The Blood-Horse Regionals : West Coast Regionals

1/12/2013 West Coast Regional: Generation Next

aspradling — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:31:00 GMT

Emily Wygod builds on a family tradition

by Lenny Shulman

Emily Wygod is on the right side of the Thoroughbred business. As the daughter of industry giants Pam and Marty Wygod, she has the benefit of their counsel and infrastructure when selecting bloodstock or needing advice. And on her own, she is a teaching instructor at Pegasus Therapeutic Riding, where she helps change the lives of people with disabilities through horseback riding.

Wygod, 27, has been groomed for these roles since the crawling stage. Her first years were spent on a farm in New Jersey, trail riding through the rural countryside. Summers entailed journeying to California, specifically Del Mar, where Emily would make the rounds at the racetrack, drinking in the atmosphere of the backstretch in the morning and the races in the afternoon.

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12/15/2012 West Coast Regional: Bo Knows Horses

aspradling — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:11:28 GMT

Bo Derek’s positive effect on the California Horse Racing Board

by Lenny Shulman

Bo Derek is talking about ways to enhance Thoroughbred racing’s stature among the mainstream American public when it’s suggested that the sport could use stars with the fame of, for example, Charlie Sheen to get involved in marketing racing to people unfamiliar with the sport.

“Our society is such that you can’t make it popular without celebrities,” she agreed.

“It’s sad.”

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02/11/2012 West Coast: Life's a Beach

aspradling — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:05:15 GMT

Noosa Beach shines for Doris and Jeff Harwood
by Jack Shinar

Doris and Jeff Harwood know that improbable dreams really can happen, that little guys can beat billionaires, and miracles come on four hooves. They can see the proof right outside the picture window of the den in their two-story ranch home nestled in the cedar-covered rolling hills of the Washington suburb of Kent.

That’s where Noosa Beach, the homebred pride of their stable, likes to play in his paddock during the Emerald Downs off-season while he awaits a 2012 campaign that perhaps could include a trip to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park next fall for the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I).

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12/17/11 West Coast: Heavy Lifting

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:25:10 GMT

Dana and Jimmy Barnes make Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert's barn run smoothly.

Jimmy and Dana Barnes’ road to Bob Baffert’s employ began on horseback at Golden Gate Fields in 1983. The couple met while exercising Thoroughbreds in the mornings, which led to marriage, two daughters, and major roles on the Baffert team as the Hall of Famer’s assistant trainer and one of his go-to exercise riders.

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02/19/11 West Coast: Claims Adjuster

aspradling — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:24:45 GMT

Not too many people campaign two millionaires in their lifetime. Don Van Kempen took it further and found his seven-figure earners via the claim box.

For $25,000 in 2003, he claimed Moscow Burning. She proceeded to win a total of $1,417,800 to become the all-time leading money- earning California-bred female.

“I never intended to have a horse like Moscow Burning ever,” said Van Kempen, who is known as Don Van and calls his stable Don Van Racing. “You have no idea how lucky I am to have had a horse like this.”

The year after he claimed Moscow Burning, Van Kempen claimed Lunge for $20,000. She paid for herself on the racetrack and then produced The Usual Q. T. for Van Kempen. That Calbred gelding has earned nearly $1.5 million with victories in the 2010 Eddie Read Stakes (gr. IT)

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01/29/11 West Coast: Special Treatment

aspradling — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:41:09 GMT

As a heart surgeon who helped develop coronary bypass surgery—a procedure performed on more than 1.5 million people a year—Dr. Mark Dedomenico has dedicated his career to improving the lives of humans through medicine. But he hasn’t stopped there. Also a passionate horseman for more than four decades, Dedomenico had an incredible ride last year with his champion 3-year-old filly Blind Luck and several other stakes winners. Dedomenico took his vocations a step further when he began exploring new medical breakthroughs for the animals that have brought such joy to his life.

“I wanted to do something for horses like I’ve been doing for humans for a number of years and find the best way to treat them,” said Dedomenico, 73, who fulfilled
a lifelong dream when he built the multipurpose Pegasus Training and Equine Rehabilitation Center near Redmond, Wash., in 2005.

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12/18/2010 West Coast: Still Soaring

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:24:59 GMT

Larry Mabee loves to watch people at the racetrack. The regulars in particular fascinate him because they come every single day and make up the backbone of the sport.

“You need to recognize them,” Mabee said. “You need to say, ‘Hi.’ That fan base literally makes the whole thing worthwhile. They appreciate having somebody appreciate them.” Mabee, 67, has had plenty of opportunities to see the regulars at Del Mar. As the only child of John and Betty Mabee, Larry had a ringside seat in the development of one of California’s all-time leading breeding and owning operations.

The Mabees’ Golden Eagle Farm near Ramona, Calif., turned out such runners as Best Pal, elected in 2010 to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame; General Challenge, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I), Santa Anita Derby (gr. I), and Pacific Classic (gr. I); and $2.5 million earner Dramatic Gold. The Mabees also stood many stallions and produced a host of good race fillies that went on to build the broodmare band that led to the couple’s three Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top breeders.

11/16/2010 West Coast: Sharp Shooters

aspradling — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 22:41:47 GMT

You look at Steve Bajer and John O’Hara moving around the sales at Keeneland each September and November, and they seem like two guys who took a wrong turn on the way to a fishing trip. Bajer, 62, and O’Hara, 53, both married, walk the grounds with an easy give-and-take dialogue running between them, accompanied by O’Hara’s son, Dustin. They’re dressed casually, and while they’re paying close attention to the business at hand—picking out weanlings and yearlings to buy—they give off the impression of two guys on holiday looking for a restaurant. The results of their purchases, however, paint a far different picture.

Shopping in the equine bargain bins, Bajer and O’Hara have enjoyed an enormous amount of success. They had two of their purchases pre-entered in this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships. One of them, J P’s Gusto, is already a grade I winner. Nicole H. wound up running in the Dream Supreme Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard. In previous years they have been involved in buying some horses you may have heard of— Alphabet Soup, winner of the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I); Adoration, winner of the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (gr. I); and grade I winner Santa Teresita. For a couple of easygoing guys, these Californians are sharp-eyed sharks.

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9/25/2010 West Coast: View from the Top

aspradling — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:29:13 GMT

When Martin and Pam Wygod decided last June to sell their River Edge Farm near Buellton, the California breeding industry reeled. River Edge, after all, stood some of the state’s leading stallions. Would California lose them as well?

Fortunately, Donald Cohn had a ready solution. He had built Ballena Vista Farm near Ramona from scratch and had been standing such stallions as Fighting Fit, Deputy Commander, Sea of Secrets, and the now-pensioned Beau Genius. In 2009 the Wygods had retired their grade I stakes winner Idiot Proof to stud at Cohn’s farm.

It didn’t take long for Cohn and the Wygods to arrange for Bertrando, Benchmark, Tribal Rule, and Dixie Chatter to move from River Edge to Ballena Vista. Cohn bought Benchmark outright and also purchased major interests in Tribal Rule and Dixie Chatter, while Bertrando remains the property of the syndicate that owns him.

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3/19/10 West Coast: Great Shape

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:05:24 GMT

Growing up in Arizona, Michael Talla rode bulls and bareback broncs at rodeos. These days he’s more likely to get his exercise on a state-of-the-art treadmill at the Sports Club L.A. and his horse fix from watching his Thoroughbreds run at Southern California racetracks.

Talla, 63, is chairman of The Sports Club Co., which runs high-end fitness centers in Los Angeles, California’s Orange County, and in New York City. A few years ago he branched out into Thoroughbred ownership. With his horses stabled at the barn of leading trainer John Sadler, he is heading toward first class in that endeavor as well.

Crisp won the Santa Anita Oaks (gr. I) March 6 for Talla, who owns the 3-year-old filly outright. He had his first taste of stakes success as a partner in Oil Man. Sadler and bloodstock agent David Ingordo have found Talla some young stock that could ultimately send Talla's stable into the rarefied atmosphere of not only grade I stakes victories but perhaps Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup territory.

“He loves to come out in the mornings and see the horses breeze,” said Sadler. “He’s the kind of owner we need. He wants to get some good horses and do things right.” Talla, who lives in Bel Air, Calif., discovered racing as a youngster in Casa Grande, Ariz.

“The first races I went to were at Turf Paradise,” said Talla. “But I never had time to buy a horse. I just got busy like we all do, doing our regular jobs.”

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2/20/2010 West Coast: Establishing a Legacy

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:47:07 GMT

When multiple graded stakes winner Papa Clem became available for stud duty in late January, Pete Parrella and several other prominent California breeders immediately leapt into action. They were determined not to let this one slip away to Kentucky or elsewhere.

Conferencing during the Barretts winter mixed sale, Parrella, Tom Bachman, Madeline Auerbach, Don Valpredo, and Brian Boudreau sought out owner/breeder Bo Hirsch.
They quickly made the deal to stand Papa Clem at Parrella’s Legacy Ranch near Clements, Calif.

It was typical of Parrella’s enthusiasm for California’s racing and breeding industries. The 66-year-old has plenty to do running his Parr Lumber Co. in Chino, Calif., as well as his Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse breeding and training operation at Legacy.

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1/16/10 West Coast: A Gem at Emerald

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:13:16 GMT

Recognition in the Thoroughbred industry comes slowly, if at all, for a horseman who plies his trade in the great Northwest. But for Howard Belvoir—a trainer,
owner, and breeder who got his start in the business as a kid in Vancouver, B.C., more than 50 years ago—2009 was a very good year, and the accolades have followed.

Belvoir received a “Special Achievement Award” from the Washington Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association after winning Washington’s most prestigious race, the grade III
Longacres Mile, for the first time in 2008 with Wasserman, a horse he bred, owns, and trains.

The Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders’ Association followed suit, naming him its national Small Breeder of the Year.

12/12/09 West Coast: Acting Out

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:01:21 GMT

The Roman numeral in back of Don Ameche III’s name not only denotes his ancestral lineage, it also marks the third generation of his family that has been
involved in the Thoroughbred business.

Having entered the world of horses just five years ago, Ameche, 51, has all ready made his mark as the breeder of Necessary Evil, the 2-year-old bay filly by Harlan’s Holiday—Song and Danz, by Unbridled’s Song, who beat the boys in July in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes (gr. III). Following that up with a second in the Sorrento Stakes (gr. III) at Del Mar, just down the road from Ameche’s home in Mission Viejo, Necessary Evil is recovering from surgery that removed chips from her leg and is being pointed toward a 3-year-old season by trainer Doug O’Neill.

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11/11/09 West Coast: In The House

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — 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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