The Blood-Horse Regionals (PDF) : West Coast Regionals

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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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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02/14/09 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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01/17/09 West Coast Regional: Plan Ahead

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:57:19 GMT

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In 2004, on a farm adjacent to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California’s Central Valley, a bay filly was born that would change everything for breeder Carol Anderson.

Not many women decide at age 60 to fulfill their dream of purchasing a ranch to launch a Thoroughbred operation, but when the perfect 16-acre parcel of land became available near Gilroy, Calif., Anderson, now 64, couldn’t resist.

The same year she acquired the ranch, Anderson’s mare Mistical Bel foaled a Game Plan filly that would later be named Mistical Plan.

After J. Paul Reddam offered her a price she couldn’t refuse, Anderson sold Mistical Plan privately as a yearling. She never guessed that three years later she would witness the filly capture the Princess Rooney Handicap (gr. I) at Calder Race Course in South Florida.

Watching from television on the opposite coast, Anderson was ecstatic as Mistical Plan drew away from the field to register a 53⁄4-length score. The win was especially sweet for Anderson because it was her first graded stakes victory as a breeder.
“We had never had a graded stakes winner ever,” said Anderson, as she relived her red-letter day. “It was very exciting because it put my mare (Mistical Bel) on the map.”

Even though Anderson is elated at how far Mistical Bel has come, it has also made her breeding decisions a lot less simple than they used to be.

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12/13/2008 West Coast Regional: Pioneer of the West

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:02:55 GMT

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Kathy Walsh’s training career intertwines so thoroughly with Washington’s Longacres Race Course that many people think she hails from the Pacific
Northwest. Four times the leading trainer at Longacres, Walsh actually grew up in Northern California.

Now based in Southern California, where she trains a 25-horse stable that includes 2007 Del Mar Futurity (gr. I) and 2008 San Vicente (gr. II) and San Felipe (gr. II) Stakes winner Georgie Boy, Walsh took a circuitous route from the north end of the state to the south. Not only did she spend much of her career in Washington, she has trained strings at Canterbury Downs (now Canterbury Park) in Minnesota and at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.

“I went to New Orleans in 1967 with my father,” Walsh said. “I even went with him to Vancouver, Canada, when I was 10 years old.”

Given that her father, Jim, led trainers twice at Longacres, it’s not surprising Kathy followed his career path, much to her mother’s chagrin. However, Southern California legend Buster Millerick, who conditioned three-time Hollywood Gold Cup winner Native Diver, was perhaps even more responsible for Kathy choosing to become a trainer.

“Buster gave my dad his first broodmare,” Walsh said. “My dad grew up in Sonoma, Calif., and Buster was from Petaluma, right next door.”

Contemporaries, Millerick and Jim Walsh came of age in the early part of the 20th century, when people owned all sorts of horses instead of those that specialized in one sport.

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11/8/2008 West Coast Regional: High Heat

cdawahare — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:36:28 GMT