Most native Kentuckians find themselves enthralled by the Kentucky Derby, whether it be the pomp and circumstance, the festive atmosphere, or the races themselves. Attending is almost a right of passage, and finding a way to be personally involved is an item on many bucket lists.
That wasn't the case, however, for Whit Beckman, despite being raised in the Derby City itself. Instead, it was a series of quiet mornings in his early 20's, spent cleaning stalls and grooming his mother's show horses, that convinced Beckman to invest his future in the Thoroughbred industry.
The son of an equine veterinarian, Beckman didn't show any interest in his father's career during his formative years, preferring soccer and skateboarding to the horses. After college, though, he found himself unsure what to do with his life.
Beckman spent many a morning heading out to the farm to help his mother, doing basic care and chores, before he realized that his calling had been right there all along.
“You can go out in search of everything you're looking for, all over the world, but if you just look around you, you had it the whole time,” he said. “I realized I enjoyed working with the horse, the individual; switching off from the regular working world and doing the actual labor lets you get out of your own mind and into that communication that exists without any sort of words.”
Twenty some years later, 41-year-old Beckman has crafted a career path for himself that may just bring him to that pinnacle of sport on the first Saturday in May: the trainer saddled his first graded stakes winner last weekend, sending out 2-year-old Honor Marie to win the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs.
The win earned the son of Honor Code 10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.
“With all horses, you have an idea of how good they might be, and I was always thinking two turns with the horse, so I'm just glad he confirmed what we all kind of assumed,” Beckman said. “I know that it's only November, but I'm fortunate enough to have been on the Derby trail before, and it's still pretty cool that at the end of the day, we're all dreaming about this!”
Beckman's previous Derby seasoning occurred during his tenure with Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, for whom he served as an assistant from 2007 through 2013.
Yet his first racetrack job came courtesy of “Louisville guy” Walter Binder, and Beckman also spent time working at Upson Downs Farm on the outskirts of Louisville, before deciding to pursue a job in New York.
“Back in those days, Churchill was not giving away the same kind of money that they are now, so there were not as many top-name trainers basing themselves there,” Beckman explained. “Charlie Bowden – I bounced a lot off him early – he told me that if I really wanted to get into this business and learn, then I needed to think about the New York and Florida circuit, because those were the biggest venues.
“Todd called me back while I was on vacation in Florida, and he told me to be in Saratoga as soon as I could get there!”
After six years with Pletcher, Beckman took a job as head trainer in Saudi Arabia for a year, then returned stateside to work for Eoin Harty in Chicago and Tampa for a spell. He returned to Saudi Arabia, but the second trip was much shorter: his daughter was born, and Beckman realized he needed to be closer to home.
“When it was time to go back, I made it all the way to New York with my passport in hand before I realized I really didn't want to go,” he said. “So I turned around and came home, and I got lucky to get a job for Chad Brown a few months later.”
Beckman headed up a string at Churchill for Brown for several years, gaining even more high-level experience.
“I sometimes look back in disbelief that I've been able to work with such high-profile horses and be in such well-respected positions for as long as I have been,” Beckman said. “There are a lot of things that are very similar in both of those stables, especially in terms of consistency and patterns, attention to detail, going above and beyond to take the best possible care of the horse.”
After going out on his own in 2021, Beckman had a bit of a slow start under his own banner. The focus has always been on quality, not quantity: Honor Marie's victory was the 23rd under his own name.
“You know, it was such a transient lifestyle, and I just wanted to be more present for my daughter, who's now seven years old,” he said. “Things are just continuing to improve, and now I'm trying to figure out how to best navigate the winters; I have 12 at Trackside, and eight at Fair Grounds this year, so I'm trying to split my time appropriately.”
Among the connections he made while working for Pletcher was with Kristian Villante, one of the founding four members of Legion Bloodstock. The growing company has supported Beckman since his first days on his own, and their selection of Honor Marie for $40,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September sale is proving to be quite the bargain.
The colt broke his maiden at first asking, after which co-owners Alan and Carrie Ribble bought out their other partners. Honor Marie is named in part for their daughter, Marie, as well as after his sire and dam (Honor Code and Dame Marie).
He finished second in a sloppy allowance race in his second outing, then stepped up to two turns for the Kentucky Jockey Club. Honor Marie cruised from last-to-first and won by two lengths at odds of 8-1, stamping himself as a potential horse to be reckoned with in 2024.
“He's done everything right to this point,” said Beckman. “He's a young horse, a May foal. Early on, he just had some maturity things and we needed a little bit more time to get him going. But now that he's starting to kind of figure things out on the mental side, we've always known the physical side was there. At this point, the way he won, the way the gallop-out went, he could go on to be a very legitimate horse.”
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