John Henry famously didn't make it to the Breeders' Cup. Da Hoss famously did, after a two-year layoff with a mere allowance prep. In this industry, where geldings at the elite levels are the exception and not the norm, those geldings tend to become beloved fan favorites. Perhaps it's because they often have longer race careers than their compatriots whose breeding careers must be considered.

Right up there in the lexicon of the special 31 geldings to have won a Breeders' Cup are two industry favorites living their best lives as retirees with the people who knew them best: Wise Dan and Main Sequence. These two glorious geldings may now be retired from the racetrack, but they both still live with their trainers, Charlie LoPresti and Graham Motion, respectively.

“He lives with us and that should show how special he is,” said Motion of Main Sequence.

Neither had a future in the stud barn, neither was transformed into a show horse, neither became a track pony, neither is even a riding horse. Instead, both Wise Dan and Main Sequence are beloved pasture pets, each turned out with a buddy, each living the life of Riley, each with the assurance of LoPresti and Motion meeting their every need.

Wise Dan | Sarah Andrew

Both champions–one as a homebred always destined to race as such and one as a homebred originally intended for the sales–these two horses gave so many thrills to their connections. No wonder their trainers couldn't imagine them living anywhere else and plan to cater to each one's every need for life.

The two chestnuts took very different routes to each trainer's barn. Wise Dan has spent nearly every moment of his life, since he was a short yearling, in LoPresti's care. Motion doesn't remember laying eyes on Main Sequence until he was a 5-year-old who had already won a Group race in England and finished second in the G1 Investec Epsom Derby for trainer David Lanigan.

“Wise Dan was foaled at Patchen Wilkes Farm in Lexington and Mr. [Morton] Fink always sent those babies to us when they were short yearlings,” remembered LoPresti. “I don't remember the exact month, but we pretty much raised him from a short yearling. We broke him, we trained him, we did everything with him.

Wise Dan | Sarah Andrew

“He was a big, strong horse,” continued LoPresti. “I wouldn't say he was difficult, but the only thing that stood out in my mind early was how different he was than other horses. Once I figured out that his stride was so much longer than most horses, he was easy to get along with. At first, we were always trying to bottle him up or slow him down, but once we figured out his natural rhythm was :13 or :14 [for an eighth], he was just a natural athlete. He is just an incredible horse, so smart. Just different than most horses.”

Everyone remembers Wise Dan as a two-time Breeders' Cup Mile winner, but what might not be remembered as well is he started his career on the dirt. He was a graded winner on the main track at three and even ran in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, finishing sixth. It was midway through his 4-year-old year that Wise Dan tried turf for the first time, winning the GII Firecracker H. at Churchill, but he didn't stay on the surface, adding the GI Clark H. and GII Fayette S. on dirt before the year was over. More graded success on the main track at five followed. It wasn't until August at Saratoga at age five in the GII Fourstardave H. that Wise Dan moved permanently to the grass and started one of the most remarkable streaks in recent memory. He would win his next nine in a row, including his first Breeders' Cup, and 14 of his final 15 races.

Successful Dan and Wise Dan | Sarah Andrew

“I could tell you so many things about him,” said LoPresti, “but nothing really fazed him. He almost knew when he was going to run. He'd lay down or rest his head on the stall webbing. I would worry about post position, track condition, everything, but [rider] Johnny Velazquez would say, 'Don't' worry about it. He knows how to win, he knows how to get himself out of trouble.' And he did! He did it every time he won and pulled it off. Nineteen graded stakes he won.

“Part of the thing with him was how he took everything in stride,” continued LoPresti. “When he got to Santa Anita for his Breeders' Cup wins, the first thing he did was just stare at the San Gabriel Mountains like he knew what he was there for. He'd get in the stall–remember he'd never been there before–make two or three turns around and settle down to eat. Most horses take a little while to settle in. He wouldn't. He never got upset about anything. If there was a loose horse, he would just watch like he was saying, 'What's wrong with you?'

“That's the thing about him: he took everything in stride and he always knew how to win.”

He certainly did. During his five-year racing career, Wise Dan won 23 of his 31 starts. No fewer than 11 of his 19 graded wins were in Grade I races. He set track or course records at Santa Anita, Keeneland, and Woodbine. But not everything was smooth sailing. He came back from small injuries. And the sport held its collective breath when Wise Dan colicked and underwent surgery.

“When they turned him over on the table and opened him up,” remembered LoPresti, “the surgeon turned around and gave me a thumbs up. He'd untwisted when they turned him over, so they didn't have to mess with anything and they just sewed him back up. The only thing we were dealing with then was the healing of the incision. Yes, that's a lot, but he was just so tough. That son of a gun came back from the clinic bouncing off the van! All we had to do was heal his incision.”

Wise Dan | Sarah Andrew

LoPresti said he got some flack for bringing Wise Dan back after the surgery and expecting him to perform at the same level. What some people forget is that no one knew him better than LoPresti and no one had his best interests more in mind.

“I knew a lot of people thought I was crazy to bring him back. His first couple of works were not brilliant and I can remember reading stuff after those works–he's not the same horse, you know, all the naysayers–but all I was trying to do was keep him from being stressed and bring him along slow. Then we started to build. That's where I wanted him. We didn't pressure him; we wanted to go along easy and make sure he wasn't going to colic again. Then he came back and he won. And he won again. I always worried. When people start talking, you start to second guess yourself, but I started to see the light come back on and I knew he was back.”

Back indeed. Wise Dan would close out his career as a two-time Horse of the Year and a legend.

“I just want everybody to realize what kind of horse he really was, everything he came through, everything he did. He won $7.5 million and 19 graded stakes and he didn't run for mega-purses. He earned it. If you look at all his races, a lot of them were small stakes. He didn't go to Dubai; there was no Pegasus Cup. I was very fortunate that I had a farm and owners who trusted what I did. I always gave my horses the winter off, never took them to Florida or Louisiana. That was to my demise as a trainer for business, but the old racing families, the old, true sportsmen, got it. I was just fortunate that I had owners that let me do that. Nowadays, if you don't travel and dance every dance, you're going to lose horses. I have really fond memories looking back.”

LoPresti, who quietly retired from training at the end of 2020, said it wasn't just his family and the public who loved Wise Dan. The horse also gave his owner-breeder a reason to live.

“Mr. Fink went to dialysis two or three days a week. That horse kept him alive. The idea of having to go watch him run and watch his next race. That was why we didn't go overseas or to Dubai or anything. Mr. Fink wanted to watch him in person and he really couldn't travel that far. We weren't there for the money. Mr. Fink enjoyed the horse and being able to go see him. I totally understood. I believe he could have gone over to Dubai and won, but that's not what Mr. Fink wanted to do. I was fine with that.”

Wise Dan's last race–and win–was in 2014 in the GI Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland. No one knew at the time it would be his last race, but some small, niggling injuries kept him from returning. When he was officially retired 11 months later just before an attempt at a third GI Woodbine Mile, it was decided 'Dan' would live out his days at LoPresti's farm. LoPresti indicated the Kentucky Horse Park and Old Friends were both interested in having him, “But this is what we all decided. We know him. He was raised here. Why send him somewhere he doesn't know and take him away from his brother?”

Successful Dan and Wise Dan | Sarah Andrew

That half-brother is the one-year older MGW & MGISP Successful Dan, also a Fink homebred campaigned by LoPresti. Successful Dan and Wise Dan are thick as thieves. They're turned out together, they play hard, and they keep themselves extremely fit, said LoPresti. They're also very attached to each other.

“Not too long ago, Successful Dan got a little hurt and needed some stitches. He needed to stay in the barn for a week. Wise Dan never went more than 30 yards away. He kept checking on him,” said LoPresti.

“Wise Dan is just different from other horses. He's so smart. All the great ones are just different. That's what makes them what they are. Of course, they have to have the athletic ability, too, and he did with that natural rhythm, that natural stride.

“He's very kind, but also very strong. When he decides he wants to go out to the paddock or when he went to gallop at the track, he's going to take you where he wants to go. It's impossible to slow him down.”

Wise Dan's Breeders' Cup wins were in 2012 and 2013; he was undefeated in four starts in 2014, but didn't make the Breeders' Cup that year. Main Sequence, another turfer, did. The two never faced each other on the track, as Wise Dan specialized at a mile and Main Sequence wanted longer. The latter won the 12-furlong Breeders' Cup Turf in 2014. He took a far different road getting there than Wise Dan did.

“Honestly, he wasn't the most straightforward horse to train,” said Motion of Main Sequence. “He could be a little bit tricky. He certainly has a lot of personality.”

Lanigan, a former UK-based trainer who is now with Four Star Sales in Kentucky, laid it out plainly.

“He was a pain in the ass!” said Lanigan, who first trained Main Sequence in England, with a laugh. Lanigan and Motion both trained for the Niarchos family's Flaxman Holdings.

Main Sequence | Sarah Andrew

“He was a difficult horse, a little bit quirky,” continued Lanigan. “He didn't like to lead the string, didn't show much on the gallops. But he was a big, mature, good-looking horse who coped with everything very good. We were surprised when he won his maiden first time at two. None of mine usually won first time out. They improved more from first to second run. There was a good horse of Godolphin's in there that cost a lot of money and he beat him quite well. Then we sent him to a novice at Newmarket. It was more of a fact-finding mission to see if he was as nice as we thought he was. There were useful sorts in there and he won that very well.

“Then I managed to convince [owner] Maria [Niarchos-Gouaze of Flaxman Holdings] and [Flaxman's racing manager] Alan [Cooper] to supplement him for the Derby… The boldness in me! I couldn't leave a Derby horse on the table. I had to spend the next six months trying to convince Alan to run him.”

Main Sequence ended up going to the Derby undefeated in four starts, including in the G3 Betfred Derby Trial. He suffered his first career defeat in the Derby to Aidan O'Brien's Camelot (GB) with Queen Elizabeth II in attendance. The performance may have been assurance that Main Sequence was as good of a horse as Lanigan thought, but that loss was also tough to swallow.

“It broke my heart,” said Lanigan. “Nobody ever remembers second. He was beaten by a very good horse and ran his race, but I was gutted for myself because I knew we had a very nice horse. And I was very disappointed for Maria. She was one of the first people to send me a horse when I started training. She was always a very good supporter and friend, so it wasn't just my own selfishness. I was very disappointed for her.”

Main Sequence | Sarah Andrew

Main Sequence and Lanigan were together for approximately another year and a half after the Derby, long before the Breeders' Cup was on the table. Lanigan had actually picked the chestnut out of the Keeneland September sale as a yearling. The horse had been entered, but Lanigan said Niarchos-Gouaze had asked him if there were any of hers in the crop he liked. When Lanigan picked Main Sequence, he never went through the ring and was shipped to the UK instead. Lanigan and the horse were together for nearly three years total and came to an understanding.

“Like a lot of good horses, you could set your watch by him. He went out first lot every day, would have his breakfast, then go to sleep. He'd be comatose from 9-12, head under the shavings. I took him out for a pick of grass every day myself. He was a bit of a handful. Out of nowhere, he'd stand straight up on his hind legs.

“He overcame a lot. He had a tiny bit of a kissing spine after he won his novice as a 2-year-old, but after that never missed another day. We gelded him at the end of his 3-year-old year because he didn't really have a stallion's pedigree. He was a little bit of a bridesmaid at four. He'd get himself very warm in paddocks that year, which he never did before, so it was sort of a frustrating year.

“I told Maria, 'There's a better chance for him over in America. You could win a Breeders' Cup with him in America, but we're going to struggle with him in Europe.'”

Prophetic words, it turns out. Lanigan said shipping him back and forth was considered, but it was ultimately decided it would be better for the horse to be based in the same area he'd run, rather than to ship. Lanigan was fully on board.

Bye Bye Melvin with Main Sequence and Benjamin Button (the mini) | Sarah Andrew

“I told Maria it was going to be a wasted opportunity for the horse and for her if she didn't do it. It all worked out very well. Maria and the horse were the most important two in the whole thing. She's an owner who deserves the very best. It was a pleasure to have had him and I feel very lucky to have had him.”

Motion was the lucky recipient in America. Although Motion had been to Lanigan's yard in Lambourn when he stabled his GI Kentucky Derby and G1 Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom there prior to a run at Royal Ascot, he didn't have any particular memories of Main Sequence in the flesh before he came to America.

“Obviously he'd been in some nice races already, so you knew he was a good horse,” said Motion. “I was aware of him because we all trained for Flaxman and he'd certainly done well in some nice races–had that second in the Derby–but I didn't really know him before. I think the whole team felt that American racing might suit him. We kind of all made all those decisions together, with David Lanigan and Alan Cooper.

“Main Sequence actually got quite sick when he first came to me. Shipping over the winter is tough, having to travel and quarantine on both sides. It took him a while to get over it. We gave him a lot of time.”

Main Sequence and Bye Bye Melvin | Sarah Andrew

The repatriated Main Sequence would not make his American debut under Motion's care until July of 2014. He would win that day–the GI United Nations S.–and wouldn't lose that year, adding the Sword Dancer, Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, and Breeders' Cup Turf, all Grade Is. The campaign culminated in a championship.

“We did things with him that I hadn't really done with a horse,” said Motion, “in all the extra schooling. He required a lot of time in working with those things. He was always a little slow to come away from the gates, so we worked on that quite a lot. The first time he ran for us, in the UN, he walked out of the gate. He gave us fits with that.

“His first three races were by a neck, a head, and a neck. It was a testament to Rajiv [Maragh], who rode him so well.”

Maragh was not able to be aboard for the Breeders' Cup. Velazquez, who had piloted Wise Dan to his first Breeders' Cup win, but had gotten injured earlier on the card of Wise Dan's second Breeders' Cup victory and was hospitalized as the race ran, had to substitute for Maragh in this Breeders' Cup.

“It was tough,” said Motion, “because Rajiv had won on him in the Turf Classic and while we were up in the reception room after the race [just over 30 minutes later], Rajiv had his terrible accident and broke his arm. We were good friends with him and Angie, his wife, so there were a lot of emotions when he got hurt. I get emotional now just thinking about it. So Johnny rode him in the Breeders' Cup. That was the year he was coming off that bad accident of the year before in the Breeders' Cup.”

Maragh needed two plates and 13 screws to repair his arm and would win on Main Sequence again in 2015. Velazquez had emergency surgery after a spill in the Juvenile Fillies in 2014 that resulted in pancreas repair and spleen removal. Motion is close friends with both riders.

“On Breeders' Cup Day was the only time Main Sequence ever broke properly. He won handily,” said Motion. After winning the GII Mac Diarmida S. the next year, Main Sequence tried Dubai and for a repeat in the United Nations, but didn't perform as hoped in the latter and it was discovered he had suffered a tendon tear. He was retired.

“Alan and Maria were nice enough to let him stay here after his career,” said Motion. “These horses were so influential in my career.”

Graham Motion with Better Talk Now in 2008 | Sarah Andrew

Motion mentioned Better Talk Now, his very first Breeders' Cup winner. Better Talk Now, who also won the Turf a decade before Main Sequence, also retired to Motion's Fair Hill home base. He passed away in 2017 following complications from colic surgery.

“Main Sequence is a bit like Better Talk Now,” said Motion. “Neither one of them were particularly nice horses to ride. They both had the same kind of personality: pretty cantankerous, pretty tough, which is probably an indicator of how good they were.”

Main Sequence now lives in a paddock with Bye Bye Melvin, another former Motion runner who ran in the 2022 Breeders' Cup Turf.

“I have to be very careful who we put out in the paddock with him, because he's pretty tough on other horses, but he and Bye Bye Melvin get along great.”

Main Sequence served as an ambassador at the Maryland 5* event earlier this month.

“That was quite a shock to him to come out of his field for the first time in years,” said Motion with a laugh. “He was a little wound up, but it was very cool. A lot of people came by to see him. I heard he only bit one person, but we made it through. It was just a mile up the road, so we decided to do it.”

Like LoPresti with Wise Dan, Motion has incredibly fond memories of his Breeders' Cup win with Main Sequence.

“It was very rewarding,” said Motion. “It was really a team effort to win a Breeders' Cup race for the Niarchos family. I grew up watching them, so it was like a dream to win for them. It was sort of coming full circle. We love the Breeders' Cup.”

The post Wise Dan and Main Sequence, Two Glorious Geldings and the Breeders’ Cup appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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A homebred for Gainesway Stable (Antony Beck) and Andrew Rosen, 3-year-old Bees and Honey (by Union Rags) sailed clear of her rivals by 2 3/4 lengths in the Comely Stakes (G3) on Nov. 26. The victory—while not entirely unexpected by McGaughey—helped end the month on a high note for the young trainer whose budding stable is already revving up for more in 2022.

“Going into the race everyone was pretty confident because she was doing well,” said McGaughey. “We had a good feeling that she would like the distance and the racetrack. The way the race shaped up it looked like we had a chance to get black type on her and we would see what happened from there.

“It was fun, but it was almost a little bit of a relief. I certainly enjoyed it. Hopefully, there will be more wins behind it, but it was really nice to get that one.”

From an early age, there was never any real doubt that McGaughey would choose a career that led him too far from the backside. The son of Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey and the nephew of Charlie LoPresti, who trained two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan, McGaughey's life has always been inextricably tied to Thoroughbred racing.

“He is my nephew, but in the years he worked for me I don't think I had anybody that worked as hard in the barn as he did,” said LoPresti, for whom McGaughey worked as an assistant for five years. “He has a real passion for it. All the help respected him so much because he is the first one to jump in and helped. He's an incredible horseman and I was proud for him to be with me. He was like my right and left arms to tell the truth.”

After leaving LoPresti, McGaughey worked in his father Shug's barn until 2020. His decision to strike out on his own came within months of the announcement that LoPresti would retire from racing after almost 30 years—a move that would prove fortuitous for both uncle and nephew.

“It worked out well when I retired that he wanted to go out on his own, so he took most of everything that was in my barn,” said LoPresti. “The horses went, and the help went too because they respected him so much.

“His dad being a Hall of Fame trainer gave him a lot of advice, but I think the advice I had for him was to not get too big and to really concentrate on the horses. But I didn't need to tell him that. He's a hands-on horseman. That's the way he is and the way he's always been. It was a perfect fit and we're so proud of what he's accomplished.”

McGaughey's first win came July 25, 2020, when Nathan Detroit (Union Rags) broke his maiden on debut at Ellis Park. The horse was bred and owned by Joe Allen, a client of his father.

“A good portion of my clients are ones I knew from working with my dad who have also been clients of his, but I also work for a fair amount of people I didn't have a previous relationship with until I started out,” said McGaughey, who continues to build out his stable. “A couple people I work the sales for and a few just send me the horses that they have. It's a mix.”

These days, McGaughey has 25 horses in his barn split between Kentucky and Florida. Ten of those horses currently reside at Tampa Bay Downs with his assistant, while the other 15 remain at Keeneland with him. His statistics through Dec. 17 stand at 24-23-23 from 172 starts with $1,188.054 in earnings.

While Bees and Honey might be his only stakes winner to date, McGaughey feels he has plenty of promising runners to keep him busy on and off the track in the coming months. While he's happy to revel in his recent success, he has no plans to rest on his laurels.

“We have a nice 3-year-old filly who will turn 4 named Texas Shuffle (War Front). We've also got a 3-year-old turning 4 named Charles Chrome (California Chrome), he's stakes-placed and he's coming back off a freshening this winter. He's just now starting back. We also have a few young ones that haven't run yet that we're just getting going with, but they look like they'll have talent.”

“He (Reeve) knows how hard the game is. It has its ups and downs,” said LoPresti. “He's had some tough times and now he's having good times but that is the way the business is. He knows the game because he's been around it since he was a little boy, so he knows how it all works.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Younger McGaughey ‘Has A Real Passion’ For The Horses appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Pletcher, who was introduced with a fond series of recollections by longtime owner Mike Repole, received a standing ovation when accepting his plaque. Pletcher, who shows no signs of slowing down, already has seven Eclipse Awards to his credit alongside five Triple Crown wins, 11 Breeders' Cup victories, and 60 individual meet titles, including 14 at Saratoga.

Pletcher is widely cited as one of the jewels in the prominent training tree of fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, whose tutelage he acknowledged during his acceptance speech. Pletcher said he is often asked what the most important lesson was that he took from his time with Lukas.

“The answer is there's not one thing, it's everything,” said Pletcher. “Every horse matters. Every owner matters.”

Pletcher set his sights on training from a young age, encouraged by his father, who is a former trainer and owns a Florida training center, and his mother, who helped him take out his first loan when he wanted to open his own barn. He put out his shingle in 1995.

Mark Casse also became a Hall of Famer on Friday morning – an incredible evolution for the man who remembered visiting the hall with his father in 1972 at the age of 11.

“At the end of the visit, I confidently told my dad, 'I'll be in here some day,'” an emotional Casse remembered. “As any good father would do, he told me, 'Yes, Mark, you will.' Well, we did it.”

Casse has won 13 Sovereign Awards, two American Triple Crown races, eight Canadian Triple Crown races, five Breeders' Cup races, and was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2016.

Casse and Pletcher both acknowledged the tremendous support from owners, family, and staff that helped them reach this moment in their careers. Although Casse was shepherded into the racing world by his father Norman, who built Cardinal Hill Stable in Ocala, Fla., and was chair of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company, Mark Casse recalled that he owes his mother just as great a debt for his career. When his parents divorced, Casse was asked to choose which parent he would live with. His mother would be leaving the farm, and his father would continue to be hands on with the horses. Overwhelmed with emotion, Casse asked his wife Tina to read the part of his speech that acknowledged her contribution to his career.

“I asked my mom a simple question that would change the course of my life,” Casse had written. “'Mom, do you truly love me?' 'With all my heart,' she said. I said, 'Mom, if you truly love me, you'll let me stay with Dad.' I know that had to have killed her, but she granted me a true sign of love by letting me stay on the farm. Who knows where my life would be today if it wasn't for her sacrifice.”

The induction ceremony also marked the entry of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah into the Hall of Fame. Embattled owner/breeder Ahmed Zayat accepted the plaque on behalf of the horse. Zayat recalled his favorite moments from the horse's career, including the enormous fan following generated by “America's horse.”

“I've never seen 20,000 people come in the morning to see a horse gallop,” said Zayat, recalling the horse's workout at Saratoga ahead of his loss in the Grade 1 Travers. “I don't think we'll ever see that again. American Pharoah loved the crowd. He loved the people.”

Wise Dan also took his place in the Hall, marking the crowning achievement in a career that included two Horse of the Year awards, four other Eclipses, earnings of $7.5 million, track records at three tracks, and 19 graded stakes wins.

Trainer Charlie LoPresti was on hand to accept the plaque for Wise Dan.

“My only regret is that Mr. [Morton] Fink is not here to accept this award because he was so proud of that horse,” said LoPresti. “He used to tell me all the time, 'Charlie, the only thing that keeps me alive is that horse.' …I think it put years on his life.”

Additional honorees Aug. 6 included steeplechase trainer Jack Fisher, historic review jockey Darrel McHargue, Pillars of the Turf J. Keene Daingerfield, Jr., George D. Widener, Jr., and Alice Headley Chandler, and historic review horse Tom Bowling.

The post Pletcher, Casse, American Pharoah Highlight Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Cox's Ridge won the Oaklawn H. the following spring, and Miss Raja the Apple Blossom a year later. LoPresti was hooked. He had not had a conventional grounding, his passion first ignited by an uncle's carriage horses stabled in the basement of the family brownstone in Brooklyn. But he turned out to be one of those people whose innate qualities–patience, application, acuity, more patience–dovetail ideally with the needs of a Thoroughbred. Long before he steered Wise Dan (Wiseman's Ferry) toward the Hall of Fame, LoPresti had in various farm roles already contributed to the making of Arazi, Carr de Naskra and Blushing John.

The hardboots knew how good he was. Just about the best Kentucky horseman of my acquaintance chose LoPresti not only to break his yearlings but also to educate his own son. Further afield, however, people clearly decided that Wise Dan must be a freak. In the year he made his debut, the barn housed 14 other starters. By 2020, five years after bidding farewell to a dual Horse of the Year, LoPresti found he had taken one step forward and two steps back. In the fall, having started just a dozen horses, he quietly disbanded his stable.

So quietly, in fact, that his exit only reached the press this week, after LoPresti surfaced on the Keeneland backstretch for the first time since. Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form found him visiting the barn of his nephew and former assistant Reeve McGaughey, who had taken on most of his staff and horses. “Didn't want to make a big deal about it,” LoPresti said of the way he had slipped away.

As such, the last thing he will want is anyone making a fuss now. Like so many horsemen of the old school, he saw that there was no turning back for an industry that nowadays builds its dominant brands on volume rather than nuance. For a long time Hall of Fame trainers, no less than breed-shaping stallions, reached their ceiling at 30 to 40 horses for any given campaign. But LoPresti, who began training in 1993, had to contend not only with the new “super trainers,” but also with some whose stats are harder to explain. And as we saw from his unobtrusive departure, he was never the type to shout even his deeds with Wise Dan from the rooftops.

A familiar sight: LoPresti at Wise Dan's side | Horsephotos

A lot of horsemen feel this way. They are humbled by their fortune in stumbling across an animal that amplifies their skills in a way that requires no embroidery: in this case, 23 wins in 31 starts through five campaigns, for over $7.5 million earnings. Because they invest precisely the same devotion and skill to the meekest claiming horses. And you know what? They not only hate the idea of blaring “great job” to themselves on social media; they don't even want to clutter up the shedrow with the kind of owners who go for that stuff. As a mutual friend remarks of LoPresti: “He's quiet because he's always listening.”

Nor was Wise Dan a meteor across an empty sky. Despite those limited numbers, LoPresti had other Grade I winners in Here Comes Ben (Street Cry {Ire}) and Turallure (Wando), while Wise Dan's half-brother Successful Dan (Successful Appeal) was only taken down by the stewards at that level and so had to settle for multiple Grade II success. But every single one of LoPresti's graded stakes winners was homebred. He never pumped commercial patrons and, besides, he views the evolution of a young horses as a continuous, holistic project. He thinks that any ugly creases in a horse's temperament are put there by human clumsiness, and duly preferred to break in himself the horses entering his barn. His name was on the racecard and if they couldn't run, well, he didn't want to blame anyone else. “When he trains your horses,” says one patron, “he eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with them.”

At home with Successful Dan | Christie DeBernardis

It was good to read LoPresti assuring McGee that he has resisted resentment and, still only 63, is instead enjoying the release from an unequal fight, “happy and healthy and doing things I want to do.” That includes still breaking in babies with wife Amy at Forest Lane Farm, where Wise Dan, now 14, is also enjoying his retirement from the track. I am assured that this extraordinary horse might never have achieved the same fulfilment in other hands. Both LoPresti and owner-breeder Morton Fink gave him all the time he needed. But Fink died in 2019, just months before Wise Dan acceded to the Hall of Fame, and LoPresti evidently sensed his cue.

Hopefully he will derive much pleasure from future success for his nephew, who can of course benefit from the same, exemplary template of horsemanship through his father Shug. In the end, after all, LoPresti's story is actually one of hope. Our business is full of people who just need a break. This week Luis Miranda put his life on the line to run into a smoke-filled barn at Belmont and help save another trainer from catastrophe. Miranda was on hand because, well, he's there up to 18 hours a day tending a handful of horses. The hero of the hour has had 13 winners since he started training in 2012, and none since a claimer at Saratoga in August 2019. He acknowledges himself to be “in a big hole,” professionally. But it's all he wants to do.

You know what keeps Miranda going; him, and countless other horsemen, struggling from coast to coast. Someday he hopes that his Wise Dan will walk through the door. Thanks to Charlie LoPresti, he knows that need not be an idle dream. It does happen. And therefore it still could.

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LoPresti's most well-known charge was two-time Horse of the Year and Breeders' Cup Mile winner Wise Dan. The 14-year-old is living out his retirement at his trainer's 200-acre Forest Lane Farm in Athens, Ky.

From the start of his career in 2003, LoPresti compiled a record of 310 wins and over $20 million in earnings.

“The racetrack takes up a whole lot of your time, and if you're not careful, you'll never get to do some of the other things you want to do with your life,” LoPresti told DRF. “I'm extremely fortunate because racing was so good to me. Not only did we have Wise Dan in our barn, but we also had stakes winners like his brother, Successful Dan, and good horses like Turallure and Here Comes Ben. Those were great years, and I take a lot of good memories away from it.”

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

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During his stellar career, Wise Dan wintered at Forest Lane which has become his permanent residence. The 13-year-old Wiseman's Ferry gelding closed his career in 2014 with a $7.6-million bankroll and 23-2-0 record in 31 starts. His 11 Grade 1 victories include the Breeders' Cup Mile in 2012 and 2013, the same seasons he earned Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year, champion older horse and champion grass horse for a total of six trophies. He was named to the Hall of Fame this year.

Admirers have not forgotten Wise Dan and routinely send cards, holiday greetings and treats. Although he has made guest appearances at Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Horse Park, Wise Dan has not left the property since starring in a fundraiser at Old Friends Equine in nearby Georgetown last year. LoPresti is reluctant to take Wise Dan out of his familiar surroundings but welcomes visitors by appointment, including the gelding's former jockeys and their families.

“He has people who want to see him and if we can accommodate them, we will,” LoPresti said. “John Velazquez has been out numerous times and Jose Lezcano came to see him when he was in town for the Breeders' Cup. I even legged him up so he could sit on him in the stall.”

When not mingling with guests, Wise Dan does a whole lot of nothing in his natural yet pampered lifestyle. He spends most of his time in a spacious paddock with his G2-winning half brother Successful Dan, a 14-year-old Successful Appeal gelding who banked just shy of $1 million while winning eight of 15 starts. The sons of the winning Wolf Power mare Lisa Danielle were bred and raced by Morton Fink, who passed away in 2019 at age 89.

The siblings are brought into the barn each morning for breakfast and grooming. Then they “just hang out” in their stalls until being turned back out in mid-afternoon after an early dinner. This is their routine unless extreme weather such as an ice storm keeps them stabled.

“They like to be outside,” LoPresti said. “Cold weather doesn't bother them. They grow a good winter coats. The more time horses are outside, the better off they are.”

LoPresti said he offered them blankets but they were intent on pulling them off each other.

Describing himself as semi-retired, LoPresti will be spending more time with “the Dans” this winter while he concentrates on breaking yearlings instead of commuting to Keeneland where he trained racehorses year-round for the past two decades.

“I enjoy the young horses and taking care of the farm,” he said. “And there is much less pressure.”

A photo of Wise Dan winning the Firecracker H. won the 2013 Eclipse Award for Photography. Photo was taken by Jamie Radosevich-Hernandez

Looking back

Wise Dan was a fan favorite for countless reasons including his somewhat humble beginnings, longevity at the highest level, the loyalty between LoPresti and Fink and their horse of a lifetime, and Wise Dan's remarkable comeback.

Fink owned and bred Thoroughbreds for more than half his life with considerable success before Wise Dan and his elder brother came to him through sentimentality and incredible good fortune. As Fink downsized his Thoroughbred holdings, he was unwilling to part with just one of his horses because she was named for his granddaughter. So he kept the somewhat ordinary mare and bred her to Kentucky stallions with moderate breeding fees.

The results have been astounding. In addition to Wise Dan and Successful Dan, Lisa Danielle has produced six runners that earned nearly $200,000 each at the track including stakes winner Our Royal Dancer and G2-placed Enchanting Lisa.

As a racer, Wise Dan was particularly popular at Keeneland, where he is the only horse to win seven stakes races. His status as a local hero was maximized because he was a year-round Lexington residence. Except for trips for stakes engagements, Wise Dan was housed at Keeneland or Forest Lane. When he took his show on the road, he made the locals proud with triumphs at Santa Anita in two Breeders' Cups and at Woodbine in two renewals of the Woodbine Mile.

Of all his accomplishments and fond memories, the one LoPresti thinks of first when looking back on Wise Dan's career was his score in Saratoga's Bernard Baruch Handicap in the summer of 2014. Just three months earlier, Wise Dan underwent emergency colic surgery. His recovery is testament to his greatness.

“I had a lump in my throat because horses usually don't come back to that level the way he did,” LoPresti said. “I was very fortunate. I was just a little trainer with 15 or 20 horses. I never thought that doing things the way I did — not traveling, not having multiple divisions, turning horses out for winter — that I would ever have a horse like Wise Dan. It was just amazing.”

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McGaughey is the son of New York-based Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey and veteran Kentucky horsewoman Mary Jane Featherston McGaughey. His uncle is Charlie LoPresti, for whom Reeve McGaughey was an assistant for five years during which time the stable had two-time Horse of the Year and three-time turf champion Wise Dan.

Before going out on his own, Reeve served for several years as an assistant to his dad, which made it easier for the elder McGaughey to run more horses in Kentucky.

“I've grown up around it between my uncle, my dad, my mom, my step dad (Brent Smith),” Reeve McGaughey said. “I don't think you're ever completely prepared for when it's your name in the program versus somebody else's, just the responsibility of it. But I think we're starting to get the hang of it now, hopefully.”

“He's been patient by doing it so he didn't get overrun with maybe not enough help and too many horses to deal with right off the bat,” Shug McGaughey, speaking from New York, said of Reeve building a stable. “I think he's done a very good job of that.”

Nathan Detroit is owned by Joe Allen, one of his dad's clients. Reeve also ran a horse Saturday at Ellis for the Phipps Stable, the powerful outfit that brought the elder McGaughey to New York from Kentucky 35 years ago.

“They'd all been around him,” Shug said of his owners and his son. “They all like and admired Reeve. If the horse wasn't going to do in New York, they wanted to have it with him down there. That's worked out well. It's not me pushing the horses there. We talk every day, because I'm interested in what he's doing. But I've also tried to stay away from it. I don't want to be influencing him one way or the other. If he had a question, I'd be glad to answer it.”

One big difference between being an assistant trainer and being a trainer?

“It's a whole lot easier to sign the back of a check than the front of a check,” Reeve McGaughey acknowledged. And winning? “It's almost more of a relief, to be honest,” he said with a laugh. “I think you stress out so much about every one.”

Each start with each horse means so much financially and otherwise to a small stable, perhaps even more when a trainer is trying to get established.

“You put a lot into each horse going into each race,” Reeve McGaughey said. “Maybe you stress a little more because you don't have three more to run the next day to make up for that one. So yeah, it feels good when they run well.”

Shug McGaughey, who won the 2013 Kentucky Derby with Orb, said he hopes his son learned from him. “But I think he's done a lot and put a lot into it himself to try to get this stuff figured out,” he said. “As he goes along, obviously he's going to figure more and more out.

“One of the good things about him is he's patient. He knows when to go and when to stop, and he's not afraid to do that. When I first started, I probably was a little hesitant on the stopping part of it. But he's not.”

The elder McGaughey said it was clear early on that Reeve would become a trainer.

“I talked to him about getting a job in the racing office, just to learn that part,” Shug said. “He said, 'No, I want to train horses.' It's been on his mind since he was a teenager. When he first started, I said, 'You know, you've got to learn from the bottom up.' And that's what he's done.

“He's put a lot, a lot of time into it. As a father, I wish he had more time to himself. But that's not the way this game is. He understands that. He enjoys being at the barn. That's what he likes to do, and he's not afraid to work. Hopefully it will start paying off for him.”

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