Bourbon Lane Stable & Lake Star Stable - Bourbon War

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Both Mike McMahon and Jamie Hill, long-time friends and partners of Bourbon Lane Stable, co-owner of Kentucky Derby contender Bourbon War with Lake Star Stable, were born into racing. But each had to create his own path into the Thoroughbred industry.

McMahon’s parents, Joe and Anne McMahon, operate highly-successful McMahon at Saratoga Thoroughbreds farm just outside Saratoga Springs. Mike attended Cornell University, starting in pre-vet but ultimately majoring in business management. About to graduate, he interviewed for a job with a high-profile commodity broker, but the interviewer asked him what he would purchase after he established himself. Mike said, “I’ll probably buy some mares.” The response? “What’s a mare?” Mike didn’t get the job. “I blew the interview,” he said.

Just a week later, Mike accompanied his father on a trip to the November Keeneland Sale in Lexington. “Dad bought a horse, and he got a call from the credit office right afterwards,” Mike said. “A guy from Hong Kong was in the office, and he said he had come all the way to buy this horse. Would my dad take a profit and sell the horse to him? They worked out a deal. That was an epiphany for me. I realized there was a lot more to the business than I’ve been exposed to before in Saratoga. I knew I could differentiate my business from my dad’s, not to be under his shadow.”

After graduating from Cornell in 1993, Mike went to Ireland and completed the Irish National Stud course. He worked for trainer Scotty Schulhofer for two summers in Saratoga. Then he moved to Kentucky and put in 4 ½ years with EQUIX Biomechanics before starting his own company, McMahon Bloodstock, in 2001.

McMahon, 48, has emerged as an industry leader in taking care of Thoroughbreds after their racing careers conclude. He is the president of Thoroughbred Charities of America, and Bourbon Lane Stables has set up Bourbon Lane Stable Paddock at Mike Blowen’s Old Friends Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, where any Bourbon Lane equine can retire.

Hill’s father, long-time New York Racing Association veterinarian Jim Hill, was co-owner of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, one of the greatest horses of all time. “He was an incredibly tough horse,” Hill said. “He was picky allowing humans to be with him. He let me in. I would sleep in his stall with him. If somebody came in, he’d chase them away.”

Hill, 46, dropped out of Auburn University after poor grades ended his father’s financial support. He ran off to Mexico, studied film, and then, after six months, returned to Auburn paying his own way. “After college, for about six months, I thought I was going to work in the film industry,” he said. “Not good people. I started pin-hooking. Mike and I were friends in Saratoga. We both moved here (Kentucky) almost the same time.”

In 2011, McMahon welcomed in a partner when Hill purchased a 50 percent interest in McMahon Bloodstock, which became McMahon & Hill Bloodstock LLC. They also operate Spruce Lane Pinhook.

“We started with no markup,” McMahon said. “We think we have partners, not clients. We thought the industry needed that. It was an opportunity for Jamie and I.”

They created Bourbon Lane Stable Lane Stable LLC in 2010, and its interests include horses in England, South Africa and New Zealand. “We tried to tie ourselves to a quintessential Kentucky product,” McMahon said. “Bourbon is huge here.” It’s huge enough that McMahon and Hill created Pinhook Straight Bourbon Whiskey. All successful Bourbon Lane horses get a batch produced in their honor. The bourbon is now selling in 22 states.

Bourbon Lane Stable offers two partnerships, one with a yearling and one with a two-year-old, every year. Each partnership buys at least three horses to spread risk. “We believe we can grow our business and our industry by offering entry-level players a fair deal,” McMahon said.

He is pleased with the stable’s progress. “We’ve grown the numbers every year,” he said. “We hope there’s the same progression. We want to have the best partnerships available, just growing the whole pie. We handle bloodstock. We have Pinhook Partnership with a leading presence of purchasing weanlings. We want to keep growing that, too.”

“It’s been a long quest to have a horse at this level,” McMahon said. “We haven’t gotten to that level yet. Jamie and I have both had a lot of good horses, but here we are. It makes it a little more personal.”

Having Greg Burns and Mike Winter’s Lake Stable as a partner is even better. “Greg lives in Saratoga and has been a friend of mine and a partner in race horses for a long time,” McMahon said. “Our first horse together was Executive Search. We bought him from my father’s consignment in 2004 in Saratoga.”

When asked how much fun he’s having with Bourbon War, McMahon said, “Too much, probably.” Then he laughed, adding “We’ve seen the highs and lows.”

If they hit that ultimate high in one of the Triple Crown races, they won’t celebrate with champagne. They’ll be drowning themselves in bourbon.

Allied Racing Stable LLC - By My Standards

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Kentucky native Chester Thomas has spent a huge chunk of his life in coal mining. But it wasn’t his only focus. “I’ve been around horses all my life,” Thomas said. “My dad owned a couple of horses. We spent a lot of time at Keeneland.”

Now, seven years after he sold his coal supply company, Green River Collieries. Thomas runs horses under the name of  Allied Racing Stable.

Thomas, 60, maintains a stable of 16 to 18 horses, none more special than By My Standards, who followed an easy maiden victory with an impressive score in the Louisiana Derby. It was Thomas’ 100th career victory and his first graded stakes win. “We don’t run horses in spots we don’t expect to win,” Thomas said. “He galloped out real strong in his maiden win. We thought he was going to run huge.”

And he did—winning by three-quarters of a length. Thomas’ reaction? “Oh, my goodness, words can’t describe it,” he said.

By My Standards’ next start will be in the Kentucky Derby. “I’ve been to a lot of Derbies,” Thomas said. “I loved Gato del Sol, Real Quiet, Alysheba. They were all special. Being a Kentucky native and having gone to so many Derbies makes it even more special to even think about winning it. Obviously, if you’re a horseman, the first Saturday of May is a special day.”

Thomas, who was the leading owner at Ellis Park in 2016 and second there in 2017, has campaigned other good horses including multiple stakes winner Viam. But By My Standards has taken him to a whole new level. Will By My Standards do it again? “We’re really excited to be where we are with this horse,” Thomas said. “I can’t wait to get my family to Churchill Downs.”  

Gary & Mary West - Game Winner / Maximum Security

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A victory in the 2019 Kentucky Derby by Game Winner, their 2018 two-year-old champion colt, or by Florida Derby winner Maximum Security, would give legendary philanthropists Gary and Mary West their first Kentucky Derby triumph more than 35 years after they claimed their first horse, Joe Blow, for $13,500 at their home track, Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, Neb. He would win 23 races for them.

Seventeen years ago, the West’s Gr1 Wood Memorial winner Buddha (the morning line favorite for the 2002 Kentucky Derby), stepped on a stone the morning before the Run for the Roses and was retired.

Just two years ago, they campaigned 2017 Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, West Coast, who missed the Triple Crown but won the Gr1 Travers and Pennsylvania Derby and finished third in the Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

More importantly, realizing a life-long dream of winning the Kentucky Derby would give back to the Wests, and having spent much of their lives fulfilling Gary’s promise while under fire in Vietnam, Gary shared his story with Bryce Miller in his March 3, 2019, piece in the San Diego Union Tribune: “I told God, `If you somehow get me out of this, I will do something nice for the world.’ I didn’t know what it was, but I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”

The 73-year-old West has repaid that debt many times over, helping multiple thousands of seniors find adequate health care in a confusing, frustrating system that seems to change overnight.

Who could have imagined that a nine-year-old pinsetter in a four-lane bowling alley who later dropped out of college and worked in a meat-packing plant would be able to fund his vast philanthropic umbrella by becoming a billionaire in business?

Born in the small city of Harlan, Iowa—50 miles from Omaha—West was a little kid when he toiled in is parents’ small bowling alley. He remembers dodging pins flying all over the place. When he was older, he worked in a meat-packing plant in Omaha before going to Vietnam with his Army Reserve unit.

When he returned, he tried college but dropped out of Dana College before the first semester ended, landing a job as a staffing coordinator at a hospital in Council Bluffs. He was promoted to assistant hospital administrator, learning first-hand about health care and helping others.

West left the hospital, and with Mary’s help, began West Corporation, a telecommunication company, in 1986. It became one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world with 35,000 employees and $3.5 billion in annual sales when they sold it privately for a reported $1.45 billion in 2006.

Here’s what they did with the money: In November 2006, they established the Gary and Mary West Foundation, a 501(c)(3) private, non-operating foundation funded solely by the Wests to prevent outside influence. The Foundation provides funding to support initiatives which lower the cost of seniors’ health care; enables seniors to successfully age with access to high-quality, affordable health care and support services that preserve and protect their dignity, quality of life and independence. Based in Solana Beach, Calif., the Foundation has awarded 518 grants totaling more than $211 million to non-profits in their current home, San Diego, and their adopted home city, Omaha.

In May 2009, they began the West Health Institute, funding medical research.

In January 2012, they began the West Health Policy Center, offering policy research and education.

They also created the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center, a unique community-based care model providing low-income seniors in San Diego two meals a day and access to more than 30 non-profit organizations and support services. In 2016, they added the Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center.

They also opened the Gary and Mare West Senior Emergency Care Unit in La Jolla, Calif., which received a Level 1 Gold accreditation in May 2018.

And they began a national program, Civica Rx, a non-stock, non-profit corporation offering generic medications to combat the ungodly costs of modern medication.

Perhaps most remarkable about their lives, the Wests don’t see how truly remarkable they’ve been—helping a massive number of vulnerable people. “I think most people would do something similar to what Mary and I are doing under the same circumstances,” Gary said in that San Diego Union Tribune story. “So we’re no heroes, but we do hope to be good role models if we can.”

Good role models in Thoroughbred racing for decades deserve a winner’s circle photo on the first Saturday of May. Besides, Gary West has been a game winner his whole life.

Speedway Stable LLC - Roadster

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Houston oil and gas partners Peter Fluor and Kane C. Weiner, whose fathers were partners on Thoroughbreds decades earlier, launched Speedway Stables by buying their first two Thoroughbreds for a combined $2.5 million at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton November Breeding Stock Sale. They’ve been striking oil ever since. Those two purchases—the beautiful gray mare Hard Not to Like for $1.5 million and Leigh Count for $1 million—continued their graded stakes winning ways for Speedway Stables before becoming valued broodmares.

Then Speedway Stables campaigned Collected. On his way to earning just under $3 million, Collected beat Arrogate to win the 2017 Gr1 Pacific Classic and finished second to Horse of the Year Gun Runner in the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He finished his career with eight victories, two seconds and one third in just 15 starts.

Now Speedway Stable’s Triple Crown trail contender Roadster, who, like Collected, is trained by Bob Baffert, has them thinking about an even bigger home run in the Run for the Roses.

It’s a dream the 71-year-old Fluor had growing up—a dream he’d forgotten about for a long time.

Growing up in Acadia, Calif., Fluor remembers being able to hear the feature race at neighboring Santa Anita without going to the track. “I could hear the call from the feature race in my backyard because they turned it up so loud,” he said.

He remembers when his father would wake up very early in the morning with a proposition: “My father used to wake me in the morning at 5:30 with ‘Do you want to go to the training track at Santa Anita?’ I was six or seven years old. I said, `Will you throw in breakfast? Or at least a doughnut?’”

At Santa Anita, Fluor’s father had a couple horses with Hall of Fame Trainer Charlie Whittingham. “Charlie asked me if I’d ever been on a pony,” Fluor said. “He and my dad helped put me on a pony. We kind of walked around. I thought it was pretty cool. And then I met Bill Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro and Johnny Longden. These were great people and representatives.”

When Fluor was 16, he and his father played golf one afternoon with Arcaro and Shoemaker. “By then, I was taller than they were,” Fluor said. “And they could play golf, I can tell you.”

After college, Fluor’s father’s Thoroughbred partner, Charles Weiner, offered Fluor a paid internship at his company, Texas Crude Energy, located on a street named Buffalo Speedway in Houston. He’s still there 47 years later. “I laugh because it’s the only job I’ve ever had,” Fluor said. “My son says the average man has 8.2 jobs. I told him I was under-recruited.”

His thoughts of owning Thoroughbreds? “I never had them,” Fluor said. “I kind of put them out of my mind. That’s what you do to be successful.”

He was more successful than he realized. On the final day of his 18-month internship, Fluor wrote his boss a three-page good-bye letter of thanks, including suggestions on how the company could grow. “I put the note on his desk,” Fluor said. “When he got in, he said, `What’s this?’ I said, `I didn’t want you to come into my office and fire me, but I had some impressions on how the company could move forward. He looked at me and said, `Really? Let’s forget the 18-month deal, and we’ll work on them together and see how it goes.’ I said, `Yes sir.’”

Now Fluor is a partner with his boss’ son, K.C., who is 63. “He’s the president of the company, and I’m the CEO,” Fluor said. “We’re partners in both horses and the company. We’ve had a great partnership for 30 years. It’s kind of amazing that we have a relationship like that still. I’m his best friend, and he’s my best friend. Our dads were great friends and partners with horses. It’s a very happy story.”

Weiner agreed: “It’s more like family in a lot of ways. We’re sort of different fellows with different strengths and weaknesses, and it makes for a great partnership. When you have trust, you can have a real relationship. It’s a wonderful thing.”

So is their success on the racetrack. “The luck we’ve had has been remarkable,” Weiner said.

Horses were reintroduced into Fluor’s life five years ago when he was invited to go to Saratoga by his late friend Bob McNair, the owner of Stonerside Stable and, later, the Houston Texans in the NFL. Fluor asked about getting a couple Thoroughbreds with K.C., and McNair connected Fluor with two great contacts to help them get started, bloodstock agents Marette Farrell and John Adger.

That led to Fluor and Weiner’s entrance at the 2014 Keeneland Sale. “We decided to buy two ready-made horses—fillies,” Fluor said. “That got it going.”

And how, Hard Not to Like won consecutive Gr1 stakes at Santa Anita and Saratoga, the Gamely and the Diana, the following year. Then Collected arrived. And now, they hope, Roadster.

“We’ve had a lot of fun,” Fluor said.

And the success? “Can’t beat lady luck,” he said.

R. A Hill Stable, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Hugh Lynch, Corms Racing Stable - Tax

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Randy Hill, a financial services executive who co-founded PCS Research Services, is a horse lifer. “I love the game,” he said. “I love everything about it. My mother took me to Monmouth when I was 12 years old. I rode horses. I had a Tennessee Walking horse. You can ride a TW with a cup of coffee and not spill a drop.”

Hill is also an avid wine collector and aficionado of antique cars and co-owner of Derby contender Tax. Hill has been on the Triple Crown trail before with Maybry’s Boy, who won the 2002 Gr3 Spectacular Bid Stakes but suffered an injury in the Fountain of Youth. He recovered and finished his stellar career with eight victories, four seconds and six thirds from 43 starts and $322,700 in earnings. Hill jump-started Maybry’s Boy stallion career by offering a $10,000 bonus to one breeder whose mare mated with him at Highcliff Farm in Delanson, N.Y. Elaine and Mike Eddy were the lucky winners on November 20, 2006.

R. A Hill Stable & Gatsas Stables - Vakoma

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Vekoma, whose win in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, confirmed his status as a legitimate Triple Crown trail contender, taking his co-owner, Gatsas Stable‘s Mike Gatsas—who owns Vekoma with Randy Hill of R.A. Hill Stable—on a journey he’s never taken and pursuing the Run for the Roses 15 years after his worst day at the track. That’s when his great, gray New York-bred gelding Gander—the first horse he purchased who became one of the most popular horses in New York—had a career-ending and life-threatening injury at Saratoga on August 31, 2004, suffering a straight-across fracture of the cannon bone. But the bone healed and Gander survived. The $100,000 Gander Stakes for New York-breds is named in his honor at Aqueduct, March 17.

The 2000 New York-bred Horse of the Year retired with 15 victories, including the 2001 Gr2 Meadowlands Cup (10 seconds), including a second in the 2000 Gr1 Jockey Club Gold Cup (nine thirds), and more than $1.8 million in earnings from 60 starts over seven seasons. Gatsas, who then raced his horses as New Hampshire-based Sovereign Stable with his brother Ted, a former state senator and mayor of Manchester, retired Gander to Stone Ridge Farm near Saratoga Springs. “He’s still doing great,” Gatsas said. “Everybody loves him. It was just a great pleasure to go see him last summer. Now my grandkids get to go up and see him. He literally is a member of the family.”

Negligee, a two-year-old filly Sovereign Stable purchased after her second start, gave Gatsas his first Gr1 victory when she captured the 2009 Alcibiades at Keeneland. Like Gander, Negligee was trained by John Terranova.

Vekoma’s pursuit of the Run for the Roses under the care of trainer George Weaver and his wife Cindy, who exercises Vekoma, is a whole new thrill for Gatsas. “When Negligee won the Alcibiades, that was a great day for us; that was the first grade one stake we ever won,” Gatsas said. “But don’t let anybody kid you. There is only one Derby. I haven’t been this far. It’s a blast. I always wanted to go there with a horse that would be competitive.”

He’s delighted to be sharing the chase with Randy Hill, whose box at Saratoga Race Course was right behind Gatsas’. “We met four years ago,” Gatsas said. “I said, `What do you think if we split some horses?’ He said, `Sure.’ We’ve been doing that for four years. We really got to like each other. We’re really having fun with these horses.”