Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, Staton Flurry, Autry Lowry Jr. AND MyRacehorse Stable
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By Bill Heller
Not even a pandemic could prevent Thoroughbred racing from bringing people together.
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Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, Staton Flurry, Autry Lowry Jr.- Shedaresthedevil
How does a sheikh from Qatar, a parking lot owner in Hot Springs, Ark., and a fire captain from Benton, La., wind up partners on Shedaresthedevil—the Brad Cox-trained stakes-record winner of the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks?
They all bought in.
“At the end of the day, I’m happy to partner with anyone,” Sheikh Fahad said September 24th. “I haven’t met them, but they seem like nice people.”
Lowry said, “It’s definitely a unique relationship.”
Sheikh Fahad’s love of horses began as a child. “I’ve grown up with horses—a lot of Arabians,” he said. “I’ve always loved the horses. Not the Arabians that much. I dreamed of Thoroughbreds.”
He made that dream real after studying in England. He tuned in to watch a steeplechase race on television in 2008, and liked it so much he watched it every week. In 2010, he saw his first live race. “I said, `I better try that,’’’ Sheikh Fahad said. “When I started, it was just myself. Then my brothers joined me. I had my first win in 2011—a great thrill. I definitely caught the bug.”
Dunaden was why. He captured the 2011 Gp1 Melbourne Cup, Australia’s premier race, and the Gp1 Hong Kong Vase. The following year, he won the Gp1 Caulfield Cup, completing his career with 10 victories from 46 starts.
In 2014, Sheik Fahad’s QIPCO Holding became the first commercial partner of Royal Ascot by special royal permission.
Now, Sheik Fahad’s horses race in England, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and in the United States with Fergus Galvin as his U.S. racing advisor. “I’ve had a lot of partnerships in California with Simon Callaghan as trainer,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I was out at Del Mar. I usually go to Del Mar.”
Sheikh Fahad saw Shedaresthedevil finish third last year in the Gr2 Sorrento Stakes, a nose off second to the six-length winner Amalfi Sunrise. He was pleased with his filly’s third. “I thought she was a big filly,” he said. “I thought she’d do better as a three-year-old.”
He had no idea.
Staton Flurry didn’t grow up around Arabians, rather cars. His family has operated 10 to 11 parking lots around Oaklawn Park for more than 30 years. He estimates he was 12 or 13 when he began parking cars. “From the time I had sense enough to not run in front of cars,” he said. “You meet a lot of cool people.”
Now 30, he graduated from Henderson State University with a degree in business administration. He used that education to claim his first horse, a five-year-old mare named Let’s Get Fiscal, with a few friends. “She won her second race for us,” he said. “She got claimed and I’ve been enjoying racing ever since.”
He races as Flurry Racing Stables. “I got tired of my first name being mispronounced,” he said.
Staton Flurry and Shedaresthedevil connections celebrate winning the 2020 Longines Kentucky Oaks.
Flurry was contacted by his bloodstock agent Clay Scherer to check out Shedaresthedevil, who had one win from four starts for Simon Callaghan and was entered as part of a package of two-year-olds offered at the 2019 Keeneland November Sale. The sheikh’s partners wanted out, but the sheikh felt differently. “I thought I’d give her a chance,” Sheikh Fahad said. “I believed in the filly.”
Flurry said, “Before the sale, we were contacted by a representative from the sheikh. They were interested in keeping part of the filly, and they offered to go 50-50 on her.”
Flurry said yes, giving a piece of his percentage to his buddy Lowry, who in turn, gave a piece to his father.
The new partnership bought Shedaresthedevil for $280,000.
Flurry and Lowry had become close friends after sharing a suite at Louisiana Downs. Lowry, who started going to that track when he was 14, races under Big Aut Farms. “We started off with a couple of broodmares,” he said. “Then another. I love the adrenaline—for the animal to give 110 percent and put out their maximum effort. They give everything they’ve got, and I appreciate it. They’re doing what they want to do.”
Sheikh Fahad is having quite a year. His horse, Kameko, won the 2000 Guineas in Newmarket on June 6. Three months later, Shedaresthedevil won the Gr1 Kentucky Oaks. “He was just ecstatic to win a Classic in Europe and in the U.S.,” Galvin said.
A couple weeks before the Kentucky Oaks, Sheikh Fahad got a call from Brad Cox. “He said, `I’ve got good news and bad news,’” Sheikh Fahad said. The good news was that Shedaresthedevil was training “as good as Monomoy Girl did heading into the Kentucky Oaks.” The bad news was that Shedaresthedevil would have to face two terrific fillies, Swiss Skydiver and Gamine. “I thought if we finish third or fourth, it would be a good result,” Sheikh Fahad said.
Flurry said he was also realistic heading into the Oaks. “I told everybody that asked, I said, `Anything better than fourth was a bonus, and anything worse than fourth was a disappointment.”
He got the bonus—a big bonus: his first Gr1 stakes. “I started jumping up and down, screaming, `We’re going to win the Oaks!”
Lowry said “It was surreal. I was hugging people. I was crying. People were calling me on the phone to congratulate us. I was happy my dad was with me. That’s priceless. He lives in North Carolina. We don’t get to see each other that often. For us to be able to share that together was a very special moment.”
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MyRacehorse Stable (with Spendthrift Farm, Starlight Racing and Madaket Stables) – Authentic
Partnerships have been flourishing in recent years, but there’s never been a partnership like this one: matching three well-known, long-tenured Thoroughbred groups with the upstart MyRacehorse Stable, and it’s 5,314 shareholders on Authentic. When Authentic turned back Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby, MyRacehorse literally jumped from curiosity to game changer—a vision of founder and CEO Michael Behrens when MyRacehorse debuted in California only on Belmont Stakes Day in 2018.
MyRacehorse went national in June, 2019. Now? “We had just under 1,000 people that signed up on Derby Day before the Derby,” Behrens said. “We never had that many in one day before. It was breathtaking actually.”
That it happened with Wayne B. Hughes of Spendthirft Farm, who has backed MyRacehorse, made it even more meaningful. “They joined us in 2019,” MyRacehorse’s West Coast Manager Joe Moran said. “Mr. Hughes has been such a supporter of racing. It’s quite amazing.” Spendthrift was able to partner with MyRacehorse after buying a majority interest in Authentic. “It was a huge stepping stone for us,” Moran said. “It brought us credibility.”
Behrens, 44, was the chief marketing officer for Casper, a start-up online mattress company with offices in Manhattan. Behrens lives in California. He’d always been a racing fan. “I spent a lot of time looking at reports, and I came to the conclusion that we needed a simple way to itch people’s curiosity about horse racing,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get people to try that. I figured if I could sell mattresses, why couldn’t I sell horses? There were racing clubs in Japan and Australia. Ownership was the way to go. I forced it. We’re all in on social media. You’ve got to give people information they want to share with their friends. That’s how you grow the product.
“We had 5,314 winners, and almost all of them have been posting on Facebook, sharing their stories of winning the Kentucky Derby. That was always the vision. We did that with Casper. I just thought that those attributes would work here.”
Shares in Authentic ranged from $206 for a one-thousandth of one percent to $70,000. That interest includes Authentic’s breeding career.
“We had teachers, business leaders and big-time owners,” Moran said. “We had a gentleman in Ireland. On the morning of the Derby, he bought a share for $206. He got it off our website, and he shut out 10 other people when the horses loaded in the gate. Very cool.”
And that was before the Derby.
MyRacehorse’s website says “With micro-shares, you compete at the highest level for a fraction of the cost.” Perks for this one-time investment include “race-day privileges, winner’s circle access, meeting the trainer and jockey, updated entries and recaps, visits with your horse and race winnings paid directly to your on-line account.” …
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