Charlie Lopresti | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Extremely Fortunate’ Charlie LoPresti Has Stepped Back From Training Racehorses

Though his last starter came in late October last year, trainer Charlie LoPresti told the Daily Racing Form that he “didn't want to make a big deal” about his retirement from the racetrack. The 63-year-old is now enjoying spending more time with his wife, their bird dogs, Quarter Horses, and Angus cattle.

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.”

Lost And Found Presented By LubriSynHA: Wise Dan And Lo Presti Still Best Friends, Homebodies After The Track

Hall of Famer Wise Dan and his trainer Charlie LoPresti always have been homebodies. Now they can enjoy more of that hominess together in Lexington, Ky., at Forest Lane Farm, which is owned and operated by LoPresti and his wife Amy.

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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‘Starting To Get The Hang Of It Now’: Reeve McGaughey Saddles Second Winner At Ellis Park

Reeve McGaughey earned his first training victory in his home state Saturday as 12-1 shot Nathan Detroit won his debut in the sixth race for 2-year-olds at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park. But the 31-year-old horseman certainly is no stranger to the winner's circle in Kentucky and elsewhere.

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.”

Reeve McGaughey sent out his first runner as a trainer on Feb. 2 at Arkansas' Oaklawn Park and earned his first victory in his eighth start. Nathan Detroit was his 20th starter for his Lexington-based stable that now totals 12 horses.

“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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