briscione said. “Frank was a hotwalker in Jersey before becoming a real estate agent. Jeff had owned horses before.”

Briscione called up Rubenstein. “I asked him, how about doing it again?” Briscione said. 

Rubenstein said, “Jay and I, we’ve known each other for years. He contacted me five years ago when he was reestablishing a racing partnership. He asked me if I was interested. I was out of the business. I said, `Sure.’”

Then Rubenstein called his younger brother, Jim, a semi-retired radiation oncologist in Fort Myers, Florida, who had never been in the business. “He didn’t know a hock from a toothpick,” Rubenstein said.

He didn’t mention that when he dialed his brother. “He was up front,” Jim said. “He’s done it before. He said, `You’re not going to make a fortune.’ Then he pulled out the grandchildren card. They can visit the horses in Monmouth, and in Tampa, where we’re near. I have 12 grandchildren. So I’m in.”

Good decision.

Atlantic Six’s first good horse was Counterfeitcurency (sic), a hard-hitting Jersey-bred who earned $199,152. “He was just retired,” Briscione said, “He’s going to be a show horse in Florida. He gave us the money to parlay into Book'em Danno. When we buy these, we’re basically looking for a Counterfeitcurency and maybe run in Jersey stakes. That’s a home run for us. When we got Book'em Danno, we knew we might have something.”

They bought the son of Bucherro out of the Ghostzapper mare Adorabelle privately from his breeders, Greg Kilka and Christine Connelly of Bright View Farm and gelded him before he started training.

Mark Rubenstein named the yearling: “I’m a child of the ‘60s, and Hawaii Five-O was one of my favorite TV shows. In quite a few episodes, they got the bad guy and they said, `Book'em Danno.’ I have no idea how that popped into my mind.”

Book'em Danno’s trainer, Derek Ryan isn’t known for cranking up his first-time starters. That made Book'em Danno’s debut even more impressive: a 9 ½ length victory in a Jersey-bred maiden race at Monmouth. He followed that with a two-length victory in the Smoke Glacken Stakes and a 6 ½ length romp in the Futurity at Aqueduct. He finished his juvenile season by finishing second by three-quarters of a length in the one-mile Nashua Stakes there.

Displaying no intention of sending his three-year-old on the road to the Triple Crown, Ryan picked the seven-furlong Pasco Stakes for his first start this year at Tampa Bay, and he won by 12 ½ lengths as the 1-5 favorite.

His next start would be in the one-mile $1.5 million Grade 3 Saudi Derby. “It’s shocking to believe that this horse took us to Saudi Arabia,” Briscione said. “Derek had brought this up in September. He had been approached by them.”

All Book'em Danno did was finish second by a head to unbeaten Forever Young. When Forever Young then finished third by a head in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, Book'em Danno was flattered. Then Book'em Danno won the seven-furlong $500,000 Woody Stephens Stakes by a half-length at Saratoga June 8th. “Amazing,” Jim Rubenstein said. “I was there.”

That made Book'em Danno five-for-seven with a pair of close seconds. He’s earned $835,625.

“To be in the business for such a short time, I know people put a lot of money into this, put a lot of time into this,” Jim Rubenstein said. “You almost feel unworthy.” 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Judy Hicks with Thorpedo Anna

Judy Hicks, who is forever linked to her incredible home-bred three-year-old filly Thorpedo Anna, overpaid for another filly 35 years ago: $10. That filly, Phoenix Sunshine, posted nine wins, nine seconds and three thirds in 47 starts, earning more than a quarter of a million. She was even better off the track, foaling six winners including half-a-million dollar-earner Boss Ego. Hicks calls Phoenix Sunshine “the anchor of my broodmare band.”

Learning from her Phoenix Sunshine purchase, Hicks only paid $6 for the foal of a mare whom the original owner kept eight years later. The foal was Miss Pink Diva, who was one-for-14 and made $111,780. She was second by a head in the 2016 Grade 3 Locust Grove Stakes, but in her next start, the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes, she broke down and had to be euthanized.

Both purchases came from an unpaying owner for boarding his horses at Hicks’ farm. “I’m stubborn,” Hicks said. “I’m a California girl. I didn’t know male chauvinism existed until I moved to Kentucky and that women weren’t allowed to speak. When I had somebody not pay their bill, I said, `This isn’t going to happen, so what do I have to do?’”

Hicks began researching state law and found out that if you give a client a month to pay and if you don’t hear from them, you have a legal right to have a sheriff’s sale, which is then advertised. “Nobody goes to them,” Hicks said. “There were two horses. The colt, I just let him go. But the filly I really liked.”

She liked her even more as the years went by.

Now Hicks owns Thorpedo Anna, five-for-six with one second and earnings of more than $1.7 million in her career. If there was an eclipse vote in mid-2024, she’d be a walk-over three-year-old filly champion and a contender for the Horse of the Year.

But Thorpedo Anna would never have been born if Hicks didn’t save her dam, Sataves, when common sense and logic suggested to give up on her.

Hicks has never believed in giving up.

Born in Chicago, Hicks’ family moved to California when she was six. “We had a little farm,” Hicks said. “We started having horses and go-karts.”

She chose horse racing over a career in NASCAR.

She spent five years finishing a double major of biological and animal sciences at California Poly. She wanted to go to vet school at UC-Davis, but didn’t get in. 

Through her grandfather’s connections – he knew the president of Texas A & M - she got into vet school there. She didn’t stick. “I was in vet school for six months, cleaning lab cages,” she said. “They had this Great Dane puppy in one of the experimental cages.” When she didn’t see him in his cage one morning, she asked, “Where’s Duke?’” She was told Duke’s remains were in several jars. “They had killed him,” she said.

That killed her desire to be a veterinarian.

Through another of her grandfather’s connections Hicks journeyed to Kentucky and was an intern at Forest Retreat Farm. While she was there, she met Dr. Donald Applegate and Cecil Horne. They were looking for a farm manager at their Mint Springs Farm. That’s where she met her husband, R.W.

In 1983, they purchased 600-acre Brookstown Farm in Versailles. It needed a lot of work, which has never stopped Hicks from doing anything she wanted. They began boarding Thoroughbreds, then began breeding and racing them. 

Sataves, a daughter of Uncle Mo out of the unraced Stormy Atlantic mare Pacific Sky, was born extremely premature.

“She was born six weeks premature,” Hicks said. “She was 40 inches tall. I didn’t weigh her, but she was maybe 60 pounds. A few weeks later, her owner came and saw her. Her hocks were crushed. The owner gave her to me. I said, `Let me see if I can keep her alive.’ I named her for Sataves, a Buddhist god.”

Hicks waited three years until conceding to the reality that Sataves was never going to race. “Because of her hocks,” Hicks said. “I bred her to Tourist.”

That foal, Charlee O, won two of 18 starts and earned more than $100,000 for Hicks and R.W.

They bred her back to Fast Anna, a Grade 1-placed sprinting son of Medaglia d’ Oro. Fast Anna’s crop that year was his last. He died of laminitis at the age of 10.

Thorpedo Anna was born on January 27th, 2021. “She was tough,” Hicks said. “She had a mind of her own. She was not an easy foal to raise.”

Trainer Kenny McPeek bought her for $40,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale.       

“I didn’t know Kenny,” Hicks said. “I went over and introduced myself. I asked him for 45 percent. All he did was laugh.”

Regardless, she maintained an undisclosed percentage of Thorpedo Anna, joining partners Brookdale Racing, Mark Edwards and Magdalena Racing’s Sheri McPeek, Kenny’s wife.

“I wasn’t familiar with Judy,” McPeek said. “She approached me after I signed the ticket. It worked out.”

Thorpedo Anna’s first race was at Keeneland. “Kenny couldn’t be there,” Hicks said. “He said, `you better go because she’s going to win by a lot.’”

She did, by 8 ½ lengths. She then won an allowance race by nine lengths and finished second by 5 ¼ lengths in the Grade 2 Golden Rod in her final start at two at Churchill Downs.

This year, no filly has been close to her. She won the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park by four lengths. She captured the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks by 4 ¾ lengths, the first half of McPeek’s incredible weekend. The next day, McPeek’s Mystik Dan won the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby by a nose.

Asked about the Oaks, Hicks said, “I don’t think I expected her to win, but when she started drawing away, I went crazy. I was hugging Kenny. It was amazing. People said, `You don’t realize what you’ve done. The ultimate dream if you own a mare is winning the Oaks.’”

How about winning the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga, too? Despite losing a shoe during the race, she triumphed by 5 ½ lengths. Her next planned start is the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga July 20th. 

“We have yet to ask her to run,” Hicks said. “I think she’s going to go down as one of the greatest fillies in history.”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Steve and Debbie Weston (Parkland Thoroughbreds) with Porta Fortuna

Steve and Debbie Weston will never forget the phone call from their daughter, February 14th, 2018, telling them the horrible news of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people, including 14 students, had been killed. Fourteen more had been injured.

The Westons, who were at their second home in Saratoga Springs, live in Parkland. They met on blind date at a pizzeria in Parkland. They had named their stable Parkland Thoroughbreds three years earlier.

”You always think it happens somewhere else,” Debbie said.

Steve said, “We were on Route 9 going down to a car dealer. We couldn’t believe it. By the time we got to the car dealer. It was all over the TV.”

Six years later, they still struggle to understand. “Parkland is a great place,” Steve said. “We have very little commercial development, only a handful of stores. It was rated as one of the safest cities of America.”

Are there any safe cities in America now? “It’s happening all over America,” Steve said.

Debbie said, “I don’t think anyone in America hasn’t been touched by gun violence. I think the most important thing is to have people remember Parkland for something other than the shooting.”

The success of their modest-sized stable has people talking about Parkland Thoroughbreds.

Last year, their two-year-old filly Jody’s Pride, who is co-owned by Sportsmen Stable, won the Matron Stakes and finished second by a neck to unbeaten Just FYI in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly at Santa Anita. At three, she won the $200,000 Busher Stakes before finishing off the board in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland. She was freshened and is back at Saratoga training for her return.

Less than an hour after Jody’s Pride finished second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly, Parkland Thoroughbreds and Medallion Racing’s turf star Porta Fortuna finished second by a half-length to Hard to Justify in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly Turf. Earlier last year, she captured the Group 3 Albany Stakes by one length in a field of 17 at Royal Ascot, then won the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket. Donnacha O’Brien, the son of Aidan O’Brien, trains Porta Fortuna.

In her 2024 debut, Porta Fortuna finished second in the Group 1 One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket. 

Her second race this year was at Royal Ascot, where she benefitted from a fine ride by Tom Marquand and won the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup by one length, becoming a rare repeat winner at the world-famous meet. “It was incredible,” Weston said.

His day got even better moments after the race: “We were on stage and told the King was coming. He came up and shook our hands. And then I was talking with the King for three to five minutes. He was very cordial, really nice. It was amazing, just amazing. There must have been a hundred cameras. It was a dream. So much more than winning a horse race.” 

Steve Weston, now 78, could never have dreamed of such success when he got hooked by harness racing decades earlier. “I’ve been going to the track in Detroit since 15,” he said. “Also Hazel Park and Northville Downs. All three are gone. I loved the racetrack. I wasn’t old enough to get in. I had to wait for the last four races when they opened the door.”

After graduating from high school, he and three friends teamed up to buy a $10,000 claimer, Our Stewart. “We won our first race with Our Stewart at Wolverine. It’s always exciting. It doesn’t matter if you have a put of $1,700. It never matters. Even today, if you have a claimer or you’re in a stakes race, when they’re coming down the stretch, it’s the thrill of victory. It doesn’t matter what the purse is.”

Yet he did say this: “One day I want to buy a Thoroughbred.”

Born in Brooklyn, Weston moved to Detroit, then to Parkland in 1989. He partnered with Bob Edwards and Joe Anzalone. After Weston bought Thoroughbreds, Edwards and Anzalone did, too. Edwards races as e5 Racing Thoroughbreds and Anzalone as Magic Cap Stables. e5 Racing campaigned two-year-old champion Good Magic, the sire of this year’s Derby top contender Dornoch.

Debbie Weston also has roots in New York. She was born in Syracuse, then lived in Albany. “My grandfather, every summer, went to Saratoga,” she said. “I never knew what it was.”

Now she can’t get enough of horses. Their home in Saratoga Springs abuts the Oklahoma Training Track. “The horses are practically in our backyard,” she said. “It’s a blessing to be there. I fell in love with the horses once I petted one of their faces. Racing is such a small part. The joy is to watch them train, feed them and hang out with them.”

She didn’t begin hanging out with Steve until they met on that blind date. “I was working as a hospital nurse, Steve was a sweetheart. He kept pursuing me. I gave him another chance and I’m glad I did. Steve was widowed several years earlier.”

The Westons began Thoroughbred racing in 2015 and have entered a myriad of partnerships. At last count, there were 50 of them in just 10 years.

They chose Parkland Thoroughbreds as their stable name because of the many horse farms in the area.

Then tragedy forever changed Parkland.

“Fortunately, we didn’t have any children attending, but we knew other people who did,” Steve said. My niece was an instructor and one of her kids was involved. I can’t begin to describe it. It’s a very small community.” 

  The Westons wanted to do anything they could to ease people’s pain, so they named their gelding - Parkland Strong, a son of Goldencents out of Inceptive by Empire Maker.

In a better world, Parkland Strong would have won the Triple Crown, or the Kentucky Derby or at least one of his nine starts. Trained by Abreu’s brother Fernando, Parkland Strong did post one second and four thirds, earning $28,850. “He lives with a person who breaks a lot of our yearlings in Ocala,” Steve said. “He has a good life.”

Better horses have followed, but none as good as Porta Fortuna and Jody’s Pride. Steve still doesn’t believe he actually won a stakes race at Ascot two years in a row. “Oh, it was incredible,” he said. “The way British people treated us; we were treated like royalty. Just being there was fantastic.”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Emily Bushnell and Ric Waldman (Resilience)

Talk about a tough act to follow. In their first venture together as Thoroughbred owners, Emily Bushnell and Ric Waldman have a Kentucky Derby contender, Resilience, who captured the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6th by 2 ¼ lengths.

Emily’s parents, Marty and Pamela Wygod, bred Resilience, a son of Into Mischief out of Meadowsweet by Smart Strike. “It means everything,” Bushnell said. “The love of the sport, just hoping you have one horse this special. It’s really, really exciting.”

Waldman, a Louisville native, said two days after the Wood, “It’s starting to sink in now. To have an ownership with Emily, a long-time client and friend, it is very emotional. It’s the first racehorse I’ve owned in many years.”

Bushnell was born for this: “I started riding basically before I could walk. My dad had horses when I was growing up. My dad started in the 1960s. He was a hotwalker. He grew up really close to Belmont. It’s been part of my family before I’ve been around.”

Sadly Marty Wygod passed away six days after the Wood victory. Wygod, who was born on February 1st, 1940, in Elmont, New York. He went to high school with Bobby Frankel and was a business administration graduate from New York University. In 1964, he was hired by Roy Nutt and Fletcher Jones for their stock brokerage firm, Computer Sciences Corporation. The following year, Jones, who owned Westerly Stud Farms near Santa Ynez, California, gave Wygod two Thoroughbreds as a 25th birthday gift.

In 1977, Wygod switched careers to the healthcare industry, purchasing Glasrock Medical Services. Five years later, he sold it for a huge profit. He then established Medco Containment Services, Inc., and built it into the largest mail order pharmacy in the country. In 1993, he sold Medco to Merck & Co. for more than $6 billion.

Wygod bought 240-acre River Edge Farm in the Santa Ynez Valley. In 1995, the Wygods moved to Rancho Santa Fe, California.

His slew of top Thoroughbreds includes Exotic Wood, Tranquility Lake, Sweet Caroline, After Market and Life Is Sweet. Wygod is a member of the Jockey Club, a trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and a member of the Del Mar Board of Directors. Wygod oversees two Breeders’ Cup Charities, the Rose Foundation and the WebMD Health Foundation.

Wygod’s River Edge Farm stood top California stallions, including Benchmark, Bertrando and Pirate’s Bounty. 

Bushnell carved her own niche in Thoroughbred racing. She is the Executive Director, a Therapeutic riding instructor and a mentor of Endeavor Therapeutic, now in its 10th year in Bedford, in Westchester County, New York. Its programs are for veterans, at-risk youth, incarcerates women and children and adults with disabilities. They serve 125 people a week. “Horses have been so important in my life,” Bushnell said. “I wanted to do something with them to help people. Also, horses need jobs.”

She is making a difference.

“She is a lovely woman,” Waldman said. “The whole family is lovely. I’ve worked for Marty and Pam for more than 25 years.”

Waldman, a native of Louisville, has been around Thoroughbred legends, including Storm Cat, Deputy Minister, The Minstrel and Northern Dancer, most of his life. He began his career at Fasig-Tipton Company in 1973 and advanced to general manager in 1981. He was the business manager at Airdrie Stud from 1981 to 1984. He was consultant and syndicate manager of Overbrook Farm from 1986 through 2009 and the vice president of operations and syndicate manager for Windfields Farm from 1987 through 2008.

In 1994, he established Ric Waldman Thoroughbred Consulting, Inc. When Overbrook and Windfields ceased operations, Waldman focused on two long-term clients, Marty Wygod and Samantha Siegel of JayEmEss Stables. He’s been working with them for more than 25 years.  

His association with Overbrook’s William T. Young, led him to manage the immortal stallion Storm Cat. But Storm Cat struggled initially. “I started managing Storm Cat in his third year and we sort of limped through his third and fourth year,” Waldman said in a 2013 Blood-Horse story by Evan Hammonds.

Working with a star and owning one are different endeavors. 

Resilience is the culmination of 18 years of planning, purchasing and breeding. The Wygods purchased Tranquility Lake, a daughter of Rahy out of the multiple graded-stakes placed dam Winter’s Love, for $250,000 at the 1996 Keeneland July Sale of Selected Yearlings. She is a half-brother to 1983 Belmont Stakes winner Caveat. Russell Drake, the late River Edge Farm Manager, selected Tranquility Lake.

All she did was win more than $1.6 million, taking the 1999 Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Hollywood Park and the 2000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita.

She was bred to Storm Cat five times, and her first foal was After Market, a multiple graded stakes winning turf star. Her second foal was Jalil, who was sold to Godolphin for $9.7 million and won a Group 2 stakes. Tranquility Lake also produced multiple graded-stakes winner Courageous Cat. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who trains Resilience, trained Courageous Cat.

After producing seven foals, all male, Tranquility Lake was bred to Smart Strike and foaled her first filly, Meadowsweet, the dam of Resilience.

Through their breedings with Storm Cat, the Wygods got to know Waldman. “All the horses we’ve done together, talking with him and my parents on the breeding, working together for quite a while … owning this colt together and being on this journey, Ric and I are on the same page,” Bushnell said. “This is our first one, our first horse together. It was an opportunity for all of us to work together, have a good time together.”

She never imagined how good their first horse would be. But it took a bit of time.

Resilience finished sixth, second and third before winning a maiden race by 4 ¼ lengths. On a sloppy track in the Grade 2 Risen Star, Resilience contested the pace and held on well for fourth.

Mott decided to add blinkers for Resilience’s next start in the Wood Memorial. He relaxed well behind the pacesetters, then pounced on them, winning impressively and sending Waldman and Bushnell onto the Kentucky Derby for the first time. 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Dennis Albaugh, Albaugh Family Stable (Catching Freedom)

Before he could afford to buy Thoroughbreds, Dennis Albaugh had to succeed in business.

And though the start of his one-truck company out of his garage in Ankeny, Iowa, in 1979 was an utter disaster that nearly wiped him out, Albaugh preserved and now owns the ninth largest agricultural chemical company in the world, selling in 44 countries and manufacturing in nine.  

Though he grew up on a farm with a couple of riding horses, he was intrigued with agriculture: “I was always intrigued that you can spray crops with chemicals to protect them.” After two-years of college, he worked for a chemical company for three years. When the company asked him to relocate his family to Birmingham, Alabama, he declined. “I started my own company,” he said. 

That wasn’t easy. “I had to convince my wife to take a second mortgage on the house,” he said. She agreed. “She trusted in me, I guess,” Albaugh said.

The second mortgage allowed Albaugh to receive a $10,000 loan from the Small Business Administration. “It was very tough, I was very new in the business. It was a start-up company.”

 He purchased an old oil tanker, bought weed-killing chemicals from a company in Des Moines and delivered them to a company in South Dakota on his very first run. “It was a 200-mile run,” Albaugh said. “On the way up, I thought this truck was running smoother and smoother.”

He reached his destination. “I put the hose in the receiving tank,” he said. “Nothing was coming out. I opened the lid. It was empty. I said, `Oh, boy, I just spent $8,000 of my $10,000.’ It was very scary.”

The seals on his truck had failed, and he had dumped his entire load on the trip. “I called the Department of Agriculture and told them I dripped chemicals, but nothing toxic,” Albaugh said. “They said, `Thanks for killing all our weeds.’”

Telling the Department of Agriculture was easier than telling his wife what had happened. She asked him, “How did your first delivery go?”

He told her. She didn’t blink.

Undeterred, Albaugh got a couple days' leeway from his buyer in South Dakota. He quickly bought a new truck and made the same delivery.

And then he grew his company. In 1993, he bought his company’s biggest competitor. “We really soared after that,” he said. “I don’t know the word `no.’”

His incredible success in business mirrored his ongoing success with Thoroughbreds, which also had humble beginnings after his son-in-law Jason Loutsch, who is now Albaugh Family Stables Racing Manager, nudged him into the business. Last year, the stable had three runners in the Kentucky Derby including the favorite, Angel of Empire, who finished a fast-closing third. This year, Catching Freedom has them returning to Louisville on the first Saturday of May.

Loutsch still can’t believe it: “Growing up, my best friend had a horse farm two miles from Prairie Meadows,” Loutsch said. “We made believe we were jockeys.”

Loutsch bought a horse, Mr. Mingo, in 2003, and shared the experience with Albaugh. Mr. Mingo finished second in a $59,000 Iowa-bred stakes in his second start for his new owners. “Dennis said, `This is a lot of fun. Let’s get more horses,’” Loutsch said.

They did, buying a half-share of a two-year-old Trippi filly for $42,000 at the Ocala Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale in June, 2005. They named the filly Miss Macy Sue for Albaugh’s granddaughter, and gave her to trainer Kelly Von Hemel.

“She took us all over the country,” says Loutsch, “Then she turned into one of the best broodmares in the country. It really got our juices flowing.”
Albaugh said, “It was unbelievable. We went around the country and she kept doing well.”

Their talented filly won 11 of her 25 starts, including the Grade 3 Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs and five other stakes. She had five seconds and three thirds, including a third in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park. She earned $880,915.

But she wasn’t done making money. She produced Liam’s Map, who had six wins and two seconds in eight starts, earning $1,358.940,  Matera, a four-for-10 winner who earned $309,040 and Taylor S, who went three-for-seven and made $121,518.

Tired of not racing her talented progeny, Albaugh bred her to Giant’s Causeway and named her colt Not This Time. After finishing fifth in his debut, he won a maiden race by 10 lengths, the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes by 6 ¾ and finished second by a neck to Classic Empire in the 2016 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

He’d already made $454,183, but he didn’t race again. He’d hurt a tendon in the Breeders’ Cup race, making his performance even more impressive. Retired to stud, Not This Time finished 2023 as the eighth leading stallion with $13,223,548 in progeny earnings. He stands this year at Taylor Made Stallions for $150,000. “He pays a lot of bills,” Albaugh said.

 Along the way, Albaugh and Loutsch began an earnest pursuit of racing’s greatest prize, the Kentucky Derby. In 2016, their Brody’s Cause finished seventh. The next year, J. Boys Echo was 15th. In 2018, Free Drop Billy finished 16th. Dale Romans trained all three horses.

Last year, Angel of Empire, trained by Brad Cox, was third and Cox-trained Jace’s Road, owned in partnership with West Point Thoroughbreds, was 17th. Albaugh Family Stable and Castleton Lyons-owned Cyclone Mischief was 18th.

Catching Freedom, who is trained by Cox, has them dreaming again. “This is the 150th Derby,” Loutsch said. “We know how hard it is. It’s extremely hard to win. There are so many things that have to go right. There are so many factors going into it. This horse definitely wants to go a mile and a quarter. Hopefully, we’re fortunate enough to get a good trip.”

Albaugh said, “Just to get to the Kentucky Derby was a big honor. Having three horses last year was unheard of. We checked the history. We think that’s the record. We’re very thrilled to get back this year.”

Family is an integral part of Albaugh’s life. Loutsch and Albaugh’s daughter Tiffany have two girls, Julianah, 24, and Milan, 18. “They’re in charge of social media,” Loutsch said. “They go to all the races.”

Asked how hard it is to work for his father-in-law, Loutsch said, “Not hard at all. He’s truly one of the best guys in the world. He makes life real easy. No ego. Most importantly, he is fair and honest. He’s invested a lot in the game. We have a lot of fun together.”

Albaugh said, “My son-in-law got my interest going, it’s a whole family. It’s a lot of fun to go with all your family, it’s a lot of fun to get together.”

Especially if it’s in the winner’s circle on the first Saturday in May.

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Eric and Sharon Waller (Stronghold)

Though Eric Waller was 10 years old when he accompanied his father to Santa Anita, he never really felt connected to Thoroughbreds.

His success with Barranca Insurance, which opened in Rancho Cucamonga in 1972 and is now run by his daughters, allowed him to purchase a couple of horses.

“Not Thoroughbreds,” Waller said. “One was a Paint, and one was a Quarter Horse. I wanted horses to ride. I thought that might be fun. It was at that time I realized I did feel something special about horses. I didn’t realize that was inside of me until I bought those horses. I found inner calmness and appreciation for the animal.”

That would be tested after he bought and began breeding Thoroughbreds. His early struggles and then continuing success on the track was tempered by horrible happenings trying to develop a broodmare band. But the Wallers never gave up and they now have a home-bred Kentucky Derby contender, Stronghold, a horse they can proudly point out traces back to four generations of their own Thoroughbreds.

Despite two of their stars dying while giving birth. Despite two mares who savaged their own foals.

Asked how he got through the rough parts, Waller said, “I wish I could tell you. I’m not a quitter. I believe someday, somehow, I’m going to get me a Grade 1 winner. I feel that was my goal. I hadn’t achieved it, so I couldn’t quit.”

Stronghold, who won the Grade 3 Sunland Derby by 2 ¼ lengths in an impressive three-year-old debut, added the Santa Anita Derby April 6th in his final prep for the Kentucky Derby. He is already the Wallers’ highest earner. Stronghold’s dam, Spectator, is second and Stronghold’s third dam, Swiss Diva, is third.

The Wallers’ entrance into Thoroughbred racing was disappointing. “My wife knew a retired jockey,” Waller said. “He had an old mare. She was in foal to a stallion named Lucky Sack. I went ahead and took the mare. I didn’t know anything about racing. I had that foal and decided to race that foal. That was about 1995. Of course, I didn’t have any success. I said, `I’m going to try a different route.’ There was a sale in California, Barretts. There was a mare in there by the name of One Stop. She was by Mr. Leader, in the family of Distorted Humor.”

One Stop is the fourth dam of Stronghold.

One Stop won just one of 19 starts and made $34,985. Waller bred her to Swiss Yodeler. The resulting filly, Swiss Diva, is the third dam of Stronghold.

Swiss Diva won her first three starts, including a $138,000 stakes for California-breds, by 8 ½ lengths, then finished fifth by 4 ½ lengths to superstar Rags to Riches in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes. Swiss Diva finished her 14-race career with four victories, three seconds and earnings of $240,399.

Put into perspective, the Wallers had won just seven of 76 starts from 2002 through 2013.

Envisioning a foundation broodmare, Waller bred Swiss Diva to Henny Hughes. Swiss Diva died foaling Diva’s Tribute. Though unraced, Diva’s Tribute is Stronghold’s second dam. 

Bred to Jimmy Creek, Diva’s Tribute delivered Spectator. She won three of her first four starts, including the Grade 2 Sorrento Stakes at Del Mar and was second to Midnight Bisou in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks. Spectator retired with three victories, one second and one third from nine starts with earnings of $323,951.

“Spectator died giving birth to her foal,” Waller said. “A punctured colon. I was just sick. There are just so many lows in this business. There’s nothing lower than losing a horse.”

But the foal who survived was Stronghold. “Stronghold grew up on a nurse mare, just as his mother did,” Waller said.

“The people at Mulholland (Mulholland Springs Farm, where Stronghold spent his early days) told me this horse was a man among boys, a very classy looking individual that shows a lot of quality,” Waller said. “I took that seriously because these people are commercial breeders. They see hundreds of yearlings.”

In April of his two-year-old second, Stronghold was sent to California-based trainer Phil D’Amato, who had a string of horses in Kentucky. “Stronghold cast himself in the stall,” Waller said. “We wound up missing several weeks of training. Then, finally, things returned to normal.”

Stronghold finished second and first in a pair of maiden races at Ellis Park and Churchill Downs, then finished second in the Grade 2 Bob Hope Stakes to undefeated Nysos at Del Mar. He was second again by a half-length to Wynstock in the Grade 2 Los Alamitos Futurity.

Stronghold’s handy victory in his three-year-old debut in the Grade 3 Sunland Derby sent him soaring up the list of Kentucky Derby contenders. His sensational :58 2/5 work should have him moving forward as he tackles tougher opponents.

If all this is exciting, Stronghold doesn’t seem to notice. “He’s so quiet in the paddock, Phil thinks he’s sleeping,” Waller said. “He doesn’t turn a hair.”

Gamely bulling his way through horses, Stronghold won the Santa Anita Derby by a neck, giving Waller his ultimate goal, the one he stuck to despite all the heartache. “The Santa Anita Derby was our first Grade 1,” Waller said. “That’s why I’m in the business. It’s not about the money anymore, it’s about the achievement.”

And his determination. Achievement can’t happen if you give up.

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Master Piece & O'Connor - Michael & Jules Iavarone

Article by Bill Heller

Is success more enjoyable the second time around? Michael Iavarone is finding out, on the racetrack, where he has reunited with trainer Rick Dutrow, Jr., and off.

Dutrow is making his own return following a 10-year suspension for drug violations. 

Off the track, Iavarone has rebuilt his own business after being nearly wiped out. “It took me a couple of years,” he said. “I built a bigger business than what I had.”

Iavarone’s love of horseracing traces back to growing up in Bethpage, Long Island, when he and his father fell in love with racing at Roosevelt, then the best harness track in the country with weekend crowds in the 20,000’s. “I loved it so much,” Iavarone said. “I remember it vividly. We’d eat in the Cloud Casino.”

In 1985, Iavarone and his father attended the second Breeders’ Cup at Aqueduct Racetrack, where he saw flawless victories by two incredible turf starts, Pebbles in the Turf and Cozzene in the Mile. “I was 15, and that just hooked me. Pebbles and Cozzene. It was something that always resonated with me. It never left.”

While he built a career as an accomplished investment banker, he began to dabble with Thoroughbreds. On September 28th, 2002, at Belmont Park, Iavarone claimed the New York-bred gelding Toddler for $75,000. He finished fifth in that race.

Iavarone entered him in the $250,000 Empire Classic for New York-breds. Sent off at 49-1, he finished last in the field of 12, beaten 43 ½ lengths. “It was my first race ever,” Iavarone said. “He was dead last. Got beat nearly 50 lengths. I realized you really needed money to do it.”

So he formed International Equine Acquisitions Holding (IEAH) the following year. Based in Garden City, Long Island, the business operated as a hedge fund with horses as the major asset. Iavarone was the co-CEO with Richard Schiavo, who oversaw administration. Major funding was provided by James Tagliaferri, who ran an asset management company, TAG Virgin Islands. Iavarone was responsible for all equine affairs. Initially, IEAH used four trainers, Dutrow, Dominick Schettino, John Terranova and Donald Chatlos Jr.

Although IEAH would campaign several top runners including Benny the Bull, the 2008 Eclipse Award Champion Sprinter, and Grade 1 winners Kip Deville, I Want Revenge, Court Vision and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Stardom Bound, it will always be linked to Big Brown, a phenomenal horse who won seven of eight starts, including four Grade 1’s in 2008, the Florida Derby, Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and the Haskell Invitational. IEAH was part of a partnership ownership of the son of Boundary out of the Nureyev mare Mien.

Trained for his first start by Pat Reynolds, Big Brown won his maiden debut by 11 ¼ lengths at Saratoga on the grass at odds of 14-1 under Joe Bravo. He was switched to Dutrow’s barn to prepare for his three-year-old season. Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux would ride Big Brown in all of his seven subsequent starts.

Dutrow called Big Brown “nothing but fun.”

All of Big Brown’s connections had nothing but fun as he won the Florida Derby by 12 ¾ lengths, the Kentucky Derby by 4 ¾ lengths despite breaking from the extreme outside post in the field of 20 and the Preakness Stakes by 5 ¼.

He would go off at 3-10 in the field of nine in the Belmont Stakes and not even finish the final leg of the Triple Crown.

“Coming out of the Preakness, he was fine,” Iavarone said. “He always had problems with his feet. He had glue-on shoes. He developed a real sore spot at the edge of the corona. We decided not to work him. When you don’t do the work, everyone notices. It turned into an abscess. It took away three days from training. As probably the most famous horse, PETA was calling all day long to not race him in the Belmont.”

The morning of the Belmont Stakes turned very weird. “It’s nine o’clock, and I’m in the shower,” Iavarone said. “I got out and went to the door. There are two guys with badges saying they’re the FBI. They show me a letter that had been sent from an unidentified person saying Rick Dutrow and me would be shot in the head if anything goes wrong with Big Brown. I called Rick. He didn’t care. I had two young kids with me. We had two FBI agents with us all day long, everywhere.”

The afternoon was worse than the morning. When Desormeaux walked Big Brown out of the horse tunnel at Belmont Park and onto the track for the post parade, he looked unbelievably upset. Breaking from the rail, Desormeaux pulled him suddenly to the far outside, and, instead of rallying, he kept getting farther away from the leaders. Desormeaux pulled him up and they walked slowly back to be greeted by his connections, all of them wondering what had happened.

“When he pulled up, I went running,” Iavarone said. “The FBI was running behind me. We go back to the barn. He was fine. Sound as a button. We don’t know why Kent pulled him up. He said, `I knew he was going to finish last. Why push him?’”

And the FBI presence? “To this day, we still don’t know about the threat,” Iavarone said.

Dutrow helped Iavarone place the Triple Crown in perspective. “Rick said, `We still won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness,’” Iavarone said. “That day was more difficult for the horse than it was for us, because he didn’t get the recognition he deserved.”

Big Brown bounced back to win the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational by 1 ¾ lengths and the $500,000 Monmouth Turf Stakes by a neck.

Iavarone has much more pleasant memories at Belmont Park thanks to the Cornell Ruffian Equine Hospital right across the street. IEAH built the facility, the only full-service equine hospital on Long Island. “It started with me having a horse needing to ship to New Bolton (in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania) for colicking and we had trouble getting a van,” Iavarone said.

The hospital opened in 2009, closed in 2011 due to financial difficulties and was sold to Cornell University and renamed in 2014. “We built it and it became very complicated,” Iavarone said. “We couldn’t own the facility. We had to lease the facility. It became very hard. So when Cornell came to us about buying it, I saw a chance. I sold it to them. I’m very proud of it.”

IEAH had bigger problems.

Tagliaferri had been investing money on behalf of its clients and receiving kickbacks disguised as consulting fees. In 2014, Tagliaferri was found guilty of investment advisor fraud, securities fraud and wire fraud causing his clients to lose $50 million. Iavarone was never charged with a crime, but felt the effects as IEAH folded.

“It just turned into a disaster,” Iavarone said. “He wiped out about 90 percent of my personal wealth. We liquidated horses and sold the hospital. It sent me in the wrong direction. I was living a great life. I had to go back to my roots.”

When he rebuilt his business, he felt comfortable to return to racing. He became a partner on Next Shares, a Grade 1 stakes winner who bankrolled nearly $1.9 million, and now owns 18 horses including his recent graded stakes winners Master Piece and O’Connor.

And he’s reunited with Dutrow, who scored one of the most meaningful victories in his career when White Abarrio won the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic. “Rick and I have been friends forever,” Iavarone said. “Taking 10 years from a guy’s life? At the end of the day, I hope he learned a lesson. He’s a completely changed person now. The suspension humbled him.”

Dutrow said, “I had a ball training for Mike. He’s got a great personality. I will like anybody in the world who sends me horses like he does. He’s got to send me more horses.”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Nobals - Vince Foglia (Patricias Hope LLC)

Article by Bill Heller

Nobals’ victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint was the culmination of an incredible year for Vinnie Foglia, who races as Patricia’s Hope LLC, and his trainer/close friend Larry Rivelli. Patricia’s Hope LLC was also a partner on Two Phil’s, who sandwiched dominant Grade 3 stakes victories in the Jeff Ruby Stakes and Ohio Derby around his brave second by a length in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. “It was a hell of a year,” Foglia said.

Actually, it’s been a hell of a long friendship between Foglia and Rivelli. “I think it was the Italian thing,” Foglia said. “We hit it off immediately. It’s so cool that we’re that tight. We live in the same community. We golf together. We’re members of the same country club. We hang out together.”

They’re also native Chicagoans. “Someone told me he wanted to claim a horse,” Rivelli said. “The guy recommended me. I talked to Vinnie for five minutes. Same town. Both Italians. From then on, we were just buddies. It ended up a great friendship with him and his family. They’ve been successful. They’re the greatest people on the planet. Just great people.”

Both Vinnie, his father Vincent and his mother Patricia, have spent their lives helping people.

Vinnie’s father was the co-founder of Sage Products Inc, a medical supply company which developed and manufactured healthcare products for hospitals throughout the country in Cary, Illinois.

“My first position in health care almost 60 years ago was as a salesman for MacBick, which sold medical supplies to hospitals,” Vinnie’s father said in an online interview. “I wanted to be part of it. I am truly passionate about healthcare. It’s been my life’s work and dedication for almost 50 years. I love this industry. I know right now that someone in a hospital is benefitting from one of our products. I’ve always wanted to be part of something that matters. And what could matter more than patient safety? After all, we’re all going to be patients some day!”

When his company prospered, he began a legacy of philanthropy, one his son is proud to continue. In 1995, his father founded the Foglia Family Foundation in Chicago. Its major areas of support are education and health care. “As part of our interest in health care, we’ve always supported high-quality behavioral health treatment,” his father said. “We are aware that addiction and suicide rates are soaring and demand for treatment is growing. Much of this care is unfunded and relies on doctors. Yet even with charitable gifts, behavioral health organizations are still only able to scratch the surface of the need.” 

Foglia is rightfully proud of his father: “He is a role model. My father gets pleasure helping people who are less fortunate. That’s what I do. We have over 100 charities that we support.”

One of them, Let It Be, places kids, including children with special needs, in foster homes. “I’m on the board,” Foglia said. “I’m on a few boards, all not-for-profit.”

  Foglia began working for Sage when he was 16. “I started out sweeping with a broom,” he said. “When we sold the business to Striker Home Care Medical in 2016, that allowed us to start buying thoroughbreds.” He honored his mother by calling his stable Patricia’s Hope LLC.

Horses were always in Foglia’s head, ever since he visited Arlington Park when he was 12. “I grew up in Arlington Heights,” he said. “My high school was right down the street. I knew jockey E.T. Baird. I knew grooms and hotwalkers.”

That end of the business never appealed to Foglia. Owning horses did: “It’s as exciting as you can have competitively without breaking a sweat.”

One of his first lessons was to avoid something that guarantees sweat: “I learned that, after five or six years, don’t do the bookkeeping. It takes away the fun. You can get sticker shock.”

Not with Nobals. The five-year-old gelding by Noble Mission out of Pearly Blue by Empire Maker sold for $3,500 at the Fasig-Tipton October, 2020 Yearling Sale to owner/trainer LeLand Hayes. Nobals won his maiden debut at Presque Isle Downs by four lengths and was re-sold to Patricia’s Hope LLC and Rivelli. “After he won, someone presented the horse,” Ravelli said. “A horse has to absolutely jump off the page for me to want to buy it. It was the way he won his race.”

Nobals has been winning races all over North America ever since Foglia purchased him. In 18 career starts, he’s raced at 11 different tracks: Presque Isle Downs, Arlington Park, Churchill Downs, Delmar, Turfway Park, Woodbine, Saratoga, Keeneland, Horseshoe Indianapolis, Colonial Downs and Santa Anita. His 10 wins and three seconds helped him earn $1,453,274.”

Now Two Phils, who posted five wins, two seconds and one third in 10 starts, making $1,583,450, is standing stud at WinStar Farm for $12,500. Nobals is enjoying a well-earned rest. 

Together, Two Phils and Nobals earned $3 million. Two Phils took Foglia to his first Kentucky Derby, and the thrill of finishing second in America’s race will last a lifetime. But at Santa Anita, Nobals gave Foglia his first grade 1 stakes victory.  

“That was very cool,” Foglia said. “The goal from the start was to win a Grade 1.”

Patricia’s Hope fulfilled.

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Closing Remarks - John Harris (Harris Farms)

Article by Bill Heller

The breadth of California Racing Hall of Famer John C. Harris’ accomplishments is so vast, it’s difficult to know where to begin. “He’s probably one of the most influential horsemen in California racing as an owner and breeder, and respected by both sectors,” Bill Nader, the CEO of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, said. “He’s just an amazing man. What an impact he has had.”

His impact was celebrated last August when he was honored at the Edwin J. Gregson Charity/fundraising dinner at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, just a few miles east of Del Mar. He has served five terms as the President of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association and is a member of the Jockey Club, the California Horse Racing Board and the Breeders’ Cup Board of Directors.

His list of racing stars includes his home-bred Soviet Problem, the 1994 California-bred Horse of the Year who won 15 of her 20 career starts with three seconds, one of them by a head to Cherokee Run in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs. Harris was co-breeder and co-owner of the incredible filly with Don Valpredo, the co-founder of Country Sweet Produce in Bakersfield. Harris called Soviet Problem “the best one I’ve ever had.”

Harris’ stallions at Harris Farms have included Cee’s Tizzy, sire of two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow. Harris Farms was also part of the success story of 2014 and 2016 Horse of the Year California Chrome. Both those superstars grew up on Harris Farm and began training there.

The Harris Farm story traces back to Harris’ father, Jack, and his decision to move his farm from Texas to California in 1916. Twenty-seven years later, they established Harris Farm in California’s Central Valley, near Coalinga, a diversified company.

Thoroughbreds are just part of Harris’ story. His Harris Ranch Beef Company produces nearly 200 million pounds of beef and is California’s largest fed cattle processor. Harris Ranch Beef has been in California’s supermarkets for decades.

The Harris Ranch Restaurant alongside Interstate 5 has been a popular rest-stop for families traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco or the other direction It is one of three dine-in restaurants on the vast property of more than several thousand acres. Harris Ranch Restaurant serves as many as half a million customers each year and has won several culinary awards. 

Harris Farm produces onions, garlic, almonds, pistachios, olives, citrus fruit and asparagus and includes vineyards for producing wine.

But horses hold a sacred place in Harris’ soul, and he has bred and raced champions for several decades.

The Harris Farm Horse Division is split into two distinct ranches, 450 acres in Coalinga, from the main ranch and the remaining 140 acres located in Sanger specializing in the development of young horses and long-term lay-ups.

How has he been able to succeed in so many endeavors simultaneously?

“I try to keep all the balls in the air and not screw up things in the process,” Harris said.

Those close to him know how remarkably well he’s accomplished that.

 “We’re all amazed, too,” said Tom Wyrick, the Assistant Manager of the Harris Farm Horse Division. “He’s a very caring guy. He’s good to people.”

Harris went the extra mile naming his horses for his employees. The first was Big Jess, Harris’ first home-bred stakes winner. He won 14 of 69 career starts with 12 seconds, seven thirds and earnings of $152,312. One of Big Jess’ sons, Juan Barrera, was also named for an employee. In 45 lifetime starts, he posted 10 victories, six seconds and seven thirds, making $245,705.

Harris cares deeply about racing in California, all racing in the state. 

On the California Horse Racing Board, Harris tried to ensure the future of California’s fair racing, trying to preserve historic venues such as Ferndale. 

Harris received a Bachelor of Science Degree in animal science and agricultural business management from the University of California at Davis.

In 2008, he was inducted into the California Racing Hall of Fame.

Harris said he was in favor of a recent proposed rule to limit the number of mares a stallion serves to 140: “I think it’s a good idea, but it’s kind of academic in California. We rarely have stallions in California who breed over 140 mares. Some are over 100, but none over 140. One-hundred-forty is quite a few. We breed horses here to race. The declining mares, that’s the tip of the iceberg. The problem in California is a lot of people aren’t making a lot of money racing here, and their interest starts to wane.”

  His interest never has. 

And he’s not slowing down. In 2023, Harris Farm horses won 27 of 194 starts and earned $1,628,186, its highest total of the 2000’s.

At the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation Dinner last August, Foundation President Jenine Sahadi said, “We’re delighted to honor John, not only for the accomplishments of his Harris Farm Horse Division, one of the country’s leading racing stables and utmost influential owner/breeder operations, for which he has been inducted to the California Racing Hall of Fame. We also acknowledge his many years of distinguished service to the industry as a California Horse Racing Board Commissioner, board member of the Breeders’ Cup, Jockey Club and the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.”

Bill Nader, who was at that dinner, said, “It was a great night.”

And it couldn’t have meant more to Harris: “Eddie was a really good friend.”  

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Richard Nicolai (Fortune Farm) – Secret Money

Article by Bill Heller

Before he began in Thoroughbred racing, Richard Nicolai was a devout harness racing fan. Born in Pleasantville, New York, north of Yonkers, he spent many nights at Yonkers Raceway and Roosevelt Raceway. “I was always a horse lover—all kinds of horses,” he said. “I owned a few saddle horses. I rode.”

After getting married, he moved to Long Island, where he began and ran a business of manufacturing light fixtures for 35 years. He spent many nights at Roosevelt Raceway, which once hosted the top level of harness racing in the country. “I was there every night,” Nicolai said. “I had dinner every night at the Cloud Casino. It was so exciting to be under the lights. I loved everything about it.”

Then he got more involved, first by jogging horses, than training them on and off for three years. He had a chance meeting with legendary driver/trainer Billy Haughton one night at Wolverine Racetrack in Michigan. “I walked up to him, and we talked about racing for hours,” Nicolai said. “I learned so much from Billy Haughton. I was just a little guy with a couple of horses, and he treated me with respect. I’ll never forget it.” 

Ten years later, he got involved with Thoroughbreds, first with partners. His second Thoroughbred, Not So Fast, won the 2000 Stymie Handicap for trainer Bruce Levine. Not So Fast would post 10 victories, eight seconds and five thirds from 38 starts, making $318,777.

When he retired in 2019, he was happily able to devote himself exclusively to his horses. “The horses take all my time,” Nicolai said. He is happy to share that time with his wife, Lynn, their 44-year-old son Adam, an oral surgeon, and his 44-year-old daughter Hope, a dentist. “My wife loves it,” he said. “She comes to the sales and to the races. The kids are always watching our horses.”

He named his stable Fortune Farm, and he was the sole owner of Sue’s Fortune, a daughter of Jump Start out of Democrat Taxes by Catienus, who’s three victories in six starts included the 2018 Gr. 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga for trainer Jeremiah Englehart. She was also second by three-quarters of a length in the $139,000 Jersey Girl Stakes. She earned $221,700. “She’s a home-bred,” Nicolai said. “I still have her mother.”

His partnership with long-time friends Bob Hahn and Matt Hand reached a high point with Secret Money, a Good Samaritan filly out of Awesome Humor by Distorted Humor, which they purchased as a two-year-old in May 2022, for just $40,000. Secret Money won a lot of money when he captured the $1 million Gr. 3 Big Ass Fans Music City Stakes by one length at Kentucky Downs, September 2. Brendan Walsh is her trainer.

Hahn was euphoric, watching the race from his home in Hilton Head, South Carolina: “My wife and I were screaming. We scared the neighbors. We’d never even been in a million-dollar race.”

He thanks his grandfather for his love of racing. “I was the designated go-along to make sure that he had company,” Hahn said.  “We went to Monmouth, Aqueduct and Keystone.”

He’s delighted with his partners: “Richard and Matt are the greatest guys to work with. They’re honest as the day is long. We all had our separate ways and decided to put our heads together.”

Nicolai said, “Bob is a breeder, as I am. He had a few good horses over the years. Matt is younger than us. He’s a very smart guy, very analytical and a great partner. We just bought two nice Street Sense fillies for $375,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales.”

Nicolai said a lot of his success has been thanks to Travis Durr at the Travis Durr Training Center in St. Matthews, South Carolina: “He looks for yearlings for me. He starts with hundreds of horses and sends me a short list. That’s how we got Secret Money.”

Secret Money has three wins and a third from her first six starts with earnings of $740,311.

“We bought her very cheap,” Durr said. “We did the right thing by her. And it paid off. She’s a real nice filly.”

Durr said he and his wife, Ashley, who helps run the training center, have known the Nicolais, Richard and Lynn, for about 12 years: “In the past few years, he’s been doing more and more. He’s kind of stepped up and bought up, not relying just on home-breds. He’s trying to get a better horse. He’s got a lot of patience. He’s a great guy, a family guy. He’s got a lot of trust in us. We’ve gotten close to him and his wife. They’re like family.”

Nicolai now has 25 broodmares, half a dozen weanlings, four yearlings and six racehorses. “I’m a partner on another eight horses,” he said.

Walsh has done a great job with this filly. “We were looking for a good trainer with a good reputation with turf horses,” Nicolai said. “I’ve sent him several turf horses. We’ve been together for three years. I have good partners and a great trainer.”

And he loves horses as much as he ever did. “First of all, I love the competition. I got very interested in breeding and pedigrees. I study pedigrees. I have so much fun seeing how horses turn out. I enjoy that. My wife enjoys that, too.”

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Bill and Tammy Simon (WSS Racing) – Brightwork

Article by Bill Heller

Bill Simon, the former president and CEO of Walmart, quickly learned the difference between Walmart and racing. “There’s no everyday low pricing in horse racing,” he laughed.

Simon was at Walmart from 2006–2015. “Do I miss it?” he said. “I miss the people. But I don’t miss a million and a half people reporting to me. When I left Walmart, I was looking for something to share with my wife Tammy.  She grew up on a farm in North Carolina.”

Thoroughbreds seemed like a good fit. Success came surprisingly quickly.
“We’re very methodical,” Simon said. “I try to work with good people.” 

He certainly has two good people—his trainer John Ortiz and his bloodstock agent Jared Hughes. Oritz said his connection with the Simons “has been life-changing. They’re so supportive. They make me better, not only as a trainer, but also as a person.”

Ortiz knows he’s working with a remarkable person.

Born in Manchester, Connecticut, Simon graduated from the University of Connecticut, earning a Bachelor of Arts in economics and an MBA in management. While in college, he made his first trip to a racetrack, going to Saratoga Race Course.

He served in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserves for 25 years, receiving commendations for combat service in Grenada and in Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. At Walmart, he was instrumental in the company’s pledge to hire any returning veteran.

Before Walmart, Simon worked at several global companies including Brinker International, Diageo, Cadbury-Schweppes, PepsiCo and RJR Nabisco. He developed and launched Smirnoff Ice in the United States.

In the public sector, he was secretary of the Florida Department of Management Services, dealing with health care benefits, human resources, the Florida retirement system, facilities management and real estate from 2002 through 2004. 

From 2018–2020, he served as chair of the Defense Business Board for Defense Secretary James Mathis. He is currently a senior advisor to the investment firm KKR and is the founder and president of WSS Venture Holdings.

Because of his vast experiences, Simon felt it unnecessary to hire a top-tier trainer and is very happy he chose Ortiz and Hughes. “I’ve already done a lot of things in life,” Simon said. “I traded spreadsheets and profits and losses statements for pedigrees and Racing Forms. It starts with two years trying to figure out where we could operate in this business. We started with claimers as everybody does. Then we focused on buying young horses.”

He’s delighted he has Ortiz and Hughes on his team: “I’m learning from Johnny and Jared. I have some things to teach them, too. I know how to run a business. This is a hard business. We grow together. Jared is a good horseman. John is an incredibly intuitive horseman. We have a better chance because we’re doing the work together. A lot of it is good, hard work.”

The work has paid off. Bill and Tammy found two relatively cheap stars. Barber Road, named for a road in North Carolina, cost $15,000. He broke his maiden in a $30,000 claimer. Simon told Molly Rollins in a March 8, 2022 story in the Blood-Horse, his rationale for the drop-down after Barber Road finished a distant fourth in a maiden special weight debut: “We knew he was special, but we thought, well, you know a $15,000 weanling running in a $30,000 maiden claimer—no one is going to take him; so why not give him a really good blow against an easier crowd and get things started? And that’s what we did. You have to be brave to take a $15,000 horse running for $30,000.”

After a 6 ¼-length romp in a starter allowance, Barber Road took the Simons on the 2022 Kentucky Derby trail, finishing second in the $200,000 Lively Shively Stakes, second in the $250,000 Smarty Jones Stakes and second again in the Gr. 3 Southwest Stakes. He was beaten just a half-length when third in the Gr. 2 Rebel, and finished second again in the Gr. 1 Arkansas Derby.

That led him to the 2022 Gr. 1 Kentucky Derby. He rallied from far back to finish sixth. “We had a huge Kentucky Derby party,” Tammy said. “It was really a neat thing for everybody. It was great. That meant so much to me and my family.,”

Barber Road finished seventh in the Belmont Stakes and most recently was fourth in the Gr. 3 Blame Stakes at Churchill Downs, June 3. He’s made just under $800,000.

The Simons’ undefeated two-year-old filly Brightwork, who upped her record to four-for-four by winning the Gr. 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga September 3, cost $95,000 and has already earned $444,051. She’s never been the favorite in any of her starts, including a five-length romp in the Gr. 3 Adirondack Stakes before the Spinaway.

“I kind of like not being the favorite,” Tammy said. “That little filly has been amazing. To watch her come down that stretch at Saratoga—it was such an incredible feeling. Her breeders were also there with us. I turned around and every one of us was crying. It was John’s first Gr. 1 and our first Gr. 1. It was really special. She’s a diva. She knows she’s special.”

Her husband said he wasn’t too nervous before the race: “Whenever I get nervous, Johnny tells me in poker, you don’t know what other people’s hands are, but you know your hand. I loved my hand.”

After the Spinaway, he said of her half-length victory at Saratoga, “I never imagined we’d win at a place like that. Holy cow! I’m excited to see what she does next.” 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Nick and Delora Beaver (Bell Gable Stable) – Nutella Fella

Article by Bill Heller

When Nick Beaver married Delora, he told her, “One of these days, I’d like to have a horse or two or three.” She replied, “You better make enough money to pay for it.”

He did exactly that – with her help. “When I came out of the [U.S.] Navy, I worked with a labor contractor,” Nick said. “I worked for them for about 10 years. Delora said, `Move out on your own.’ We haven’t looked back since. Now we have five companies.”

And horses. Since 2017. “I claimed a horse for $5,000 on a Thursday or a Friday,” Nick said. “By Sunday, we had three more.”

Nick Beaver grew up in racing, literally. His mother was a waitress in the clubhouse at Waterford Park, which is now Mountaineer Park in West Virginia. “I never had a dad,” Beaver said. “My mom raised four boys on her own. I was the youngest.”

In 2019, the Beavers decided to buy a pricey yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Sale. “We looked at 10 or 12 yearlings,” Beaver said. “We focused on Maryland Brando, a colt by Flatter out of the More Than Ready mare Apple Cider. “The reserve was going to be $100,000,” Beaver said. “We bought him for $250,000.”

Beaver decided he needed another trainer for such a nice horse and reached out to Gary Contessa, a successful trainer in New York who had recently left the business. “I had a bunch of claimers and barely made enough,” Contessa said. “I had enough with the Department of Labor.”

Beaver reached out to Contessa: “I asked him if he would decide what to do with this horse. Gary came down to Delaware. This horse dragged Gary back into the business. I asked him what it would take for you to train this horse. He said, `Being your private trainer.’ I asked Delora. She said, `That works.’ He became our trainer.”

Maryland Brando made a spectacular debut at Delaware Park, August 2, 2021, winning a maiden race by 11 ½ lengths. Maryland Brando then finished 10th in the Gr. 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga and a distant fifth in an allowance race in Delaware. Given a long time to recover, Maryland Brando returned in an allowance race at Laurel Park, April 14, 2022. He finished seventh by 20 lengths.

Things got worse. “One day, he got loose on the track,” Beaver said. “He ran through a fence and had to be euthanized. I cried. It was horrible. It was gut-wrenching.”

Then the Beavers went to the 2022 Keeneland September Sale. Instead of spending $250,000, they invested $12,000 to purchase Nutella Fella, a son of Runhappy out of Kristy’s Candy by Candy Ride. “He was in book six,” Beaver said. “It was really late in the sale. Nobody was bidding on him. He came out and looked good. Delora said, `Don’t go over $30,000.’ We get to $12,000. We got him. We were ecstatic. We liked Runhappy.” 

Contessa said, “He’s the spitting image of Runhappy. Looks just like his father.”

In 2023, Contessa switched from Bell Gable Stable’s private trainer to general manager with the stipulation that if one of their horses was good enough to race in New York, Contessa would train him.

“Nick grew up in a racing family,” Contessa said. “He was sleeping in the tack room. He’s a very passionate man about the game. He’s a good guy—a very smart guy.”

When Nutella Fella made his debut in a maiden race at Delaware Park on July 26, Richard Silliman was the trainer. 

And both Silliman and Contessa had a challenge. “He had no issues in the gate early in his training,” Beaver said. “One day in the gate, he freaks out. Something triggered it. He was a nutcase. He was flipping backwards before the gate. He became a nightmare. We worked with him. The Delaware gate crew tried using voice commands. They got him to walk into the gate.”

Nutella Fella’s final work before his debut revealed he had another trait—a very good one. “Our horse comes through the turn and almost collides with other horses,” Beaver said. “Then he got dirt kicked in his face. The minute that dirt hit him in the face, he became possessed. It made him mad. He took a hold of the bit. He went right past them.”

Contessa came to Delaware Park for Nutella Fella’s debut: “He was a handful in the paddock. A handful in the post parade. A handful at the gate. He did everything wrong. He broke dead last. And he won going away.”

The margin under Kevin Gomez was 2 ¼ lengths.

“Nick said, `I want you to take him to Saratoga and run in the Hopeful,’” Contessa said. “I picked him up and took him to Saratoga. He was really bad in the gate.”

A field of 10 contested the $300,000 Gr. 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga on September 4. Junior Alvarado took the mount off Nutella Fella’s impressive final work, three furlongs in :34 4/5 breezing. Bettors weren’t impressed and sent him off at 54-1.

Nutella Fella literally walked out of the starting gate. “It was the same way at Delaware,” Contessa said. “He’s pulling Junior and I said, ' We might be okay here.’ He’s 100 percent racehorse.’” 

Yeah, but he was at least seven lengths behind the horse in next-to-last on the backstretch.

Alvarado’s ride was masterful, cutting inside of horses then angling out at 45-degrees to the far outside. Nutella Fella did the rest, winning by a length and a half.

At 54-1.

“We made so much money,” Beaver said. “We bet him to win and place.” Everyone in his family made money.

“People don’t believe this horse,” Delora said. “I get it. He has to prove it. We know he’s a good horse. We’ll see if he’s the real deal.” 

Graded Stakes Winning Owners - Michael Dubb – Therapist

Article by Bill Heller

Michael Dubb’s near 50-year voyage at Saratoga Race Course has been unique and complete. In 1973, at the age of 17, he slept in a van because he couldn’t afford a room to attend the races the following day. In 2021, the 65-year-old multiple leading owner in New York, who watches the races from his box seat, saw the opening of his Faith’s House, a daycare center at Saratoga Race Course for the children of backstretch workers that he built and donated so those children had an option other that sleeping in their parents’ car or spending their summers apart from their parents. Faith’s House is named for his mother.

Twenty years earlier, Dubb donated the materials and built Anna House, a daycare center at Belmont Park named for the daughter of late owner, Eugene Melnyk, who contributed $1 million to start the program. Anna House was the first program of any kind offering daycare for children of backstretch workers. Dubb has contributed renovations for both facilities.

Michael Dubb’s legacy won’t be the races he won, but the lives he changed. “It means a lot to me, more than winning races,” he said. “In racing, you need a foundation to win races. These kids needed a foundation for their lives.”

His would be a good one to emulate. 

The van he took to Saratoga was the same one he used for his fledgling landscaping business. “I bought my first landscaper when I was 16,” he said. “I slept in the van for a couple summers at Saratoga. I was in my van at Congress Park, and I got to listen to Richard Nixon resigning that August (1974).”

In 1985, Dubb began The Beechwood Organization, which has become the largest New York developer of family and multi-family attached housing. Beechwood has built more than 10,000 homes in 80 communities in New York City, Long Island, Saratoga Springs and North Carolina. Professional Builder magazine said Beechwood ranked 54th out of 240 housing giants and number 3 in New York in 2023. Dubb’s son Steven, is now a key player in Beechwood.

Dubb, a lifelong Long Islander, has spent much of his life giving back. He built homes for Long Islanders after Superstorm Sandy. The American Cancer Society, the American Jewish Committee, Family Service League, Rockaway Development & Revitalization Corporation, Mid Island YMCA/Jewish Community Center, Suffolk YMCA/Jewish Community Center, Tilles Center and Networking Magazine have honored Dubb for his philanthropy and community service.

While he has been a partner of top Thoroughbreds Monomoy Girl, British Idiom and Uni, he’s an astute horseman who has made a ton of claims—none more impressive than Therapist.

“He’s a pleasure,” Dubb said. “I competed against this horse for many years. I tried claiming him for $25,000, but I lost the shake. They put him in for $50,000. I got him. He’s just a hard-hitting older New York-bred horse. I’m fortunate to own one.”

Exactly three weeks after Dubb lost his $25,000 claim on a shake, Dubb claimed the eight-year-old gelding for $50,000 on June 20 at Gulfstream Park when he finished third as the 2-1 favorite. Switched from Geoge Weaver to Mike Maker, Therapist won a starter allowance on synthetic by 4 ½ lengths and the Gr. 2 Pan American on turf at Gulfstream. 

Sent to Churchill Downs, Therapist was a wide eighth in the Gr. 2 Louisville Stakes. At Ellis Park, he was second by a head in a $160,000 stakes. 

In the $600,000 United Nations at Monmouth Park, July 22, Therapist won his first Gr. 1, scoring by a length and a half in the mile-and-three-eighths stakes under Javier Castellano. In his last start, Therapist finished eighth in the mile-and-a-half Kentucky Downs Turf Cup. Dubb can live with that. Therapist’s U.N. score earned $360,000—more than seven times what Dubb paid to claim him.

 Of course, all his claims weren’t as successful. 

At Anna House and Faith’s House, all the children are given the tools to be successful. “We give them confidence to compete,” Dubb said.

Dubb conceived the idea of Anna House after Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey told him that backstretch workers’ kids were sleeping in cars. “It just wasn’t right,” Dubb said. “We recognized the need for daycare. I worked with NYRA to find a location. It took about 18 months. We got Anna House built in seven weeks.”

More than 1,000 kids have passed through Anna House, which offers 365-daycare from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are programs for infants from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a school-age program from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Parents of the families are asked to make a “very small donation,” Joanne Adams, the Belmont Child Care Association executive director, said. “We write grants to assist us, and corporations help us.” 

 Asked of Dubb’s ongoing contributions to both Anna House and Faith’s House, Adams said, “It’s hard to imagine any of this without Michael.”

She continued, “He has a big heart. He cares about the people around him. He has shared his early life and what he did and how he worked hard to get where he is. He’s just a very caring person, exceedingly bright. He understands business, and he understands people. He’s happy when the people around him are happy.”

Dubb says of both daycare centers: “They’ve exceeded my wildest dreams, to see how incredibly happy the children are.”

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.”