“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.”

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.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wycoff’s Three Diamonds Farm Runners Find Their Niche On Turf appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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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.

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Kimmel Acknowledges Bittersweet Start To 2021 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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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.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Akifumi Kato’s 50 Years Riding Winners ‘Went By Quick’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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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.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Fire’s Finale Is Kenwood’s ‘Icing On The Cake’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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This week, we found that feel-good story down in New Mexico. At the age of 91, trainer Rey Marquez saddled his first winner of 2020 at Zia Park on Dec. 3. It was his 13th starter of the year. 

It was “just” a $10,000 maiden claiming race on a Thursday, but truly it was more than that. It was a rare moment of joy bursting forth from this challenging year, both for Marquez himself and all those who know him.

“I don't know how many 90-year-olds are still training,” Marquez admitted during a telephone interview, noting that he turns 92 on Dec. 22. “But me, I still danced three times a week 'til the place shut down due to COVID – I do a mean cha-cha, gal!”

The horse, Lincoln County Kid, won by a length, and Marquez danced his way into the winner's circle with his trademark grin. It was a good return on investment; Marquez had purchased the 2-year-old gelding for $1,500 just six weeks prior. 

He'd taken a chance on Lincoln County Kid, sight unseen, to help out an old friend: a trainer forced to sell off his stock and leave the business. Marquez remembers telling his fellow horsemen that if things in New Mexico didn't start looking up, and soon, “there'd be a lot of tack for sale.”

It isn't just the pandemic that's dealing raw edges to the state's horse racing industry. Uncertainty about the future of racing at Sunland Park has sent some trainers and owners rushing for the border, and a recent lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Horsemen's Association against the state's commission alleges the latter has been improperly collecting over $8 million since 2004 to pay liability insurance for jockeys.  

“We have a really plum relationship with casinos – we get 20 percent of their net – but right now casinos are closed,” Marquez explained. “On Thursday when I won it was an $8,000 purse, so $4,800 goes to the winner. Last year when I won a maiden race my share was $16,000. 

“Everybody's having a hard time here. I just keep hoping for a miracle.”

Compounding the issue is the fact that account wagering is not legal in New Mexico. With COVID restrictions firmly established at Zia Park, no fans are allowed and thus there are also no mutuels clerks; that meant Marquez didn't have a bet down on Lincoln County Kid when the gelding paid $31.60 to win.

“It's not the best place in the world to be at right now,” Marquez said simply. 

Still, New Mexico has been his home since he and his childhood sweetheart Josephine got married 69 years ago, and he doesn't plan to leave now. There are too many happy memories tucked in around every little corner. 

He and Josephine were married for 35 years, and she passed away 34 years ago this month. 

Rey Marquez (Bernadette Barrios photo)

“We had a great marriage, and everybody loved her,” Marquez said, emotion causing his voice to catch. “That woman never met a stranger, and she loved the horses.”

Marquez still lives in Albuquerque, where he cut his teeth working for the local Health Department. He always enjoyed attending the races with Josephine and their friends on the weekends, and one afternoon on the way home from Ruidoso Downs, one friend suggested they buy a horse together. 

The idea was tempting, sure, but with two young children to support it just wasn't financially feasible. 

A few weeks later, fate intervened.

“One morning, two blocks away from the office, a cabbie had a passenger who was in a real hurry trying to catch a flight,” Marquez remembered. “He T-boned me at a light, and I got a nice insurance payout. So I guess you could say I got into racing by accident, literally.”

It took three horses before Marquez saw his silks head out to the track in the afternoon – his first two suffered injuries before they made it to the races.

“It was just bad luck at first,” said Marquez. “I asked my wife, 'Do you think somebody's trying to tell us to stay out of this business?' And she said, 'Hell no, go get us another one!'”

At first, Marquez hired an experienced trainer to condition his horses, then spent weekends on the backstretch helping out and learning as much as he could. Eventually Marquez got his trainer's license, and began operating a “working man's stable.”

Ruben Garcia, a friend who owned several Mexican restaurants in the city, was the first to offer Marquez a chance to begin training full time. Marquez took him up on the opportunity after retiring from the health department at age 62.

It was a family operation from the start. Marquez' wife was his biggest fan, and their daughter Threse ran the shed row for 17 years until her eldest child was school-aged.

He had a few nice runners over the years, led by 1984 Santa Fe Futurity winner Dan's Diablo. More recently, Marquez said the stakes-placed Strike A Spider was one of his favorites.

“This sport has been good to me,” Marquez said. “I wouldn't say I'm prudent, but I got my first nickel in it, and I haven't lost it yet.”

Marquez has saddled 266 winners from 3,488 starters during his career, according to Equibase. He's had a winner nearly every year since 1976, and said he never spent more than $4,000 on a horse. 

For Marquez, it's the thrill of watching his horses thundering down the stretch in front that keeps him rising early every morning to see to the needs of his small stable. The racing game also gives him a chance to stay close to the memory of his beloved late wife. 

“Most of my friends have passed on now,” Marquez said thoughtfully, then deflected that grim reality with humor via a story about his doctor.  

“I eat mostly fried chicken, fried chicken skin, pork … about two to three years ago my regular doctor retired, and the new doctor started talking to me and asked me what I ate. She was surprised, she said, 'There's the rule and there's the exception, and you're the exception!' I guess maybe she's right.”

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It was a first Breeders' Cup victory for the 28-year-old Sinnott, as well as for top Irish trainer Weld and 2020's champion Irish jockey Colin Keane.

“It was my first time bringing a horse to America, and we all had a bit of luck on our side,” Sinnott said, his lyrical tone rising to accentuate the emotion of the moment. “In the test barn (after the win) my phone was just buzzing away in my pocket, and it was actually Dermot Weld himself and he couldn't have been happier; it was a very special win for him.”

Coming into the Breeders' Cup off wins in the G1 Qatar Prix Vermeille and G1 Prix de l'Opera Longines, Tarnawa was sent to post as the third choice in the talented field of 10. She was facing 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up and world-traveler Magical, Group 1 winners Mogul and Lord North, as well as top American hopes Channel Maker and Arklow.

She lost her footing a bit at the start of the 1 1/2-mile contest, and Keane guided Tarnawa over to the rail to save ground along the rail near the rear of the pack. The filly worked her way out to the five-path and moved up into fifth near the head of the lane, but still had nearly four lengths to make up.

Sinnott was watching from the rail, cheering Tarnawa home as she powered to a one-length victory over Magical.

The field for the 2020 Breeders' Cup Turf makes its way around the Keeneland turf course

“When she came into the home straight my heart began to beat a little bit quicker,” Sinnott remembered. “I tell ya, I was nice and calm, but I think I just jumped off the wall and let a few rolls out. The emotions got the best of me. It was an incredible moment, and I'll never forget it as long as I live. It was brilliant to do what she'd done.”

Everything had gone well since Tarnawa arrived in the United States over a week before the race, from her morning gallops under Sinnott, gate schooling, and her attitude in the stall. Stable lads in Europe are both the exercise rider and the groom, so Sinnott knew the filly was as well prepared as possible for the biggest test of her career.

“In a strange sort of way, I was more anxious for her to not let herself down,” said Sinnott. “Things were going very well, everything according to plan, and we were expecting a big run. I was just hoping that she would do herself justice.

“It was just a fairytale plan.”

Born in Wexford, Ireland, Sinnott has worked around horses for as long as he can remember.

“At my home place in Ireland we've always had young horses and mares,” the lad said. “One year I decided I might try riding a few. It was madness maybe, but we kind of progressed into actually trying to make a living out of it. I don't think we made too much of a bad decision!”

Sinnott went first to a local trainer's yard to learn how to ride, then attended the racing academy at the Curragh for a year before he was sent to a trainer in France for further schooling. Sinnott spent 2 1/2 years with trainer Connor O'Dwyer, also from Wexford, before the full-time opportunity to ride for Weld came about six years ago

Today, Sinnott rides out for several other trainers early in the morning at the Curragh, then works for Weld, then rides a few other mounts during lunch hours. He also rides a few races both on the flat and over jumps, and even rode over timber in the United States for Leslie Young during a three-month span two years ago.

With all that experience, it isn't hard to see why Sinnott would be entrusted with a promising filly like Tarnawa. He has been aboard her all season and said she's actually pretty easy to work around.

“She's a very straightforward filly, as honest as you get,” Sinnott said. “It's unbelievable, I've never ridden a horse that has passion as she does… She's after establishing a big fan base in Ireland.”

When Sinnott returned home this week, he was required to begin a 14-day quarantine due to pandemic restrictions. He also had to pass a COVID test before traveling to the United States for the Breeders' Cup, but said the extra steps were all worth it in the end.

“It was an unbelievable result,” Sinnott said. “We were fairly confident, but as you know it was such a competitive race. We figured if she runs well, we'll be happy, but to go and win was really incredible.

“She's actually after winning me heart. I've been lucky enough to ride very good horses in the yard, like Harzand, but this one is by far the best one I've ever ridden.”

Dean Sinnott (right) with the victorious Tarnawa

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The trajectory of Melen's life first shifted when he was diagnosed with Stage 3 stomach cancer in his late 30s. Melen went from having everything he'd wanted in life—a great job, a house on a hill, a newborn daughter, and a beautiful wife—to undergoing surgery to remove his stomach, spleen, and half of his pancreas, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Melen became addicted to the painkillers during his recovery. He required two stints in rehab to get back on track, but the multiple health issues eventually led to the breakdown of his first marriage. There were days Melen wasn't sure where to turn.

He desperately needed something to be excited about again.

In 2011, two years after his initial diagnosis, Melen took a leap of faith and reached out to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer to inquire about racehorse ownership. Melen had traveled to the Kentucky Derby in 2006 with a friend who was a co-owner in the Hollendorfer-trained Derby contender Cause to Believe.

“I was kind of, well, not kind of down, I was really down,” Melen explained. “Racing was such an exciting, motivational thing, I just felt like I needed to be a part of it.”

A few weeks later, Melen got the call and agreed to purchase part of filly named Killer Graces. She broke her maiden in a stakes race in her second career start, and she wound up winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Starlet in December of her juvenile season.

Through Killer Graces and subsequent racehorses, Melen reconnected with his childhood sweetheart and later married her. The long-time financial advisor was able to step out of the office and work for his own clients from home, and he felt like his life really started to get back on track.

“Being a financial advisor was not a motivating factor for me to stay alive,” Melen admitted. “I used to have fun out drinking with friends, now I've been sober for 7 years so I'm not the party guy anymore. But these horses, these are exciting, and we all need that sort of exciting.”

Melen kept horses with Hollendorfer for seven years and expanded out to other ownership groups. He later hooked up with several other partners, including Bing Bush's Abbondanza Racing for horses like the multiple graded stakes-placed Excellent Sunset and Motion Emotion.

“It's expensive but I want to be part of it, and I still get excitement when I own 10 percent,” Melen said. “I'm really into it for the excitement, not for any financial return.”

Several years into his racing journey, Melen decided to write a book about the way the sport has impacted his life. Titled Killer Graces: My Path From Pain To Power And Breakthrough Living, the book is described as “a story of both weakness and strength as Steve navigates a world of pain, drugs, alcohol, marital problems, and anxiety, all rooted in his earliest days as a child of adoption. Join Steve on his journey of self-discovery as he shares that it took a life-threatening illness to bring these issues to light so the true healing process could begin.”

The book has only been out for a month but has already sold about 500 copies, and has been exclusively rated “5 stars” on Amazon.

“I wrote the book because I wanted to spread the positive energy,” Melen explained. “Horses sure sparked a lot of really good things in my life. Something about what I'm doing, the energy and the support, the horse racing and everything has given me life that is super unique, and I've got a very happy, awesome, loving situation.”

Of course, life without a stomach isn't easy. He must give himself B12 shots once a month, since that vitamin is absorbed in the stomach, and meals are eaten in much smaller portions. Melen's esophagus has significant scarring, and he was in the hospital as recently as last Friday to have it stretched so that he can breathe more easily.

His weight has also been difficult to maintain: Melen is 6'1”, but weighs just 135 lbs.

“My friends all call me a unicorn,” Melen said, laughing good-naturedly. “I should have been dead twice, maybe three times. I had a 12 to 14 percent chance of living, but here I am. I really believe that following the races has a lot to do with that.”

Over the past several months, Melen has been especially thrilled to follow the progress of Horologist. He leapt at the chance to buy into the graded stakes winner via Abbondanza in late 2019, and the 4-year-old daughter of Gemologist has added wins in the G3 Molly Pitcher and G2 Beldame to her resume this season. Now trained by Bill Mott, the filly also ran third in the G1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs two starts back.

Up next, Horologist will start in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland on Nov. 7. It will be Melen's first starter in the Breeders' Cup, and despite the challenges of COVID-19, the owner won't miss the opportunity to watch the race live.

“The journey won't be easy, but I'm not gonna miss out,” said Melen. “You think the COVID is gonna stop me from going to the Breeders' Cup? I've cheated death already, so I'm going to the Breeders' Cup this year!”

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“We always like to root for the horses who ship from here to run out of town,” Wilson said. “This year it's been far more rare, so we've been watching them a lot more closely. It's always fun to root for your home team.”

Wilson was glued to a television screen when trainer Gail Cox sent Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word to Saratoga in August, running the 5-year-old son of More Than Ready in a 1 3/16-mile allowance race on the grass.

“Junior Alvarado rode him and he came last to first with a wicked run,” Wilson recalled. “I was extremely impressed, and I mentioned to Gail that I liked the way he'd run and that I'd like to ride him.

“Woodbine only had five Grade 1's this year, and quite often we get a lot of ship-in horses, so the locals have to step up their game. I'm always on the lookout for serious horses, and I thought he'd be a tough horse.”

Wilson first rode Say the Word in the G3 Singspiel Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on the grass, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths overall to finish third.

“I got to know him a little bit; he's a little bit unique so I had to find that happy balance and get on the same page with him,” said Wilson. “It's like in hockey, if you take a left wing and place him on the right, it's going to take him a little bit of time to get used to that side.”

Cox and Wilson's end goal was to stretch the horse out to the 1 1/2 miles of the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf, held last Saturday, Oct. 17, and Say the Word responded brilliantly. Making his signature last-to-first move, Say the Word made a big run in the stretch to win by a length.

“Say the Word was definitely coming into his own this year,” Wilson said. “I'm grateful to have gotten the mount when I did.”

Say the Word and Emma-Jayne Wilson winning the Northern Dancer Turf Stakes

Of course, big race days don't feel quite the same this year without the presence of spectators at the Ontario oval.

“When I walk up on big race days at Woodbine, I enjoy that moment looking up at the grandstand and its totally full,” Wilson explained. “Normally on Queen's Plate day, you come on the gap at the seven-eighths pole and the grandstand is packed, just thousands and thousands of people, and you can feel each and every one of them, their energy.

“This year was bizarre. You can feel the energy of the horses, the jocks, the anxiety, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have the anticipation, that buzz of the crowd, and I definitely miss that. It's a big part of our game; the fans are massive and we wouldn't be there without them.”

Though Wilson has earned both an Eclipse Award and multiple Sovereign Awards for her riding career, last weekend's Northern Dancer Turf is just the third Grade 1 win added to her resume. The first came in 2015, also in the Northern Dancer Turf aboard Canadian champion Interpol. It took five years until she rode her second Grade 1 winner, Lady Speightspeare, victorious in last month's G1 Natalma Stakes.

“Lady Speightspeare is a pretty significant horse,” said Wilson. “I think you're going to be hearing her name quite a lot down the road.”

A Charles Fipke homebred out of his multiple graded stakes-winning mare Lady Shakespeare, the 2-year-old daughter of Speightstown won both her starts this year for trainer Roger Attfield. Lady Speightspeare earned an expenses-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf via her Natalma victory, but an ill-timed knee injury will keep her from making the trip to Keeneland.

“She's an athlete and a competitor, and she wasn't taking any prisoners (in the Natalma),” Wilson said. “It's disappointing that she's not able to go to the Breeders' Cup, because she was definitely one that I was willing to sit out races for, just to ride that one race; she is that good.”

Were Wilson to have made the Breeders' Cup trip with the filly, it would likely have cost her a total of 24 days away from Woodbine because of COVID-19 quarantine protocols. The jockey is currently tied for third in the standings with 72 victories this year, so her willingness to give up those days of riding indicate just how special she believes Lady Speightspeare could be.

What has made her two Grade 1 victories and strong 2020 season even more special, Wilson said, is the fact that she missed significant portions of the last two seasons with injuries.

“I'd been pretty lucky,” Wilson said. “I had a liver laceration in 2010 that kept me out of the saddle for three months, and it was serious, but physically I was okay. I didn't have any broken bones or anything, so I just had to maintain my physical fitness while being careful.”

In 2018, Wilson took a spill the morning before the meet started at Woodbine that resulted in the worst injuries of her career. She broke her humerus (upper arm) all the way through and required surgery with a 5 1/2-inch metal plate and nearly a dozen screws to put it back together.

“I wasn't expecting the challenges that came along with it,” Wilson admitted. “I was thinking it would take about six to eight weeks for the bone to heal, which was accurate, but then I remember trying to take my arm out of the sling and straighten it and I just couldn't.

“It was immobilized from the moment I hit the ground until a few weeks after surgery. After a trauma like that and then it gets seized up, it was disconcerting that my arm wasn't working the way I wanted it to. I wasn't prepared for the rehab; the muscle atrophy and loss of range of motion were just shocking.”

Four months after the injury Wilson was able to get back in the saddle, and she wound up winning 48 races at Woodbine in 2018.

Last year, her injury occurred on Sept. 8 in an afternoon spill. She fractured her left clavicle and three bones in her right hand, also requiring a surgical repair.

“The severity of those wasn't nearly as bad, but they're still injuries,” Wilson said. “I've learned over the years that I'm a professional athlete, and part of my job is knowing how to rehab. Most importantly, the rest days are just as important as the working ones.

“When I was a kid I was just, 'Go go go!', but you come to appreciate the days of healing. I made healing my job, and it was essentially eight weeks to the day that I was back in the saddle, so that was reassuring.

“I really have a great team behind me. My wife (equine chiropractor Laura Trotter) is just phenomenally supportive, and my personal trainer Matt Munro is a physiotherapist as well. When you have such a passion and a love for the sport like I do, it makes it easy to work harder and be ready to go as soon as you return.”

Wilson showed she was definitely ready to return, capping her 2019 season with 59 wins to finish sixth in the standings last year.

The jockey used to travel south in the winters to work the Fair Grounds meet, but that changed when she and Trotter started a family. Now, Wilson prefers to stay home with her 3-year-old twin daughters, Avery and Grace. She'll still fly to Florida a couple times a month as the weather starts to warm up, staying for the weekend to breeze a few horses for regular clients, then returning home to her family.

Until this spring, of course. The coronavirus pandemic put the entire Woodbine meet in jeopardy, so like the rest of her fellow jockeys based at the Ontario track, Wilson was grateful to be riding when the season started in June, about six weeks later than usual.

The hard-working 39-year-old has since turned the abbreviated meet into a successful one, making it one of her best years in the saddle yet. Wilson says she's far from finished, though.

“This game's been good to me, and I enjoy it every single day, every single leg up,” Wilson said. “I think I'll keep riding for as long as I'm healthy and happy. When you're winning races for great connections it's easy to have a love for the sport, and being in the winner's circle always helps you pull out of tough times, so there's no better reason to keep going.”

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So, yes, the 54-year-old was beyond thrilled to saddle the first Grade 1 winner of his career with Dayoutoftheoffice in the Oct. 10 Frizette at Belmont Park, but the adjacent reality is that Hamm's program has been quietly building up to that top-level victory since he purchased his first racehorse in 1994.

An undefeated 2-year-old daughter of Into Mischief, Dayoutoftheoffice will become Hamm's first Breeders' Cup starter on Nov. 6 at Keeneland. This may be the Ohio native's first chance to show he has what it takes to compete at the World Championships, but Hamm is more excited than nervous about the opportunity.

“The thing I like most is I want our team to feel like we're getting somewhere,” Hamm said. “That's the biggest thing the Breeders' Cup means to us. Obviously, the next question will be whether you can do it again. The first time can be beginner's luck, so hopefully the entire team can buy in after this and making it to the Breeders' Cup will become a habit.”

His words might sound cocky, but Hamm doesn't mean them to be. He's simply that confident in his partners and in the program he's built from the ground up over the past 25 years.

Hamm owns Dayoutoftheoffice in partnership with Anthony Manganaro's Siena Farm, a somewhat unique business model at the upper end of the sport. It isn't all that unusual for Hamm, however; he is partnered on nearly 85 percent of the 200 or so Thoroughbreds in his care across all levels of the industry, from broodmares to stallions and from yearlings to active racehorses, and everything in between.

The partnership model may be unusual, but it has been a cornerstone of Hamm's success since the very beginning. Keeping an ownership stake in so many of his horses has allowed Hamm to both remain grounded and focus on doing what's best for the animals.

Hamm didn't grow up in a “racing family,” at least, not in the strictest definition. His father worked at General Motors during the day and trained Thoroughbreds from his Ohio farm on the side, keeping them fit via a jogging machine and shipping to tracks like Mountaineer to race on the weekends. He trained just over 100 winners through his part-time career, and taught Hamm a lot about how to make ends meet with the horses.

However, those lessons did not take root until well after college, Hamm said, laughing good-naturedly. As a young man Hamm was more focused on Saddlebred show horses. By high school, he became ensconced in football; Hamm played linebacker for Youngstown State throughout his university athletic career.

Those passions didn't leave a lot of room for Thoroughbreds in Hamm's schedule, though he'd still help out his father at the family farm when he had spare time.

After graduating with a four-year business degree in 1989, Hamm launched a construction company. He finally started to feel that pull back to the horses in the mid-1990's, and purchased his first racehorse at an OBS 2-year-olds in training sale in 1994.

Hamm spent $13,500 on a filly named Willowy Proof, but he admits he didn't know much about the racing industry back then.

“I was showing her to someone and they said to me, 'Oh, you have a Pennsylvania-bred,'” Hamm remembered. “I said, 'Okay, great. What does that mean?' And they told me there was extra money in Pennsylvania if I ran her there.

“My mom helped me get her ready, trailering her to Mountaineer to train in the mornings while I was working construction. It wasn't a business, then; I really just wanted to own a racehorse.”

When Willowy Proof made her first start at Philadelphia Park on July 25, 1994, the filly dominated a maiden special weight event by 9 1/4 lengths. Before Hamm even walked off the track, he was turning down offers of $100,000 for the filly.

“I just wanted to have fun with her,” he said.

In 1996, Hamm returned to OBS and bought four more 2-year-olds. Each of those four became a stakes winner, including Rose Colored Lady, a $20,000 daughter of Formal Dinner who would earn $139,294 on the track. That was hardly her best contribution to Hamm's future career, however.

He launched Blazing Meadows Farm in Ohio in the late 1990s to begin taking advantage of the state's breeding program when his horses were done running, and Rose Colored Lady rewarded Hamm with four stakes winners in her first four runners. Her fifth foal would be Too Much Bling, a three-time graded stakes winner who earned over $500,000 and is currently a sire in Ohio.

Hamm trained Too Much Bling through his first two starts, then sold the majority share to Stonerside Stable. Transferred to Bob Baffert, the horse made it to the Breeders' Cup Sprint in 2006 and finished sixth.

Looking back to 1998, Hamm was still operating the construction business by day and training/breeding racehorses on the side. He read an article about pinhooking, and decided he'd like give that a try.

Hamm bought two horses for $25,000 each at the Keeneland September sale. The first, a Cherokee Run filly, commanded a final bid of $250,000 at the next year's OBS Calder sale. The second, a daughter of Dehere, recorded the fastest breeze of the OBS April sale and sold for $150,000.

“I was sitting back at the construction office after turning $50,000 into $400,000, and I just thought to myself that maybe I could really make a living at this,” Hamm said. “I just remember thinking, 'Man, that's a lot of two-by-fours.'”

By 2007 Hamm was ready to make the move to the horse business full time and sold the construction company.

“I guess I always thought I might want to do it as a career, but I had to own all my own horses from the beginning,” Hamm explained. “I mean, who's going to hire a trainer who'd never trained a horse before?”

Success continued to build for Hamm over the following years, and he diversified his program from breeding to racing and sales both in Ohio and on a farm purchased in Ocala. He started several big-name runners in their careers, including multi-millionaire and champion Wait A While, but in keeping with his business roots, Hamm most often sold horses before their first graded stakes victories.

His success on the track has primarily come in Ohio, where he's trained over 25 state-bred champions and five Ohio-bred Horse of the Year title winners.

WinStar Farm noticed that success and offered Hamm the chance to partner on a group of mares and later, on a stallion in Ohio named National Flag, which has continued to snowball Hamm's efforts toward the top.

Those types of partnership deals are not particularly uncommon in the industry, especially the breeding side. The rarer success is in partnership deals on the racing side; typically, a trainer will take on a horse's expenses himself, rather than charge the owner a day rate, in exchange for a larger cut of the horse's earnings.

If the horse runs well and earns enough to pay his bills, the deal works. If the horse doesn't earn enough to cover his costs, it can quickly become a major financial burden for the trainer who made the deal.

“We've always bred some homebreds, and we did take some (tougher) deals early on,” Hamm said, explaining that even with horses in which he is not a partner, he doesn't use a day rate to make a profit, just to pay the bills; the horses' success should be the profit part of the business equation. “It allowed us to weed through clients and stick with the ones who wanted to be successful. Those people don't want a horse on the track at a low level, so you're already starting off ahead of the curve.

“From there, you have to be sincere about what you're doing and give every horse the same opportunity for success. You make those deals with people who are winners in life, then do everything right along the way.

“Is it always a gravy train? Absolutely not. When it's good, it's great; when it's not, it's not. You have to be in a position to ride out the tough times. For a lot of people who take horses on deals, they aren't able to diversify their interests enough to carry the bad years.”

Dayoutoftheoffice wins the Frizette under Junior Alvarado

Approximately six years ago, the group at WinStar mentioned Hamm's name to a co-owner of Siena Farm, David Pope. Pope reached out to Hamm and they agreed to partner on a group of yearlings.

One filly in that first group, Velvet Mood by Lonhro, would go on to win her first three races, including the My Dear Girl Stakes in Canada, so the partnership was off to a great start.

Siena does some commercial breeding as well as breeding to race, so Hamm would be given the opportunity to partner with the farm on yearlings that didn't make their reserves at auction and also on some that the farm thought might be particularly special.

The latter was the case with Dayoutoftheoffice. Out of the Indian Charlie mare Gottahaveadream, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Here Comes Ben, Dayoutoftheoffice has been an exciting prospect since the very beginning.

“I guess like anyone else, I'm partial to horses that have a lot of size and scope,” Hamm said. “Like most of the Siena horses, we got her around September and took her the farm in Ocala to start training her. Around January or February we started thinking this horse could be really special, but it was a long time away from her first start.”

Dayoutoftheoffice has won each of her three career starts and should be a strong contender for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 6. Win or lose, Hamm can't wait to get back to the Breeders' Cup and prove that a multiple leading trainer/owner/breeder from Ohio can compete with the world's best.

“You know, whenever people partner with me, I tell them sincerely: 'If you lose, you're going to be one of the few who loses with me,'” Hamm said. “I'm self-taught, and I knew business before I knew horses, but now I do everything from A to Z. … Making it to the Breeders' Cup means a lot to the whole team, for sure, but we don't want this to be a one-time thing.”

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Hanson conditioned multiple graded stakes-winning Quarter Horses, and he is also a World Champion in the sport of chariot racing.

“In my office, the chariot racing photos are the ones that get the most people talking,” the trainer said. “It's the one thing I really miss about being in the northwest; I don't miss the snow or the cold, but I miss chariot racing.”

Both Hanson's father and grandfather also earned World Champion titles in chariot racing, which is conducted by hitching two horses side-by-side and competing over a quarter of a mile. Hanson won the title in 2006, just before the family moved to Southern California.

“It's a really, really huge family activity, but it's still ultra-competitive,” Hanson explained. “By the time I was doing it, we were claiming Quarter Horses from Los Alamitos, hooking them on the chariot and racing in Idaho.”

Unfortunately, it was hard to make a living during summertime Quarter Horse racing in Idaho, and chariot racing is exclusively a winter activity. Hanson's father James “Jim” Hanson moved the family racing operation to Los Alamitos in 2006, and everyone pitched in to help climb the ranks.

A jockey for his father from age 16, Ryan Hanson outgrew those boots and became his father's assistant and top exercise rider. Eventually Hanson took the horses under his own name, saddling 2013 AQHA World Champion Distance horse Honoroso, who the family had claimed for $6,250 in 2012.

Ryan Hanson in a 2006 chariot race

In 2015 Hanson went home to Idaho for the summer, racing at what turned out to be the final season in Boise. Returning to Southern California that winter, Hanson made a change. He took a job galloping Thoroughbreds for trainer Robertino Diodoro, and worked his way up to assistant.

“It's really hard to make a living in Idaho,” Hanson explained.

Two years later, Diodoro left California, and Hanson felt he didn't really have a choice but to try to make a go of it on his own. He hung out his shingle over a single horse, True Ranger, a $12,500 claimer.

That chestnut gelding may not have won a race for Hanson, but he did hit the board in most of his starts at Santa Anita and Del Mar. Hanson would win just one race in 2017, with a horse he co-owned with his father named Poshsky, but he started to make his presence felt on the Southern California circuit.

In 2018 Hanson began to train for outside clients, first in partnerships between his father and Robin Dunn. Dunn recommended Hanson to an owner named Chris Drakos, who had actually lived 15 minutes away from Hanson in Idaho, but the two had never met face to face.

Drakos took a chance and sent Hanson four horses, and the two are now co-owners of Grade 2 winner Weston.

Weston and Drayden Van Dyke after the Best Pal

“It was nice of Robin and dad to partner with me, but I wasn't able to make it on that alone,” Hanson explained. “I'm so appreciative of Drakos, because not too many people want to give a young guy a chance, and he did.”

Hanson started winning a few more races, and today he conditions a 25-horse string at Del Mar alongside his wife, Michelle Yu. Yu works afternoons as an on-air handicapper at Santa Anita, and the couple have two children under the age of four.

“They're my pride and joy,” Hanson said. “They get to come with us to the ranch, and before COVID, they'd come to the track in the afternoons as well.”

Every morning, seven days a week, Hanson rides at least 10 horses over the track before heading out to a ranch in Pico Rivera, where he, Yu, and a couple exercise riders spend another two hours or so starting babies and riding out the young horses in the river bottoms.

“Riding them yourself, I just thing you get a better feeling of the horses, you can see how they're doing,” Hanson said. “When I'm getting on them, I can make split-second decisions. When I'm out there we take them two at a time, so if I see the horse next to me doing something and think he needs to do something different, we can make that decision on the track right then.

“I do think Quarter Horses are a bit smarter than Thoroughbreds, because the Thoroughbreds you have to get out on the track every day. We try to do something different with them every day, gallop in a different way, or jog them, just something different to keep them thinking differently.”

Weston, a $7,000 purchase at the Keeneland September yearling sale, was one of those started through Hanson's program at the ranch.

“Honestly, he was miserable to break and miserable to ride,” Hanson said. “We brought him in (to the track on) April 1, and I remember thinking I couldn't wait to get him into the track and geld him. It didn't really help.”

Hanson rode the 2-year-old son of Hit It A Bomb for his first several workouts but didn't think too much of the gelding, so he decided to turn the reins over to exercise rider Emily Ellingwood. Now Ellingwood gallops Weston every day, and the gelding seems pleased with the new arrangement.

He won his debut on June 21 at Santa Anita by 1 1/4 lengths, then came back on Aug. 8 to win the G2 Best Pal by a neck.

“I was happy to win it for Ryan Hanson,” jockey Drayden Van Dyke told Del Mar publicity after the race. “He's such a kind man and a good horse trainer. And this horse showed some class, too. Ryan told me he never got to paddock him (prior to the race), but he was just standing in there like an old pro. I knew I got there in the end and I'm real glad I did.”

Hanson was thrilled, of course, but the pragmatic trainer not sure what the next step will be with Weston.

“I'm happy we got the race, but I don't know how good of a horse he is,” Hanson said honestly. “We caught the right field, and we were very ready. I'm not happy that we don't have another place to go with him besides the Del Mar Futurity, but if he continues to do well, I want to take advantage of it.”

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