Cicero Farm LLC (Barbara and Ron Perry) – Hope Road

Maybe it was karma. Or fate. Or pure coincidence. But when Hope Road, a daughter of Quality Road, was ready to go into the starting gate for the Gr.1 Ballerina Stakes at Saratoga, she was trying to accomplish something truly special. As the first foal of her dam, Marley’s Freedom, a daughter of Blame, she was attempting to win the same Gr.1 stakes her dam had won seven years earlier. If she made it into the starting gate.

Barbara Perry with Hope Road

Quality Road hadn’t in the 2009 $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. About to enter the outside 12 post under John Velazquez, Quality Road shook off the shoves to get him into the gate. Repeatedly and kicking. The gate crew blindfolded him and spun him around and that was a really bad idea. Quality Road went wild, bucking furiously, a threat to any human being near him. He was finally corralled by the gate crew and immediately scratched.

“One of the very first Breeders’ Cups we went to was that year at Santa Anita,” Barbara Perry, who began riding horses when she was five, said. “We got to see his antics. One thing I know about Hope is she’ll probably do anything you ask, but if you pull on her face, she gets pretty opinionated about it. I thought, `Oh, Lord, this is not going to go well.’ I’m thinking: `Please don’t act like your dad.’”

She didn’t. She loaded and then won the Ballerina by two lengths, punching her ticket into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. “Who knows how much faster she would have run if she hadn’t beaten up the poor gate crew?” Perry said.

Marley’s Freedom’s Ballerina victory was her fourth straight and she went off the 4-5 favorite in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. She closed powerfully under Mike Smith to finish fourth by just a half-length to Shamrock Rose. Marley’s Freedom retired with nine victories and four seconds in 18 starts and more than $1.2 million in earnings.

“The fillies look identical, oh my goodness,” Ron Perry said. “They look like the same horse.”

Both fillies are tied to famed singer Bob Marley. “Bob Marley lived at 56 Hope Road in Jamaica,” Ron continued. “They’d line up outside his house and he’d sit up on the stairs and help people. That is what we do: give hope and mercy if we can. That’s what we do with our horses.”

Music is important to Ron: “For me, it just gets me creative. I see patterns in energy markets and in life. It’s just a pattern. You watch a horse move. When you see a horse doing what they do best, there’s a rhythm, a flow. There’s a beauty to that. All our horses have their own race song. We come up with a name. What would the song be? I want to hear a song coming back to the winner’s circle when I win a race. During the race, fifty thousand people were cheering for your horse. If you get people singing your horse’s song, it would expand racing socially.”

Barbara has loved horses her whole life, at one point exercising horses for her father, Red Ranck, a Montana oil man who owned a string of racehorses. As a youngster, she would do anything to ride, even when she was injured. She fractured her tailbone when she was 15, but didn’t want her parents to know: “I actually had to pay my little brother and sister to help me get out of bed. My family’s tough.”

When asked if she kept riding after her injury, she said, “Keep riding? Are you kidding? There is nothing freer than riding a horse. The connection you can have with a horse is amazing.”

In 2005, Ron and Barbara bred and raced Atticus Pomponius, named for a wealthy Roman banker who befriended the famous statesman Cicero. The equine Atticus Pomponius won just one of 21 starts, a maiden claiming race at Golden Gate Fields. The Perrys did a bit of show jumping with him then retired him to their home in Rancho Santa Fe, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. They named their racing stable Cicero Farms.

Ron and Barbara made a connection at a casino night fundraiser for a children’s hospital in New Orleans where she worked nights. During the day, she worked in the Human Resources Department at the American Bank and Trust. “I sent the guys at the bank some extra tickets for the gala,” Barbara said. “Ron was the sales person there for Automatic Data Processing.”

When he arrived, his friends told him he should meet Barbara. He said, okay, but the girl he really wanted to meet was playing Wheel of Fortune: “Black leather mini-skirt. Long hair. I said, `I want to meet her.’ They said, `That’s her.’” It was love at first sight.”

For him anyway. “I wasn’t really interested in dating,” Barbara said. “I had a very active life. He convinced me to change my mind. We’ve been married for 34 years, and together three more years. We’ve been together a long time. We know where each other’s strengths are.”

That plays well with their company, Commercial Energy, which opened on May 1st, 1997, in Barbara’s hometown, Cut Bank, Montana. Doing well, they moved their company office to Oakland, California, where It has evolved into a major company supplying and delivering electricity and natural gas to thousands of businesses. By 2017, they were operating seven utilities throughout the western United States.

With their success, they have given back to the communities they serve. Working with two-time National Basketball Association MVP Stephen Curry and his wife and author, Ayesha, they began Eat, Learn, Play for needy Oakland children and families. They’ve also donated to the Wounded Warrior Homes and Energy Share of Montana to help families get by. 

But they’ve worked hard to be successful. “Here’s the thing about owning your own business,” Barbara said. “You don’t get a vacation and you don’t get to retire.”

They do have an unconventional goal: “I don’t see leaving the company to our sons or any of our family. We have seriously thought about the company being an employee-owned business. We want to do so much for so many. Our first customers when we started commercial energy in Montana were all hospitals. I think at some point Ron and I have to figure out how we leverage a buyout or something for our employees to run the business.”

Their other business is horse racing, and they keep their 20 broodmares at Tom VanMeter’s farm near Westchester, Kentucky. “We’re building the value of our broodmare band,” Ron said.

They’ll be thrilled when Hope Road joins the band.

Dan Agnew – Dr. Venkman

Talk about a lasting impact. Washington State Hall-of-Fame owner/breeder Dan Agnew is a third-generation horseman whose family’s company has lasted five generations. Both are still thriving. So is Agnew: “I’m a couple weeks away from 80, but I’m still active and in good health. I do some traveling with my wife Kim. We have 13 grandchildren. We’ve got two great grandchildren. None of my kids had aspirations to get involved in horse racing, but they still go to the track and follow our horses.”

There have been so many, including Terlago, Desert Wine, Top Corsage and Collusion Illusion. “I got exposed to horses as a very young child,” Agnew said. “We were born and raised on a ranch with cattle and Thoroughbreds. I wanted to be a jockey, but I went from 100 to 130 pounds. And I’m six-feet.”

Agnew’s grandfather Samuel began the Agnew Family Enterprise when he joined the Eastern Railway & Lumber Company, one of the largest inland sawmills on the West Coast, in 1903. When the company experienced a multitude of setbacks, including a fire which destroyed the sawmill, in 1939, Samuel leased a sawmill and operating facility and began Agnew Lumber Company in January, 1941. Agnew Enterprises, Oregon-based Agnew Timber Products and Agnew Environmental Products followed.

Agnew’s father Jay was a World War II hero, serving as a navigator in the Army Air Corps. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal after flying 25 missions over Germany in a B-17 bomber.

In 1946, Jay purchased two Thoroughbred fillies by the U.S. Army stallion Warrior Son, a son of Man o’ War. “Not knowing anything, I thought it really meant something to own two granddaughters of Man o’ War,” Jay said in a 1965 article in The Washington Horse. “I was a first-rate greenhorn.”

One of those granddaughters, War Skirt, produced Delicate Vine, their 1986 Washington Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer who earned just under $400,000 off four victories and one third in five career starts.

Jay became a well-known Quarter Horse cutting horsesman, working with a horse to separate a single cow from a herd.

Agnew was born in 1945 and hit the racetrack mighty young. He attended a bull ring at the Southern Washington Fair when he was five, and then Portland Meadows, where they had no age restriction for children.

Then came Longacres: “You couldn’t go to the grandstand unless you were 12. My parents dropped my sister Zen, two years younger than me, and me on the backstretch. We had a ball. We’d watch all the races. They had a viewing stand to watch the horses. My barn was there. We got to see hotwalkers. Finally, when I turned 12, I couldn’t wait to get to the grandstand.”

In 1969, Jay purchased the two-year-old stakes winner Terlago for a sale-topping $200,000 at the October Belmont Park Horses of Racing Age Sale. For the Agnews, Terlago won a pair of stakes for trainer Marion “Smitty” Smith, a Washington Hall of Famer.

Terlago was sent to trainer Jerry Fanning at three, and he won the San Felipe Stakes by 3 ¼ lengths under Bill Shoemaker. He then won the Santa Anita Derby by 2 ½ lengths with Shoemaker up. That got Terlago into the Kentucky Derby, where he finished 11th in the field of 17.

Agnew would return to the Derby 13 years later. 

Agnew earned a law degree at Willamette University and practiced law until 1980, taking over Agnew Enterprises: “I was 35 years old. He was running the ranch. I kind of stepped in there. Continue it. It’s something I’ve always had a passion for.”

In 1982, he and his 50-50 partner Fred Sahadi, purchased Desert Wine, a son of Damascus out of Anne Campbell by Never Bend for $165,000 from Brereton Jones’ Airdrie Stud. Desert Wine would win more than $1.6 million from eight victories, eight seconds and three thirds in 25 starts.

Desert Wine won four of 11 starts in California, including the Gr.2 San Felipe Handicap and the Gr.3 San Rafael, before journeying to Keeneland to contest the $150,000 Blue Grass Stakes. He finished third by 7 ½ lengths to Play Fellow, but was moved up to second when Marfa was disqualified.

Under Chris McCarron in the 1983 Kentucky Derby he finished second by two lengths to Sunny’s Halo. “It was a great experience,” Agnew said. “After the Derby, we were very confident about winning the Preakness. Sloppy track. He ran second (2 ¾ lengths behind Deputed Testimony).”

His four-year-old season included Grade 1 victories in the Charles H. Strub, Californian and the Hollywood Gold Cup over John Henry, but his final two career starts didn’t go well: “My partner wanted to try him on grass, and we ran in the Arlington Million. Big rain storm. We ran horribly (finishing 12th).”

Then Dessert Wine became part of history, starting in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic at Hollywood Park in 1984. He finished fifth as Wild Event and jockey Pat Day held on to a narrow victory.

Desert Wine, who had earned more than $1.1 million off 15 victories in 53 starts, was retired to stud. “He was a bust as a stallion pretty much,” Agnew said. “He ended up standing in Washington for $2,500.”

Many talented Agnew runners followed as he became an important figure in Washington history, a second-generation president of the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders Association for 15 years. In 2006, the WTBA honored Agnew with its most prestigious honor, the S.J. Agnew Special Achievement Award, named for his grandfather. He was inducted into the Washington Racing Hall of Fame in 2007.

He's campaigned many fine horses since including 2020 Gr.1 Bing Crosby Stakes winner, Collusion Illusion, who finished 12th in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Dr. Venkman (white cap)

Dr. Venkman, whom he owns with Clint Bunch, James Hailey and Mark Cohen’s Allipony Racing, will try to do better in this year’s Breeders’ Cup either in the Dirt Mile or the Sprint.

Meanwhile, the Agnew company evolved: “We were in the timber business. We sold some of our timberlands, then got into the beverage distribution industry with beer, wine and soft drinks. We sold that business in 2012. After that, my family came together and we pooled our resources into a single family investment for members of our families. I retired a couple years ago as chairman.” 

That allowed him to focus on his horses. With Kim of course: “When we got married 25 years ago, she didn’t know which end of a horse eats. Now, she goes to the races and enjoys it.”

With her family of course.

Ned Toffey (Spendthrift Farm General Manager) – Tommy Jo and Ted Noffey

Ned Toffey (pink tie) after the 2025 Spendthrift Hopeful Stakes

Ned Toffey’s interest in horses was kindled when his family moved from Columbus, Ohio, to Great Barrington, Massachusetts, when he was five years old: “My dad was teaching at a very small college. We had a big old dairy barn. There were two stalls in there. We had a little Morgan and the other a part-Thoroughbred gray. We had them for years. I grew up with my sister and brothers. We did a lot of trail riding along the Green River. I really didn’t know what drew me into it, but I had a fascination with horses. I would read anything I could get my hands on. I always had a fascination with it. I think that probably Secretariat coming along when he did set the hook.”    

The Great Barrington Fair was part of the Massachusetts fair circuit. “We’d go to the races at the fair for years,” Toffey said. “We were more interested in the fair than the racing, but I do remember we would hang out near the $50 ticket window and listen to what was going on. We’d send up my older brother to bet.”

In August, 1974, Toffey’s father took him to Saratoga: “The cool thing was we wandered over to the Hall of Fame. We got to see Secretariat inducted. They set up an old LP record of Secretariat’s race calls in his career. I saw Ron Turcotte and Penny and Laurin. I remember a Ron Turcotte quote, that he had never been on a horse that moved so easily and went so fast and kept going.”

Toffey could have never dreamed that one day that a horse would be kind of named for him, would win the same Saratoga stakes Secretariat did.

Toffey attended the University of Massachusetts and surprised everyone when he was a walk-on tight end on the football team: “I’d never brag about it. I considered myself a better baseball player. They said, `No thank you.’ In the spring of my sophomore year. I walked on the football team. I was a skinny, late-developing kid. I was a tight end. I was just good enough to win a scholarship. I was no superstar by any stretch.”

However, he did convince the University of Massachusetts to let him do an internship at a breeding farm, Manganaro Stables in Kentucky, thanks to his roommate and teammate Paul Manganaro. “I thought I was pretty clever putting together an internship at that stable. I don’t know if anyone ever got more out of an internship. I don’t think I appreciated at the time the caliber of people I was exposed to.” 

In the summer of 1986, Toffey and Manganaro spent the summer in Kentucky visiting as many breeding farms as they could, including Claiborne Farm, where Toffey got to see Secretariat.

After graduating with a degree in Sports Management, Toffey began his horse career as a groom at Kinderhill in Old Chatham, New York: “The more I did hands-on work with horses, the more I loved it.”

He spent a year at Kinderhill, then worked at Prantlack Farm in Stanfordville in New York. After moving to Lexington with his wife. Katie, Toffey worked at Brookdale Farm doing just about everything, then served as Broodmare Manager at Dixiana Farm and at Three Chimneys. Toffey spent seven years at Three Chimneys before joining B. Wayne Hughes at Spendthrift Farm in 2004.

Twenty years later, Toffey was honored as the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club Farm Manager of the Year. “If you’re around long enough, they just give it to you,” Toffey laughed.

On Twitter, a tease for the next issue of Blood-Horse featuring a story about Toffey winning that award, Ned Toffey had been mentioned as ‘Ted Noffey’. Toffey’s daughter Megan noticed the mistake and sent it a correction. But that’s not all she did. “She took a snapshot of it and sent it to my boss (Spendthrift Farm owner Eric Gustavson),” Toffey said. “All of this was unknown to me. He apparently said, `I know what to do with this.’”

The following summer, Toffey got a text saying that Ted Noffey just breezed a half-mile :47: “I got no warning about it. My first goal was, just let him be faster than me, and he’s definitely accomplished that.”

And then some. 

On July 26th at Saratoga, Tommy Jo, a Spendthrift Farm home-bred two-year-old filly by Into Mischief, well on his way to a seventh consecutive leading stallion year at Spendthrift Farm, drew off to a 3 ¼ length victory under John Velazquez for trainer Todd Pletcher. She was named for Gustavson’s first granddaughter.

Exactly a week later, Ted Noffey, a son of Into Mischief, won his debut for Pletcher/Velazquez by a length and a quarter.

Both Tommy Jo and Ted Noffey were pointed to the final weekend of the Saratoga season. Tommy Jo would contest the Grade 1 Spinaway on Saturday, August 30th, and, two days later on closing day, September 1st, Ted Noffey would race in the Hopeful, a race Secretariat dominated 53 years ago.

Tommy Jo won the Spinaway powerfully by 6 ½ lengths with Kendrick Carmouche subbing for Velazquez. “It was nice when Tommy Jo won,” Toffey said. “Three of my four kids were there. It was cool having them cheer. It was especially nice because that was a home-bred.”

The Spinaway began an unforgettable weekend for Pletcher: four Grade 1s in three days. “I don’t know if we ever had a weekend like that,” said Pletcher, who rallied to tie Chad Brown for the Saratoga training title on the final day of the meet. 

In the Hopeful, Ted Noffey broke first, settled nicely off the pace, took over on the far turn and drew off to an 8 ½-length score. Toffey is still trying to believe that powerful performance: “It’s very nice to work for people who would think to include my name. I wish my parents would have been there. The funny thing is that we thought Tommy Jo was pretty special and that Ted Noffey was pretty good. She did nothing to disprove that. The way Ted Noffey dragged Johnny past those other horses and then explode, and then Johnny said it was hard to pull him up.

“As a kid who was a fan of Secretariat, I think back from then and now. To have this horse win this race that way, it’s an important goal for our farm. Everyone on the farm can share in that success. Tremendous professional satisfaction. I’m very happy for the ownership. Going back to my earliest involvement, the Hopeful was very special on so many different fronts. It sure is a lot of fun.”

Trying not to mix up Ned Toffey and Ted Noffey, Pletcher said, “I have confused them. You’ve got to think about it. It’s taken on a little life on its own now.”

Toffey (owner) admitted, “I have gotten it wrong once or twice.”

David Romanik (Argos)

Thirty-six years have given David Romanik a healthy perspective on racing a horse in the Breeders’ Cup. In 1989, his three-year-old colt Caltech finished fifth in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park, where Romanick served as an attorney and was once track president briefly in 2000. 

“It’s been 36 years and it’s not that I haven’t been nominating horses for the Breeders’ Cup,” Romanik said. “I’ve come to appreciate how great a horse Caltech was. I didn’t really appreciate how hard it is to get there, to the Breeders’ Cup. Horses that get there are in rarified air.”

Argos will take Romanik back to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar to contest the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf off his dramatic head victory under Flavien Prat in the one-mile Gr.1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine. “Flavien is a European-type rider,” Romanik said. “They like to win at the wire and give you a heart attack.”

To make that afternoon even sweeter, just a little bit more than an hour after the Summer Stakes, Romanik’s Private Thoughts won a $53,700 allowance/optional $25,000 claimer by two lengths at Gulfstream Park.

Romanik is a racing lifer. It’s in his genes; his family history is tied to racing in South Florida: “Gulfstream Park re-opened in 1944, and my grandfather Benny was the comptroller and a stockholder in the beginning. Someone asked me how long I was involved in Gulfstream. I have a picture. I was five years old and I had a corncob pipe in my mouth in my grandfather’s office at Gulfstream Park. He was a horrible handicapper. He’d leave his picks by program number on his door every day. One day, people said, `Benny, you’re having a great day,’ and he hadn’t cashed a ticket. He found out he had left the prior day’s selections on the door and they hit eight of nine races. It’s racetrack lore.”

Romanik’s father, Leonard, was an attorney who graduated from the University of Miami Law School. “He was hired by a firm that was doing Gulfstream Park’s legal work at the time,” Romanik said. “He retired in 1981, and I took over.”

 His father died on November 2nd, 2023, four days after a car crash which took the life of Romanik’s brother-in-law: “My dad was 97. He had a property in Maine he visited in the summer. They were driving back. They were driving through Maryland. He was with his sister and my brother-in-law. Some car going 100 miles an hour back-ended them. I lost my brother-in-law. He was in the front seat. He died instantaneously. My dad survived, but only for four days.”

Romanik, who will celebrate his 74th birthday a week after the Breeders’ Cup, was born in Miami Beach and lived in Hollywood most of his life. He attended Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1973. He got his doctorate at the University of Florida with honors two years later. Romanik worked at Romanik Lavin Huss & Paoli in Hollywood specializing in Pari-Mutuel Gaming Law, Administrative Law and Real Estate Law and is still practicing.   

He’s been living in Ocala since 2009: “I do a little bit of a law practice there. I used to joke that the only reason I go to work is to pay for my horses. I wanted to move up here because I really wanted to be more of a horseman than a lawyer.”

His first horse was Zero Coupon, who had been offered as a payment for a lawyer fee to one of his friends, Brad Beilly. He offered a third of the horse to Romanik. Zero Coupon won a maiden race at Gulfstream Park and then finished a distant third in a $25,000 stakes in 1987. “It got me in the game,” Romanik said.

Caltech gave Romanik and his partners, Beilly and Beilly’s father, quite a ride two years later. After finishing ninth and first in a pair of $25,000 claiming races, Caltech upped his game to a new level for trainer Eduardo Azpurua Jr. He won four straight: an allowance race and a $75,000 stakes at Calder, a $100,000 stakes at Belmont Park and the $750,000 International at Laurel Park by 1 ¾ lengths over the talented Yankee Affair, who had won the Grade 1 Man o’ War and Turf Classic.

The Breeders’ Cup Turf was next.

Sent off at 4-1 under Rene Douglas in the field of 14, Caltech broke first then ceded the lead to Ile de Chypre. Caltech stalked him in second the whole way, then took the lead at the top of the stretch. In deep stretch, he tired, finishing fifth, 4 ½ lengths behind Prized.

 “The mile and a half was just a little beyond his compass,” Romanik said. “I just don’t think Caltech was bred to go a mile and a half against the best horses in the world.”

Caltech, raced only three times after the Breeders’ Cup Turf, finishing sixth, third and sixth, bowing a tendon and then re-bowing it. He recovered only to lose his rider during a workout: “The rider fell off him in the morning. He crashed into an outside fence and broke a leg and we had to put him down. I’m glad I wasn’t there that day. I didn’t go back to the track for a couple months. It was really just devastating.”

He recovered and now is involved with some 20 horses including partnerships. And he has his second Breeders’ Cup starter. “Winning never gets old,” Romanik said. “The fact that he won the Summer Stakes verified me still being in the game.”

He never left.

Mallory and Karen Mort - Rhetorical & Martin Zaretsky (Pine Ridge Stables) - Iron Orchard

There are plenty of Breeders’ Cup starters that hail from large breeding operations, some of them international. Small-time breeders have starters this year, too, thanks to the Breeders’ Cup `Win-And You’re In’ Series and a pair of talented New York-breds.

Mallory and Karen Mort

“It is very exciting and a little unbelievable,” Karen Mort said. “We’re a small breeder. We’ve had one mare a year.”

They had the right one, Sheet Humor, produced Rhetorical  - now a four-year-old gelding by Not This Time. He won the Gr.1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland by three-quarters of a length at Keeneland Oct. 4th. 

“Obviously, it was very exciting,” Mallory Mort said. “We knew he was a pretty good horse. It’s very exciting. Very satisfying.”

Mallory grew up in southern Pennsylvania, where he showed horses and rode in 4H. He graduated from Penn State with a Bachelor of Science degree after participating in the university’s Quarter Horse program. “They have a great Quarter Horse program,” Mallory said.

He landed a job at Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent, N.Y. in 1979. He never left and has managed the entire farm operation since 2005. “Gallagher’s Stud was looking for someone,” Mallory said. “It’s been a great relationship.”

The Morts usually bred one mare a year on their own, but stopped briefly after a couple of misses. “My wife suggested, actually insisted, that we buy one mare,” Mallory said. 

That mare, Sheet Humor also produced Sterling Silver, who posted nine victories, including a Gr. 2 stakes, and earned more than $1.1 million. Unfortunately, they sold Sheet Humor a month before Sterling Silver won her debut.

The Morts were celebrating their anniversary out of town when Rhetorical stepped into the starting gate at Keeneland for owners Gary Barber, Cheyenne Stable and Wachtel Stables. “We could only watch it on an I-pad,” Karen said. “It was a very nice anniversary present for him to win.” 

Iron Orchid (blue cap)

Just three hours before Rhetorical’s victory, the undefeated New York-bred Iron Orchard, contested the Gr.1 Frizette at Aqueduct. Benefitting from a perfect ride by Joel Rosario, Iron Orchard won the Frizette by a nose. Now three-for-three, she will next start in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly.      

The daughter of Authentic out of Onebrethatatime, by Brethren, was bred by Martin Zaretsky’s Pine Ridge Stables. Zaretsky made his living in the packaging business, making folding cartons for cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies. He races a handful of horses with trainer Linda Rice.

His entry into horse racing came from a love of skiing. Living in Manhattan, he’d take his three children, Dina, Craig, and Blake, to upstate New York for weekends from January to March. He happened to read an ad in the New York Times for a farm that was for sale, near several ski resorts owned by Lucy Arnaz - the daughter of the comic and movie legend Lucille Ball, and her husband. 

Zaretsky didn’t purchase that house, but his real estate agent offered another property nearby in North Chatham which became Pine Ridge. 

He got into horseback riding with his kids and fox hunting. When he wanted to breed his own horses, his buddy Jerry Bilinski, a prominent breeder at Waldorf Farm - who served as the Chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board, suggested buying a Thoroughbred.  

“I used to have 15 mares, but when I retired at 78, I sold a lot of my horses,” Zaretsky said. “I’m 82, so I’m somewhat geared down.”

Yet he’s headed for the Breeders’ Cup with his first Gr.1 winner. “Isn’t that amazing?” he said.  

Gabriel “Spider” and Aisling Duignan with Echo Sound

An owner’s thrill winning a graded stakes is even greater when that horse is a home-bred. And if there’s a special bond between horse and owner, so much the better.

Gabriel “Spider” Duignan, who usually doesn’t keep the fillies and colts he breeds, knows that feeling. When Echo Sound, a daughter by Echo Town out of Eagle Sound by Fusaichi Pegasus, who was co-bred by Vision TBs and Bruce and Patricia Pieratt, captured the Gr.3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico May 16th, Duignan and his wife Aisling had completed a personal vow.

“What makes her special was her mother was very special to us and very good to us and a great producer,” Duignan said. “I think she was the first mare we bought together. She was getting older, and she hemorrhaged and died shortly after birth, a couple hours after giving birth. That’s never nice to watch, but it happens. That was her first filly. She’s a home-bred. From that standpoint, it makes her a little special. We vowed that we’d keep Echo Sound.”

They’ve never regretted that decision.

Echo Sound was born on the Duignan’s 300-acre Springhouse Farm near Lexington, not far from Ashford Stud, where Aisling works as the Director of Bloodstock. They own half of the 100 Thoroughbreds living there. The other half belongs to their clients.

The Duignans purchased Eagle Sound for $70,000. Before Echo Sound, she had produced eight winners. She was 19 when she foaled Echo Sound. 

Echo Sound has won five of her six starts and made over $450,000 under the care of trainer Rusty Arnold. Her last race was a 4 ¼ length romp at Saratoga in the G. 3 Victory Ride Stakes at Saratoga July 3rd. That was sweet for Arnold, who trained Victory Ride: “It’s a really good thing to run in a race named after one of your horses. Not many people get to do that. So it’s fun.” Duignan said simply, “Today was her best race.”

Echo Sound is the first horse Arnold has trained for Duignan: “I have known Spider for a long time through the sales and being around Keeneland. I hadn’t trained for Spider. About a year ago, when the filly went to Florida to be broken, he approached me and said, `Hey, I’ve got a filly we’re going to put in training and I’d like to give you this filly.’ I said, `I’d love to have her.’”

He’s been smiling ever since: “As owners, they’re the greatest. He said, `My deal is I send you the horse and you drive the car and just tell us how she’s doing and where we want to go and what you want to, and we’re on board.’ He said this was his mare’s last foal and he wanted to replace the mare with her.

“They’re horse people, he and his wife. They’re wonderful people.”

They have made a substantial impact in Thoroughbred racing ever since Duignan emigrated from Ireland to America with a plan he never followed four decades ago.

“I’ve been lucky. I’ve definitely been lucky,” Duignan said. “I was just one of those kids born with a love of horses. I started out with ponies. I realized I couldn’t make it as a rider.”

He took a job at Airlie Stud, succeeding a worker nicknamed Spider. When his boss at Airlie struggled to pronounce Duignan’s name, he gave him the same nickname. It’s stuck for the rest of his life.

At Airlie, Duignan met the veterinarian, John Hughes, who took a personal interest in him and arranged a job for him across the Atlantic: “John Hughes sent me to America to Bill O’Neill at Circle O Farm. I’ll be forever indebted to John Hughes. That was my first trip to America. At 21, you have a different view. You’re looking to explore. My plan was to do a year here in America and a year in Australia and then back home. But I loved Kentucky. I never went to Australia.”

In America, Duignan hooked up with another Irishman, Pat Costello, who had preceded him to America by six months. Costello also worked at Circle O and they became close friends and partners, originally participating in a partnership called The Lads. In 2001, they co-founded Paramount Sales. “Pat and I started Paramount Sales and that was great,” Duignan said. “We’ve never had any differences. I’ve always been lucky to have great partners.”

Duignan, who also hooked up with David Garvin at Ironwood Farm and Dr. Tony Lyons of Castleton Farm, credits both of them for his success.

In the spring of 2022, the Duignans were honored to return to Ireland to accept the Wild Geese Award from the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, made to “compatriots who fly the tricolour in exemplary fashion on foreign fields.” Duignan said, “That was a nice award from my peers. It meant a lot to me.”

Horses still do: “I enjoy getting a good horse and selling a good horse. I still love the whole process.”   

Lael Stables with She Feels Pretty

Nineteen years removed from the triumph and tragedy of their Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, Roy and Gretchen Jackson are still winning major stakes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Their outstanding turf filly She Feels Pretty won her fourth consecutive graded stakes, taking the G.1 New York Stakes at Saratoga June 6th. “We’re still kicking,” Jackson laughed. “At our age, 88, we’re sure enjoying it. We’re just lucky to have this horse.”

Their horses have been lucky to be owned by the Jacksons.

“I was a big fan of theirs since Barbaro,” She Feels Pretty’s trainer Cherie DeVaux said. “You see them go through the highs and lows and they handled that with such grace. It’s really special to have a relationship with them.”

There are few breeders and owners who have raced so many top horses in North America and Europe, including the unbelievable feat of Barbaro winning the Gr.1 Kentucky Derby and George Washington winning the Gp.1 2000 Guineas on the same afternoon, May 6th, 2006. “They’ve both been wonderful experiences,” Jackson said. “We’ve been pretty lucky in the whole situation. You don’t know if they’re going to stay healthy. It’s such a gamble. We just sort of plodded along through the years just trying to have some fun.”

They sure know how to plod along. She Feels Pretty has already given the Jacksons their 14th season with more than one million dollars in earnings and their 18th over $900,000. Their horses have won 495 races from 2,511 starts with earnings topping $32.4 million. And, of course, they were the Eclipse Award Outstanding Owners of 2006.

Being able to share this success together cannot be underemphasized. “It’s been great,” Jackson said. “She’s the one. She was involved at a young age riding.”

They grew up just 10 miles apart in Pennsylvania. Gretchen was a foxhunter, a pastime of Roy’s mother, who also dabbled in racehorses. 

Roy spent six years as a stockbroker before following his passion for baseball, owning a couple minor league teams and co-founding Convest, a management firm for professional athletes. He sold his share in the company to concentrate on horse racing.

By then, Lael Farm was up and running successfully. The Jacksons purchased the 190-acre property in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1978 and named it Lael, the Gaelic word for loyalty. 

They backed up their loyalty by taking care of all their horses when they were done racing. For years, Barbaro’s dam, 25-year-old La Ville Rouge, who earned more than $250,000 with six victories from 25 starts for Hall of Fame trainer Phil Johnson, shared her paddock with Superstar Leo, the first horse the Jacksons purchased in Europe, and $400,000-plus graded stakes winner Belle Cherie, also trained by Johnson.

In five consecutive starts, Superstar Leo won the Gp.3 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot, a restricted race for sales graduates, finished second in the Gp.1 Phoenix, won the Gp.2 Flying Childers and finished second in the Gp.1 Prix de ’Abbaye de Longchamp. She finished her career with five victories and four seconds from 13 starts, earning $284,001.

From 15 foals, she produced 11 winners, including Enticing, a dual Gp.3 winner and the dam of three-time Gp.1 Prix de la Forest winner and $1.2 million earner One Master, who had seven victories from 23 starts.

After Superstar Leo died on Lael Farm at the age of 26 on June 26th, 2024, Jackson said, “We were very lucky to purchase her after my wife Gretchen happened to see her run. We brought her over from England after she was through having foals to live out her life at our place.”

That’s a destination Barbaro never reached.

Barbaro was brilliantly trained and managed by legendary equestrian Michael Matz, a six-time U.S. national champion who was given the honor of carrying the U.S. flag at the 1996 Olympics Closing Ceremony. Seven years earlier, on United Airlines Flight 232, he saved three siblings traveling alone and went back to rescue an 11-month-old girl after the plane crashed. One-hundred eighty four people survived the crash; 112 did not. The three siblings remained in touch with Matz and hooked up with him before he saddled undefeated Barbaro in the 2006 Kentucky Derby. In a domination seldom seen in the Run for the Roses, Barbaro won effortlessly by 6 ½ lengths under perfect handling by Edgar Prado. That made Barbaro six-for-six, three-for-three on both turf and dirt, with earnings topping $2.3 million. 

He didn’t survive the Preakness. After breaking open the starting gate and being reloaded, Barbaro suffered a catastrophic fractured right leg in the first eighth of a mile.

Over the next eight months, fans and non-fans followed his battle to survive under the care of Dr. Dean Richardson at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. After finally getting well enough to graze outside his barn, he suffered the crippling, painful hoof disease laminitis, the same disease that killed Secretariat in 1989. Barbaro was humanely euthanized. Gretchen said at a press conference. “Grief is the price we all pay for love.”

It’s nearly 20 years later. “Isn’t that unbelievable?” Roy Jackson said. “It was like a real roller coaster. Dean Richardson would call every morning. So many people followed the whole situation. We couldn’t believe the bins of cards we got from kids.”

Now, the Jacksons have another popular horse, She Feels Pretty, who has already won four Gr.1 stakes, missing two more by a half-length and three-quarters of a length. Overall, she’s seven-for-10 with one second and two thirds. “She’s amazing,” DeVaux said.

And she has a pal, a black and white goat that dutifully follows her around, even loading into a trailer. His name is Mickey. “Mickey has been to Woodbine, California, Keeneland and Saratoga,” Jackson said. “Mickey has done the job. Mickey’s really got to get some of the credit for the whole thing.”

Pin Oak Stud with Parchment Party

The late Ms. Josephine Abercrombie, a consummate horsewoman who founded Pin Oak Stud in 1952, left a tough act to follow when she passed peacefully in her home January 5th, 2022, just 10 days before her 96th birthday.

“Mrs. Abercrombie was an amazing lady and a great steward of the land, and most importantly, it was always the horse comes first,” said Clifford Barry, who’s been working at Pin Oak Stud for 35 years.

She would have smiled knowing that Dana and Jim Bernhard, who purchased Pin Oak Stud in November, 2022, and their son Ben, a rocket scientist turned horseman, have continued her good work, complementing their considerable success on the track with cutting-edge technology to prevent equine injuries, like the one that killed their first and best horse, Geaux Rocket Ride, as he was preparing for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was their first Thoroughbred, a birthday gift from Jim to Dana.

Simply put, the Bernhards, like Abercrombie, do the right thing. “That’s where it all starts,” Ben said. “Everything we do, we put the horse first, and my parents have driven that point home.” His mother said, “We are passionate about doing a good job for the horses. They can’t speak for themselves.”

Barry has witnessed the Bernhards’ ongoing commitment: “It’s been amazing to watch Jim and Dana be like-minded as Mrs. Abercrombie. I mean it really has been heartwarming to watch. Anytime you go through a major transition like this, you worry what the next entity will involve. But they’ve come in, and we got a facelift to the farm and added new property and new buildings and really have got the horses’ health and welfare at heart for sure.”

Abercrombie was an incredible owner and breeder. Among her nearly 100 stakes winners were her home-bred Eclipse Champions Laugh as well as Confessional, Peaks and Valleys and Broken Vow. She was The National Breeder of the Year, in 1995 and the winner of the Hardboot Award from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and the William T. Young Humanitarian Award. In 2018, Abercrombie was the Honor Guest of the Thoroughbred Club of America in appreciation for her “enduring sportsmanship, acumen and vision, and her devotion to the loftiest principles established by earlier leaders on the Turf.”

Like Abercrombie, Dana grew up with horses: “I grew up in Louisiana. I was given my first horse, a Tennessee Walker, when I was eight years old, and I’ve owned a horse ever since. I began riding that day. She was a trail horse for me. I was given my next horse for my 10th birthday, Dixie. I had her until I was 29. My love was horses, not just racehorses.” 

Dana worked as a corporate attorney and marketing director. She met Jim, the founder and partner of Bernhard Capital Partners, through work. Jim’s company, based in Baton Rouge, now manages about seven billion dollars buying and investing in companies, and has some 30,000 employees.

“I was a lawyer and our law firm handled Jim’s corporate law,” Dana said. “He was a client. When we decided to start dating, we had an office rule against dating co-workers. I said, `How about clients?’ The senior partner offered me a list. We got married some six months later.”

They married in 1993 and Jim became an avid horseman. Asked why he loved it, he said, “Because Dana loves it.” They have purchased and maintained a dozen Friesians, a breed originated in the north Netherlands which nearly went extinct more than once. They ride their horses at Pin Oak Stud in Kentucky and Pin Oak Stud South in Baton Rouge. “When we got our first Friesians some 13 years ago, there were less than 75 in the United States,” Dana said. “Their personality reminds me of our two labrapoodles. They are just big puppy dogs.”

  In June, 2021, Jim gave Dana a birthday gift, a trip to Lexington to buy a Thoroughbred yearling at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale. They wound up with three yearlings. The first one was Geaux Rocket Ride, a son of Candy Ride out of the Uncle Mo mare Beyond Grace. He cost $350,000 and was given to Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella.

Geaux Rocket Ride won a maiden race by 5 ¾ lengths, then finished second by 2 ½ lengths to Practical Move in the G.2 San Felipe Stakes. Another victory by  a length and three-quarters in the $100,000 Affirmed Stakes convinced his connections to up the ante. Sent off at 12-1 in the Grade 1 Haskell at Monmouth Park, Geaux Rocket Ride went head-to-head with the even-money favorite, Arabian Knight, put him away, then turned back a rally by Kentucky Derby winner Mage, winning by a length and three-quarters. In his final start before the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, Geaux Rocket Ride was second by a neck to Arabian Knight in the G.1 Pacific Classic. His three victories and two seconds in five starts had produced $980,200 in earnings. He was a legitimate contender for the Classic.

“In the Haskell, we were thrilled,” Dana said. “Rocket was such a feisty horse on one hand, feisty with his feed bucket, but in the barn and the paddock, he was so kind and loving. He loved his bath. He played with the water hose. He was quite a character. We just loved him. He was our first racehorse. We still love him to death.”

 One week before the Breeders’ Cup, with Dana and Jim watching his workout live on TV, Geaux Rocket Ride suffered a horrific injury in his front leg, which was described by Breeders’ Cup officials as “an open condylar fracture with intersesamoid ligament damage.”

Dana said, “We were at our home in Pebble Beach and about to fly down to LA. We watched him live.” Jim said, “We saw it live. We didn’t know the extent of it until we drove down there. We couldn’t save him. His leg was too far gone.”

He was euthanized the following Wednesday. “It was a typical roller coaster ride,” Mandella said. “We had the greatest time with him, but also had one of the worst days of my life.”

His respect for the Bernhards is immense: “It’s a wonderful family, I can’t say enough good things about them. They want to do everything right by the horse.”

Ben, who had spent a lot of time hanging out with Mandella at his barn, was deeply affected, so much that he decided to leave Space X in Los Angeles and become a vice president of Pin Oak Stud and start his new company of developing equine sensors, Stable Analytics, with technology similar to the ones he had used at Space X: “Geaux Rocket Ride was training at Santa Anita, and I used to hang out with Richard Mandella, probably the biggest reason I’m into horse racing. Learn from him. Watch Geaux Rocket Ride train. I just got so into it. I decided to make the move.”

Dana said, “It was a wonderful thing. He is very passionate about preventing this type of accident in the future.”

Jim said simply: “He’s smart.”

Ben said of his career change: “It’s a lot of things that are different obviously, but there are surprising similarities. I talked to my friends back at Space X. They said, `There’s nothing like the rush you get watching a rocket launch.’ I said, `There’s something similar, watching your horse win a race.

“I came into this trying to make it as much of a math problem as I can. I know math and engineering. I think there’s an opportunity to look at it from that perspective. Geaux Rocket Ride had the best horseman, the best jockey, the Breeders’ Cup veterinary staff and somehow he still gets injured. There’s got to be a way to detect things.”

Ben developed equine sensors, which all the 150 to 170 Thoroughbreds wear at Pin Oak Stud: “They’re practically air-space sensors which began in the aerospace industry. We see gait changes and data. I’ve never really been a horse person. Richard Mandella changed that.”

Mandella said of Ben, “I’m sure he makes his parents proud. He’s just a class person, a gentleman, and maybe genius-smart. Yet he’s just the most normal young guy you could ever meet, just a pleasure to be around.”

At the Keeneland 2022 September Yearling Sale, the Bernhards bought Parchment Party, a son of Constitution out of Life Well Lived by Tiznow bred by Bobby Flay for $450,000. Ben’s sensors caught a potential problem. “We found a small abscess that was growing,” Jim said. “We were able to take care of that long before it became a major problem.”

Parchment Party, who is trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, won his first two starts. On June 6th, 2025, at Saratoga, he captured the Belmont Gold Cup when it was switched from turf to dirt, by 8 ½ lengths. In doing so, he clinched a berth in the starting gate for the Melbourne Cup, the race that stops a nation. “He’s the first Kentucky-bred to make the Melbourne Cup,” Jim said. “Australia? It’s just a little island down south from here. It’ll be fun.”

Kentucky Oaks 2025 owners - Kristian Villante, Kyle Zorn, Travis Durr of Legion Racing with Drexel Hill

The three musketeers of Legion Racing, Kristian Villante, Kyle Zorn and Travis Durr, are on quite a tear. Last year, their Honor Marie finished second in the Louisiana Derby, then competed in the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Travers Stakes, finishing eighth, fourth and eighth. This year, their filly Drexel Hill has them primed for the Kentucky Oaks off a victory in the $200,000 Busher Invitational at Aqueduct, March 1st. 

Considering they started Legion Bloodstock, their full-service bloodstock agency, only four years ago, it’s rather amazing.

“I think, truthfully, why we’ve been very successful is that we all see eye to eye,” Villante said. “There are no egos. Just one team. The people we have assembled all kind of share the same vision. We all see eye-to-eye. We’re all doing this because we love it. It’s just a belief in ourselves. Everyone’s able to feed off each other and build off each other. Myself, Travis and Kyle had been very good friends before we started Legion, so it’s like three brothers.”

Or three musketeers.

“It’s very easy,” Villante continued. “It’s fun to do every day. We’re always on the same page. We can kind of make our own little footprint and prove ourselves.”

 They chose another friend, a young trainer who just went out on his own, to lead them, and Whit Beckham has delivered, training both Honor Marie and Drexel Hill. Beckman worked for Todd Pletcher, Eoin Harty and Chad Brown before going on his own in 2022. “I think we had all this confidence knowing Whit,” 

Villante said. “He’s done a great job building in the last two years; the passion he has for it; the horsemanship second to none. He just has a way with all these horses. She (Drexel Hill) is a prime example of that.”

Beckman is enjoying working with his friends at Legion: “I’ve known Kristian and Kyle for the last 15 years. Me and Kyle actually grew up together in Louisville and went to the same high school. I worked with Kristian for Todd Pletcher, so we became pretty good friends back in the day. Travis, he’s been selling horses for so long and has a training center in South Carolina. So he really has a good feel for buying a young horse. Kyle is as sharp as the other two. Kristian always said, `If you go on your own, we’ll make sure you get a barn full of good horses.’ So they made good on their promise. We’ve had a lot of luck together. They’re all super sharp horseman.”

Durr has certainly made a huge difference in Beckman’s stable, sending him Simply Joking, a three-year-old filly who won two stakes and finished second in the Gr. 2 Fantasy Stakes, and three-year-old colt Flying Mohawk, who was second in the Gr. 3 Jeff Ruby. Neither are owned by Legion.

Durr’s interest in horses traces back to his grandfather and father, who both raced Quarter Horses: “We always had horses. We used to go to Texas, Delta Downs. I started riding at the bush tracks.”

At the age of 12, he rode races on bush tracks in Georgia and South and North Carolina. As his family transitioned to Thoroughbreds, Durr began breaking young horses for his father and grandfather. 

When his father died in 1995, Durr took over the family business. He began breaking horses in St. George, South Carolina, for local clients in 2007. He then joined the Webb Carroll Training Center in Matthews, South Carolina. In October, 2016, Durr and his wife Ashley then purchased the training center from Carroll.

“Time has flown by,” Durr said. “Me and Kristian have been buddies for a while, working with me with Webb. I started buying horses for the training center for myself. We’d look at horses together. We liked the same type of horses. We started the racing groups based on me and Kristian buying yearlings at Keeneland for $20,000 and it was tough.”

Now they spend more, but not a lot more. Honor Marie cost $40,000; Drexel Hill $50,000. “Me and Kristian talk four times a day,” Durr said. “We’re pretty good buddies. We all work together. It still doesn’t feel like a job a lot of days. We still get to enjoy what we do.”

Zorn also traces his love of racing back to his grandparents: “From the time I was ready to walk, two or three years old. I just loved it. Everybody had their favorite jockey: Patty Cooksey and Pat Day and Jerry Bailey. I still have signed goggles. The track was always a fun place to go.”

Zorn worked at a training center, then for trainer Pat Byrne, eventually becoming his assistant trainer. Then Zorn helped Maribeth Sandford, the owner of Take Charge Indy, when her husband passed away from cancer: “Maribeth was left with all the pieces. She needed help and I took a job helping her. That’s how I met Travis Durr. We became friends right away. And through Travis, I met Kristian. I was good friends with Whit. We’ve been very blessed.”

Villante grew up in Philadelphia: “I just kind of always loved horses in general, not necessarily horse racing. My dad [Joe] had a friend, Scott Lake.  I was 12 or 13. I went to Parx. They’re amazing animals to be around. Scott took me under his wing. Did I have any idea of what I was going to do this? No.”

He did after working for Todd Pletcher and meeting Beckman: “We had very similar personalities. We became friends and it kind of grew.”

Still. One for all and all for one.

Kentucky Oaks 2025 owners - Mike Gatsas (Gatsas Stables) - Five G

Family has always been paramount to Mike Gatsas, in his family business and his family’s passion in horse racing. “Family is super important to him,” his son, Matthew, said.

Now, their family’s home-New York-bred Five G, named to honor Gatsas’ five grandchildren, will be their first starter in the Gr. 1 Kentucky Oaks. The fact that Five G is a daughter of their star runner Vekoma makes it even sweeter.

Matthew is the Vice-President of Trivantus, a payroll service/employee benefits/human resource administration company his father founded in New Hampshire in 2003. He’s partnered with his brother-in-law Danny Casey.

Matthew named Vekoma, a son of Candy Ride out of Mona de Momma by Speightstown, a horse Gatsas partnered with Randy Hill: “We were trying a bunch of names. So many got rejected. Our family was going to Disney World for the first time. There’s a big roller coaster there named Vekoma, made by Expedition Everest. I just thought it was a cool name. His dad was Candy Ride. Everybody loved it.”

The fact that Vekoma turned into a multiple Gr. 1 stakes winner and now a superstar stallion didn’t hurt.   

Vekoma finished 12th in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, one of his rare losses. He won six of his seven other starts, including the Gr. 1 Carter Handicap and the Gr. 1 Metropolitan, and earned $1,245,525.

Then Vekoma became the leading 2024 first-crop sire, standing this year for $35,000 at Spendthrift Farm.

Mike Gatsas bred his Quality Road mare Triumphant to Vekoma and was rewarded with Five G, who followed a dismal debut – seventh by 22 lengths – with a victory and second on grass, a nine-length victory in the $150,000 Cash Run Stakes, a fine second to Quietside in the Gr. 3 Honeybee Handicap and a 2 ¼ length score in the Gr. 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. “It’s great we get to share it as a family,” Matthew said.

That’s the way Gatsas intended it to be. Asked about his highlight participating in the 2019 Kentucky Derby, he replied, “Being there with my whole family, my wife, my kids, my grandchildren. That’s how we got started, having something the family could do.”

Well before he bought his first horse in 1998, Gatsas let his intention to buy a Thoroughbred known. “It was 100 years ago when I was a little kid,” Matthew said. “We had been at Lake George with another family. We were sitting at the dinner table. The story goes that somebody offered them a tip on a horse that was running. I was very young. We had to go to Saratoga. Dad said to one of his friends: `I want a horse that runs at Saratoga.’”

When he was a teenager, Matthew remembers trips to Rockingham Park, not far from their New Hampshire home: “We’d go every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It seemed like we went all the time.”

In 1998, his father purchased two horses: a sleek, gray New York-bred gelding named Gander and Shadow Caster. Gander went on to be 2000 New York-bred Horse of the Year. He won 15 of his 60 starts, including six stakes, the biggest being the 2001 Gr. 2 Meadowlands Cup. He finished second in the 2000 Gr. 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup and his earnings of more than $1.8 million are still 13th all-time among New York-breds. Shadow Caster was no slouch, making nearly a half a million thanks to eight victories in 47 starts. Gatsas’ brother Ted, a former state senator and mayor of Manchester, was his partner. 

Asked about Gander, Gatsas said, “Being new to the game, my trainer, Charlie Assimakopuolos thought it was a great opportunity to get a New York-bred. I was sold on the program ever since. It’s a phenomenal program.”

Gander paved the way for future success. “Gander is the one who got us started,” Matthew said. “Probably, he’s the reason we’re still in the game. I don’t think a lot of people have that luck early on.”

Racing as Sovereign Stable, the Gatsas family had more luck with Negligee, a two-year-old filly who gave them their first Gr. 1 victory when she took the 2009 Alcibiades.

Fortuitous seating at Saratoga led Gatsas to partner up with Randy Hill, who races as R. A. Hill Stables, on Vekoma. Hill’s box was right behind Gatsas’: “We met, and I said, `what do you think if we split some horses?’ He said, `sure.’ We really got to like each other. We’re really having fun with these horses.”

Gatsas guesses he now owns 40 Thoroughbreds, many in partnership with Randy Hill and others. Gatsas uses trainers George Weaver, John Terranova, Danny Gargan and Ricky Dutrow.

“We don’t have a big stable, but we’ve been very blessed,” Gatsas said. “George has done a great job with this filly. I’m pleased to be associated with George and his wife Cindy. We’re very blessed to have George as a trainer.”

Matthew said, “We’ve been in the business a long time. I’m very much involved in it. I love the sport. There’s no doubt I got that from my dad. My wife Celia, she’s from the Saratoga area and she enjoys the races. Now my kids, Calla and Matthew, are picking it up from me.

“We all made it to Keeneland when Vekoma won the Blue Grass. Then we went on to Louisville. It was pretty awesome. The kids were too young to enjoy it, but they did come. I think all five of them (grandchildren) are super excited for this (the Kentucky Oaks). It’s going to be pretty cool.”

Triple Crown 2025 contender owners - Jim and Claire Bryce (Jim and Claire Limited) - Heart Of Honor trained by Jamie Osborne

This time last year British based trainer, Jamie Osborne, came up with the idea of putting together a group of dirt bred horses to campaign in Dubai this past winter.

Heart of Honor, a British bred son of Honor A.P. was one that made the trip. He has now run six times and never finished out of the first two including a placed effort in the Gp.3 UAE 2000 Guineas before finishing a heart wrenching nose behind Admire Daytona in the UAE Derby (Gp.2) on the first Saturday in April - thus earning himself a guaranteed spot in the Kentucky Derby starting gate.

On his return from Dubai, Osborne indicated that Heart of Honor would more than likely bypass the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs and instead aim his colt for the last two legs of the Triple Crown.

If he does make the trip over, Heart of Honor will be a first runner in the US for owners Jim and Claire Bryce. The Bryce’s involvement in racing has grown exponentially over the last few years, since selling their software business. In addition to the horses they have in training with Jamie Osborne, they also own the famous Rhonehurst Stables in Lambourn, from where their jumps trainer, Warren Greatrex is based.

Jamie Osborne is no stranger to running horses in major international races having trained Toast Of New York to win the UAE Derby in 2014 before finishing his 3yo season with a near miss in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Gr.1) at Santa Anita when finishing a nose behind Bayern.

Mark Davis and Craig Dado – Raging Torrent

Article by Bill Heller 

Talk about a power lunch. Five years ago, Mark Davis, owner, and president of an electric power company and a restaurant owner, had lunch with horse-obsessed 14-year-old Gillian Guerra, and instantly dived into horse racing, even though he’s allergic to horses.

         His partner Craig Dado, a long-time executive at Del Mar and Santa Anita before starting his own company, tells the story of the lunch which got Davis into racing: “I got a call from Gillian’s dad. He was a chef at Mark’s restaurant. Gillian worked there, too. He said, `I’ve got this daughter who’s horse crazy. She loves horse racing.’ He said, `What can I do?’ I said, "Okay, let me set something up.”

         Dado went to trainer Doug O’Neil’s barn and ran into Steve Rothblum, a former trainer who is now a bloodstock agent for O’Neil. Dado takes up the story “Steve and I are tight. I said, will you have lunch with this girl?” He does and another gentleman is there. It was Mark Davis. So the meeting goes well. All of a sudden, Mark pops in and said, `I want to buy a horse for her.’ They claimed a horse for Gillian. The point is Mark loved what Steve did for her and said, `I want to buy horses.’ Then he writes a big check. That’s where Raging Torrent came from. Mark is head over heels in horse racing. He’s buying a farm in Kentucky. Gillian is now a freshman at the University of Kentucky. He’s paying her way through college. He’s an amazing, generous person.”

       Asked about paying Gillian’s college costs, Davis described the concept of paying it forward, being nice to someone because someone was nice to him; “When I was 16, someone did something for me. She helped me with the horses five years ago. She’s a pretty special girl.”

         Gillian said, “I’m eternally grateful for him. He saw I had a passion for it.”

         Davis does, too. He didn’t let his allergy to horses stop him from having more than a dozen horses on his California farm, including three Clydesdales: “We got the first Clydesdale, Becky, when she was pregnant. The sire is a Quarter Horse. We might be starting a new breed.”

Davis named the nine-month-old foal Pegi for his company, the Precision Electric Group, Inc., with offices in Seattle and San Diego.

         Davis’s love of Clydesdale is immense: “They are gorgeous. They are so beautiful.”

         Thoroughbreds are too, and Davis has more of them than he ever imagined: “It got a lot bigger than I thought it was getting. We bought five horses at the Keeneland Sale, two with Jeanie Buss, one of the Lakers owners. Jeanie never owned a horse other than with her family.”

         Davis’s horses have taken him to Dubai, which is where he expects Raging Torrent to make a start, and possibly South Korea: “I’m still learning, because I’ve only been in racing for five years. I’m 71 years old. I don’t have to work very hard. I like doing all this stuff. It’s worth trying.”

         Raging Torrent is why. Purchased for $75,000 as a two-year-old, he upset likely Sprint Champion The Chosen Vron by a head in the Gr. 2 Pat O’Brien at Del Mar. After finishing seventh from the rail in the Gr. 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, he captured the Gr. 1 Malibu by a length and a quarter on opening day at Santa Anita, December 26th.

         The two victories were especially meaningful to Dado, who was an executive at Santa Anita and Del Mar for 30 years: “It was pretty surreal to be in the winner’s circle for both the Pat O’Brien and the Malibu. I’ve been there presenting the trophy.”

         Dado started working as an intern at Santa Anita in 1990 and worked his way up to executive roles there, from 1991-2000, and at Del Mar from 2001-2021.

         Along the way he started Great Friends Stable in 2007: “I was Chief Marketing Officer at Del Mar and I wanted to bring fans into the game as new owners. Let current fans into the game. It’s very different from My Racehorse. We only have 20 shares.”

        He left Del Mar in 2021 to start his own company in San Diego, Sports Injury Central: “Basically, it’s a media site helping gamblers and fantasy players with updated injury status and how it’s going to affect the outcome of games. My partner, David Chow, was the team doctor for the Chargers. We thought there was a void in the market, especially football. It’s very challenging but it’s a lot of fun watching the company grow. We had 750,000 people come to the website.”

         He called Raging Torrent’s victory in the Malibu “Amazing. I worked at Santa Anita for 10 years. Opening day was always the highlight.”

Al Gold (Gold Square LLC), Dr. Michael Lee and George Messina – Cyclone State

Article by Bill Heller 

Three men with ties to racing longer than four decades, Al Gold, the majority partner of Gold Square LLC, Dr. Michael Lee and George Messina, celebrated Cyclone State’s emphatic 3 ½ length victory in the $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct, January 4th, his third straight victory in his stakes debut. “They’re great guys,” Cyclone State’s trainer Chad Summer said. “Michael brought his wife and three girls to the track. They had a great time in Times Square. He’s a guy who just loves the game. George has a trainer in his family. We’ve got a lot of people on this horse’s back. It’s been a great ride.”

       Cyclone State’s victory was the first graded stakes score for both Lee and Messina, who are related through marriage. Gold’s horses, however, have been in the national spotlight many times.

       Though he grew up near Monmouth Park in New Jersey, his first visit to a racetrack came in upstate New York. His family routinely spent vacations in the Catskills at the then-famous Grossinger’s Hotel in Liberty, N.Y. and at the Concord in nearby Monticello. When he was 16, he overheard men talking about a horse they liked racing that night at Monticello Raceway. Gold went to the track that night, cashed a bet and never looked back. “A lifetime of enjoyment for me,” Gold said. “That got me addicted to it. You just walked into the place, and it was electric, Monticello. Everybody looked so happy.”

        Later in his life, he frequented Monmouth Park: “I went 90 minutes before post time. I just loved it so much.”

        He made his career in the family business of real estate: “I never really liked it. I needed the money to get horses and go to the track.”

       He bought his first Thoroughbred in 2004. He named several of them uniquely: My Italian Rabbi, Meet the Mets, Geaux Mets, Full Court Felicia, Who Hoo That’s Me and Howard Wolowitz for a character in the TV comedy The Big Bang Theory.

       But he gave his best horse a serious name, Cyberknife, because that device helped him survive prostate cancer. He learned the bad news on December 7th, 2020, his 65th birthday. A cyberknife is a robotic radiation therapy device. Despite its name, a cyberknife is part of a noninvasive procedure which delivers radiation to cancer cells without damaging other healthy issues or cells. “There’s a more accurate name for it now,” Gold said. “Fortunately my doctor caught it earlier. Cancer hit me in three more spots, but I get a blood test every three months. A shot every six months. My last tests have been clear.”

       He hoped Cyberknife, a $400,000 purchase at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Selected Yearlings Showcase, would tell others that prostate cancer can be treated and is no longer a death sentence.

       Trained by Brad Cox, Cyberknife gave Gold his first Gr. 1 stakes victory in the 2022 Arkansas Derby; a start in the Kentucky Derby finishing far back, and another Gr. 1 win in the Haskell. He also finished second to Epicenter in the Gr. 1 Travers and second by a head to Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish in the Gr. 1 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Cyberknife earned $2,137,520 with five victories, four seconds and one third in 13 career starts. Gold sold Cyberknife's breeding rights to Spendthrift Farm, and he entered stud in 2023.

       Asked about his best moment in racing, Gold said, “When my kids, Dayna and Bryan (now 37 and 34), are there with my wife Holly and they are smiling and happy, like when we did the walkover for the Derby.”

       Lee, his wife Jennifer, and their three children, Emma Claire, Annalise and Ellie, 20, 18 and 16, enjoyed visiting New York City and, of course, the victory in the Jerome. “Super exciting,” Lee, a 50-year-old ear, nose and throat doctor in Mobile, Alabama, said. “We watched the race from the rail in the winner’s circle. Cyclone State took over. It was exciting. The kids enjoyed the attention.”

         Lee’s grandfather, Willys Rhodes, was a trainer in South Mississippi: “He had a small track and a barn. I used to go out there and train horses that would ship into the Fair Grounds. My uncles helped train a few horses. I was probably around 10. It always starts with the love of animals. The people surrounding them are super entertaining. The whole atmosphere. It’s hard to understand if you’re not in it.”

        Lee and Messina have partnered on several horses: “George’s son, Trace, is an assistant for Brad Cox. I met Al through Steve Margolis. He trains for me in New Orleans. We met at the sales. Al and I both kind of hit off. Through Trace, I got to know Chad Summers. Al had some horses with Brad at the time. At Saratoga, we hung out with Chad and Al. At the Keeneland Sales, they approached us. We said Al doesn’t usually do partnerships, but we all knew each other.”

         Lee’s been smiling ever since: “We’re having a great time with this horse.”

        Messina has a catering service in New Orleans which started in 1961 and now does all the catering for the Fair Grounds.

        “My interest in horses started when my dad had a restaurant close to Jefferson Downs,” Lee said. “Fair Grounds horsemen stopped there. Owners, too. We put up pictures. My dad owned a couple of horses. My wife’s grandfather, Willys Rhodes, was a breeder, owner and trainer, all Louisiana-breds. In 1997, we put together a group, all family members, 18 of us. We bought a horse, Skyy Me Up.”

         Skyy Me Up won three of nine starts in 1997 and ’98. “We bought a couple more horses,” Messina said. “I stayed in the game.”

        He had more luck as a partner on T.B. Track Star, who captured the Gr. 3 1999 Lone Star Derby.

       He’s delighted that Lee is his partner: “Mike was part of Skky Me Up. Mike had a love for the horses just like I did. He did well with his medical practice. We decided to partner up. We were lucky that Al asked us to partner with him on Cyclone State. I’ve owned horses, but I’ve never been on the Derby Trail. It’s beyond my wildest imagination.”  

Rich Mendez (Morplay Racing), Sheila Rosenbloom (Lady Sheila Stables) and Joey Platts – Guns Loaded

Article by Bill Heller 

Only Thoroughbreds could bring together Rich Mendez, a music executive from Puerto Rico who believes he was conceived at Saratoga Race Course; Sheila Rosenblum, a ballet prodigy from Switzerland; and Joey Platts, a Wyoming cowboy and oil and gas industry executive. Guns Loaded did that when he captured the $145,000 Mucho Macho Man Stakes by a neck at Gulfstream Park January 4th.

         “We’ve been very blessed,” Mendez, who founded Morplay Racing with his son Josh and partners Randy Hartley and Dean DeRenzo, said. “It’s been an amazing ride so far, and it taught me a lot because you never know when that next one comes.”
        Mendez’s uncle, Victor Sanchez, was a jockey. “My uncle has been here at Gulfstream Park for 52 years,” Mendez said. “My mom used to walk horses at Saratoga with my dad. The story is I was conceived somewhere at Saratoga Race Course. I’m sure it was in a barn somewhere.”

        It didn’t take long for Mendez to fall in love with horses: “I’ve always loved horses. The smell of being around the barn. It intrigued me. I just always loved watching the big races on TV. You always saw the white-haired trainer, Bob Baffert. He was a rock star.”

         Mendez would work with rock stars in his career as a music executive at Rich Music, an independent record label he founded with his son Josh in 2007.

         After purchasing his first property in Ocala, he met Harley. Then DeRenzo. Harley and DeRenzo let Mendez into their pinhooking operation. They, in turn, joined Morplay Racing.

         At the September 2022 Keeneland Sales, Harley and DeRenzo landed an Iowa-bred colt named No More Time for $40,000. Racing as a two-year-old for trainer Jose D’Angelo, No More Time finished second in his maiden debut then won a maiden by 6 ¾ lengths.

         No More Time made his three-year-old debut in the Macho Mucho Man Stakes and finished fifth. He rebounded to win the Gr. 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes by a length and a quarter, Morplay’s first graded stakes victory, and then finished second by a neck to Domestic Product in the Gr. 3 Tampa Bay Derby.

         D’Angelo trains Guns Loaded, an $800,000 purchase at Keeneland. He too, finished second in his maiden debut and also won his maiden in second start. Stepping up to stakes company, he won the Macho Mucho Man.

         Mendez said, “I love the fact that he is winning. My trainer and I, we’ve got a unique relationship. My trainer has become a really good friend. We talk probably three or four times a day.”

         D’Angelo said, “I’m very happy to train for them. They have a lot of confidence in me. At the end of the day, you need good horses to be a good trainer.”

         Sheila Rosenblum’s Lady Sheila Stable employs three talented trainers, D’Angelo, Linda Rice and Brad Cox. Two of them have her horses on the early Derby trail, Guns Loaded, trained by D’Angelo, and the undefeated, four-for-four New York-bred Sacrosanct, who is trained by Cox. “It’s your reason to wake up early every single day,” Rosenblum said. “You have a dream: be there in May. It’s very rare to have two possibilities on the same path for the Derby. It would be so amazing to me.”

         She’s on an amazing run. Besides Sacrosanct, she and partners own the undefeated four-for-four New York-bred With the Angels, who is trained by Rice.

         Rosenblum had a whiff of the Derby trail nine years ago when Matt King Coal finished fourth by 2 ½ lengths in the 2016 Wood Memorial. He didn’t make the Kentucky Derby, but he earned $662,650 in his career from just 13 starts.

        Lady Sheila Stables top earner was La Verdad, the 2015 Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter who won 15 of 21 starts and earned $1,458,100. La Verdad died on May 10th, 2020, from complications with colic. Just six days earlier she had foaled a healthy colt by Into Mischief.

        Dancing, not horse ownership, seemed her destiny. Born in Basel, Switzerland, she spent years at the Royal Ballet School in London, then the School of American Ballet, the associate school of the New York City Ballet in New York City: “I went there as a ballet dancer when I was 14 and I stayed.”

         She would turn to modeling, working with the well-known agencies Wilhelmina and Ford, and then to horses: “My family didn’t like animals but I turned it into a way of life.”

         She founded the all-female Lady Sheila Stable more than 10 years ago: “That was a dream come true from my ex-husband. He wanted to buy a dressage horse for me. I had this wonderful idea to get a couple of Thoroughbred yearlings. And he did. And that’s how it started. It’s the most humbling sport and profession. It’s been lovely. I’ve met a group of wonderful people.”

        She is a board member of the March of Dimes, an advocate for children’s rights and is deeply committed to after-care for horses: “I’m very pro aftercare, especially New Vocations. We are all involved with them.”

       Now, she is officially on the Derby trail with two horses: “The Derby is my son Erik’s birthday. All I can do is pray.”

      She is realistic: “I don’t have the numbers others do. I have a handful. I’ve now spread my wings to breeding. It’s something I’m sticking to with a passion.”

     Joey Platts’ passions are horses and rodeos. Born in the small town of Lyman, Wyoming, Platts won a silver belt buckle in team roping. His wife Wendy was Miss Rodeo Wyoming in 1981. They keep rodeo horses on their 30-acre farm in southeastern Wyoming near the Utah border.

       Platts bought his first Thoroughbred from Becky Thomas of Sequel Stallions in the early ’80s, and they are still working together four decades later.

       Looking for a tax write-off for his heavy construction business, the Platts claimed Lusty Latin for $62,500 after he finished second by a nose at Hollywood Park on November 29th, 2001. The following year, after finishing third in both the Gr. 3 El Camino Real Derby and the Gr. 1 Santa Anita Stakes to Came Home, Lusty Latin took the Platts to the Kentucky Derby. Lusty Latin finished 15th, way behind War Emblem. Lusty Latin would go on to finish his career with six victories, six seconds and nine thirds in 50 starts, earning $439,729.

Robby Norman (Norman Stables LLC) - Coal Battle

Article by Bill Heller 

Fourteen years ago, Alabama grocery owner Robby Norman needed a new direction in his life: “I went through a divorce, something I really didn’t want. We actually had just bought a new home. I had two young sons. I went to stay in an apartment in downtown Thomasville by the railroad tracks. I was flipping through channels on TV. On TVG, they were doing a story about Union Rags (2012 Belmont Stakes winner). I said, ‘You know what? This divorce stuff is negative. I’ve got to do something to get out of this.’ I watched that story.”

         Then he went on the internet and learned all he wanted about Thoroughbred racing: “There’s a lot of stuff you can google.”

         He found a partner and bought a Louisiana-bred. “It became a passion,” Norman said. “I guess we just thoroughly enjoy horse racing. Me and my ex-wife get along very well now. I named an Arkansas-bred for my ex-wife. We focus on the regional market: Oklahoma-bred, Texas-bred, Louisiana-bred.”

         His star Louisiana-bred Secret Faith had a tremendous year in 2024 with six victories and a second by a head in seven starts for trainer Jayde Geiner. Racing against state-breds, she won five stakes by margins of three-quarters of a length, 14, 6 ¼, six and 7 ¼ on December 29th. Purchased for $75,000, she has already earned $367,022.

         But she’s not the stable star. Norman’s Kentucky-bred. Coal Battle, purchased for $70,000, upped his dirt record to four-for-four by taking the $250,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn Park, virtually wire-to-wire by four lengths January 4th for trainer Lonnie Briley, who posted his first million-dollar year in 2024 ($1,055,476), his 34th year of training.

         Norman recounted their connection: “My brother Mark, who also bought a few horses, was doing some googling and noticed a training center in Opelousas, Louisiana. The person who owned the training center recommended Lonnie. We wanted somebody who was honest. I have two trainers, Jayde and Lonnie, and I could not ask for better trainers. They let us get involved. It’s made it a very fun family business.“

         And he knows all about family business. He majored in accounting at Troy University, and his first job was at a grocery warehouse. Then he made a dream come true for his father. “My dad had brain surgery when he was 21. He passed away at 52. His dream was to be in the grocery business. Mark and I just went and did it. He was alive when we had the first store.”

         One store, Norman Food in Thomasville, Alabama, has grown into eight and includes ones in Mississippi, Florida and Georgia.

         When Norman wants to get away from groceries, he turns to racing. “What horse racing does is vacations. We go to Lone Star Park or we race in Houston and go down to Galveston. We like to go to the Ocala Breeders Sales and we stop at the beach. We know all the best steak houses. We’re simple people, but we thoroughly enjoy it. You’ve got to take the good with the bad. It is a roller coaster of emotions.”

         Briley is deeply appreciative of Norman’s perspective: “He’s a great guy, a good person. If you run 1-2-3 in a race, he’s happy. He loves the game. He likes to go to the sales. He’s a friend, more than an owner.”

         Norman and Briley saw the Smarty Jones Stakes as the first important step in Arkansas to get on the Kentucky Derby trail. Norman said, “I slept good the night before the race, but the night before that, I didn’t hardly sleep at all. I just tossed and turned all night. My son Drew and I drove over eight hours to Oaklawn. I think he relaxed me. My step-son Logan was there too. My other son Nathan missed it. He stayed home. We were all excited about Coal Battle. I thought he looked good in the race. Reading the pace was very important. Juan (jockey Juan Vargas) did an excellent job.”

         Briley was very surprised Coal Battle vied for the early lead: “Normally, we take him back. Vargas just couldn’t hold him. The fractions were slow. In the stretch, Vargas told me he just grabbed the bit and he was gone.”

         In a post-race TV interview, Briley said early in the race he thought, “I’m going to kill that jockey.” Of course, he was much more appreciative of the rider, who’s ridden Coal Battle in five of his six starts, afterwards. Then he spoke of Coal Battle: “He’s a gutsy little horse. Don’t know if it’s sunk in yet. No. It’s crazy for the little guy, you know.”

         A lot of people are rooting for the little guy’s horse. In his previous start, Coal Battle had won the $100,000 Springfield Mile at Remington Park. At the end of the Smarty Jones Stakes, the announcer called him “The pride of Remington Park.”

         Coal Battle certainly gets around. He’s also raced at Evangeline Downs, Kentucky Downs, Keeneland and Delta Downs. “He’s easy to train,” Briley said. “He’s easy to be around. He’s run on slop, turf, muddy and fast tracks. The horse will run anywhere.”

         At Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May?

        Of course, the phone started ringing after the Smarty Jones Stakes. “We have got calls about selling him,” Norman said. “Lonnie gets more calls than me. I got one last night. We’re going to let things calm down. As of right now, the decision is not to sell.”

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.”