Larry & Marianne Williams

For relative newcomers to Thoroughbred racing, Larry and Marianne Williams have done remarkably well from their Tree Top Ranches near Boise, Idaho, in just 13 years. “They started from scratch,” said Dan Kiser, a former trainer at Les Bois Park who became Tree Top’s Equine Manager. “Mr. Williams is a real upbeat, nice person. He treats people nicely and good things seem to happen for him.”

Both Larry and Marianne are from the tiny town of Midvale, Idaho. They married there and moved their young family from Midvale to Boise in 1966. They have three children: Cris, Cory, and Cari. Larry became founder and president of the Idaho Timber Company, and its success allowed the Williams to dive into Thoroughbred racing.

“My family owned Quarter Horses, but they were mostly ranch stock, horses you worked cattle with,” Larry told Debra Ginsburg in her November, 2004, story in California Thoroughbred. “I don’t think I went to more than two races in my entire life before we became Thoroughbred owners ourselves.”

Initially, they contemplated investing in Quarter Horses. A trip to Kentucky convinced them to go with Thoroughbreds instead. They were smart enough to solicit advice from people who have known success in the business, including bloodstock agent Tim McMurry of Fleetwood Bloodstock, trainers Jerry Dutton and Cliff Sise Jr., and Idaho breeders Donnie and Judy McFadden. “They have all been instrumental in leading us down the right path,” Larry told Ginsburg.

McMurry selected the Williams’ first purchase, a yearling filly by Dehere at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2000. The Williams paid $35,000 for her, named her Tamarack Bay, and watched with delight as she earned $210,000. She then produced four winners, including Tamarando, from her first four starters.

Three years before they bought Tamarack Bay, the Williams purchased 700 acres in Parma, Idaho, and built Tree Top Ranch. They keep about 20 mares at Tree Top and send eight mares to Kentucky. The Kentucky foals are pointed to the sales. The Idaho mares are bred to California stallions and race as homebreds hoping to cash in on the rich California breeding program. About a month before the Idaho mares are to foal, they are sent to California to have their babies and then be bred back.

Longtime supporters of Boise State University, the Williams have contributed generously to the college’s academic and athletic initiatives including the expansion of the Boise University Broncos Football Stadium. In 2005, the Williams donated a 72-acre park to the City of Boise, which was named Marianne Williams Park. Many times, the Williams donate to good causes anonymously.

They were pretty anonymous in Thoroughbred racing, but that seems to be changing every day. Tamarando’s half-length win in the Del Mar Futurity has really put their names out there.

Bill Mack & Bob Baker

Bill Mack, the founder and chairman of AREA Property Partners, chairman of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and chairman of the board of directors of the Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, and Bob Baker, who is the chairman and CEO of National Realty and Development Corporation in Purchase, New York, have been winning Grade 1 stakes races for 16 years, all with D. Wayne Lukas as trainer.

In 1997, their colt Grand Slam won the Grade 1 Futurity and Champagne before suffering a leg injury in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. They sold a half-interest in Grand Slam to Coolmore Stud for $5 million. Grand Slam recovered from his injury and finished second in the 1998 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Mack and Baker also campaigned stakes winners Proud Citizen (with David Cornstein), who finished second in the 2002 Kentucky Derby and third in the Preakness, and 2009 Hopeful Stakes winner Dublin.

Strong Mandate didn’t indicate he would join their elite company of Grade 1 winners when he finished fifth by 12¼ lengths to Big Sugar Soda in his Saratoga debut six weeks before the Hopeful, which Big Sugar Soda would also enter.

In the interim, Lukas added blinkers, and Strong Mandate won a maiden race wire-to-wire by 4¼ lengths. In the Hopeful – Lukas’ 78th birthday – he blew past the leaders and won by a jaw-dropping 9¾ lengths under wraps for the final sixteenth of a mile. “Blinkers usually help with my horses,” Lukas said in a joyful winner’s circle. “These guys, Bill Mack and Bob Baker, have been with me for 25 years. We’ve gone through a lot. We’ve had Grand Slam and Dublin down through the years and Scorpion and Proud Citizen. We had some nice horses, but I don’t know if we’ve had one this good.” When jockey Jose Ortiz returned Strong Mandate to the winner’s circle, Mack put his arm around Baker and said, “This is what it’s all about.”

Treadway Racing Stable

Jeff Treadway, a 51-year-old private investor from Texas, now lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. He got involved with Thoroughbreds seven years ago and owns 14 horses, including his two-year-old filly Sweet Reason, whom he purchased for $185,000 at the Keeneland 2012 September Yearling Sale. Leah Gyarmati, a former exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens, trains all his horses.

In only her second start, Sweet Reason won the 122nd running of the $300,000 Spinaway Stakes by 5¼ lengths, giving Treadway his first Grade 1. 

Treadway appreciates the job Gyarmati has done with his horses: “I wouldn’t have stayed in it so long if not for Leah.” And with Gyarmati trained Noble Moon proving to be a popular winner at a freezing Aqueduct early on this year, Treadway already looks on track as one of 2014's owners to watch!

David Jacobson & Drawing Away Stable

David Jacobson, the son of legendary trainer Buddy Jacobson, left racing for 25 years to deal in real estate. He returned to racing in 2007 and has become a force in New York with Drawing Away Stable.

Their greatest success came with Saginaw, a gelding they claimed for $30,000 who subsequently won 14 of 18 starts, including ten stakes. Saginaw suffered a fatal injury in a race at Saratoga the day before Jacobson and Drawing Away Stable won the Grade 1 Forego with Strapping Groom, a horse they had claimed for $35,000 three months earlier.

Jacobson watched Strapping Groom defeat Jackson Bend and Justin Phillip in the Forego Stakes on TV from Aqueduct. He had shipped most of his horses from Saratoga back to Aqueduct that morning. Of his 24 hours of tragedy and triumph at Saratoga, he said a few days later, “I just tried to stay professional about Saginaw. Now I’m starting to feel emotional. We kind of got used to him. We thought he’d be around forever.”

Mark DeDomenico; Allen Aldrich; Lisa Hernandez; Stuart Downey

Dr. Mark DeDomenico, who campaigned champion Blind Luck, may not need another superstar, but he certainly deserves one for the contributions he continues to make to human and equine health. DeDomenico is a cardiovascular surgeon and researcher who played a vital role in the development of coronary bypass surgery; the Guided Flow Aortic Heart Valve; and the Bionit Arterial Grafts, which are used to replace damaged or artherosclerotic arteries. He is a founding member of the Hope Heart Institute in Seattle, Washington, and owns and operates the 45,000-member PRO Sports Health Club, where he continues to research metabolic disorders – including high cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes – and obesity.

His love of horses may be genetic. His father raced multiple stakes winners on the West Coast, and now the younger DeDomenico is helping horses more than his father could have envisioned. Working at his Pegasus Training and Rehabilitation Center in Richmond, Washington, with Dr. Wayne McIlwraith of Colorado State University, DeDomenico, who is Chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners of California Medication and Integrity Committee, is researching new treatments for equine middle and lower knee injuries, and he is also researching the use of platelet rich plasma and stem cell therapy.

As if he weren’t busy enough, he and Canadian owner Glen Todd began the Pegasus Two-Year-Old in Training Sale in Redmond two years ago. “Our whole mission here is to get some new owners into the business,” he told the Thoroughbred Daily News in an interview. “If we don’t keep getting new people into this sport to attend these sales, we’re going to end up in a tough spot.”

Godolphin

Godolphin was formed to give the family of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum a central organization to run its horses around the world.

Godolphin has won more than two hundred Grade 1 and Group 1 stakes around the globe, but it’s never experienced two more exciting Grade 1 stakes victories from one horse at one track than the two Alpha delivered a little more than a year apart at Saratoga Race Course. In 2012, the son of Bernardini dead-heated with Golden Ticket.

Bernie Schiappa

Bernie Schiappa is a 68-year-old native of Plainview, New Jersey, who got involved in harness racing before switching to Thoroughbreds. He retired as general manager of Fletcher Jones Imports, a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Las Vegas, in 2010, which gave him more time to concentrate on Thoroughbreds. He owns 25 and manages another 150 for Mercedes Stable. Schiappa’s horses race in the orange and blue silks of his favorite basketball team, the New York Knicks.

Schiappa was a partner with the late Terry Lanni, a lifelong friend who was Chairman of the Board and CEO of MGM Mirage, in 1999 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Silic, who was also owned by Ken Poslosky, and with Game On Dude.

Game On Dude’s victory in the 2011 Santa Anita Handicap is cherished by Schiappa. The gelding won by a nose under Chantal Sutherland, then had to sweat out an inquiry that seemed to last forever. “That was a 15-minute inquiry,” Schiappa said. “I was fairly comfortable that the results would stay the same.” And when it did? “It was a relief,” Schiappa said. “It was special for Terry, because he was getting sick then.” Lanni passed away a little more than four months later.

When Game On Dude won this year’s Pacific Classic, Schiappa and baseball legend Joe Torre walked Game On Dude into the Del Mar winner’s circle. Torre got involved in Thoroughbred racing when he was managing the New York Yankees, and one of his coaches, Don Zimmer, took him to the track. Torre subsequently owned several horses with late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel.

Willis Horton

Willis Horton, who at the age of 73 is five years younger than his Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, is a native of Marshall, Arkansas, who developed D.R. Horton Custom Homes, which became the nation’s largest builder of single-family homes. Horton retired when the company went public in 1992. That allowed him to pursue his passion: horses. He’d had them growing up, and he became the managing partner of Horton Stable, which included his brother Leon, his son Cam, and his nephew Terry. Among their best horses were Kentucky Oaks winner Lemons Forever, and Partner’s Hero.

Horton fell in love with Will Take Charge, a colt in the 2011 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. “I liked his pedigree, his size, and his conformation is terrific,” Horton said. “I’ve been in this business for about 50 years, and not on a big scale. I did it on a small scale. But this was the best-looking horse I’ve even seen in a sale.”

Another bidder was also impressed, but then stopped bidding. Why? It was Lukas. “I looked out and saw Willis bidding and I thought, ‘Whoa, I better back off here,’” Lukas said. “We’ve been friends forever.”

“It’s the most wonderful feeling to be able to get somebody put up the money, stay by you, believe in you, to give them that moment,” Lukas said. “Three strides before the wire, the only thing I thought of was him (Willis) and his wife.”

Asked what it meant to win the Travers, Horton said, “Well, it’s hard to describe, you know? I’m so happy.”

Steve Beneto

Steve Beneto, a 74-year-old member of the California Horse Racing Board who was inducted into the California State Fair Rodeo Hall of Fame, has a fascinating background. He was making a living vanning horses in 1966 when he purchased his first horse, who won his first race. “That got me hooked,” he said. “I got the bug.”

In 1973, Beneto purchased an A&W Root Beer franchise and an adjacent gas station. When the national gas crisis hit, his suppliers cut him off. So he purchased an old truck at an auction and began hauling gas himself. That single truck evolved into Beneto Tank Lines, a $72 million business with 250 trucks based at 18 terminals. In 2003, he sold his company to Kenan Advantage Group. Because he was traveling so much to his terminals, he purchased his own airplane. That grew into Beneto Inc. Jet Sales and Leasing, with offices near his home in Sacramento and in Dallas, Texas. “I usually get straight to the point real fast and solve the problem,” Beneto said. “You’ve got to work through the issues and stay on top of things until you get what you want.”

A board meeting at Del Mar prevented Beneto from going to Saratoga to see the Test, so he called up his friend George Hearst, who owns the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York. “He called me up and asked if I could represent him this weekend,” Hearst said. “I said, ‘I will if she can run.’”

She can, and she did. “She’s a killer of a horse,” Hearst said.

Susan Wantz

Susan Wantz rode and trained event horses for much of her life before getting involved with Thoroughbreds in 1997. She and her husband David own ten horses in Maryland. “I just love Thoroughbreds,” she said. “Thoroughbreds run because they love to run.”

Dance to Bristol sure does love to run. Wantz purchased Dance to Bristol for $42,000 as a yearling and has watched her evolve into one of the best filly sprinters in North America. The daughter of Speightstown has won ten of 19 starts, with eight seconds, and is less than $20,000 shy of a million in earnings.

Just three-and-a-half weeks after giving Wantz her first Grade 2 stakes victory, getting up in the final strides to capture the Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga Race Course by a neck over Classic Point, Dance to Bristol did even better, holding off Book Review by a head to capture the 35th running of the $500,000 Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes.

When jockey Xavier Perez brought Dance to Bristol back to the Ballerina winner’s circle, Wantz rubbed her filly’s neck, congratulated Perez, and then wiped tears away before pictures were taken. “You don’t find horses with that much heart,” Wantz said. “You can’t breed that.”

Patricia Generazio

The Generazios – Frank is 84, Pat is 78, and they’ve been married for 47 years and counting – have come a long way since they began racing horses at Suffolk Downs and Rockingham Park in New England.

They enjoyed great success with Presious Passion, who won 14 of 52 career starts, earning just under $2.7 million. “We were never fond of grass horses until Passion,” Pat said. The ten-year-old is now enjoying a sedate life. “He’s very happy in retirement,” Pat said. “He lives on the farm where he was born in Ocala.”

Discreet Marq, who is trained by Christophe Clement, has given the Generazios another reason to love turf racing. Before their homebred ventured to California to run in the $300,000 Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks, she had already won the Grade 2 Sands Point at Belmont Park. The owners wanted to be in California for the Oaks, but doctors had told Pat not to fly following cataract surgery. So she and Frank, who used to train their horses, stayed at their summer home in Cape Cod and watched on TV. And they liked what they saw.

“When she won that race, I couldn’t believe it,” Pat said. “It was phenomenal. It’s a great feeling, especially when we raced and bred her dam (To Marquet) and her grandmother (Pretty Momma). We raced them all. They’re like part of our family. It’s a great family.”

James Wigan

James Wigan is the founder and manager of London Thoroughbred Services Ltd., an international bloodstock agency that has grown considerably since its inception in 1976. Services include purchasing and sales, both public and private; stallion syndication and management; and consultation on pedigrees, insurance, and transportation.

In partnership with his mother, Wigan owns the 130-acre West Blagdon Stud in Cranborne, Dorset, in the U.K., where he keeps his family’s 24 broodmares. The family keeps ten-to-15 horses in training with Sir Michael Stoute, Luca Cumani, Richard Hannon, and John Gosden in England and with Andre Fabre and Francois Rohaut in France.

Wigan doesn’t frequently ship his horses to run in North America, but he sent Dank to Arlington Park in Chicago to race in the 24th running of the $750,000 Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes. 

Wigan was glad he journeyed to Chicago to witness his filly’s best performance in her 11-race career. “She has such a great turn of foot,” he said after the race. “Obviously she has improved over the last year.”

Zayat Stables

Ahmed Zayat, who has residences in New Jersey, New York, London, and Egypt, made his fortune when he privatized Al Ahram Beverages Company and turned it into the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the Middle East. He then sold the company to Heineken International. Zayat is the largest shareholder in Misr Glass Manufacturing, the largest manufacturer of glass containers in Egypt.

Zayat’s business acumen allowed him to get involved with Thoroughbreds at the highest level. One of his best sprinters, Justin Phillip, has been chasing a Grade 1 stakes score for most of his career. As a four-year-old in 2012, he finished second by a neck to Poseidon’s Warrior in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes. This year, he got the job done, winning the Vanderbilt by two lengths.

The five-year-old First Samurai horse has won or placed in 21 of 31 starts and has earned in excess of $1.2 million, and is one of many Grade 1 winners for Zayat. Others include Bodemeister, second in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, who won the Arkansas Derby; Wood Memorial Stakes winner Eskendereya; Belmont Stakes runner-up Paynter, first in last year’s Haskell Invitational; Pioneerof the Nile, who won the CashCall Futurity and the Santa Anita Derby; and Zensational, a winner at the top level three times.

Dr George Todaro & Jerry Hollendorfer

Born in Seattle, Washington, on July 1, 1937, Dr. George Todaro is a professor at the University of Washington who has worked with the National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Health. His research has led to innovations in the treatment of cancer and cystic fibrosis. He is also the founder of several biotechnological companies, including Targeted Growth, a Seattle-based company focused on improving the quality of agricultural products, such as biodiesel fuels.

Todaro’s involvement with Thoroughbreds was literally a gift. For Christmas in 1991, his wife gave him a ten percent interest in a Washington-bred yearling named It May Freeze. Todaro was smitten, so much that became was an investor in Emerald Downs, which opened in Auburn, Washington, in 1996. One of his most successful horses was multiple stakes winner Trickey Trevor, who earned more than $700,000.

Todaro is partners with Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer on Lady of Fifty, who overcame a six-wide trip under Corey Nakatani to win the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes by a length and a half. Most of Todaro’s 70 horses in training are owned in partnership with Hollendorfer. Todaro also has horses with three other trainers and owns several broodmares in California and Kentucky.

Hollendorfer, a 72-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, used to bet on races with his teenage buddies at Acton Park, a now-defunct track not far from Hollendorfer’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. When he went to visit friends in San Francisco in his early 20s, he talked his way onto the backstretch at Bay Meadows and convinced trainer Jerry Dutton to give him a job. Later, Hollendorfer worked for Jerry Fanning. “I got to work for a couple of good guys,” Hollendorfer said. “Most of what I do today, I learned from them.” While he was working with Fanning at Hollywood Park, he met his future wife Janet, who was working for trainer Mel Stute.

In his first six years as a trainer, Hollendorfer won 59 races. Now he is the third leading trainer in racing history. By the time you read this, he’ll have won his 6,500th race.

Paul Bulmahn's GoldMark Farm

Paul Bulmahn is the founder, chairman, and CEO of ATP Oil and Gas Corporation, based in Houston, Texas, which develops and produces natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Bulmahn purchased 2,500-acre GoldMark Farm in Ocala, Florida, in 2002, but didn’t get involved in racing until 2006. The farm is now home to more than 1,400 horses, with about a third of them belonging to Bulmahn, who has had success with stakes winners Elusive Lady, Double Espresso, and Moontune Missy among others and Mylute, who was third in this year’s Preakness Stakes. But Cross Traffic has taken him even higher.

Cross Traffic, a gray or roan colt by Unbridled’s Song out of the Cure the Blues mare Stop Traffic, was purchased for $300,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale in 2010. In the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, Cross Traffic led from the start almost to the finish, losing by a nose on a head bob to Sahara Sky. Trainer Todd Pletcher called it one of the worst beats he’s had in years.

The sting of Cross Traffic’s Metropolitan loss evaporated on a historic, sunny afternoon at Saratoga two months later. There was Cross Traffic in the winner’s circle after taking the $750,000 Whitney by three-quarters of a length over Successful Dan. There was Bulmahn holding the Whitney trophy with Marylou Whitney on the exact 150th birthday of Saratoga Race Course, August 3rd. “This is huge,” Bulmahn said. “To be here with Marylou Whitney on Saratoga’s 150th birthday. This is my first Grade 1.”

Donnie Crevier & Charles Martin

Donnie Crevier was already on his way to a spectacular career selling top-line automobiles when three of his friends talked him into taking 25 percent of a Thoroughbred in 1988. “I thought it’d be fun and exciting,” he said. The horse won his debut, hooking Crevier for the rest of his life.

Now 63, he continues to follow three passions: cars, giving back to the community, and horses. He is president and CEO of one of the nation’s most successful BMW and Mini Cooper dealerships, Crevier BMW Mini in Costa Mesa, California. He also owns Crevier Class Cars, an innovative storage facility for classic cars that also functions as an exclusive club for the owners of those cars.

While he deals with toney clients and friends, Creview is legendary in Southern California for giving back to the community, especially with the Boys and Girls Club. “I was raised by a single mom with not much money,” he said in an interview in Dealer Magazine in 2008. “I was lucky enough to have youth organizations that I was involved with as a kid, and as an adult I’ve had the resources and good luck to be able to help those organizations.” He was realistic about being a Thoroughbred owner:  “It’s for fun,” he said. “If you have a little success, it’s all the more fun.” 

Lately, he and Chip Martin, a labor relations negotiator in Southern California, have had great success thanks to Bench Points and Bench Points’ full brother Points Offthebench. Bench Points won his first four starts. “That was an awesome thrill,” said Martin, a 40-year-old native of Indiana who attended Indiana University and went to the Kentucky Derby a couple of times with his college buddies. Bench Points’ win streak ended when he finished third in the Grade 2 San Felipe. Then, after running seventh in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, he won the Grade 3 Laz Barrera Stakes by a nose. Martin was surprised when trainer Tim Yakteen told him that Bench Points’ year-younger brother was going to be even better. ”He said he was going to win a Grade 1,” Martin said.

Yakteen, a former assistant to Charles Whittingham and Bob Baffert, was right. Points Offthebench edged Goldencents by a head to win the Bing Crosby Stakes and give Yakteen his first Grade 1 stakes win. “I didn’t think I’d have to wait this long,” Yakteen said after the race. Yakteen, who is the godfather to Martin’s oldest son Charlie, considers himself lucky to have Crevier and Martin as owners. “Donnie is a really good guy, very easy to work for, a professional,” Yakteen said. “He stays out of your way and lets you do your job. Chip is a true enthusiast about the sport of horseracing.”

A very happy enthusiast. “We’ve only owned a handful of horses,” Martin said. “We would have been grateful for just one good horse.”

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.”

Besilu Stables

Benjamin Leon Jr., who races under the name of Besilu Stables, immigrated to the United States from Cuba when he was 16 years old in 1961. He had two passions, which he shared in an interview with Ocala.com in 2011: “Since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by horses. I’d get in trouble for drawing pictures of horses in my history class.  As long as I can remember, I’ve been passionate about horses and playing baseball.”

He pursued both. He was a world-class softball player, winning four national and world titles and was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame in 1988.

Leon, who owned and bred Paso Fino horses for nearly 30 years, waited another 19 years before buying his first Thoroughbred. By then, he and his family had established Leon Medical Centers, sold them, purchased them back, and re-sold them for hundreds of millions of dollars. Benjamin Leon III currently acts as CEO of Leon Medical Centers. The family, led by Benjamin Leon Sr., also founded clinics to help Cuban exiles.

Leon returned to his love of horses in a major way, buying the sales topper at three different sales in 2010 and 2011. Two were yearlings; the other was Royal Delta, whom he purchased for $8.5 million at the 2011 Keeneland November Sale.

“Everybody wants to be on the top of the mountain,” Says Leon. “Most people forget the fun is in the climb. I’m climbing right now and I’m having a lot of fun.”

Richlyn Farm

Richard “Dick” and Evelyn Pollard race as Richlyn Farm, which they concocted by combining letters of their first names. They met in New York City, where Dick was working as a bank clerk and Evelyn was a secretary for an oil company. Eventually, they moved to Boston, where Dick became a senior lending officer at a Boston-based bank and chairman of the Boston Ballet. Evelyn had ridden horses growing up on Long Island and on summer vacations at a dude ranch in upstate New York.

Their first horse, a cheap yearling, never made it to the races. Their second yearling, Jen’s Trueheart, became their first broodmare. They’ve enjoyed success in racing ever since, but rarely at the highest level. The last thing they expected this summer was to be standing in the winner’s circle at Saratoga after a Grade 1 stakes. Rather, they were surprised that their trainer, George Weaver, had even entered their three-year-old filly Lighthouse Bay into the Grade 1 Prioress Stakes.

Weaver, who was on his way to an outstanding Saratoga meet – nine winners from 41 starts – had surprised the Pollards eight years earlier when he entered their horse, Saratoga County, in the Dubai Gold Shaheen. He won, giving Weaver his first Grade 1 stakes victory.

B. J. Wright & Robert LaPenta

B.J. Wright, a 75-year-old native of Shelbyville, Kentucky, is the Chairman of the Board of LifeSource Water Systems, a water filtration company in Pasadena, California, which he bought as a full partner in 1985 shortly after the company was founded. His company is now run by his son Jay, his daughter Cherie and her husband Mark Harris, who is president of LifeSource. Wright gives filtered water to all his horses and backs up his belief of the importance of good water in people and horses’ health by donating a portion of his winnings to Nancy Santullo’s House of the Children, which provides clean water and sanitation to the people of the Southeastern Peruvian Amazon. He is now on the House of Children Board.

When he was in his 20s, he dabbled with Thoroughbreds. He and a couple partners bought a horse for $1,000 and went on to win a couple races with him. A second Thoroughbred didn’t do as well, and Wright left the game for some three decades, returning in the ’90s.

LaPenta, a 68-year-old native of Yonkers, New York, was the vice president of Lockheed Martin Corporation, founding general partner of Aston Capital LLC, and Chairman of the Board of L-1 Identity Solutions, which deals in the protection of personal identities and assets. He sold the latter company in July, 2011.

LaPenta was introduced to horses by his mother and made his first Thoroughbred purchase in 1988 as a partner with basketball coach Rick Pitino, whose University of Louisville team won last season’s national championship. LaPenta started his own stable in 2001, purchasing eight yearlings for $895,000 and racing in the name of Whitehorse Stables. His best horses include 2007 champion two-year-old colt War Pass and the outstanding sprinter Jackson Bend, and he won a Belmont Stakes with Da’ Tara.

Also a philanthropist, LaPenta donated $7 million to the LaPenta Student Union Building at his alma mater, Iona College in Westchester County, New York. LaPenta’s silks are Iona’s colors: maroon and gold. He lives in Deer Valley, Utah, and winters in Naples, Florida, and enjoys golfing and skiing.