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.