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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm Runners Find Their Niche On Turf

Meeting Cross Border in the winner's circle after his successful title defense in Saturday's Grade 2 Bowling Green Stakes at Saratoga race course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was a special moment for owner Kirk Wycoff. The long-missed sound of fans cheering, the magnitude of the 7-year-old's performance on the track, and the ever-significant ability to share the moment with his family; it all played a part in the emotion playing over Wycoff's face as he gave Cross Border a well-earned pat.

“We didn't go in thinking we were going to win, and a lot of people had kind of written him off, so for him to give that performance, it was very special,” Wycoff said. “I was glad for him that he got that double under his belt, and to see him win.”

The Mike Maker trainee is also listed as the winner of the 2020 edition of the Bowling Green, though that trip to the winner's circle came as a result of the disqualification of Sadler's Joy, who'd crossed the wire in front by a neck after impeding Cross Border at the sixteenth pole.

“Last year he did it with no fans and the disqualification, so it was nice to see him get the win today,” said Wycoff. “This horse has been a project, like so many we buy out of the horses of racing age sales in July.

“My son Jordan picked him out because of a race he ran for $16,000 at Woodbine, and we bought him for $100,000. He had multiple little issues, so we gave him time off like we do with all our horses. It took eight months until he was right. Whenever you own one that long — we bought him when he was four — you get attached to them and so does the whole team.”

Cross Border has been holding his own against some of the top turf horses in the United States for the past year, running second in the G1 Sword Dancer (Aug. 2020) and third in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Turf (Jan. 2021).

“I still think we could have won the Pegasus, but we didn't get the best trip,” Wycoff said. “In high level turf racing around two and three turns, the trip is extremely important; he got a great trip Saturday in the Bowling Green. He's a very handy horse, likes the tight turns at Saratoga and Gulfstream, so we'll keep that in mind when pointing him to future races.”

A return trip to the G1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga is likely the next target for Cross Border.

“It might be a little short for him, but he's definitely earned the right to run in a Grade 1 again,” said Wycoff.

Cross Border winning the Bowling Green

Meanwhile, Wycoff's Three Diamonds Farm (named for his three children: Kirby, Ashley, and Jordan) will have several other runners coming up at Saratoga, including G2 Black-Eyed Susan and G3 Iowa Oaks winner Army Wife pointing to the Grade 1 Alabama.

Currently residing in Saratoga for the summer, Wycoff spent Monday afternoon at a charity golf event, and planned to accompany his wife Debra to the high-level show jumping competitions at Saugerties (about 1 ½ hours away) on other dark days. They'll reside in the bucolic horse racing town of upstate New York until it's time to head south for the Kentucky Downs meet.

Wycoff has loved horses for as long as he can remember, from taking riding lessons as a young man in Pennsylvania to acquiring his training license at Penn National as a hobby during college. He remembers mucking 40 stalls every morning before heading off to class!

Wycoff and his wife met through horse racing 44 years ago, and Debra is still riding today.

“My wife loves the jumpers, and still shows her amateur jumpers,” Wycoff said, referring to a division in which the height of the jumps is up to 1.3 meters, or approximately 4 feet, three inches. “It does make me nervous, certainly, but after 40 years of marriage, what you want as a husband is your wife to have a smile on her face.”

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A managing partner of the Philadelphia-based private equity firm Patriot Financial Partners, Wycoff decided to get back into horse racing in the early 2000s, once he and Debra's children were old enough.

The couple ramped up their participation around 2010 when they were first introduced to Maker.

“We wanted to compete, to win, and in studying the business, we realized that we were not in a position then or now to buy very expensive, well-bred dirt yearlings and 2-year-olds,” Wycoff explained. “We love turf racing because it's typically very close, so we concentrated on a part of the business where people didn't want to be. A lot of thought has to go into the horses you buy and where you race them, and we had to find trainers who could train two-turn turf horses.

“It was apparent to us six years ago, when we claimed Bigger Picture, that horses that were middle level claiming horses at 1 1/16 miles could be stakes horses at 1 ¼, 1 ½ miles, if they were bred appropriately. According to my bloodstock advisers, I've unfortunately now made that obvious to everyone else!”

The Wycoffs and Maker have had significant success claiming horses and turning them into stakes competitors. Bigger Picture is at the top of that list: a $32,000 claim in November of 2015, he went on to win the G3 Red Smith in 2016, and the G3 John B. Connally Turf Cup and G1 United Nations in 2017.

Other claimers-turned-graded-stakes-competitors for the Wycoffs include Gianna's Dream and Roman Approval.

The Wycoffs have also found success with purchases from the sales rings including: G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Fire At Will, G1 winner Next Question, multiple G3 winner Field Pass, and G2 winner Hembree.

One of the benefits of having turf horses that run long, Wycoff explained, is being able to have sound horses into their 6- and 7-year-old seasons who often go on to have successful second careers. While his son Jordan particularly enjoys the racing aspect of the family business, Wycoff's eldest daughter prefers the aftercare side, and now has a four-stall barn of her own in Chester County.

Bringing the Wycoffs full circle is the fact that they just closed on a horse farm of their own in Lexington, Ky. It's a combination show jumping/Thoroughbred facility just a few miles away from the Kentucky Horse Park, and it's the first farm the couple has owned in over 40 years.

“Today the fence man sent me the bill to repair the fencing,” Wycoff quipped. “You know, whatever you plan for, it might not be what's next, but there's always something to be grateful for.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Kimmel Acknowledges Bittersweet Start To 2021

The racing results from Jan. 23 were bittersweet for veteran trainer John Kimmel. He sent out Pacific Gale to the first graded stakes win of her career at the age of six, but Kimmel was unable to celebrate the mare's win with his close friend and her late owner, Mike Morton.

Morton passed away suddenly in December, collapsing in the middle of the night. He'd had horses in Kimmel's barn for over seven years, and the two grew particularly close after the death of Kimmel's own father in 2018.

“He was almost like a father figure for me in many ways,” said Kimmel, 66. “He had more experience than me in so many things, and he always had a story to tell. He loved talking, this guy, and we talked pretty much every day for the last seven years.

“You always knew it wasn't going to be a short call when the phone rang, but he was such an interesting man. He grew up in the Bronx with nothing, came from pretty much nothing. Each of our conversations usually came accompanied by some sort of story of something he did as a kid, like being a bat boy for the Yankees, or having polio.”

Morton had purchased Pacific Gale for $72,000 at the 2017 OBS 2-year-old sale, and it took several years for the filly's talent to show up on her resume. Racing under the name of Morton's wife, Tobey, Pacific Gale usually finished on the board in her races but had only three wins from 27 starts entering Saturday's contest at Gulfstream Park.

This time, however, the daughter of Flat Out stepped up to win the G2 Inside Information by 2 ¾ lengths.

“I'm sure he's looking down and I hope he had a big bet,” said Kimmel shortly after the race. “He loved to bet on his horses and it's a very generous price she has on the board (16-1). My congratulations to Tobey. I know it's a difficult time but hopefully this filly can put a smile on her face.”

Later in the same afternoon, Kimmel watched via simulcast as his assistant saddled Chester and Mary Broman's Mr. Buff for an easy win in the Jazil Stakes at Aqueduct. Now a 7-year-old gelding, Mr. Buff has won 16 of his 43 lifetime starts for earnings of nearly $1.3 million.

“He's probably the winningest horse I've ever trained,” said Kimmel. “It's a great story in its own right: I also trained his grandsire and sire, and for all the expensive stud fees Mr. Broman has paid in his breeding program, the fee to breed Mr. Buff was one dollar.”

Kimmel trained Friends Lake to win the 2004 Florida Derby, then his son, Friend or Foe, to win a trio of New York stakes races. Both were Broman homebreds, but the owner/breeder did not want to support another stallion in New York, so Friend or Foe was sent to a woman in Maryland to become a jumper on the condition that Broman could breed three mares a year to him for $1.

One of the first mares Broman sent to Friend or Foe was the graded stakes-placed Speightful Affair (Speightstown).

Mr. Buff was foaled in 2014, and while he's yet to add a graded stakes score to his tally, the gelding is regularly competitive in the older dirt division. Kimmel thinks it's just a matter of time before Mr. Buff wins his first graded race, but that it will require sticking to the race tactics that have worked for the horse.

“I think the main thing is that whoever's ridden him on those days has been so concerned about being on the lead, but really the most important factor with him is that when he breaks he needs to find his own rhythm, really drilled it into (jockey) Kendrick (Carmouche's) head. If you take him out of the comfort zone he seems to run out of gas, and he has a much harder time changing his leads.

“Last race he sat back, and his lead transition turning for home was perfect. I think in the future that if whoever's riding him will apply that concept, he certainly runs races that are fast enough that he can be competitive in graded stakes races.”

Of course, Kimmel has been in the racing game long enough to know that talent isn't always enough to win races. Still, he wouldn't change his decision to abandon his veterinary practice for a trainer's license 30 some-odd years ago.

“Unless you were actually involved in a specialty of some sort, like surgery or reproduction, working at the track as a vet just became extremely routine,” said Kimmel, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1980. “I could train my assistant to do about 95 percent of the work; there was very little challenge and very little reward.

“As a trainer, every day is different. There may be lots of disappointment, but there are also lots of rewards, lots of positive things that keep you energized and involved.”

Telling his father, legendary Thoroughbred owner Caesar Kimmel, about his decision to step away from veterinary medicine was another matter entirely.

“Jimmy Toner was training my dad's horses then, and I think he wanted to test out my ability level before he even sent me a horse,” Kimmel remembered. “As time went on he got Jimmy to send me a horse he didn't think much of, Chachi Man, and I won with him first time out at Calder. Eventually he started to believe I knew what I was doing, and we had a really good run for quite some time.

“It was quite an enjoyable thing to work with your father; I couldn't get fired!”

Among the pair's best horses together were G2 Pennsylvania Derby winner Timber Reserve, G1 winner Flat Fleet Feet, G1 winner Hidden Lake, and G2 winner Miss Golden Circle.

“He really enjoyed the horse racing business; it was his favorite thing to do,” Kimmel said of his father. “He used to sit in his office at Rockefeller Plaza writing names down that he thought he could get by The Jockey Club. Ed Bowen was over there, and they always had a funny relationship.

“They interviewed him on television one time, and they wouldn't even let him say some of the names of his horses! It was a lot of fun back then, but it was a very different time, of course.”

One of the horses most often attributed to Kimmel's father's penchant for risque names is the filly Bodacious Tatas. In fact, she was actually owned by the younger Kimmel in partnership with Dennis Drazin.

“Dennis named that horse,” Kimmel said, laughing. “We put that name in at The Jockey Club for three consecutive years, and finally bingo, it went through.”

The 1985 filly was sired by Distinctive Pro, a son of Mr. Prospector in which the younger Kimmel and Drazin had purchased a share. The young partners had wanted to buy a share in Mr. Prospector himself several years earlier, but Kimmel had been unable to convince his father of the horse's stallion potential.

“You see how that worked out,” Kimmel quipped.

When the chance to have a share in one of his sons arrived, Kimmel and Drazin jumped on it with both hands. They bought a few mares to breed to him, including the dam of Bodacious Tatas, Key to Paree.

Bodacious Tatas won her debut at Monmouth Park, encouraging Drazin to bring in a couple of his friends. They paid $100,000 for half-interest in the promising, provocatively-named filly.

“The first time the two new owners come to the races, of course it's a rainy, horrible day,” Kimmel recalled. “Bodacious ran bad, and I remember jockey Craig Perret came back and said, right in front of the new owners, 'Nope, it's not the track, she's just a piece of sh*t.'

“She ran one bad race after another after that, and eventually the two owners wanted us to buy them out. We did, and then ended up sending her to New York for longer races with wider turns, and she must have won by 10 lengths the first time up there!”

The next year, Bodacious Tatas easily defeated the favored mount of Perret in Monmouth's G2 Molly Pitcher Handicap at odds of 13-1. The filly wound up earning over $430,000 on the track.

These days, Kimmel's numbers are down from the 100-plus horses he had in the barn 20 years ago, but he still maintains an active group of approximately 40 horses split between New York and South Florida over the winter months.

“I've done a little bit of everything, from breeder to pinhooker, vet, bloodstock agent, consignor, and even hotwalked back when I was a kid,” Kimmel said. “I like to be really hands on, and I think I have past performances that are not paralleled by too many people in the business, with 10 Grade 1 winners I developed.”

Perhaps part of Kimmel's longevity in the Thoroughbred business can be attributed to his commitment to physical activity. His alarm goes off at 4:15 a.m. each morning, and he spends most of the day at the barn or riding the stable pony on the track. Still, Kimmel finds time to go biking or swimming several afternoons each week.

During the winter he spends dark days fishing on his boat, and he takes special care to plan an annual vacation that includes skiing by helicopter.

“I'm in my mid-60's, but I think I have another trip or two left in my bones,” Kimmel said. “At a resort, you can ski fresh powder maybe one or two times before it gets all tracked up. When you're going into untouched country by helicopter, you can ski powder run after run after run.”

Age is just a number, after all.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Akifumi Kato’s 50 Years Riding Winners ‘Went By Quick’

If you've spent a lot of time watching racing on the West Coast, you may have been surprised to see Akifumi Kato's name in the program at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz., last week. Could it be the same jockey who once dominated Playfair Race Course, taking four editions of the Playfair Mile?

Indeed, it is the same Akifumi Kato who made the winner's circles in the state of Washington familiar spaces in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In fact, Kato turned 69 years old on Jan. 7, the same day he booted home his 2,034th career winner, She's a Lady Griz, earning him the unusual distinction of having ridden a winner a year for 50 years.

Kato said it's hard to believe it's been 50 years since he started his career as a jockey.

“It went by quick,” he laughed. “Time goes by quick when you keep busy. Sometimes I look at my age and say, 'Oh, I didn't know I was that old.'”

At this point in his career, Kato rides by choice rather than by necessity and pilots horses exclusively for friends and family.

“I feel I can still compete, so that's why I still do it. And it keeps me healthy too,” he said. “Mainly I ride for my daughter and my friends. That's enough. I did the hard grind when I was young.

“It gets in my blood, I think.”

The people have always been a central draw to the racetrack life for Kato. The son of a Japanese jockey turned trainer, he was born in Osaka and immigrated to Spokane in the early 1970s, at which point he was transfixed by racehorses. In racing families it seems the next generation either embraces the track life wholeheartedly or runs the other way as fast as they can. Kato watched his father zip around aboard fast horses and thought simply, 'That looks fun. I'll try that.'

He learned to gallop at Hollywood Park, which he said he mostly knew about because it was close to Los Angeles International Airport, got his first mount at Golden Gate Fields and his first winner at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, Calif. Kato would go on to settle in Spokane and set a Playfair apprentice record of 48 wins and hovered at or near the top of the jockey standings through the 1980s.

Akifumi Kato, in pre-coronavirus pandemic photo (courtesy of Kato family)

At the height of his career, Kato said he struggled to find well-priced jockey equipment and tack. Before the internet, there were few options, especially if you wanted something cutting edge or something produced overseas. Many fans underestimate the array of different choices (and the expense) a rider may have in their supplies. Kato began importing equipment from Japan and selling it to his fellow riders.

“I didn't think I'd still be doing it all this time later,” he said. “I know what equipment will help people. I can explain it to them when they ask me. And most of the guys know me from the past, so it's a word-of-mouth deal. I love the friendships. I like to see everyone do well.”

As if two jobs weren't enough, he cut back on mounts in the 1990s when he had the chance to try his hand at purchasing horses. Kato had maintained contacts in the Japanese racing industry and began scouting horses at top American sales for Kazuo Nakamura and later his son Isami.

At the 1995 Keeneland November Sale, Kato said he was the agent representing Nakamura when he bought the sale-topping British broodmare User Friendly for $2.5 million. He made trips to Kentucky as racing manager for several Japanese clients, checking on boarded horses and shopping at the big sales as requested, and would then return to the West Coast and resume riding blue collar horses at Playfair.

“By definition they're different, when you're looking at the top end of horses [versus claimers], but in reality I have to deal with the inexpensive horse,” he said. “But I still get the same adrenaline out of riding an inexpensive horse or a good horse. I think people should have the same drive. When you get on a horse, you have to do the best you can.”

Gradually though, Kato's sales clients cut back due to illness and he was back to having two jobs again instead of three. His primary employer on the track these days is his daughter, Kaylyn Kato, who trains a string of five at Turf Paradise for herself, her family and one outside client.

As much as she had loved horses, Kaylyn Kato hadn't planned on becoming a trainer, but she graduated from college in the middle of the Great Recession and went to the track to earn a living while she figured out what to do. Jobs in the outside world were scarce, and she quickly realized that she took pride and comfort from managing her own horses and knowing they were getting the best of care.

Kaylyn keeps her operation small so that she can do most of the work herself, but she has help from her father, who is in the saddle every morning.

“He can tell if they don't have quite as much bounce in their step,” she said. “I think that day-to-day interaction gives him a better feel of how they are on race day.”

It may seem like a recipe for awkwardness, a daughter having to give riding instructions to her father in the paddock, but Kaylyn believes it's an advantage.

“Especially now that we've worked together for so long, it's really easy to communicate because I think I'm fully able to explain what I want from him and what I'm looking to get out of the horse,” she said. “Because we're father and daughter, I'm not afraid to speak my mind. I really, really trust my dad. I know he's going to give me his very honest feedback on how a horse feels.”

The horse Akifumi Kato took to victory earlier this month was trained by Kaylyn. The family also keeps their four-legged family members close – Kaylyn said the most impactful horse in her partnership with her father was Frisky Ricky, winner of the 2014 Sandra Hall Grand Canyon Handicap and hard-knocking claimer who has been retired to her shedrow. She's trying to convince 15-year-old “Ricky” that he should be a pony now that his last race was two years ago, but the spunky gelding asks her each morning if she's sure he couldn't have a little gallop around the Turf Paradise course.

Kaylyn said that the family has hoped Akifumi would slow down as the years have worn on, but they know not to expect him to retire before he's ready – he's cheerful and easygoing, but determined. He says it's all a matter of drive. Each fall becomes harder to recover from physically and mentally as you age, but he still feels capable of swinging back aboard and giving a competitive effort. The moment that comfort evaporates, he said, he's hanging it up.

Whenever that day comes, he will leave a legacy Kaylyn is proud to carry on.

“He's an amazing athlete to keep going for this long,” she said. “He's been a really good role model, I think. He always taught us to work hard and treat other people well, that you contribute to a happy atmosphere and everyone does better.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Fire’s Finale Is Kenwood’s ‘Icing On The Cake’

The goal in horse racing may be to hit the wire in front, but the real nature of the sport can't be found in a single trip over the racetrack. Wins just wouldn't matter as much if they didn't require us to believe in taking chances, to maintain our hope through all the difficult times, and a little bit of luck.

Those are the reasons Robb Levinsky was unable to contain his joy when his Kenwood Racing homebred Fire's Finale won the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes on Dec. 7 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn. The 2-year-old Pennsylvania-bred is the last foal out of Levinsky's favorite racemare, Exchanging Fire, and was ridden by Mychel Sanchez, whose agent, Joe Hampshire, was the mare's regular rider.

“This race was like a gathering of old friends, and it's one I'll remember a long time,” Levinsky said, acknowledging that the win stands out as a rare high moment during the day-to-day struggles of the pandemic. “It's not been an easy year for the world, so racing has been an escape from a tough year for all of us. It's not perfect, it doesn't make up for everything, but it has definitely helped.”

Several of the dozen syndicate owners were on hand to watch as Fire's Finale made an impressive rally from behind the field to win by a length, earning his first stakes score in his seventh lifetime start. Levinsky's emotions ran over as he entered the winner's circle.

“We don't breed a lot of horses, but (his dam Exchanging Fire) was just a member of the family,” he explained. “I've been in this business for 35 years, so I try not to get overly attached, but we really loved her.”

Levinsky claimed Exchanging Fire for $50,000 in 2007 at Gulfstream Park. The next year the daughter of Exchange Rate won three listed stakes races and finished fourth in a Grade 3 race at Monmouth Park that year, and ran out earnings of nearly $250,000 through her 27-race career.

The filly retired at the end of 2008, and Levinsky knew that the stock market crash meant she wouldn't bring what she was worth at auction. He decided to keep the mare and breed her himself.

“We always knew she had talent,” Levinsky said. “I felt eventually she was going to reproduce herself, but it didn't happen right away.”

Exchanging Fire's first foal died at birth when he was strangled on his umbilical cord. After giving her a year off to recover, she was able to produce three more foals over the next several years, though none of those were particularly inspiring on the racetrack.

Her fourth foal, a bay colt by Jump Start born in 2018, seemed to have all the right things going for him. Unfortunately, Exchanging Fire colicked a month after the colt was born, and she died on the operating table at New Bolton when she was 14 years old.

“They couldn't save her,” Levinsky said. “With Fire's Finale, we got him onto a nurse mare and he survived, but he'd certainly had a rough start in life. It never seemed to bother him, but obviously it meant a lot to us for him being her last foal.”

The colt's early training was so promising that Levinsky decided he'd offer a portion to new-to-the-game owner Ralph Pastori, a CPA from New York. This year was Pastori's initial foray into the horse racing game, and he'd first approached Levinsky with the idea to buy shares of horses from the 2-year-old sales.

When the pandemic affected the schedule of those sales, Levinsky didn't find as many horses in his target price range, and he started to consider whether it'd be a good idea to offer up 25 percent of Fire's Finale.

“Everything was going well, and I told Pastori, 'Look, I honestly really, really like the horse,'” Levinsky remembered. “I said, 'You can definitely pass if you want, I just think he has a chance to be something special.'

“I took a chance with my reputation, which is very important to me, and I kind of had to go out on a limb a little. But he had trained so well up to that point, and fortunately that worked out!”

Trained by Kelly Breen, Fire's Finale took a couple starts to figure out the racing game, but the colt never finished worse than fourth in his seven starts this season. Following the stakes score, his record stands at 2-2-1 with earnings of $108,315.

Fire's Finale in the Parx Racing winner's circle

“It was certainly emotional to keep him ourselves, rather than try to sell him at one of the sales or something, and to see him have this kind of success,” said Levinsky. “I think Fire's Finale has a chance to be a really good horse for us next year as a 3-year-old.”

Breen wasn't able to attend the race at Parx that Monday afternoon, so Levinsky's long-time friend and former neighbor Ron Dandy was in the paddock before the Nursery Stakes to saddle Fire's Finale. It was Dandy who told Levinsky about the jockey connection, just before the race started.

“I didn't know the rider who was named on him at all, I just knew he was leading the standings at Parx,” Levinsky explained. “Ron said, 'He's a really nice young man, a good up-and-coming rider. You know who his agent is, don't you? Joe Hampshire!'”

Hampshire rode Exchanging Fire at Parx when she was still running, and his wife met Levinsky in the paddock.

“She remembered Exchanging Fire, and I'm sure Joe has ridden a lot of horses,” Levinsky said. “It was really cool, kind of like a full circle thing.”

Despite struggles brought about by the pandemic altering racing schedules, Levinsky's stable has won 19 of its 90 starts in 2020. The syndicate is three-for-three in December alone, with wins in the opening-day feature at Gulfstream and a filly breaking her maiden at Laurel.

“It's been a very fulfilling year for us,” said Levinsky, adding, “This is not the norm, I'm not trying to say that it is; we recognize that it's special. Fire's Finale winning a stakes to end the year was really the icing on the cake.”

Levinsky knows how hard it is to earn those stakes wins, describing Kenwood Racing as a smaller operation with a matching budget. He earned TOBA's Outstanding Thoroughbred Owner – Breeder award in 1989 and won the prestigious California Derby in the 1990s with a horse named Prime Meridean, but he said the day-to-day wins can often be the most emotionally significant ones.

“We've been tied in with this horse, especially, for so long, it's just that much sweeter,” said Levinsky. “I think Fire's Finale has a chance to be a really good horse for us, and next year I hope he gets to have a big 3-year-old season. First and foremost, though, and not to sound like Pollyanna, but I truly hope that the whole world will be better next year.”

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