The Blood-Horse Regionals (PDF)

11/11/09 Northeast: Better With Backer

cdawahare — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:31:47 GMT

Over the years William Backer has discovered that things go better with racing. The retired songwriting guru, known during his professional career as the man who coined many famous slogans and jingles for Coca-Cola, including

"Things go better with Coke," is now highly regarded for an entirely different reason-his successful Thoroughbred stable. Backer remembers around 55 years ago helping a friend purchase a horse for foxhunting and seeing a small Thoroughbred weanling in its stall. On a whim he decided to buy the horse and put it into training.

"We had the horrible thing that happens to a lot of us in that we had beginner's luck and thought (horse racing) was easy," said Backer. "That was back in 1954, and I just stayed with it ever since."

Backer named his first horse Wink Proof. By Proof Coil, out of the American Flag mare American Wink, the resilient horse had an 11-year campaign and finally retired after 132 starts.

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11/11/09 West Coast: In The House

cdawahare — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:28:49 GMT

Appaloosas brought Michael House to Thoroughbreds. The spotted horses carted his kids in show rings across the country and his silks on the California fair racing circuit. House even now sometimes keeps an Appaloosa as a riding horse for himself or his wife, Dawn, at their California home in Rancho Santa Fe, and they breed them at their Montana ranch. The Houses stick to Thoroughbred broodmares and babies, however, at their Chestnut Farm near Versailles, Ky., where they raise youngsters for the yearling sales.

During the 1970s, when House first began racing, Appaloosa stakes purses could reach six figures. In the mid-1980s one of House's racehorses, Blowing Easy, won the first $100,000 Appaloosa race in California. A member of the Appaloosa Hall of Fame, Blowing Easy remains the second-leading Appaloosa racehorse earner of all time, behind Wing It, with $260,798.

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09/26/09 West Coast: A Force At Fairplex

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:13:10 GMT

Because Kim Lloyd had a comfortable chair, he got to be the fly on the wall when two of California’s greatest horsemen swapped tales. After training hours at Santa Anita Park, Willard Proctor would amble by to claim “his” chair at Lloyd’s barn. On Tuesdays, Charlie Whittingham would often show up and grab the only other chair.

“I would sit on a wash bucket and listen,” Lloyd said. “They’d tell the same stories about good horses. I loved that—it was the greatest.”

Lloyd has listened and learned from many good horsemen, beginning with his grandfather and continuing after he set out from his Oklahoma roots. He traveled with barns up and down the East Coast and into Kentucky before moving to Southern California, where he struck out on his own as a trainer.

Today, as vice president of sales, Lloyd helps Bill Baker, vice president and controller, manage Fairplex’s Barretts sale company. The lessons gleaned from his mentors have given Lloyd the foundation to analyze young horses for Barretts’ yearling and 2-year-old markets.

This year Lloyd has taken on another duty as the equine manager for Fairplex. He helps oversee the September fair race meeting, the training facility, and the vast array of horse shows at the Pomona, Calif., complex throughout the year.

Jerry McMahon, Barretts’ former president and general manager, hired Lloyd in 2006. When McMahon left the company in late 2008, Baker and Lloyd stepped up their involvement. Baker had worked with McMahon from the founding of Barretts in 1989, the two joining the fledgling company after stints with the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

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04/25/09 Midwest/Canada Regional: Husky Times

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:59:21 GMT

No matter what the industry, trends in America are often said to start in California and move east. But for the horse industry, Iowa, smack in the middle of the nation’s breadbasket, represents a microcosm of what is going on in so many areas, as breeders and owners battle for survival in the face of strained relationships with the local racetrack and government entities.

It was 20 years ago when Iowa horsemen celebrated the opening of Prairie Meadows racetrack in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona. Seven-thousand fans turned out for the opening card, but in just two years the track declared bankruptcy in an effort to lower its debt. Eventually, the facility passed into the hands of Polk County, where it is located, and received good news in 1994 when the state government narrowly approved slot machines at Prairie Meadows, which were operational a year later.

As part of the law, the licensee was charged with paying off the debt, growing and nurturing the horse industry, and providing for community betterment. The debt, which many believed would take 10 years to pay off, was actually done in just 18 months. It is the nurturing and growing of the industry that is a point of contention today between horsemen of the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association and the racetrack, which is the only horse racing facility in the state.

In the immediate aftermath of the installation of slots, Thoroughbred breeding numbers shot straight up. According to ITBOA president Sharon Vail, foal crops from 1997-2003 numbered between 550 and 650, and the number of racing dates was solidified at around 90 each year.

“Since 2004, we’ve been on one-year contracts where we don’t know until the last minute how many racing dates we’re going to get the following year,” said Vail. “As breeders, it’s very hard to function that way, not knowing if we’re going to have 90 days of racing or 80 or 45. Last year we were around 350-360 foals in the state, our lowest number since the early 1990s, and we don’t want to stay at those numbers. The situation is reaching a head, and we need to be stable and have a long-term contract.”

To that end, there is a public-comment period in April about the future of the sport, and the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission has ordered the 13-member board of Prairie Meadows to develop a long-range plan by the first week of June.

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03/28/09 Northeast Regional: Empire Leadership

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:41:30 GMT

When Delaware North announced it was ending its partnership with the New York Racing Association to install video lottery terminals at Aqueduct racecourse, the executive director of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders sprung into action.

Noting that the end of the partnership represented yet another delay in the long-overdue effort for the Empire State’s racing and breeding industries to begin reaping the financial benefits of VLTs, NYTB executive director Jeff Cannizzo called upon Gov. David Paterson to “make the re-bidding of VLTs an administration priority.”

In his press release Cannizzo reiterated the benefits of VLTs at Aqueduct—an estimated $1 million daily to the state coffers and millions to the equine agribusiness—and pointed out that “Now, with Wall Street in meltdown, sales tax revenue at historic lows, and a state deficit of staggering proportions, the continued delay in installing VLTs is unfathomable.”

Being proactive and taking the offensive on major issues facing the New York racing and breeding industries have been priorities for newly elected NYTB president Barry R. Ostrager, and Cannizzo, who assumed his position last summer.

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03/28/09 Midwest Regional: Mastering Michigan

cdawahare — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:03:40 GMT

As breeder/owner Marilyn McMaster looked at splashy photographs of yearlings galloping across lush pastures, her favorite gray mare posing beneath a weeping willow tree, and her intricately self-built log home, memories of her humble beginnings came rushing back.

She remembered a day during the mid-1970s when an acquaintance owed her late husband, Rolland "Mac" McMaster, a significant sum of money and offered a few of his Thoroughbred mares as a means to cover the debt.

At the time, Mac and Marilyn owned a farm in Central Michigan where they kept a few Quarter Horses, a herd of cattle, and offered boarding services. But aside from attending a few races at Arlington Park, they had never been directly involved in the Thoroughbred industry until the peace offering of backyard mares was handed over to them. Three decades later the McMasters' operation has risen to the top of the Michigan market. And even though Mac is no longer present to share the success, Marilyn knows it was their collaborative teamwork from the beginning that has now paid off.

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03/21/09 Southwest Regional: Early to Rise

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:51:36 GMT

There once was a Louisiana breeder who purchased broodmares in the $7,500-$10,000 range. But last November he bought a mare for $65,000, and in January
he spent $85,000 for another.

Tom Early smiles when telling that story. And he should. That a breeder in the Bayou State would upgrade his stock so dramatically is a direct reflection of the measures Early has helped push through during his tenure as head of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association.

“When I first came (to the LTBA), we didn’t own a magazine, there was no video poker, there were no slot machines, we didn’t own a sale company, and we paid breeders
awards to first place only,” Early said in an interview Mardi Gras weekend.

“What came with the slots was an effort by breeders to go out and buy better-quality stock. They realized with the big money coming they would have to increase the level of
their breeding stock. I used to say the catfish, the bottom feeders from Louisiana, showed up for the last three days of the Keeneland sale. Now they have moved up to the middle of the sale and have a real presence.”

They have that presence in part because of the hard work of Early, his staff and board members, the support of the state’s racetracks, and the relationship Early has built with Louisiana lawmakers. One of the keys to such success is that Early can relate; he understands what is happening locally, and the history behind it, because he is a local. A native of New Orleans, he began working on a horse farm while in his teens, and Early and his wife, Chrisie, live on a farm where they breed and raise Thoroughbreds.

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03/07/09 Northeast Regional: Under Plank

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:43:31 GMT

The temptation—as the red-roofed foaling and broodmare barns have gone up, the white-board fencing began stretching across the perimeter, and a string of horses settled in—is to dwell on the glory days of Sagamore Farm where Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr. bred generations of champions.

Its brightest star was Native Dancer, winner of 21 of 22 races. He was nicknamed “The Gray Ghost” for his light gray coat, which turned snow-white when he stood at Sagamore as a legendary stallion. Under a stand of sugar maple trees, his grave is marked by a small, plain stone slab in a nondescript equine cemetery.

While Sagamore’s new owner pays homage to its wondrous past, Kevin Plank is also clearly focused on his vision for the future.

“The farm has the DNA of champions in its bones, but being part of building something brick by brick, that’s what inspires me more than anything,” said Plank, 37. “We
honor the legacy, but we’re all about looking forward.”

Plank knows a thing or two about building a winner. In 1996 the Maryland native launched Under Armour—a moisture-wicking, compression T-shirt business—in the
basement of his grandmother’s townhouse in Washington, D.C.

The stretchy, fast-drying garments fit like a glove, keeping athletes cool in summer and warm in winter. Recognized as a major breakthrough, the technology enabled the
company to carve out a healthy niche in a fiercely competitive sporting-goods market. Along the way Under Armour unwittingly created one of the shrewdest power
plays in fashion history.

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03/07/09 West Coast Regional: Future at the Fair

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:22:28 GMT

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Fairplex Park will launch what may be only the beginning of a complete makeover at the Barretts March sale in Pomona, Calif. The $1.3-million facelift is turning the Barretts sale pavilion into a multi-use facility that year-round will host intertrack wagering, complete with large, high-definition video screens that can broadcast races, sale previews, and other sporting events.

That kind of state-of-the-art expansion could ultimately extend to the Fairplex racetrack and grandstand. Because Hollywood Park is slated for eventual closure and development, California’s racing leaders have been meeting to decide how best to replace that track as a year-round stabling facility as well as to determine the future of Hollywood’s racing dates. One of the ideas gaining traction is an expanded Fairplex racetrack.

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02/28/09 Northeast Regional: Halls of Fame

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:04:56 GMT

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Five years ago, New Jersey residents George and Lori Hall were avid Thoroughbred racing fans, scrambling to find a babysitter to watch their daughter on weekends so they could enjoy a few races at nearby Monmouth Park.
These days the Halls are seeing things from a much different point of view. Since entering the business in 2004, they have campaigned five stakes winners, and now have two Triple Crown prospects in West Side Bernie and Atomic Rain.

On many summer mornings in the early dawn at Monmouth Park, George Hall can be seen leading horses from the barn alongside trainer Kelly Breen.

With his burly frame and size 11 boots a stark contrast next to dozens of tiny exercise riders, George braves the before daylight training hours at the New Jersey Shore track to observe his stock aboard lead pony and retired stakes winner Fagan’s Legacy.

George, an investment company owner, said he isn’t surprised at the success his operation has experienced in such a short time.

“We always intended to—to the extent it would work out—create an elite stable,” he said. Hall also keeps a handful of broodmares and young horses at his Annestes Farm near Versailles, Ky. “Each year we buy a few more and try to focus on the good ones.”

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02/28/09 Midwest/Canada Regional: Fleet Field

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:58:09 GMT

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Sometimes breeders have to wait a long time to see their labor blossom to fruition. On other occasions they have to wait a really long time. But for Mike Carroll and John C. Harvey Jr., the wait was quite worth it when Maryfield came into her own as a 6-year-old in 2007, winning the Ballerina Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga, the Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap (gr. II) at Aqueduct, and the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park on the way to capturing champion female sprinter honors on the season.

For their efforts, the two men earned the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Canadian Breeders of the Year award for that season.

Carroll and Harvey co-bred Maryfield out of the Desert Wine mare Sly Maid, whom they purchased for $50,000 with partner Robyn’s Nest Farm at the 1997 Keeneland January sale. Sly Maid was a stakes-placed, five-time winner at the races. Shortly afterward, Carroll and Harvey bought out Robyn’s Nest.

Sly Maid produced six live foals for them, including Canadian grade III-placed Quiet. They decided to send Sly Maid to Elusive Quality, and the product of that mating, Maryfield, was purchased by Jim and Alice Sapara’s Winsong Farms for $80,000 at the 2002 Keeneland September yearling sale out of the Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency, agent, consignment. Maryfield was bred in Ontario, making her the fourth Canadian-bred Breeders’ Cup winner, following Awesome Again, Chief Bearhart, and Dance Smartly.

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02/21/09 Southwest Regional: Star of Louisiana

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:56:01 GMT

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Though she has been a major Thoroughbred breeder and owner in Louisiana for nearly three decades, Evelyn Benoit says until recently some people in the industry saw her as a bit of a laughing stock.

“People used to laugh at me when I’d go to these sales at Keeneland or in Florida and I’d tell them I breed horses in Louisiana,” Benoit said. “I’d walk into the sale and they’d say, ‘Oh God, there is that woman with those little Louisiana horses.’ Then I’d tell them one of my major goals is to save racing in Louisiana and they would laugh even harder.”

It is Benoit who is getting the last laugh now, however, thanks to her multiple state-bred stakes winners. Included among those is 4-year-old Star Guitar, who has now won six of seven lifetime starts after romping to a seven-length victory
Feb. 7 in the $200,000 Louisiana Premier Night Championship Stakes at Delta Downs Racetrack Casino & Hotel. The Quiet American colt has now earned more than $330,000 for Benoit and her husband, Maurice, who race their horses under the name Brittlyn Stables.

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02/14/09 West Coast Regional: Making a Difference

cdawahare — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:58:45 GMT

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Bob Fletcher well remembers the long, hard road to sobriety. He spent 41/2 months in and out of Arcadia Methodist Hospital near Santa Anita Park, both his racetrack job and his marriage in jeopardy.

Newly sober and back to work, Fletcher was terrified that he would drink again and send his life into a further tailspin.

“On my coffee breaks and my lunch hour, I would come over to the Winners Foundation,” he said. “I would come to meetings here. I stayed real close to this place. Nobody judged me. It was safe here.”

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02/14/09 Southeast Regional: Bubbly Spirit

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:00:29 GMT

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Edward Seltzer was only a year out of college and was partaking in his usual game of gin rummy with a bunch of buddies when one of them made him an unusual offer. He told Seltzer he had just bought an eighth-interest in a Thoroughbred claimer for $500 and asked him if he wanted to go in for half.

Seltzer knew nothing about Thoroughbreds, had never been to the track, and had never even placed a bet. But he decided for $250 to have some fun and took his friend up on his offer. The venture turned out to be “a disaster,” but here he is five decades later one of the most successful small-time breeders in the country, having bred among his dozens of stakes horses three classic winners (Preakness, gr. I, victor Tank’s Prospect; English Oaks and Two Thousand Guineas, both Eng-I, winner Midway Lady; and Irish St. Leger, Ire-I, winner Protection Racket) and last year’s world-record holder Red Giant. He also sold a yearling in 1983 for a then-record $4.1 million, and alone or in partnership has bred seven Breeders’ Cup starters, one of whom he owned in his own name and one under his ex-wife Marilyn’s name. Another, whom he didn’t breed, was owned by his daughter, Krista.

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02/07/09 Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional: Fit For a Hero

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:46:23 GMT

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After brief stints as a jockey agent and as an aspiring trainer, Bob Haynes has found his niche in the Thoroughbred business as an owner, certified by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which named his Rob Ry Farm as the state’s owner of the year for 2008.

Haynes, 54, a native of Olney, Md., is a lifelong resident of the state and in his youth was attracted to racing’s gambling aspect. “I grew up closest to Laurel Park, and it got in my blood,” said Haynes.

Haynes owns East Coast Productions, a national professional fund-raising firm for police and firefighters, and also has a real estate company, Robert Michael Haynes Realty, which deals in both commercial and residential properties. Haynes and his wife, Donna, have two sons, Robert and Ryan, for whom his stable is named. His office manager at East Coast Productions is Jayne Marie Slysz, a former jockey who also partners with Haynes in his racehorses.

Haynes claimed his first horse, the hard-knocking plater Key to Riches, in the early 1980s. He remained in the claiming game with his trainer of 18 years, William H. Wolfendale III, until one day when Haynes’ accountant approached him with balance sheet in hand and said, “Look, I think it’s time for you to get out of the horse game.” Instead offinding a new accountant, Haynes bowed out of the business for a number of years, but the itch to get back in eventually won out.

“I’d say he was out of the business for 10 years or so,” said Slysz, whom Haynes offered a job to after she was too injured to continue riding horses. “One day Bob decided to geta horse, and I went in on it, and since then we’ve been partners on every horse. We’ve had a real good run.”

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