Hillsbrook Farms

Skeptics say you have to be nuts to be a Thoroughbred owner. Garland Williamson is a Thoroughbred owner because he sold nuts. Lots of them. The transplanted Canadian, a native of Georgia, moved to Canada in 1967. “I started a nut business, all types of nuts,” he said.

His company, Trophy Foods, became the most successful food producers and distributors in his adopted country, specializing in edible nuts, dried fruits, confectionary and bulk foods. The company’s continuing success allowed him to retire four years ago, well after he re-connected with his Georgia roots and became a Thoroughbred owner and breeder, racing from his Hillsbrook Farm in Erin, Ontario. Hard Not to Like is a home-bred.

“I’ve always liked horses,” Williamson said. “I grew up in Georgia as a kid many years ago and we never had horses, but we always had animals. We had mules to plow the garden with.”

 His gray mare Hard Not to Like, like her dam Like a Gem, whom Williamson also bred and raced, is a lot faster than a mule. Like a Gem won the final three races of her career including the mile-and-a-quarter Maple Leaf Stakes. “Her first win was at five furlongs and she won up to a mile and a quarter,” he said. “We didn’t think there was any limitation on her distance.” She finished her career with more than a half million dollars in earnings.

Hard Not to Like, who was originally trained by Gail Cox and is now handled by Michael Matz, became just the second filly in 74 years to beat males in the Cup and Saucer Stakes for two-year-olds at Woodbine in 2011. She was second by three-quarters of a length in the 2012 Grade 1 Ashland Stakes. In her first start for Matz, she won the 2013 Grade 3 Marshua River Stakes before finishing ninth in last year’s Jenny Wiley Stakes. 

Vincent Scuderi

Born in Glen Cove, Long Island, 57-year-old Vincent Scuderi is the third-generation president of his family’s Brooklyn business, Van Blarcom Company, now known as VBC. The company’s five buildings occupy an entire city block, manufacturing child resistant closures and specialty products for the pharmaceutical and health-care industries. Incorporated on Feb. 3, 1947, VBC manufactures more than one billion closures and fitments annually and employs 300 people. “I have a good business that allows me to pay my horse bills,” Scuderi said April 22. “It’s a very hard game.”

It’s a game he loves to play. His father and uncle helped introduce him to horse racing, and he began catching harness races at nearby Roosevelt Raceway. “I started going for a few late races after work,” Scuderi said. “I was 18 or 19 back then with no money. Two of my friends and I, we used to go there and go party afterwards.”

Scuderi bought his first horse, a Thoroughbred, some 30 years back. The horse never made it to the races. Instead of giving up on racing, he claimed another. “Baby Chris was her name,” he said. “She won three or four races. I was hooked.”

Though he bred Dads Caps and still owns his dam, Seeking the Silver, Scuderi describes himself as a “most predominantly a claiming owner.” He hit a huge home run with Endless Circle, a horse he claimed for $14,000 who subsequently won two stakes with trainer Rudy Rodriguez. Scuderi also had considerable success with Uncle T Seven, a top New York-bred.

He now has six or seven horses with Rodriguez and trainer Michelle Nevin, three babies and one accomplished broodmare who has now produced a Grade I stakes winner. When Scuderi entered speedy Dads Caps in the Carter, he told Rodriguez he’d be okay with scratching him if there was a ton of other early speed in the race. “I honestly thought I could finish in the top four,” Scuderi said. “I was getting weight. It was my home track. And there wasn’t a lot of other early speed. I thought we had a chance.”

He did, giving Rodriguez, jockey Luis Contreras and Scuderi and his family, wife Deborah, son Vincent and daughter Liza, their first Grade I. “It was a surprise,” Scuderi said. “I just get such a thrill out of winning. I really do.”

Steve Coburn & Perry Martin

Long-time racing fans Perry Martin and Steve Coburn each owned a five percent share of an $8,000 mare named Love the Chase in a syndicate. When the syndicate dissolved, each wanted to buy the mare himself. Instead, they became partners. Someone suggested a name for their new stable. “A groom walked by and said, `Anybody who buys this horse is a dumb ass,’” Martin told Debbie Arrington in her April 4th, 2014, story in the Sacramento Bee. “Steve and I shook hands; we’re the Dumb Ass Partners.”

Indeed, their California Chrome races in purple and green silks featuring a caricature of a jackass. How dumb are Martin and Coburn? California Chrome was Love the Chase’s first foal. His dominating victories in the Grade 2 San Felipe and the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby extended his all-stakes winning streak to four heading into the Grade I Kentucky Derby for 77-year-old trainer Art Sherman, who was the exercise rider for 1955 Santa Anita and Kentucky Derby winner Swaps. Like Swaps, California Chrome is a California-bred.

Unlike their trainer, Martin and Coburn don’t have historical ties to racing. Martin and his wife Denise own and operate Martin Testing Laboratories at the former McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. Martin Testing Laboratories is a commercial full-service independent lab offering contract research and development, product assurance testing and material assurance testing services.

Coburn works at a factory that makes magnetic strips for credit cards. His wife, Carolyn, recently retired. “We’re just everyday people,” Coburn told Arrington. “I’m up at 4:30 every morning and in bed by 10.” Martin said, “We’ve got two businesses to run; the horse is our third business. But we’re really happy and excited.”

And that was before the Kentucky Derby. 

California Chrome was born at Harris Farms in California. “He weighed 137 pounds when he was born,” Coburn said. “That’s big. We nicknamed him Junior. I told my wife when we saw this horse on the day after he was born, `We better hang on for this ride because it’s going to be a good one.’ He had no idea.

Centennial Farms

Wicked Strong’s victory in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct came 21 years after Donald Little Sr. and Donald Little Jr.’s Centennial Farms enjoyed a seminal New York moment at nearby Belmont Park when Colonial Affair won the 1993 Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, making jockey Julie Krone the first female rider to win a Triple Crown race. “I was so nervous for that race that when they loaded the horses in the gate I left the owners in the box seats and hid behind a pole,” 53-year-old Little Jr. said. “By the time they were at the eighth pole, I was back in the middle of the group yelling and cheering.”

Colonial Affair wasn’t done giving the Littles reasons to cheer, adding the Grade I Whitney Handicap and Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup the following year.

Two years earlier, Centennial Farms’ Rubiano won the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, Grade I Vosburgh, Grade 2 Forego, Grade 2 Tom Fool and the Grade 3 Westchester on the way to being named 1992 Eclipse Champion Sprinter. “Rubiano and Colonial Affair put us on the map,” Little Jr. said.

Corinthian kept Centennial Farms in the headlines when he won the Grade I Metropolitan Mile and the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in 2007.

Little Sr. is an investment banker in Boston and the chairman of Centennial Farms. Little Jr. is the Centennial Farms President. Little Sr. is a past president of the United States Polo Association and a master of the Myopia Hunt Club who competes in the master’s class at Grand Prix show jumping events. He was also the youngest aircraft commander in the Strategic Air Command. Little Jr. is also a pilot.

Centennial Farms, which creates racing partnerships, began in 1982 and has won more than 65 graded stakes and $15 million in purses. Paula Parsons breaks and trains Centennial’s yearlings at its 60-acre farm in Middleburg, Va., and Dr. Stephen Carr, a veterinarian, advises Centennial on acquisitions and stallion management. Centennial has horses with three trainers, Jimmy Jerkens, Michael Matz and Rodney Jenkins.

When Centennial’s Grade 3 winner Chelokee was injured and retired, Centennial donated him to the University of Arizona to stand at stud.

Wicked Strong’s original name was Moyne Spun when he was purchased by Centennial for $375,000 at the 2012 Keeneland Yearling Sale. Two weeks after the 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon, Little Jr. wanted to rename him Boston Strong, but that name had already been taken by Sovereign Stable. After conferring with his friend and Principal of the Boston Bruins, Charlie Jacobs, and Jacob’s wife, Kim, Little settled on Wicked Strong. Then he announced that one percent of his earnings would be donated to the One Fund, which was set up to support victims of the bombings. Already, $7,000 has been donated to the One Fund. After the Wood, Little announced the percentage would be five for the Triple Crown races.

“A lot of times, it takes tragedy to pull people together, and it’s very obvious that did that for the people of Boston,” Little told Anthony Gulizia of the Boston Globe in an April 20th, 2014, story. “The first reaction is anger, which I had myself. But then after that you think about the victims and their families and how we’re going to grow from this and support each other from this, and it happened.”

It only happens when people decide to make a difference.

Landaluce Educe Stables

Ray Struder is living proof of the powerful, emotional attachment a fan can have to a Thoroughbred. The 51-year-old native of Tennessee named his all-filly stable Landaluce Educe, which is Latin for Landaluce remembered.

Following a football injury in high school, Struder moved cross country to attend San Diego State University. Every day in the summer he rode the city bus to Del Mar. On Sept. 5, 1982, he saw trainer D. Wayne Lukas’s unbeaten two-year-old filly Landaluce capture the Grade 2 Del Mar Debutante by 6 ½ lengths at odds of 3-10. Struder was so impressed that he traveled to Santa Anita to see her next start in the Grade 3 Anoakia Stakes, a race she captured by 10 lengths at 1-10.

In her following start, Landaluce won the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita by two lengths at odds of 1-20. But the filly who would be named an Eclipse Award winner contracted a bacterial infection in November. She died in Lukas’s arms a month later.

“Few things get to me emotionally, but I was surprised how heartbroken I was by her death, and especially for a horse I never met,” Struder said. “I would think about her and the two races I saw all the time.”

Struder never forgot the champion filly. “I wanted to be a Thoroughbred owner since I was 19 years old,” he said. “It took me close to 30 years.” He knew what he wanted to name his stable the whole time.

Struder’s business success with his engineering firm in Tennessee freed him to buy his first horse in 2010 with trainer Kenny McPeek. They would team up to buy 10 more. Four of the 11 have raced in graded stakes. Struder entered the game with a plan: buy quality fillies and develop a broodmare band.

Rosalind, whom he purchased for $70,000 as a yearling, may be the leader of the band. She nearly gave Struder a victory in the Breeders’ Cup last year, when she was a fast-finishing third by a half-length in the Grade 1 Juvenile Filly.

Now she’s given Struder his first Grade I, conjuring memories of another Grade I filly Struder fell in love with and still honors so many years later.

Wesley Ward

Success at the top level of racing as a jockey or trainer or owner is difficult enough. Wesley Ward has done all three in his remarkable, on-going career. And he’s only 46 years old.

The son of Washington trainer Dennis Ward and the grandson of New York outrider Jim Daley, Ward won the Eclipse Award for apprentice jockey in 1984 after winning 335 races, more than $5 million in earnings and riding titles at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and The Meadowlands. Weight problems impacted his riding career in North America, so he rode in Italy, Singapore and Malaysia before retiring in 1989 to begin his second career as a trainer.

After working as his dad’s assistant, he went on his own in 1991. His first stakes and graded stakes winner was Unfinished Symph, who captured the 1994 Grade 3 Will Rogers Handicap at Hollywood Park. Unfinished Symph subsequently finished third that year in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Three other horses Ward trained, Cannonball in both the 2007 Juvenile Turf and 2009 Turf Sprint, Holdin Bullets in the 2011 Juvenile Sprint and Sweet Shirley Mae in the 2012 Juvenile Sprint, also finished third. Judy the Beauty, whom he owns, almost got the job done last year, finishing second by a half-length to Groupie Doll in the Filly & Mare Sprint.

By then, Ward had made history. Twice. In 2009, on his first trip to England, he became the first American trainer to win at Royal Ascot. He did that twice with Strike the Tiger, who won the Windsor Castle Stakes, and with Group 2 Queens Mary Stakes winner Jealous Again. Ward, who bred Strike the Tiger, owned both horses in partnership. Two years later, Ward became the first American trainer to win at Longchamp when Tiz Terrific broke her maiden there. Ward saddled three more winners in France, another one at Longchamp with Italo and two at Chantilly with Judy the Beauty and Everyday Dave.

Still sensitive to the difficulties a young jockey can face, Ward has given mounts to many inexperienced riders including Ariel Smith in 1999 and Christian Santiago Reyes in 2009, helping each win the Eclipse Award for apprentice rider.

Ward, who owns a broodmare farm in Ocala, and his wife Kimberly have three children, Riley, Jack and Denae.

Twin Creek Racing Stables LLC

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Multi-faceted Steve Davison, a 47-year-old native of Ruston, La., owns both Twin Creeks Farm and Twin Creeks Racing Stables. He is an attorney who also is the principal owner of Genesis Energy LP, a publicly-traded energy and transportation company. He developed Squire Creek Country Club, a residential golf course community where his family lives in Choudrant, La.; and recently bought “The Sheets” handicapping service. He remains close to his alma mater, Louisiana Tech University, and is a radio broadcaster for its football games.

Davison got involved in racing when his farm manager and best friend since kindergarten, Randy Gullatt, began his career as a trainer in 1985. Davison bought a couple of horses for him to train. One was La Paz, whom was eventually sold as a broodmare for $1.6 million in 2000. Eight years later, Twin Creeks purchased her colt for $200,000, Mission Impazible, who went on to win a pair of Grade II stakes, the Louisiana Derby and the New Orleans Handicap.

Twin Creeks is the co-breeder of multiple Grade I stakes winner To Honor and Serve, who was sold as a weanling for $250,000 and then re-sold as a yearling for $575,000. Twin Creeks also sold his dam, Pilfer, for $650,000 in 2008.

Twin Creeks raced graded stakes winner Graydar, whose victories included the Grade I Donn Handicap and the Grade II New Orleans Handicap and Kelso Handicap.

Gullatt, who trains in Louisiana, Arkansas, California and Kentucky, is responsible for selecting the horses Twin Creeks purchases and managing their racing careers, while Davison handles the organization of the partnership and the evaluation and purchase of yearlings. Twin Creeks also race horses with trainers Todd Pletcher, Mike Maker, Dale Romans and Steve Asmussen. Gullatt’s wife Kim, a former jockey, handles marking and client relations.

Twin Creeks Farm, which opened in 1992, features 180 scenic acres in Nonesuch, Ky., and is home to 25 broodmares. Twin Creeks consign horses they want to sell commercially under its own name or with Taylor Made Sales Agency.

Davison and his wife, Sara, have twins, Joe and Kate. He also has two children from a previous marriage.

Tommy Town Thoroughbreds LLC

Tom and Debi Stull, who were named the 2004 Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders of the Year in California and were the leading breeders of California-breds in 2009 and 2012, operate Tommy Town Thoroughbreds LLC in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County. Tom, a manufacturing machinist, started a single tool and die shop in Santa Fe Springs more than 30 years ago. That grew into Tower Industries, which has shops in Anaheim and Ontario, Calif., and in Wisconsin. He also dabbles in real estate. Debi was an accomplished equestrian, a talent she passed on to their daughter Shelly, who competes in show jumping. They also have a son, Aaron.

Jim Wilson of Wilson Stock Farm picked out their first winner, Fa La Te Dough, who captured seven stakes and earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in the mid-1980s. After racing and breeding a few horses at their farm in Hemet, Calif., they decided to do more. “We decided to do it right,” Tom said.

They purchased D. Wayne Lukas’ former 160-acre operation, the Westerly Training Center, in 2000 and have expanded it to more than 350 acres. It’s home to nearly 400 horses, including a broodmare band of more than 50 and four stallions, all multiple stakes winners: Kafwain, Ministers Wild Cat, Old Topper and Grazen. The facility, which is run by Ranch Manager Mike Allen, has 100 stalls, a custom Equicruiser and a seven-furlong track.

In 2004, Tommy Town Thoroughbreds offered a money-back guarantee on Old Topper’s 2003 and 2004 stud fees if the stallion wasn’t the state’s freshman sire of the year. Old Topper not only finished first in the state, but also ranked 13th nationally.

One of Tommy Town Thoroughbreds’ top horses was Whatsthescript, a private purchase after the horse raced three times in Ireland. After recovering from a foot bruise, he won a pair of Grade II stakes, the American Handicap and Del Mar Mile Handicap, before finishing third in the 2008 Grade I Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Tommy Town Thoroughbreds has some 40 horses in training with Jerry Hollendorfer, John Sadler, Mike Mitchell, Peter Miller and William Morey in California, Henry Dominguez in New Mexico and Joan Reynolds in Maryland.

David Heerensperger & Jose Maria Nelson

Trainer Neil Drysdale arranged David Heerensperger and Jose Maria Nelson’s 50-50 partnership on Winning Prize, who was imported from Nelson’s home country of Argentina, which is where Winning Prize will stand when his racing career is over.

Heerensperger, a 67-year-old native of Longview, Wash., retired as CEO of Pay ‘n Pak Hardware Stores in 1989 and founded Eagle Hardware and Garden. “He had always wanted a chain of stores that were bigger and better,” Jill said. After Eagle Hardware and Garden grew to more than 30 stores in the western United States, he retired again in 1997, nearly two decades after he and Jill got involved with Thoroughbreds.

After they purchased a trip to the Kentucky Derby at a charity auction, Jill, who had grown up showing Saddlebreds and Quarter Horses, suggested to her husband they buy a Thoroughbred. On a whim, they attended a horse sale in Washington in 1979 and wound up buying the sales topper, Flame Commander, who bowed a tendon and never raced. The Heerenspergers dove into Thoroughbred racing anyway, not just as owners and breeders, but also as significant investors in Emerald Downs, a track in Auburn, Wash., which opened on June 20, 1996. Jill served on the board of the Washington Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association for 13 years.

Their top horses include Grade I winners Artiste Royal and Millennium Wind and Bourbon Bay, who won six Grade II stakes and made nearly $1 million. The couple, who have homes in Bellevue, Wash., and Palm Springs, Calif., usually have up to half a dozen horses in training with Drysdale in Southern California and Tom Wenzel at Emerald Downs. “We both love our horses and we want to give them every chance we can,” Jill said. “We want to do right by them.”

Jose Maria Nelson, a prominent owner and breeder in Argentina, is the president of the Argentine Stud Book which watches over the Genealogic Register of identity and property of all Thoroughbred, Pure Arabian and Anglo-Arabian horses. He is also on the Argentine Jockey Club Committee and a member of the Racing Commission of the San Isidro Hippodrome.

Crossed Sabres Farm

Carolyn Vogel, an experienced equestrian who races in the name of Crossed Sabres Farm, has teamed with a fellow New Englander, trainer Marcus Vitali, to become a power in South Florida. Crossed Sabres was the second leading owner of the 2013 Calder Summer Meet with 14 victories from 50 starts. The stable is doing even better this year. Through early February, Crossed Sabres is the leading owner of the 2014 Calder Winter Meet with five wins from 14 starters. And Vitali is the leading trainer.

Winning the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap with 39-1 longshot Lochte was a major coup. “She encouraged me to start him,” Vitali said. “She said, `Go for it.’ She’s a wonderful lady and she’s good for the industry. She’s put me in a great position.”

Crossed Sabres also has horses with Dale Romans, who trains Pick of the Litter, a four-year-old colt who was a $150,000 yearling purchase at the 2011 Keeneland September. Following a 7 ½-length maiden victory in his second career start, Pick of the Litter became Crossed Sabres’ first starter in a Grade I stakes when he finished sixth to Orb in the 2013 Florida Derby. Pick of the Litter then finished third to Winning Cause in the Grade III Lexington Stakes at Keeneland and fifth in the Grade I Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park to Verrazano.

On Feb. 9 at Gulfstream, Pick of the Litter won an allowance race by 2 ¼ lengths, boosting his career earnings to $175,530.

Earlier this year, Crossed Sabres Farm’s Jay Eye See, who is trained by Vitali, finished third in the $65,000 Thrillin Discovery Handicap at Calder, Jan. 25.

Claiborne Farm & Adele B Dilschneider

It’s hard to believe there is a more iconic farm than Claiborne in Paris, Ky., which celebrated its 100th year of operation in 2011 and was honored that year with an Eclipse Award of Merit for outstanding achievement in Thoroughbred racing. “It’s more of a tribute to my grandfather and father,” Seth Hancock, the 64-year-old owner, partner and manager of Claiborne, said. “My grandfather (Arthur B. Hancock) started all this over here in Kentucky, and my dad (Arthur B. “Bull Hancock Jr.”) built it up into what it was, and I’m just trying to keep it going.”

Hancock, who graduated from the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture in 1971, and his wife Dell have done more than keep it going. They have continued a standard of excellence at the historic farm whose most recent stars include 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame, who began his stallion career at Claiborne in 2011, 2012 graded stakes winners Cease and Rumor and 2013 triple graded-stakes winner Departing. All three were campaigned in partnership with Adele Dilschneider.

Many of the sport’s greatest champions preceded them, none more accomplished than Triple Crown Champion and two-time Horse of the Year Secretariat, whom Seth Hancock syndicated for a then record $6 million in 1972, the same year he took over Claiborne following his father’s death. Blenheim II, Bold Ruler, Conquistador Cielo, Damascus, Danzig, Easy Goer, Triple Crown Champion Gallant Fox, Mr. Prospector, Nasrullah, Nijinsky II, Princequillo, Round Table, Sir Gallahad III, Sir Ivor, Tom Rolfe and Unbridled are among the long list of Thoroughbred royalty tied to Claiborne.

Hancock has long been an industry leader. He is a director of Keeneland, a member of The Jockey Club, vice chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and a member of the American Graded Stakes Committee. He was on the board of directors at Churchill Downs from 1973 to 2008.

Hancock’s brother, Arthur, owns and operates Stone Farm adjacent to Claiborne.

Dilschneider is a native of Alton, Ill., across the river from St. Louis, Mo. Her great grandfather, William E. Levis, was the founder of Corning-Illinois Glass, a prominent maker of beer bottles in the middle of the 20th century. Her grandfather, John Olin, bred and owned Cannonade, who won the 100th Kentucky Derby in 1974 for Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens and Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. She owns approximately two dozen racehorses and 30 broodmares in partnership with Claiborne, and frequently travels from Missouri to watch her horses race. “I wouldn’t be in this business if I can’t watch my horses race,” she said.

Arnold Zetcher & Michael Tabor

Arnold Zetcher fell in love with Thoroughbred racing at Cahokia Downs, a track operated by the East St. Louis Jockey Club near Alorton, St. Clair County, Illinois, not far from his native St. Louis, where he attended Washington University. Seeing Buckpasser and Secretariat race at Arlington Park in Chicago fanned his passion for racing. He held on to a winning ticket on Secretariat as a souvenir, and, in an interview in Thoroughbred Times, said that racing made him a “better person.” Then he tried making racing better, serving as chairman of Thoroughbred Owners of California.

Now 73, Zetcher worked with Federated Department Stores in Cincinnati, Bonwit Teller in New York City, Kohl’s Food Stores in Illinois and Wisconsin and the John Breuner Company in San Francisco before becoming chairman, president and CEO of Talbots, an international clothing manufacturer and retailer of upscale professional women’s wear headquartered in Hingham, Mass. He was named of the top 25 managers of the year in 2000 by Business Week, and, two years later, was awarded the National Retail Federation’s Gold Medal, the industry’s highest honor. He has also served as the chairman of the National Retail Federation Foundation, which is involved in education projects in retail sales. He retired from Talbots in March, 2008.

Zetcher became a Thoroughbred owner in 2000 with Hall of Famer Ron McAnally as his trainer. Zetcher’s first graded stakes winner was Fairy Ransom, who captured the 2003 Grade II Del Mar Derby. House of Fortune won a pair of Grade II stakes the following year, the Fantasy and Hollywood Oaks.

In 2008, Zetcher decided to focus on younger horses, and he switched his stable to another Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert. Zetcher won a pair of Grade I stakes in 2010 with EZ’s Gentleman in the Triple Bend Handicap and El Brujo in the Pat O’Brien Stakes.

Zetcher currently has a stable of nearly 40 horses, including 16 in training with Baffert and three with trainer Ben Cecil, and nine broodmares at Winter Quarter Farm in Lexington, Ky.

Dennis Cardoza & Mike Pegram

Thoroughbred owner and breeder Dennis Cardoza, who represented the 18th District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 through 2012 when he retired, has a life-long love of horses. “My first exposure with horse racing was when my mom used to watch the races from the Fresno Fair,” he said in a 2011 press release. “The local dairy used to deliver milk and include a tear-off sheet for betting races. If you were able to pick a winner that day, you’d get a free carton of cottage cheese. If you picked two winners, you’d get butter or other dairy supplies for up to a year.”

He is one of a million of us who fell in love with Secretariat. “In the foyer of my home is a painting of Secretariat’s Belmont stretch run,” he said. “I remember watching the race with my mom in 1973. “I always wanted to own horses.”

Now he owns many Thoroughbreds, including broodmares and babies. He has horses with several trainers: Bob Baffert, Ron Ellis and Rene Amescua in California and Tim Keefe and Tim Tullock in Maryland.

His fondness for horses carried over into his career in the California Assembly and then in Washington whenever he dealt with racing issues.

In early August, 2011, Cardoza was named to the board of directors of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, replacing Donald Valpredo, who resigned. “For my entire career, my colleagues and friends know me as a consensus builder,” he said. “If ever there was an industry that needed consensus, it is this one. It’s too grand a sport to not live up to its majestic history. My goal is to help it recapture the greatness of Thoroughbred racing.”

David Bernson & Paul Makin

David Bernsen, who owns a global computer wagering business in Point Loma, California, let his partner, Paul Makin, who sold almost all of his horses in November in Ireland, share the excitement of the La Brea Stakes, standing at the finish line during the race and doing the play-by-play on his cell phone. “He was in Hong Kong,” Bernsen said. “I was more excited than Trevor Denman.”

Miller was excited to win this one for Bernsen and Makin. “They’re fantastic owners,” Miller said. “They’ve been very patient with this filly.”

Bernsen, who lives in San Diego, is the CEO of Let It Ride.com Companies, the parent company of SalesRing.com, a world-wide Thoroughbred buying and selling exchange; MMSalesRing.com which targets the Southern Hemisphere in partnership with Magic Millions; and WatchandWager.com, a global horse race wagering initiative based in the United States in partnership with AmericaTAB. “My business now is global wagering catering to big players betting on computers,” he said.

In the early ‘90s, Bernsen purchased a property near San Diego from the estate of legendary actor Jimmy Cagney, who lived there when the Cagney family attended the races at Del Mar. Bernsen did a complete renovation of the property to preserve its look and feel from the 1950s and created Carondelet Farm, the home of Raging Apalachee, the dam of 1999 Champion Sprinter Artax. Carondelet co-bred the track record-breaking son of Marquetry, who was involved in one of the strangest races ever when a fan walked onto the track at Pimlico and tried punching the horse in the stretch in the Maryland Breeders’ Cup. Artax wrenched his ankle and all bets on him, as the 4-5 favorite, were refunded. Carondelet Farm bred or owned Honor in War, Alexander of Hales, Set Alight and She’s Funomenal, and was instrumental in bringing Grade I North American stakes winners to Australia including Artie Schiller, Honor in War and Nothing to Lose.

In 1998, Bernsen relocated his breeding operation to Kentucky. A year later, he began an ambitious endeavor to connect Australian and American racing, breeding and wagering industries.

Makin, a prominent international breeder, made headlines last September when he announced he was going to disburse his bloodstock holdings at the Goffs November Sale in Ireland including 2013 Group I Darley Irish Oaks winner Chicquita and the broodmare Funsie, the dam of 2007 Group I Epsom Derby winner Authorized. Funsie’s 2012 yearling, a colt by Galileo named Hydrogen topped the Tattersalls October Sale when he went for 2.5 million guineas. “I decided to sell `on the sizzle, when nearly all the stock is at its peak, leaving lots of upsides for the next person,” Makin said in the Paulick Report last Sept. 5th.

Makin sold all 24 of its horses offered led by Chicquita, who topped the sale, going for $8,088,600. Paulyn’s Fleeting Spirit ($1,482,910), Song ($1,348,100), Sparkle Plenty ($876,265) and Funsie ($741,455) ranked second, third, fifth and seventh, respectively.

Earlier in his career, Makin was part of The Australian Syndicate which campaigned Starcraft, whom they bought for NZ$80,000 as a yearling and went on to win Grade I stakes in four countries, including the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in September, 2005. Shortly afterwards, The Australian Syndicate spent $800,000 to enter Starcraft in the $4 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park despite the fact that he had never raced on dirt. He started slowly and finished seventh in the field of 13.

In 2007, Makin established Paulyn Limited for his family’s European racing and breeding venture.

KMN Racing

Shortly after his spectacular debut, a seven-length maiden win at Golden Gate Fields, Oct. 19th, owners/breeders Pam and Marty Wygod sold Shared Belief to Jim Rome’s Jungle Racing and a group of partners including Alex Solis II, Jason Litt and Ken and Kim Nish, who race under Kmn Racing.

Alex Solis II is not only the son of one of the best jockeys in racing history – Alex Solis is still riding and ranks ninth in all-time earnings and 30th in all-time victories – but has an equine influence in his maternal pedigree as well. His maternal grandfather is successful trainer Bert Sonnier.

Solis II, 29, has been a success, too, as a bloodstock agent and owner after getting a Bachelor of Arts Degree in finance with a minor in pre-vet from Cal-Poly. California horseman who saw him grow up hanging out in the barns of Bruce Headley and Richard Mandella while tagging along with his dad, aren’t surprised at his success with horses. Mandella said of him in a 2009 story: “His morals certainly seem to be in the right place, which is important in the occupation he has chosen. He is persistent; he’s had good luck, and he’s very smart. He’s been around the business enough to have a good feel for what it takes to be successful. In short, he’s the kind of person you want to see do well.”

Shared Belief isn’t his first star. Lavender Sky and Daytona preceded him. Lavender Sky, who was his first purchase while a junior in college, was recommended by a friend at Three Chimneys Farm, Jason Litt. “I was working at Three Chimneys at the time,” Litt said. “He and I were chatting and I loved this filly, Lavender Sky. I called Alex thirty minutes before she went into the ring. About 15 minutes later, he called back and said we can go up to $187,000. We got her for $130,000. That was our first horse.”

Litt, 42, and Solis, 29, made their friendship into a formal partnership by starting Solis/Litt Bloodstock based in Glendale, California. Its website launched Jan. 6.

Litt, whose dad Howard was a fan, owner and breeder, graduated with a BA in human biodynamics at Cal-Berkeley and a Master’s in exercise physiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Wake Forest.  He changed his life when he moved to Kentucky to work at Taylor Made Farm. After spending two years working as a veterinarian assistant, he worked in bloodstock for seven years at Three Chimneys before going out on his own.

Kmn Racing is a new player in racing, a highly successful one, with Kevin and Kim Nish. “They are a client of ours,” Litt said. “They’ve only been in the business for two years.” In those two years, they’ve been partners on Mizdirection and Shared Belief. Litt recommended both horses to them and to Jim Rome’s Jungle Racing.

Now, Litt and his partners have a legitimate Kentucky Derby contender in Shared Belief, whom they hope will have a lengthy racing career as a gelding. “We thought he was a nice horse,” Litt said. “It is pretty exciting.” 

Hill 'N' Dale Equine Holdings & Edward McGhee

Streaming’s connections liked her chances in the Hollywood Starlet enough to supplement her for $10,000 and spend another $10,000 to start. She didn’t disappoint them.

Hill ‘N’ Dale was founded originally in Canada in 1960 by the late John Sikura Jr., the father of current owner and president of Hill ‘N’ Dale in Lexington, Kentucky, John G. Sikura. Edward McGhee is John G. Sikura’s father-in-law. Hill ‘N’ Dale Canada still operates in Aurora, Ontario, where it is owned and managed by Glenn Sikura, John G.’s brother.

John Sikura Jr. emigrated from Czechoslovakia as a teen and was a self-made millionaire. He bought and sold Thoroughbreds for 35 years, establishing farms in Ontario, Canada, and in Lexington in 1981 when he purchased 164 acres.

John G. Sikura took over Hill ‘N’ Dale’s Kentucky Farm when his father was killed in a car fire in 1994. Glenn became partners in the Kentucky property when it acquired North Ridge Farm in 1967 and expanded it to 950 acres. That has now expanded to 1,300 acres.

John G. was born in Ontario and played hockey collegiately and professionally in Europe before returning to North America to join the family business.

Hill ‘N’ Dale Equine Holdings is the racing division of Hill ‘N’ Dale which is a full service breeding and sales operation. There are stars galore attached to the farm, none brighter than Seattle Slew, the only undefeated Triple Crown Champion in 1977. He spent his final days at the farm in 2002 and is buried there.

Among the stallions who have stood and/or are standing at the farm include two-time Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute and undefeated 2002 Two-Year-Old Champion Vindication, who died in 2008. Candy Ride began his stallion career at Hill ‘N’ Dale before moving to Lane’s End Farm for the 2010 breeding season. The broodmares at the farm include Horse of the Year Azeri and two-time champion Silverbulletday.

Little Red Feather Racing

Billy Koch, the 44-year-old founder and managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing, seemed destined for a life with Thoroughbreds. His grandfather, Howard W. Koch, a noted movie director and producer who was a board member at Hollywood Park, was partners with actor Telly Savalas (who starred in the popular TV show “Kojak”) on Telly’s Pop, who became the first horse to win the California Triple Crown for two-year-olds in 1975 when Billy was a young child. Howard told his grandson bedtime stories about the fictitious Indian Chief Little Red Feather, and Koch honored him by naming his stable Little Red Feather when it began operating with a single horse in 2002.

In just two years, Little Red Feather had a star, Singletary, who won the $1.5 million Grade I Breeders’ Cup Mile. He was named for the Chicago Bears star linebacker Mike Singletary. Koch became a Bears fan while attending Northwestern University in the Windy City. Koch, who was born in Los Angeles, studied radio, television and film at Northwestern, and worked for Final Draft Productions, a company in Agoura Hills, California, before he decided to concentrate on his passion. “I always had a little piece of partnerships in horses,” he said. “I decided to do it full time.”

Little Red Feather Racing bought Singletary, who had sold for $3,200 in 2001, for $30,0000 at the January Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale at Ocala in 2002. At the time Singletary won the Breeders’ Cup Mile, Koch said, “Hopefully, it showed to everyone that anyone can win the Breeders’ Cup Mile or the Kentucky Derby.”

Koch, who was a Board member of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, has personally brought many new owners into racing. In 2013, Little Red Feather Racing celebrated its 80th partnership. 

“My personal goal is to bring new people into the game and assist with horse racing coming back to prominence the way it was,” Koch said Jan. 7. “I know that’s unrealistic, but I want to make racing more popular, to bring in new owners. We have over 300 active investors now. Every day we get calls from people who want to get involved in the game. I think racing partnerships are here to stay.”

Gary Fenton, a Managing Partner of Little Red Feather who grew up in Beverly Hills, California, is the son of former Beverly Hills City Councilman/Mayor Frank Fenton. Gary, whose brother Steven is a member of the Beverly Hills Board of Education, was an entertainment attorney who spent five years at the William Morris Agency before working with multiple entertainment companies. He was Little Red Feather’s counsel before joining the organization as CEO in 2005 and Managing Partner in 2006.

Preston Stables LLC

“In the oil business, you get a dry hole and lose 80 percent of the time,” Art Preston said in a 2011 article in The Blood-Horse. “It’s like racing. If you persevere, you’re going to hit the big one.”

His seven-year-old Flat Out persevered. After finishing second in the Woodward, third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Flat Out won the $500,000 Grade I Cigar Mile for trainer Bill Mott, who trained two-time Horse of the Year Cigar. Preston purchased Flat Out for $85,000 at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July Yearling Sale under a stable name, Oxbow Racing. Preston also raced as LOR (Lone Oak Racing) Stables and as Prestonwood Farm with his brother Jack and their late brother, J.R. He and Jack are frequently mistaken for each other.

A native of Oklahoma who now lives in The Woodlands in Texas, Preston graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in geology from the University of Illinois. After working as a geologist in the Illinois Basin, Preston and his brothers partnered on several ventures in gas and oil, real estate, cattle ranches, nutritional supplements marketing, fiber optics, restaurants, geothermal power generation companies, and, of course, Thoroughbreds.

Preston founded Presco Inc. in Woodlands in 1991. Presco Inc., a natural gas exploration and development company, has offices in Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kentucky and oil and gas production facilities in Colorado, Montana and Oklahoma. According to Presco Inc.’s website, Preston’s companies have developed and sold numerous oil and gas assets with cumulative sales prices, not including normal production revenues, in excess of $400 million.

His success in business allowed him to get involved in racing. He purchased a percentage of a claimer in the late 1970s, and then, with his two brothers, began Preston Farm near Quanah, Texas. Then they opened Prestonwood Farm in central Kentucky. Prestonwood Farm was re-named WinStar Farm when it was sold in 2000 to Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner.

Prestonwood Farm’s top horses included 1987 Eclipse Award Champion Sprinter Groovy; 1999 Champion Older Male Victory Gallop, who denied Real Quiet the Triple Crown by edging him in the 1998 Belmont Stakes, and Da Hoss, who won the Breeders’ Cup Mile twice in 1996 and 1998.

Preston, who had another multiple stakes winner this year in Flashy American, keeps his horses at his 800-acre Oxbow Farms in Paris, Kentucky, 30 miles north of Lexington. His current stable of 50 horses includes weanlings, yearlings and the ones now racing. Tim Schuh trains most of Preston’s horses. Preston tends to name his horses using the first letter of the sire’s name. Flat Out, a son of Flatter, has now earned just under $3.5 million.

Jungle Racing LLC

Much like Groupie Doll, Mizdirection, also a back-to-back Breeders’ Cup winner of the Turf Sprint, was sold just days after her victory for $2.7 million to Al Shaqab Racing at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Select Mixed Sale.

Knowing that her sale was imminent, Mizdirection’s rather famous co-owner Jim Rome, who hosted the ESPN TV show “Rome Is Burning,” and now hosts a syndicated radio show which was originally called “The Jungle,” addressed the issue at the Breeders’ Cup press conference after her second consecutive victory. Rome, who races under the name of Jungle Racing LLC, said, “The Miz ride has been one of the great experiences of my life, but I wanted to see her go out a champion. I wanted her off the track. I wanted her to have a good life as a mama, and I think the time is right to sell. It’s gut-wrenching. It’s tearing me up, but from a business standpoint, and this is a business, it’s something we need to do.”

Rome, a 49-year-old native of Tarzana, California, retains 13 Thoroughbreds, including his broodmare Surfer Girl, whom he visits regularly at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky., where his retired gelding Gallatin’s Run, also lives. Rome lost Gallatin’s Run when he was claimed at Del Mar, then reclaimed him at Churchill Downs. “We claimed him to get him off the track, and give him the retirement he earned,” Rome said. “He always ran his guts out for us. He’s an awesome, awesome horse.”

Jen Roytz, marketing and communications director at Three Chimneys, said of Rome, “He’s got the most wonderful, authentic love for his horses, He comes all the way from California just to visit his broodmare, treats in hand, and the absolute first thing he does when his plane lands is rush to the farm and throw his arms around her neck. You’d think it was his first grandchild.”

This from a man who used to bash horse racing on his shows?

“I didn’t know what it was about,” he told Teresa Genaro in her post-Breeders’ Cup story in Forbes. “Everybody likes to throw it in my face.  ‘Weren’t you the guy that dogged the sport back in the day?’  I’ll say, `Guilty, yes, I did.’

“But I’d never spent time around the barns or the animal or the jockeys or the trainers; then I started to come around and I got to know the horses.  At the end of the day, the biggest reason we’re in this is we love the horses.  It didn’t matter if it was a stakes horse or a Breeders’ Cup or a claimer.  They’re all different, they all have a different story, and I think they’re fascinating animals.”

Rome and his wife Janet bought their first horse in 2007. “Janet said, `You need a hobby. All you do is work,’” Rome related. “And Billy Koch, owner of Little Red Feather Farm, had approached me once to buy into a horse and it never really interested me. And Janet said, `You need to get out of the house. Let’s do this. It will be fun. You’ll like this.’ And the worst thing that could have happened to me did happen to me.”

That “worst thing” was their first horse, Wing Forward, winning his first start. “He went from last to first at 15-1,” Rome said. “And I’ve been hooked ever since. Had that horse finished middle of the pack, I probably would have lost interest right away.”

Gary & Mary West

A 67-year-old native of California, Gary West became a racing fan after he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, when he was 19. There he met his wife, Mary, who had owned a horse while in high school. They had a common interest: horse racing at Ak-Sar-Ben (Nebraska spelled backwards), then one of the nation’s leading tracks. As fans at Ak-Sar-Ben, they dreamed of owning a horse one day. Now, they own more than one hundred, including 25 broodmares who are at Dell Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky.

They have racehorses with trainers Bob Baffert, Chad Brown, Wayne Catalano, Tom Proctor, W. Bret Calhoun and Cody Autrey. The Wests had their best year ever in 2012, capturing 55 races and earning more than $3.2 million, ranking them 12th in North America owner earnings. They’ve already topped that by more than $1 million this year, and rank third in North America through late November.

Gary worked in hospital administration initially, then built one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. With Mary’s help, he has founded numerous companies, beginning with WATS Telemarketing in 1978. The West Corporation they founded in 1986 is one of the largest customer relationship management companies in the world. The Wests sold it in 2006. At the time, it had 35,000 employees and did $3.5 billion in annual sales.

The Wests have started and led several enterprises in Southern California and the Midwest, including West Development and West Partners, a private equity firm, and West Family Investments, a private hedge fund in Chicago. In Carlsbad, California, they own West Steak and Seafood, Bistro West, West Inn Hotel & Suites and West Mart.

After selling The West Corporation, they began the Gary and Mary West Foundation, which focuses on lowering the cost of health care; supporting senior wellness programs; supporting youth employment training, and supporting training programs for service dogs who help seniors and veterans. In April, 2010, they opened the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center in San Diego. They also began the West Health Institute for non-profits seeking to lower health care costs in San Diego and Omaha.

Of course, their success allowed the Wests to pursue their dreams in horse racing. They claimed their first horse, Joe Blow, for $13,500 in 1980, and he won 23 races for them before he was retired in Nebraska, where he lived to the age of 31. 

The Wests’ racing manager and bloodstock advisor is O.J. “Ben” Glass Jr., who trained their first graded stakes winner, Rockamundo, who took the Grade II 1993 Arkansas Derby at odds of 108-1. He became their first starter in the Kentucky Derby.

Their list of top horses include Dollar Bill, Power Broker, Book Review, Guilt Trip, Code West and Buddha, the 2002 morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby off his victory in the Grade I Wood Memorial. He stepped on a stone the day before the Derby, resulting in a badly-bruised foot. He was scratched from the Derby and retired.