Andrew Warren

Article by Bill Heller

Raise Cain

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

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

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

Raise cain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Raise Cain