Nancy Favreau, Kathy Psoinos, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith & Susan Magnier

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Competitive Edge is the second horse owned by partners Nancy Favreau and Kathy Psoinos, who purchased him for $750,000 at a Fasig-Tipton Florida Two-Year-Olds-in-Training Sale. After Competitive Edge won his maiden debut at Saratoga by 10 ¾ lengths, Tabor, Smith and Magnier bought a percentage of the colt. 

Nancy and Kathy live together in Andover, Mass. Both are retired from careers in property management. Nancy, 51, has loved horses for a long time. “My father got me involved as a kid,” Nancy said in a phone interview October 6. “We used to go to Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park. I won my first bet. I was hooked. I loved it. It was a great time. It was fun.”

Kathy, 56, got involved in racing through Nancy. “I’ve been going to the racetrack for years,” she said. 

They discussed the possibility of buying a Thoroughbred for years. When they both retired, they took the plunge. “We talked about it for a long time, and we decided to do it,” Nancy said. “It was the right time.”

They still can’t believe Competitive Edge’s dazzling debut at Saratoga. They were there with a lot of friends. “It was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me,” Kathy said. Nancy added, “That was awesome. That was our first win. He is a beauty.”

Competitive Edge then won the Grade I Hopeful Stakes by 5 ¾ lengths at Saratoga. “We’re very excited,” Nancy said after the race. “Everything’s wonderful.”

But just two weeks later, they weren’t. Competitive Edge was taken out of training when X-rays revealed a hairline fracture of his left fore-leg. He’s expected to return to training in time to participate in next year’s Triple Crown. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed,” Nancy said.

Nancy and Kathy are in racing for the long haul. “We bought two more yearlings last month,” Nancy said. “One’s a Street Cry, and one is a Harlan’s Holiday.”  

For biographies on Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Susan Magnier click here

Let's Go Stable - Michael B. Tabor, John Magnier and Derrick Smith

Bryan Sullivan was an investor on Wall Street before deciding in 2007 to launch Let’s Go Stable with his brother-in-law Kevin Scatuorchio, whose father, Jim, campaigned 2007 champion turf male English Channel and More Than Ready, the sire of Verrazano. Sullivan described his stable’s first Thoroughbred purchase, Ready’s Echo for $100,000, as “half exhilaration and half nausea.” Ready’s Echo turned out fine, dead-heating for third in the 2008 Belmont Stakes. “That worked out well,” Sullivan said.

So have most of his horses. Verrazano, a $250,000 yearling purchase as the 2011 Keeneland September Sale, gave Let’s Go a New Year’s present earlier this year when he won his debut at Gulfstream Park by 7¾ lengths. Quickly, Let’s Go was contacted by representatives of Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier, and Derrick Smith, who offered to buy a percentage of Verrazano. “We owned horses with them in the past,” Sullivan said. “This made sense. We’d keep part.”

The deal was consummated the day before Verrazano’s second start, when he won an allowance race at Gulfstream by 16¼ lengths. “A lot of people called after that race,” Sullivan said. All of them were too late.

 “The anxiety before the Haskell was incredible,” he said. “I live two miles away.” Verrazano won the Haskell by nearly 10 lengths. “It was unreal,” Sullivan said. “It really was. Outside my wedding and the birth of my children, it was probably the most unforgettable day in my life.”