G. Watts Humphrey Jr. & Ian Banwell's St George Farm Racing

Personal Diary’s victory in the Del Mar Oaks was a celebration of family. Trainer Victoria Oliver is co-owner and co-breeder G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s daughter.

And Humphrey, a co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, knows how to celebrate. In October 2011, the day after his Cardinals won the World Series, Humphrey became the leading owner at the Keeneland meet, quite a rare double.

Humphrey’s paternal grandfather, George M. Humphrey, served as President Eisenhower’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1953–1957 and was a prominent Thoroughbred owner.

Humphrey, a 70-year-old native of Cleveland, Ohio, is the president of a private investment company and several manufacturing companies in the Pittsburgh area.

Humphrey’s horses are raised at his 1,000-acre Shawnee Farm near Harrodsburg, Ky., 30 miles southwest of Lexington.

Humphrey and his partner, Ian Banwell, who races in the name of St. George Farm Racing, have had many horses together including Forest Legend, who finished fourth in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Born in Kampala, Uganda, the 51-year-old Banwell lived in India, England, and Kentucky growing up. His father was a British physician.

Banwell became interested in Thoroughbreds through veterinarian Bryan Boone, a life-long friend in Kentucky. Banwell worked for Bankers Trust, Chemical Bank in New York, then for Barclays Bank in Hong Kong before founding the Round Table Investment Management Company based in Charlotte, N.C. He is now the company’s CEO and Chief Investment Officer. In 1998, he joined Bank of America in 1998 and was named its chief investment officer two years later.

In 2006, Banwell began 100-acre St. George Farm in Charlotte. “St. George is the patron saint of England as well as horses and horsemen,” Banwell said.

Team Valor International

Ultimately, Barry Irwin, a native of Los Angeles and owner of 2011 Kentucky Derby and 2013 Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, discovered that owning and breeding Thoroughbreds was more rewarding than working in the racing media. Long before he became an internationally successful owner and industry leader, he wrote  fiction before taking a staff job for The Blood-Horse in 1969. Returning to California, he wrote for and edited Thoroughbred of California and became the Southern California columnist for the Daily Racing Form. He also hosted horseracing radio and television shows. 

At the end of the 1978 Del Mar meet, he changed direction by becoming a bloodstock agent, forming Pacific Thoroughbreds the following year. In 1987, he formed a partnership with long-time friend Jeff Siegel and two others, to create Clover Racing Stable. That very year, Political Ambition won the Grade I Hollywood Derby. Five years later, Irwin and Siegel went on their own, establishing Team Valor. In its first year,  English turf horse, My Memoirs, finished second to A.P. Indy in the Belmont Stakes. Team Valor was a co-owner of 1989 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Prize.

In 2007, Irwin bought out Siegel. In 21 years as partners, they won 170 stakes races, including 21 Grade I’s.   

Throughout his glittering success in racing, Irwin has given back to racing. Team Valor International has partners around the globe, and they annually donate one percent of their world earnings to The Race for Education. Team Valor International then matches that total to double the contribution. The Race for Education is a charity that offers college scholarships to the children of backstretch and farm workers. In 2006, Irwin was presented the inaugural Valedictorian Award by The Race for Education.

Irwin has been an outspoken advocate against race-day medication in North America and also a long-time friend of horse rescues.  

Andrew Bentley Stables LLC

Horseracing provided a thrill Andrew Bentley, who has Down Syndrome, could never have imagined. His dad, Gregory, purchased Hardest Core for $210,000 for his son’s 30th birthday at the November 2013 Keeneland Mixed Sale, hoping the three-year-old gelding, who had finished second in a $100,000 grass stakes at Saratoga, might prosper in steeplechase racing, where Gregory has had his most success as an owner in Unionville, Pa.

They’ll have to wait to find out. Hardest Core isn’t going to be converted to a jumper any time soon. The 2014 Arlington Million was a “Win and You’re In,” Breeders’ Cup stakes, meaning Hardest Core automatically gets into the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita. Andrew said he’ll be able to handle that: “I only get excited,” he said. “Never nervous.”

His dad said, “I’m just proud of Andrew’s continued interest in racing. Andrew is our biggest racing fan. When he looks through the condition book, he can spot a race; and when he looks through the program, he can spot a winner in many cases. It’s just another example of believing in people and what they can accomplish, given the chance.”

Hardest Core won the Arlington Million by a length. And there in the winner’s circle afterwards, was Andrew Bentley receiving the winning trophy from former Chicago Bears Head Coach Mike Ditka. The smile on Andrew’s face told you all you needed to know about that moment.

Southern Equine Stables LLC

Michael Moreno’s entrance into Thoroughbred racing was accidental. His success since then is undeniable.

A native of Lafayette, La., Moreno moved to Houston in 2007, where he, his wife Tiffany and their daughter Gabrielle, live.

Moreno owns and operates Dynamic Industries Inc. (DII), an oil and gas company based in Houston and Louisiana, and Moreno Group LLC. Under his leadership, DII went from an off-shore hook-up company with 150 employees to a thriving organization across the world with over 2,000 employees. 

Moreno was introduced to racing by a business partner who owed him money. In lieu of cash, the man gave Moreno three two-year-old Thoroughbreds he had purchased at a sale in Ocala. Moreno sent the trio to trainer Eric Guillot, whom he had met at a housewarming party. Guillot won races with all three, then with a fourth one Moreno owned in partnership with Guillot and Brian Cain. That horse, Show Me the Stage, won 13 stakes and earned just under $680,000. “I got hooked right away having a classy filly like her,” Moreno said.

This success induced Moreno and Guillot to establish Southern Equine Stable LLC in the late 1990’s. They started out with a farm and training center, expanded to 200 acres, then added the former Parrish Hill Farm near Lexington, Ky., in 2005. The farm is now home to the stable’s 30 to 40 broodmares.

Southern Equine hasn’t scrimped in building a broodmare band.

Southern Equine purchased Maryfield, the winner of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint in 2007, who was subsequently named the first Eclipse Champion Female Sprinter, for $1.25 million at the 2007 November Fasig Tipton Mixed Sale.

At the January 2008 Keeneland Horses of All Ages Sale, it bought Irish Cherry for $2.7 million on the way to spending a sale-topping $3,862,000 for 10 horses.

Southern Equine purchased Better Than Honour, the dam who produced consecutive Belmont Stakes winners Jazil (2006) and Rags to Riches (2007) in partnership with John Sikura. Deciding it wanted 100 percent of the mare, Southern Equine purchased her for a record $14 million, November 2, 2008, at the Fasig-Tipton Select Mixed Sale.

“I love the game,” Moreno said. “I felt, in order to be successful, we were going to have to play at the highest level. It’s extremely difficult to make money in this business, especially at the level where we were doing it. She was the best mare in the world. She was a Picasso.”

Antonino Miuccio

Even before he became a legend as a Thoroughbred owner—claiming Palace for $20,000 and watching him become a millionaire and two-time Grade I stakes winner under the astute handling of trainer Linda Rice—82-year-old Antonino Miuccio was a legend as a baker in Albany, N.Y., and a long way from his native Sicily. “I was a baker in Italy,” he said in a phone interview. “I came to the U.S. and met my wife.”

Miuccio was smart enough to bring his recipes from Italy with him in 1954, and after settling in Albany, just a half hour south of Saratoga Race Course, he opened Nino’s Bakery, which is still doing well long after he sold it in the 1990s. He then was the baker at Aromi d’Italia in Guilderland, just outside of Albany. His recipes for focaccia, an Italian flat bread, and pizza are still popular, long after he retired.

Previously owning horses briefly, he was out of racing for some years. “Two years ago, he showed up at my barn one morning and introduced himself,” Rice said. “He said hadn’t owned horses for 20 years.”

Their decision to claim Palace has certainly worked out well. “He’s a very sharp guy,” Rice said. “He really gives me the liberty to do my job. We took several breaks with Palace. He ran a couple sub-par races, and we turned him out for a couple of months. We’ve done that with Palace several times. He’s always great about that.”

He’s obviously delighted that he returned to racing. “It gets inside you,” he said. “You’ve got to be lucky. When he does well, you feel good—for the people involved, too. You never know from today to tomorrow.”

He knows he’s having fun with Palace. “Sure, I have a lot of fun,” he said. “Anybody has fun when they win.”

Brendan Bakir's Tachycardia Stables & Tom Mansor

Tom Mansor, a semi-retired salesman in the health care business, and Brendan Bakir, a health care consultant, found a common interest after they became friends: a deep-rooted love of horses.

Bakir, a native of Chicago who now lives in Malibu, has ridden horses since he was seven and participated in dressage events. He explained his stable’s name: “Tachycardia is Latin for rapid heartbeat. That’s what you get at the racetrack.”

A lack of immediate success didn’t prevent Bakir from staying in the game. “My first horse was a disaster, about five years ago,” he said. “My second wasn’t much better.”

Then he and Mansor claimed Big Macher (Macher is Yiddish for someone who makes things happen.) for $20,000 as a maiden at Del Mar in 2013. One year and 10 days later, Big Macher won the Grade I Bing Crosby there. “We’ve paid $100,000 for some horses, and this one cost $20,000,” Bakir said. “It tells you a lot about the game.”

The 73-year-old Mansor, who has six children and 12 grandchildren, grew up on the racetrack. “My dad was a jockey in the ‘40s,” he said. “His name was also Tom. In the ‘50s, he got to be too big to ride so we moved to Pleasanton in Northern California. It’s the oldest track in America. It was a hotbed of racing.”

Mansor moved away from racing as he built his career and raised a family. “I got married and had kids,” he said. “But I always watched it (racing). About five, six years ago, I decided to get back into the game. He (Brendan) is also in the health care business. We became friends and realized we both had an interest in horses. We decided to put a couple dollars together and have some fun.”   

Big Macher’s Bing Crosby triumph came five days before Palace, who was also claimed as a maiden for $20,000 in New York, and won the first of two consecutive Grade I stakes at Saratoga.

“We got lucky,” Bakir said.

Baltas agrees: “They’ve claimed a lot of horses, but none like this one.” 

Repole Stable

Mike Repole, a 47-year-old native of Queens, N.Y., began betting races at Aqueduct and Belmont Park. “I’ve been coming to the track, mostly Aqueduct, since I was 13 years old,” he said. “I’d find the nearest old man, give him $2 to bet on a horse for me.”
Repole graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in sports management. His incredible business success has allowed him to become one of the leading Thoroughbred owners in the country. In 2009, St. John’s presented him with the President’s Medal, and two years later, Repole received an honorary Doctor of Commercial Science Degree.

Repole was the co-founder and president of Glaceau, the maker of Vitaminwater and Smartwater, which he sold to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in 2007. He returned to the beverage business when he teamed up with Lance Collins—the founder of Fuze Beverage and NOS Energy Drink—to start BodyArmor SuperDrink, and he is currently a majority shareholder in the healthy fast-food chain Energy Kitchen.

He bought his first Thoroughbred, Da Rodeo Man, for $22,000 in 2002. A life-long New York Mets fan, he used the team’s orange and blue colors to fashion his silks. In 2008, he purchased 27 horses at auctions as well as more than 70 claimers. “It’s no secret I want to be leading owner in New York,” he said. “To me, one win in New York is worth three anywhere else.”

In 2009, Digger gave him his first New York stakes winner that year when he captured the Gravesend. Uncle Mo, who capped an undefeated two-year-old season in 2010 with Grade I victories in the Champagne and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, became Repole’s first champion when he was named that year’s Champion Two-Year-Old.

Repole has especially enjoyed the success of horses he’s named for his family, including Stopshoppingmaria and Stopchargingmaria for his wife.

Braly Family Trust

The late Tom Braly gave Sir Winston Churchill’s famous quote – “There is something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man” – documentation. Given days or weeks to live after doctors discovered leukemia had spread to his head and neck, Braly continued living through 2009 and got to see the debut of a filly he owned with his wife Marilyn, Evening Jewel, a horse he thought just might be his best ever. 

Braly died shortly after Evening Jewel finished a slow-starting sixth in her debut at Del Mar in 2009, at the age of 72.

Braly grew up in Long Beach, Calif., graduating from the University of Southern California. He worked as a reporter at the Los Angeles Mirror before opening his own mortgage insurance company, Mills Insurance. Marilyn was the company’s controller.

Braly’s family owned a box at Hollywood Park and he became an owner in partnerships in the mid-’70s. In 2005, two years after he was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to go on his own using Jim Cassidy as advisor and trainer. Cassidy trained Evening Jewel and continues to train Tom’s Tribute.

Grateful that Tom survived his initial diagnosis of cancer in 2003, the Bralys donated $100,000 to Children’s Hospital of Orange County and $65,000 to its Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) programs in honor of Dr. Leonard Sender, who treated Tom.

Caroline Forgason

Standing in the winner’s circle at Saratoga July 19, trying to get her mind around what she had just witnessed, Somali Lemonade’s owner Caroline Forgason said, “I never dreamed of this.” Forgason had just won her first Grade I stakes, the Diana Handicap, at a track she’s been coming to since she was 18 years old with her only horse—one whom was almost retired at the end of last year. “We thought she lost the `want to,’” Forgason said. “And when you lose the `want to,’ that’s kind of it.”

It’s a fairy tale come true for Forgason, whose family has deep roots in racing going back to her grandfather’s grandfather, Richard King, the founder of legendary King Ranch in Texas. Known for raising cattle and Quarter Horses, the ranch began breeding Thoroughbreds in 1934 and in 1946 won the Triple Crown with its home-bred Assault. Four years later, their home-bred Middleground won the 1950 Kentucky Derby, finished second to Hill Prince in the Preakness, and then won the Belmont Stakes. Forgason’s grandfather, Robert Justus Kleberg, took over management of the ranch in 1885. Under Kleberg, the ranch grew from 600,000 acres to 1.3 million. “My grandfather was really the one who got us into it,” Forgason said. “It’s a family affair.”

In 1974 Forgason’s sister, Helen Alexander, began managing the ranch’s Thoroughbred operation. In 1989, King Ranch sold its bloodstock to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum and its Kentucky property to Robert Clay’s Three Chimneys Farm.

Forgason has been in and out of racing for more than a quarter century. “I had kind of gotten out of things, then Michael (brother-in-law Matz) trained Barbaro and it was so exciting—so amazing when he won the Derby,” she said.

“I had a ton of horses and most of them got sick or hurt,” Forgason said. “That makes the Diana very special.” 

Gary Aisquith, Michael Caruso's Bethlehem Stables LLC & Michael Dubb

Michael Dubb, a hero to backstretch workers at NYRA’s three tracks, is a 58-year-old Long Island real estate developer who built and donated the Belmont Child Care Association’s Anna House and its expansions—a day care center for backstretch workers at Belmont, which opened in 2003.

As if that wasn’t enough, Dubb, who is chairman of the Belmont Child Care Association and a member of the NYRA Board of Directors, has been instrumental in the development and construction of new dormitories for backstretch workers at Saratoga.

“I’m a homebuilder by trade,” he said. “I was so moved by the people in the backstretch and the hard work they do, and the responsible way they are trying to raise their children. They strongly deserve their children to get a firm foundation for when they go out in the real world. It’s just the right thing to do.”

In 1980, Dubb began Beechwood Organization, a small home-building company of which he is now chairman, and now one of the top 100 companies in the country. In the past two decades, Beechwood has developed more than 55 communities, including Meadowbrook Pointe on the former site of Roosevelt Raceway, once the most successful harness track in North America before its demise.

Dubb was NYRA’s leading owner in 2010 with 50 victories and 67 in 2013. He finished second in 2013. In 2014, he won his first Saratoga title with 14 wins in various partnerships, including Michael Caruso.

Caruso, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Caruso Benefits Group, races in the name of Bethlehem Stables.

The 68-year-old native of Newark, N.J., was one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time in high school and college. He went 81-0 at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark and was a three-time state champion. At Lehigh University he was a three-time NCAA champion at the 123-pound weight class. In 2005, he was included as one of the NCAA’s greatest wrestlers of the past 75 years. He is a member of the U.S. Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and a charter member of the Lehigh University Hall of Fame.

He used to accompany his dad on trips to Monmouth Park, and bought his first horse in 1980. His first winner was Mrs. Joe Who.

Caruso was partners with Dubb and Stuart Grant of The Elkstone Group on the outstanding filly Grace Hall, who delivered Caruso’s first Grade I stakes victory as a two-year-old in the 2011 Spinaway at Saratoga.      

Gary Aisquith owns Gary Aisquith Bus Lines Inc., in Riva, Md. He frequently partners with Dubb and Caruso on horses they claim.

Flaxman Holdings Ltd

The legacy of a truly amazing man, Stavros Spyros Niarchos, has carried on long after his death on April 15, 1996—40 years after his first top horse, Pipe of Peace, was Champion Juvenile in England. Many more followed, including champion stallion Nureyev and two-time Eclipse Champion Turf Female Miesque, whose 12 victories in 16 career starts included the 1987 and 1988 Breeders’ Cup Mile against males. 

Born in Piraeus, Greece, on July 3, 1909, Niarchos graduated from law school at Athens University and worked in flour mills owned by his uncles. Convincing them to purchase their own ships to carry wheat to the mills, they built a fleet of seven ships, including two tankers. When Germany invaded Greece in 1941, he offered the fleet to the Allies, joined the Greek Navy and served four years on British destroyers escorting convoys in the North Atlantic.

After World War II ended, he established one of the world’s largest fleet of tankers and bulk carriers before the oil crisis; and subsequent recession in the 1980s forced him to halve his operation.

His two passions were Thoroughbreds and art, collecting more than 100 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces, including over 15 van Gogh’s. In 1989, Niarchos bought Picasso’s self-portrait “Yo Picasso” for $47.85 million.

Initially racing his horses in England, Niarchos moved most of his horses to France, where he was the country’s leading breeder in 1989, 1993 and 1994, and leading owner in 1983 and 1984. From 1982 through 1994, trainer Francois Boutin produced at least one Group I winner for Niarchos every year, including seven in 1993.

Besides Nureyev and Miesque, Niarchos campaigned Ballamont, Chimes of Freedom, Common Grounds, Coup de Grace, East of the Moon, Exit to Nowhere, Hernando, Kingmambo, L’Emigrant, Machiavellian, Magic of Life, Melyno, Northern Trick, Procisa, Seattle Song and Shanghai.

The family’s first top horse after Niarchos’ passing was Spinning World, who won four Group I races, including the 1997 Breeders’ Cup Mile a year after finishing second in the race. His family’s horses continue to race under Flaxman Holdings.

Kaleem Shah

The son of one of India’s top trainers, Kaleem Shah was instructed by his father, Majeed, not to follow him into racing despite the fact that Kaleem loved going to the track. “My dad kept us out of the racetrack life,” Kaleem Shah told Jay Hovdey of the Daily Racing Form in a January 5, 2012, story. “He wanted me to concentrate on my studies, and he made it absolutely clear to us that he never wanted us in the sport as a trainer.”

His dad won the India Triple Crown twice with Bright Hanovar and Our Select. And Shah’s uncle, Saeed Shah – also a trainer – won the India Derby twice.

Shah, who was born on July 6, 1962 in Bellary, India, earned a degree in electrical engineering at Bangalore University and then moved to the United States, getting a Master’s Degree in computer engineering at Clemson University and an MBA from George Washington University.

He first worked as a software programmer at Telenet, then founded his own communications company, CalNet, in 1989, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, near where Shah lives with his wife, Lubi, and their daughter and son, Sophie and Arman. CalNet offers intelligence analysis, information technology, and language services. One of CalNet’s biggest clients is the U.S. government, which mandates that he keep much of his work confidential.

He has no restrictions on revealing his feelings about America. He became an American citizen in the early ’90s, and when he followed through on his delayed childhood dreams and became a Thoroughbred owner, he designed his silks in red, white, and blue.

Shah began racing in Maryland with trainers Jim Murphy and Dale Capuano; then, after his company opened a division in California, with Doug O’Neill before hiring Bob Baffert. He has 30 horses with Baffert in California and 10 broodmares at Hill ’n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky, where his first top horse, Concord Point, stands. Shah bought Concord Point after he won his maiden in 2009, and the son of Tapit went on to win the $250,000 Grade 3 Iowa Derby by 81⁄2 lengths in track-record time and the $750,000 Grade 2 West Virginia Derby by a length in 2010.

Eden’s Moon, the highest-priced filly ($390,000) at the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Two-Year-Old Sale, gave Shah his first Grade 1 victory when she captured the 2012 Las Virgenes. She also won the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap and finished second in the Grade 2 Hollywood Oaks and third in both the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks and Grade 2 Indiana Oaks. 

When Declassify won the Triple Bend in his first stakes attempt, Khaleem Shah had another Grade 1 victory. Two years earlier, he told Hovdey, “If winning comes as a result of racing, all the better. 

What I truly enjoy is my red, white, and blue silks out there running.”

Gallant Stable

Majestic Harbor’s dominating victory in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita, which was previously the Hollywood Gold Cup, gave Ron Beegle, who races in the name of Gallant Stable LLC, and his partners David Osborne and wife Loren Hebel-Osborne their first Grade 1 victory. It was also trainer Sean McCarthy’s first Grade 1. 

Beegle, 51, is the co-founder and operating partner of Goode Partners LLC, a private equity firm established in 2005 that focuses on investments in small- to middle-market consumer product, retail, and restaurant companies, and he has been on the board of directors of Aeropostale, a mall-based, specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories with 914 stores worldwide, since 2003.

He is also on the board of directors of Neiman Marcus Inc., an American luxury specialty department store.Beegle graduated from Allegheny College in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. He earned an MBA in finance at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University in 1991. The following year, he founded and was president of Norray Management Company. 

He joined Broadway Stores, Inc., in 1994 as the senior vice president of corporate finance and administration.In 1996, he began working for Gap Inc. as senior vice president of finance (CFO) for Banana Republic. Under his leadership, Banana Republic was established as one of America’s leading fashion apparel brands; Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy began a successful on-line business; and the Gap division executed a well-regarded business turnaround. 

Beegle is a founding director of the USA Swimming Foundation, the national governing body of swimming with 400,000 members, and is a trustee at his alma mater.He hooked up with the Osbornes through a chance meeting. “My wife used to run the Visa Triple Crown promotion,” David Osborne said. “When Ron was at the Gap, he came in, and we struck up a friendship.” That led to a lasting partnership.

“I’ve been in horses my whole life,” Osborne, who is 50, said. “I showed Saddlebreds. Loren showed event horses.”

The Osbornes have 30 horses, some in partnership with Beegle, at their Deerfield Farm in Prospect, Kentucky. Their most successful horse before Majestic Harbor was Laura’s Pistolette, who won the 1995 Humana Distaff when it was a Grade 2 stakes.

The Osbornes have a strong reputation for taking care of their horses after their racing careers are over. “It’s something we feel strongly about,” David said. “If you make the decision to bring them into this world, you should take care of them.” 

They were at Santa Anita to watch Majestic Harbor win the Gold Cup in a powerful performance. An hour before the Gold Cup, the Osbornes watched another horse they own finish next-to-last in a $5,000 claimer at Indiana Downs on a simulcast. “He beat one horse,” Osborne laughed.

Majestic Harbor beat all of them.

Randy Patterson

Randy Patterson was one week old when his mom first took him to Anthony Downs not far from their home in Anthony, Kansas, in 1953. “I never missed a meet from 1953 to 2009,” Patterson said proudly. The track, which opened in 1904, held an annual five or six-day meet alternating Thoroughbred/harness races with greyhound racing on a small track inside the bullring for horses. “They’d start the card with a horse race, then a dog race,” Patterson said. Despite the support of Patterson, a successful cattleman, and other sponsors, the track closed in 2009. It was demolished three years later to create space for a housing development.

Patterson didn’t buy his first horse until a chance meeting in 1985 in a parking lot with a fellow he had done cattle business. “He said, ‘Me and a lawyer are going to claim a horse at Ak-Sar-Ben. Do you want in?’” Patterson said, “Yes,” and the horse they claimed for $11,500, quickly made $20,000. “I thought, ‘Where’s this game been all my life?’” Patterson laughed. “Since then, it’s had its ups and downs.”

Claiming Moonshine Mullin, a six-year-old gelding, for $40,000 last November has taken Patterson to heights he never imagined. Moonshine Mullin had considerable back class. He’d finished second in the 2011 Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes and sixth in the Grade 1 Travers to Stay Thirsty, who won Randy Morse, one of the three trainers Patterson uses for his ten-horse stable, urged Patterson to claim Moonshine Mullin for $25,000 earlier in a race at Remington Park. Patterson declined, and the horse was claimed by Maggi Moss. Then on November 30th claim Moonshine Mullin, this time for $40,000.

Despite having a great reason to say no – he would close a deal to purchase a 40-acre farm southwest of Hot Springs, Arkansas, the very next day – Patterson said yes. After Moonshine Mullin finished fourth and third in his first two starts for his new connections, Morse, who had studied all of Moonshine Mullin’s previous 25 races, decided to tell his jockey, Cliff Berry, to race Moonshine Mullin on the lead. The horse hasn’t lost since. His fourth straight victory was in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes. 

He followed that with his win in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster. They were Patterson’s first Grade 2 and first Grade 1 victories. “Coming down the stretch, I was just like, ‘This is not supposed to happen with a claiming horse,’” Patterson said after the Stephen Foster.,Morse called Patterson again, asking him to

By purchasing his new farm, which he has named Cedar Run, Patterson took a leap of faith with his only child, his 28-year-old daughter Sara. “She’d say, ‘Why don’t you buy a horse farm and let me run it?’” Patterson said. At the time, she was working as the head of operations for a landfill. “She got a job offer in California, but she didn’t want to go there,” Patterson continued. “I didn’t want her to go.”

So he purchased the farm, which will be operated by Sara with the help of Randy Morse’s brother Robbie. “It was the day after the claim,” Patterson said.

Looks like a good decision, doesn’t it?

Hronis Racing

Brothers Kosta and Pete Hronis, who were born and now live in Delano, California, have had anincredible amount of success in Thoroughbred racing less than four years after they bought their first horse. Their interest in racing began when they were kids and journeyed to Pasadena to visit their grandparents, who took them to nearby Santa Anita. “My brother and I were always the first ones in the car when we went to Santa Anita,” Kosta said. 

Before they were born, their parents began Hronis Inc., which specializes in growing, packing, and shipping premium San Joaquin Valley table grapes and citrus. Kosta, 55, is the CEO and president. Pete, who is 41⁄2 years younger than his brother, is the vice-president of sales and marketing. Kosta’s son, Demetri, is the vice-president of operations.

They began investing in Thoroughbreds after Kosta told Pete one day at the track that he wanted to buy one. They reached out to John Sadler, who has been training their horses ever since. “The timing seemed to be just right for me, being a rookie and all, to find some room in the Sadler barn,” Kosta said.

Hronis Racing, which claimed two horses to get started, now owns 38 horses including Caities Secret, the stable’s first winner who is now a broodmare. Iotapa is not their first graded stakes winner. Lady of Shamrock and Vagabond Shoes each won Grade 2 stakes.

Their success helped Hronis Racing become the leading owners in victories at Santa Anita for two consecutive winters, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Hronis Racing was also the leading owner at the 2013 Del Mar meet in both wins and earnings.

Kosta’s wife, Stephanie, and their children, Demetri, Halley, and Nia, all enjoy watching their horses. Kosta has named several of his horses for family members, including Brother Pete, Scooter Bird (his daughter’s nickname), and Sophie’s Secret for his mother.

Robert S. Evans

Thirty-three years after watching Pleasant Colony, who was bred and raced by his father Thomas Mellon Evans’ Buckland Farm, be denied the Triple Crown by losing to Summing in the 1981 Belmont Stakes, Robert “Shel” Evans’s lightly-raced Tonalist denied California Chrome the Triple Crown by beating him in the Belmont. Tonalist’s broodmare sire is Pleasant Colony.

In the press conference following Tonalist’s victory, Evans told reporters, “Yesterday I went to my father’s grave and thanked him for putting me in the position to be doing this. We had high hopes for Pleasant Colony [in the Belmont Stakes] and it was very quiet after he didn’t win.”

Family is an important fabric in Evans’s life. His dad was a cousin of Paul Mellon, the incredibly popular owner, breeder, and philanthropist. Evans, now 70, owned 1992 Champion Older Male Pleasant Tap with his brothers Edward (“Ned”), who bred Horse of the Year Saint Liam and bred and raced Grade 1 winner Quality Road, and Thomas Jr.

Shel Evans graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and received a master’s degree from the Columbia Business School in 1969. He is the chairman of Crane Co., an industrial company based in Stamford, Conn., and of Huttig Building Products in St. Louis.

Evans, who bought his first horse in 1965, has owned Courtland Farm in Easton, Maryland, for more than two decades. Among his top horses were Sewickley, who won the Grade 1 Vosburgh in 1989 and 1990 and the 1989 Grade 2 Tom Fool and Fall Highweight Handicap; and Shared Interest, who took the 1992 Grade 2 First Flight and the 1993 Grade 1 Ruffian. He bred Shared Interest and her daughter Cash Run, who won the 1999 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. He also bred Cash Run’s half-brother, multiple stakes winner Forestry. Evans sold Cash Run for $1.2 million. She was later sold as a broodmare for $7.1 million.

Always willing to give back to the industry, Evans served on The Jockey Club for 15 years and was a member of the New York Racing Association Board of Trustees for 12.

Shel and Susan Evans have three children – Michael, Ashley, and Jonathan – and two grandchildren. Asked after the Belmont if he ever is confused with the chairman of Churchill Downs Incorporated with the same name, he said, “My middle name is Sheldon and in Canada they call me Shel. Here, I’m Robert, which is his name.” He prefers Shel.

Anita Cauley

It’s only fitting that Anita Cauley, who routinely gives so much to others, has been given so much by her foundation mare, Ornate, the dam of On Fire Baby and two other stakes winners. Fortunately, Cauley held on to Ornate after she failed to reach a reserve bid, “a wonderful turn of events,” she said.

A native of Indiana who moved to Lexington, Kentucky, Cauley is a member of the First Lady of Kentucky Jane Beshear’s “Pink Stable,” a committee of women in the racing industry that assists Beshear’s Horses and Hope Organization, which works to increase breast cancer awareness, education, and treatment referral in the Kentucky racing industry.

 Cauley, who grew up outside Indianapolis, loved horses but didn’t learn to ride until she was 22, 

taking a class with school-aged children. “I was completely embarrassed by that, but was told I needed to learn how to ride properly,” she said in a 2012 story by Evan Hammonds in The Blood-Horse. “I got through that and eventually showed Arabians.”Cauley and her late husband, Barry Ebert, who owned an investment counseling firm, got into racing more than 25 years ago.

Searching for a trainer, they met and were impressed with Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage’s demeanor and family-oriented operation, noting that most of Hartlage’s family lived within a mile of each other in the Louisville neighborhood of Shively. “That was the atmosphere I wanted,” Cauley said. “This is such a tough business that it makes it that much more enjoyable when all these other people get it and they know how hard it is.”

Hartlage is still thankful for meeting Cauley. “I’m still training horses because of her,” he said. “If you want to rate somebody on a scale of 1 to 10, she’s a 10. She’s got total faith in me, and I have total faith in her.”

Success can do that for you. Cauley and Ebert purchased Ornate for $80,000 as a yearling in 1998, and Ornate won the 2002 Pleasant Temper Stakes at Kentucky Downs. They entered Ornate, who 

was in foal to E Dubai, in the 2003 Keeneland November sale at Keeneland, then decided to keep the mare when she failed to meet her reserve.Ornate produced 2007 Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes winner High Heels, who finished third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and earned nearly half a million dollars, and French Kiss, who won the 2009 Pippin Stakes and was third in the Grade 3 Azeri Stakes.

Cauley takes her involvement in racing seriously. “I really look at the spreadsheets and stallion numbers,” she said. “I look at stallions that have good race records at four and five, a horse that was out 

there and was sound and racing at that age.”On Fire Baby may be Cauley’s best horse. The gray mare won the Grade 3 Honeybee as a three-year-old, the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at four, and now, after running second in the Apple Blossom to Close Hatches, the Grade 1 La Troienne this year at five. She has already earned more than $1.08 million from six victories, two seconds, and one third in just 16 starts.

Anselmo Emilio Cavalieri

Matias Cavalieri, 40, is the son of 74-year-old Anselmo Emilio Cavalieri, who bred MissSerendipity and lives in Argentina. Though he’s semi-retired, Anselmo still has 25 to 30 horses. “He’s had horses the last 30 to 35 years,” Matias said of his dad.

Matias is an investment advisory representative for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Miami, Florida. Previously, he worked for Prudential Securities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Citigroup, Global Markets in Miami. He was named one of the best 1,000 financial officers in America in 2010 by Wealthvest Marketing. He is married with five children, but still finds the time to be an active runner and rugby player.

Miss Serendipity’s success in her fifth North American start continues her Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally’s great run with imported horses from South America, including U.S. champions Paseana and Bayakoa. “I met the Cavalieris through Dr. Ignacio Pavlovsky,” McAnally said. Pavlovsky is a well-regarded veterinarian and racing commissioner in Argentina. Miss Serendipity’s debut in North America came in the $80,000 Paseana Stakes on dirt, when she finished fourth. Matias had attended Miss Serendipity’s two prior starts to the Gamely at Santa Anita, when she finished third in the Grade 2 Santa Ana and second by a neck in the Grade 3 Santa Barbara Handicap, but he stayed home in Florida on the day of the Gamely to watch one of his children’s soccer games with his family and his mom, who was visiting from Argentina. They watched Miss Serendipity win on his computer.

Matias’s dad, and Miss Serendipity’s owner, Anselmo was at Santa Anita to watch the Gamely. “Dad was there, and he called,” Matias said. “He was happy. He was really proud.”

Winchell Thoroughbreds

Winchell Thoroughbreds is a partnership of Joan Winchell and her son, Ron, who are continuing the operation of Joan’s husband and Ron’s dad Vernon, who died at the age of 87 in 2002. Vernon Winchell found the donut company, Winchell’s, in 1948 and subsequently was CEO and chairman of Denny’s restaurants. His success in business allowed Winchell to continue his passion with Thoroughbreds which began more than a half-century ago. He bred and raced $300,000-earner Mira Femme, and, in partnership, 1991 turf champion Tight Spot. His other top horses included Donut King; Olympio; Sea Cadet; Fleet Renee; Valiant Nature; On Target, who finished fourth in the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile; and Etcetera, who was seventh in the Juvenile the very next year.

The Winchells bought Oakwind Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, and renamed it Corinthia Farm after a house that was built on the property in 1854. Racing manager and farm manager David Fiske has been with the Winchell family for more than 30 years. Steve Asmussen has been the family’s trainer for more than 25 years.

Ron Winchell, who is 42, is involved in gaming bars/restaurants, construction, and real estate development. Among the Winchell Thoroughbreds’ long list of outstanding horses is Summerly, a $410,000 Keeneland September yearling who won the 2005 Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. She was sold as a broodmare for $3.3 million at the 2006 Fasig-Tipton November Mixed Sale, the second highest price of the sale. 

Cuvee was a Grade 1 winner who was bred by Vernon. Tapizar gave the Winchells their first Breeders’ Cup victory when he captured the 2012 Grade 1 Dirt Mile. Pyro, who was bred and initially raced by the Winchells, won the Grade 1 Forego Stakes for Godolphin, which purchased the colt privately from the Winchells during his three-year-old season. Another star bred by the Winchells was Donegal Racing’s Paddy O’Prado, who won the 2010 Grade 1 Secretariat, the Grade 2 Virginia Derby and Colonial Turf Cup, and the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes on grass and was third on dirt in the 2010 Grade 1 Kentucky.

The Winchells’ current star is their spectacular homebred three-year-old filly Untapable, whose victories in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in May and Grade 1 Mother Goose in June, made her six-for-eight lifetime with more than $1.3 million in earnings. The Winchells campaigned Tapit, who won the 2004 Grade 1 Wood Memorial and has emerged as one of the dominant stallions in North America, currently ranking first in North America progeny earnings for 2014 standing at Gainesway Farm and the sire not only of the leading filly in Untapable, but one of the top three-year-old colts in Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist.

Sharon Alesia, Bran Jam Stable and Ciaglia Racing LLC

Sharon Alesia, who was first married to musician and recording industry executive Herb Alpert, was introduced to horse racing by her late second husband, Frank Alesia, an actor and television director from Chicago whose dad, raced Thoroughbreds with trainer Steve Ippolito. Ippolito’s stepson, Peter Eurton, would become the Alesias’ trainer after Sharon bought a Thoroughbred for Frank to celebrate their first wedding anniversary in June, 1984. That horse never raced, but Sharon and Frank have been in racing ever since.

Frank, who moved to Los Angeles in 1964, appeared in the beach party films “Pajama Party,” “Bikini Beach” and “Beach Blanket Bingo” and in television shows including “The Flying Nun,” “The Odd Couple,” “Gomer Pyle,” “That Girl,” “Room 222” and “Laverne & Shirley.” Turning to directing, he received a daytime Emmy nomination for “Captain Kangaroo.”

After Frank passed away in 2011, Sharon and her partners - Ciaglia Racing (Joe Ciaglia), Bran Jam Stable (Mike Mellen), Rob Dyrdek and Nick Cosato - named the two-year-old filly they purchased for $175,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale Weemissfrankie to honor Sharon’s husband. Weemissfrankie then won the Grade I Del Mar Debutante and the Grade 1 Oak Leaf Stakes before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly. After she suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture while finishing fourth in the Grade I Hollywood Starlet Stakes, she was sold and is now a broodmare in Japan.

Joe Ciaglia Jr., now 50, worked at Ralph’s Grocery in Arcadia, Calif., as a teen-ager and he and a buddy there, Brad Free, went to Santa Anita to catch races after their shifts were done. Free became a columnist for the Daily Racing Form, and Ciaglia became one of the top designers of action sports facilities in the world, several of which have been featured in the X Games, which includes skateboarding, motorcross and snowboarding, and is televised annually by ESPN. Ciaglia has three companies: California Skateparks, California Landscape & Design and California Rampworks, which manages events. California Skateparks has built nearly 200 projects in 40 states, including ones for world champion skateboarder Tony Hawk and two-time snowboarder and skateboarder Olympic gold medalist Shawn White.

Ciaglia’s wife, Stephanie, who was good friends with trainer Peter Eurton’s wife, Julie, introduced Ciaglia to Frank Alasia, and Ciaglia became an owner in 1999 when he claimed Ask Crafty for $25,000. The horse was claimed in his first start for his new owner. Then Ciaglia went into partnership with Frank and Sharon Alasia and Mike Mellen’s Bran Jam Stable and claimed Cee Dreams, who went on to take the $150,000 California Cup Matron Handicap and retired with 11 victories from 40 starts and earnings of $433,318.   

Mike Mellen, the patriarch of Bran Jam Stables, has had an incredible impact in Thoroughbred racing through his daughter Dawn, who founded and is the president of After the Finish Line, a 501 (C3)  charity which has been helping fund Thoroughbred rescue operations around the country for 6 ½ years. She said, “There’s a purpose for every horse out there. The greatest victory for a Thoroughbred is not winning a race, but winning the race to live long past their days on the racetrack.”