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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Classic Causeway Puts Idaho Real Estate Developer O’Keefe On Derby Trail

Patrick O'Keefe's on-ramp for the Road to the Kentucky Derby with Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Classic Causeway began more than 20 years ago at an OTB in Wyoming.

O'Keefe was showing off his ranch in Bear Lake, Idaho, to Wayne Call, a longtime friend who had moved east and was visiting family back in his childhood home.

Call, who did bloodstock work and trained a few horses, told O'Keefe the ranch near the southeast border of Idaho and Utah would be a perfect place to raise Thoroughbreds.

“I said, 'It gets too cold here,' but Wayne said the cold gets rid of parasites and disease,” O'Keefe recalled. “We have good water and several hundred acres, so I said I'd give it a try.”

O'Keefe, a native of Utah, had built a golf and country club in Bear Lake and sold a thousand residential lots around it. He then played golf for several years on what he called the “money tour,” a loose collection of players who apparently try to out-hustle each other on the links for cash.

O'Keefe said he had more money to invest than knowledge when it came to the horse business.

“I was dumb as a post,” he admitted. “I had no background in racing whatsoever.”

Call suggested the two men drive to a nearby OTB in Wyoming, where they hatched out a plan for what would become Kentucky West Farms and Kentucky West Racing, part of a bigger project that would include estate-sized residential lots overlooking Bear Lake.

“Wayne said, 'Let's look through the Racing Form and see if we can find a mare who's made some money on the track and try to buy her,'” O'Keefe said. “I saw this horse named Rita Rucker who'd run in more than 70 races and had a lot of wins, including a couple of stakes.”

An Arkansas-bred by Dimitri out of a Temperence Hill mare, Rita Rucker compiled a record of 21 wins from 72 starts while racing in the Midwest and West Virginia. Her racing career ended at nine years old after a last-place finish in a $16,000 claiming race at Beulah Park in October 2000.

“I told Wayne I have about $100,000 to put in the business and that's it,” O'Keefe remembers. “He said, 'They want 75 for her,' and I said that's going to wipe out almost all of my investment.”

Call shook his head and told O'Keefe, “No, they want 75 hundred.”

A private deal was done and Rita Rucker was bred to Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch. O'Keefe's plan was to have the mare foal in Kentucky and then ship mare and foal to his Idaho ranch a few months later. The Thunder Gulch foal, a 2003 filly named Private World, followed that path, roaming the spacious paddocks at Kentucky West Farms before being sent to Southern California trainer Bob Hess.

Even though she was a June foal, Private World turned out to be a precocious filly who won her first three starts as a 2-year-old, including the Anoakia Stakes during the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita and the Moccasin Stakes at Hollywood Park. After a couple of subpar performances, Hess had her turned out and she wound up getting injured in a paddock mishap, never to race again.

A few years later, Rita Rucker produced a Point Given colt named Point Encounter that won first out as a 2-year-old for trainer Carla Gaines, going 6 ½ furlongs in a quick 1:14.81 under Mike Smith.

“Mike said the horse nearly pulled his arms out of their sockets when the gates opened,” O'Keefe said. “The boys that had Big Brown wanted to buy him off that race and offered $2.5 million. But when they had him vetted he found a tear in his tendon.”

Point Encounter never raced again.

“It's been a lot of heartaches and the business cost me a couple million dollars,” said O'Keefe. “I should have been gone 15 years ago, but I stuck with it.”

He's glad he did.

Along the way, O'Keefe became friends with the well-known Southern California horseplayer, Jimmy “The Hat” Allard, who introduced O'Keefe to Clarke Cooper, who would become partners in several horses, including Classic Causeway.

Private World, that first foal from Rita Rucker, had previously joined O'Keefe's small broodmare band, but didn't produce much until she was sent to Giant's Causeway in 2016. The resulting foal, a California-bred filly named Rockie Causeway, was bred by Cooper and Kentucky West Racing and had a promising career cut short when she was injured from a bumping incident in an allowance race on turf at Santa Anita.

Bred to Giant's Causeway again in his final year at stud in 2018, Private World produced Classic Causeway, who O'Keefe said was raised in Ashford rather than going west to Idaho. On the advice of Allard, the colt was sent to trainer Brian Lynch, a former assistant to Allard's close friend, the late Hall of Famer, Robert Frankel.

One day last summer, O'Keefe got a phone call from Lynch, asking if it would be OK to take Classic Causeway with his string to Saratoga.

“I said to go ahead and see what you can do with him,” O'Keefe said. “A few weeks later I get another call and Brian says he's got some good news and maybe not so good news. He said the horse will be running in a maiden special race but the bad news is we're running against the top trainers in the nation. I said I didn't want the horse to get an inferiority complex.”

Sent off at 13-1 under Jose Ortiz in a race that included juveniles from the barns of Todd Pletcher, Steve Asmussen, Bill Mott, Barclay Tagg, Al Stall Jr., Dallas Stewart and George Weaver, Classic Causeway went straight to the front, led throughout, then drew out by 6 ½ lengths, going seven furlongs in 1:22.67. He's seen nothing but stakes competition since, finishing third to Rattle N Roll in Keeneland's Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and second to Smile Happy in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in late November.

The Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis marked his 3-year-old debut after originally being pointed to the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream Park a week earlier.

“Brian's a smart guy,” said O'Keefe. “He wanted to put the horse in the best possible place he could to win. He wanted to give him a little more time and that race looked really good to him.”

Classic Causeway dominates the Sam F. Davis

Ridden this time by Irad Ortiz Jr., Classic Causeway was the 8-5 favorite in the Sam F. Davis, set a contested pace for the first six furlongs, then pulled away to win by 3 3/4 lengths, the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.80 on a fast track.

Offers have been coming it to buy Classic Causeway, with O'Keefe saying Allard “put a $5-million offer on the table” from a suitor looking for a potential Derby horse.

The offers have been rejected.

“When you get to be my age, it ain't about the money any more,” said O'Keefe, 80. “I've had millions and lost millions. I'd probably blow the money any how. Money, with me, has wings. I can make it but I can't keep it.

“I'd like to let the horse dictate what's going to happen,” he added. “I just really want to take this trip with the horse. I think Cooper does, too. He's up there with me (in age). I'll never get another chance.”

In the next breath, O'Keefe is talking about Classic Causeway's younger siblings.

After producing a Lookin At Lucky filly in 2020, Private World was bred to Triple Crown winner Justify. “He's a gorgeous colt,” O'Keefe said of the resulting foal. “He's a yearling and will be ready to go next year. I bred Private World back to Justify and we've got a baby coming in May. This one's going to be a filly.”

It's a long road from Bear Lake, Idaho, and a Wyoming OTB to the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, but O'Keefe seems to be enjoying a look back at the twists and turns the horse industry has produced for him along the way.

“Who in the hell would believe this story anyhow?” he asked.

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Mitchells ‘Happy To Take The Ride’ With Oaks Hopeful Secret Oath

On Jan. 29, Briland Farm's Robert and Stacy Mitchell came to the stark realization that their public profile in the Thoroughbred racing world was about to be raised in a big way.

Crossing the finish line first by 7 1/4 lengths that day in Oaklawn's Martha Washington Stakes was their homebred filly, Secret Oath. As part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks points series of races, the victory awarded the filly 10 qualifying points toward the classic race, and stamped the sophomore as one to watch ahead of the Run for the Lillies.

“It's a little bit overwhelming and I don't want to get ahead of myself,” said Stacy Mitchell. “We're just going to have fun each day.”

The journey of Briland Farm actually began more than two decades before. As a young couple with a growing family and with the Millennium approaching, the Mitchells were struck by the impulse that so many before them have felt: it was time to escape the city.

“We didn't just want to buy a house in a subdivision,” said Rob Mitchell, who, like his wife Stacy, is a Kentucky native. “I wanted land. My grandparents had land and so we found a farm with an old wooden farm house in Fayette County. We wanted to get outside of downtown so we went for it and we ended up getting a 90-acre farm.”

With their new farm in Lexington, Ky., in hand, the Mitchells were gifted an older Quarter Horse by a friend. It was their realtor who pointed out that as social herd creatures, the horse would likely do better with a companion in the field.

“When our friend told us to get a companion horse, he basically said to get a broodmare and if we get a broodmare, find one in foal,” said Stacy. “Our kids were young at the time and he said, 'Your kids would love growing up seeing horses being born.'”

“So we found someone who wanted to sell a young mare with a pretty good pedigree that had never raced,” said Rob. “They wanted to just give her to us but I said, 'Let's buy her for $1.00 and make it official.'”

Named Chao Praya, the mare was a daughter of Gold Legend out of the Pancho Villa mare Casting a Spell. While she was not in foal at the time of sale, the Mitchells decided to breed to the mare to Level Sands, a son of Storm Cat, for $1,500.

“That foal, Level Playingfield, became a graded stakes winner, multiple stakes winner, and a track record-setter. Then we bred the mare back to Empire Maker just as he was starting his stallion career and we got another grade 3 winner (Imposing Grace).”

Suffice it to say, the Mitchells had been bitten by the breeding bug. In order to add to their numbers, the couple went shopping at the now defunct Fasig-Tipton Adena Springs Broodmare Sales. There they purchased a Great Above mare named Rockford Peach, who was in foal to Running Stag, for $36,000.

Rockford Peach would go on to produce the Quiet American mare Absinthe Minded, a multiple stakes winner who earned over $600,000 on the track. Now a broodmare in the Briland Band, Absinthe Minded has continued to reward the Mitchells as the dam of Secret Oath.

With success coming early on the track and in the breeding shed for the Mitchells, it would have been natural for them to return to public auction. But as it would happen, Rockford Peach would be the last Thoroughbred ever purchased in the name of Briland Farm.

“The bottom line is we've never bought a race horse,” said Rob. “Every horse we've ever raced was born on our farm. We haven't bought any Thoroughbred for over 20 years. We have a few families, we have three or four foals a year, and we race our foals. We sell about 75 percent and keep about 25 percent and we've just been very blessed and lucky.

“I think it's a good thing that there are partnerships and syndicates that buy horses off the track after they win a few races and they keep those horses in training and go on racing to more success. That's great for the business, but we have never bought a race horse. They're all born here on the farm.”

From this small, insular operation, the Mitchells have been able to generate a strong strike rate on the track. Between 2002 and 2018, Briland Farm campaigned 44 homebred horses. Of those, 6.8 percent were graded stakes winners, 13.6 percent were graded stakes-placed, 25 percent were stakes placed, and 11.3 percent were stakes winners.

Self-taught when it comes to matings, the Mitchells—while they do sell a handful of foals—consciously stray from what's commercially popular.

“When we first got into it, we went to a few TOBA meetings but mostly it was reading and studying how to make it work,” said Rob. “But even then you don't know if your matings will be right.

“I try to never go for what is popular. That is the last thing in the back of my mind. I want to win the best horse that will win races because I own the broodmare. I want those horses to win to increase the value of the subsequent foals. It doesn't make sense for me to do what is popular because when you look back, you'll see stallions that start off super-hot and two years later you can't give those horses away. I want to breed the best horse I can with the stock I have.

“We've made bad decisions along the way, but we're getting better at it. In about 20 years maybe we will have it down. We don't really need to buy anymore because we have a few families that are genotypically different, but in some ways similar, so I think we're good at figuring them out and what they need.”

But while the Mitchell's strategy has proved more than reliable in getting horses to the winner's circle, it hasn't always translated to the sales ring where the pressure to tick all the boxes of buyers. Among those that didn't initially pass muster with buyers was Secret Oath, who failed to make an impression during her brief stint in the Bluewater Sales consignment at the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“I really liked Secret Oath when she was born,” said Rob. “We sent her to Keeneland, and I think they're pretty knowledgeable, but they put her in session 5. Her dam had won three stakes races and placed in five graded stakes, the filly was from Arrogate's first crop, but she was put in session 5. Not a lot of people looked at her so I took her out of the sale the day before she was supposed to go. I thought, 'If no one wants her, she looks just like her mom and sister so I will race her myself.'”

“She had that tall, narrow, Quiet American look like he had when he was young but that wasn't the look they wanted at that sale,” said Stacy. “They wanted to see big engines on the back and different body types. She wasn't what the commercial market wanted.”

With Secret Oath having taken her first steps toward the Kentucky Oaks, it's clear that the Mitchells have cracked the code to personal success. While she may have been overlooked at the sales, the filly's explosion onto the racing scene has garnered plenty of attention; the fear of missing out running strong with owners hoping to get in on the ground floor as the Classic season ramps up.

But just like they weren't selling in 2020, the Mitchells plan to hang on to their filly.

“We will try to hold (trainer) Wayne (Lukas) back,” joked Rob. “He's excited about her and people want to buy her. But we're going to take it one day at a time. Wayne calls about every few days saying, 'I have someone else who wants to buy her.' And I've said 'Wayne, if I was a wealthy man I would take the money, but I'm used to being poor so I don't need it'”.

“We got lucky with Secret Oath but you don't always get that lucky. We know we may never win another race. We've done this long enough to know that a horse can kick it's stall and chip an ankle or get a fever the night before the race. Nothing is ever sure.”

“We're just taking it one race at a time,” said Stacy. “I told someone that after all the work we've put in for 20 years I'm happy to take the ride with her as short as it may be. Anyone who has done this knows that the happier times are fewer than the hard times. You have to hold on to the good.”

Secret Oath breaks her maiden at Oaklawn on Dec. 31

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Commitment To Learning Paying Off For Upstart Trainer Lindsay Schultz

Connecticut native Lindsay Schultz wasn't exactly sure what her future held when she arrived in Louisville, Ky., as a college student. Enrolled in the Equine Industry Program at the University of Louisville, Schultz knew only that she liked horses. Aside from that, she was willing to be open to where the experience would take her.

On Jan. 8, 2022, just over three months after taking out her training license and just over a decade after her graduation from UofL, Schultz found herself exactly where she wanted to be: the winner's circle at Oaklawn Park.

“It was a pretty neat experience,” said Schultz, who saddled her first winner, an 8-year-old Scat Daddy gelding named Capture the Glory, to victory in a one-mile claiming race at the Arkansas track. “He went to the lead and beat the rest of the horses easily. It was great to see. It's nice when horses show you in the afternoon what they show you in the morning.”

Schultz's road to the training ranks has been an indirect, if educational one that began its realization back in Louisville, when she found herself gravitating towards the study and the business of racing. A lifelong horsewoman who had grown up competing hunter/jumpers and eventers, the breadth of opportunities available to young professionals looking to make a start in the industry appealed to Schultz off the bat.

“When I was at Louisville and we went to the Breeders' Cup that first year, I saw that this was an industry where I could have a career,” Schultz said. “I started prepping yearlings at Lane's End, and then I walked for Nick Zito in Saratoga. After I'd worked for Nick I had already been on the backside and I was more comfortable, so I began working before classes while I was still in school helping out his stable.”

Determined to expand her industry experience after graduation, Schultz took her business degree and her passion for racing to the barn of Tom Proctor. She would work for the Breeders' Cup winner only a handful of months in Saratoga before she was selected for the prestigious Darley Flying Start management training program.

For two years Schultz traveled the world with Darley. But when all roads led back home, Schultz returned to Proctor when he called and offered her a job.

“Tom called me when I was finishing and offered me a job. I came and worked for him as an office manager, foreman, and traveling assistant,” said Schultz. “I got my assistant trainer's license quickly so I got to go with some of the stakes horses and saddle them in their races, so that was fun. After a couple of years I had my own string at Arlington, then I was at Fair Hill Training Center for a couple years. It was about that time that Tom and I started talking about me going out on my own.”

But despite her serious mind to start her own string, the industry had other plans. Glen Hill Farm's Craig Bernick, a client of Proctor's, approached Schultz and asked her to move to Ocala, Fla. to manage his farm.

“That wasn't something I had had on my radar, but it was a relationship that I wanted to keep,” said Schultz. “It was a really good job and opportunity so I went. I was down there for about three years.

“It was a lot of breaking and pre-training as well as managing a 250-acre farm. We also set up the sales consignment while I was there, which was neat. We sold some really nice mares that way. But I wanted to get back to the track.”

Schultz's timing proved to be opportune. In the fall of 2020, trainer Shug McGaughey was looking for a new assistant, and Schultz fit the bill. She would spend almost a year with the Hall of Famer before the opportunity to start training on her own finally came back around.

That opportunity came in the form of Ten Strike Racing founding partner, Marshall Gramm. It was a contact Schultz had made and fostered through her former UofL roommate and good friend, Liz Crow.

In addition to being a partner in both the BSW/Crow Bloodstock and ELiTE Sales—both top-tier operations in the Thoroughbred industry—Crow also serves as the racing manager for Ten Strike Racing.

“When Liz went out on her own, Marshall Gramm was someone who really helped her do that, and Liz had introduced me to him maybe 6 years ago when I was at Fair Hill,” said Schultz. “At the time, Tom Proctor told me, 'If you want to train one or two horses by yourself while you're still working for me, feel free.' And Marshall had a horse he wanted to send to me.

“After leaving Tom I kept in touch with Marshall. He was nice enough to let me know that when I wanted to go out on my own that he had horses he wanted to send to me and that he wanted to help me get my start. That was my push to start.”

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In addition to Ten Strike, who remains Schultz's primary owner, the budding trainer also runs horses for Allen Schubert and Scott Galloway, clients she met by way of her connection to Proctor.

With Oaklawn Park her base for the duration of the meet, Schultz now has eight horses in her barn including Capture the Glory, who races in the Ten Strike Racing colors.

“Capture the Glory was pretty neat, because the trainer I claimed him from, Will Gallagher, has been a friend since I claimed the horse,” said Schultz. “He's been great and he's helped me out at Churchill Downs and he called me after the horse won to congratulate me, which was so nice. The horse is so sound and he loves to train. He's 8-year-old by Scat Daddy, so it's neat to just have one of those in the barn.”

With her barn still in flux and plenty of time left in the year to make decisions, Schultz is happy to call Oaklawn home for the moment. Her forward-looking plans lie ahead with the 2-year-old sales, where she hopes to source new talent and new clients, building her stable and her business with equal conviction.

“Scott, Allen, and I tried in November to buy a couple horses of racing age and got outbid,” said Schultz. “I also tried this past January to get another one as well, but I was also outbid. So I will go to the 2-year-old sales to shop for them. Liz and I did put together a little syndicate to buy a Midnight Storm yearling in September and Liz picked her out so she will be my first official 2-year-old. That is something that's really fun to look forward to.

“I'll have to see where the best opportunities are for racing this summer. I love being in Kentucky, but I've also been on the East Coast as an assistant so I will see how it goes and then decide.”

As the latest leg of her journey builds on its opening success, Schultz credits much of her success to her friends and colleagues, who act as both support structure and cheerleading squad. But she finds her greatest lesson to be the one she brought with her to the equine industry program at UofL; remain open to the experience and to the people who can teach you all the lessons you need to know.

“I didn't grow up in this industry so I really did try to immerse myself in every aspect of this as much as I could,” said Schultz. “I think a lot of it is learning to pay attention to what the people around you are doing, and how the people you respect especially do things. You have to try and learn from everyone that you think is doing a good job. A lot of it is common sense and keeping it simple, but you have to learn from everyone around you, all the time.”

Capture the Glory winning at Oaklawn for trainer Lindsay Schultz

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Young Trainer O’Connor Has ‘Clear Vision’ Of His Future

On Jan. 8, 2022, less than two years since he sent out his first starter as an independent Thoroughbred trainer, Matthew Brice O'Connor found himself in the Gulfstream Park winner's circle with Clear Vision. The 6-year-old Artie Schiller gelding had bested his competition going one mile on the grass in the Tropical Turf Stakes (G3T), marking the first graded win for the horse and for O'Connor.

“That win felt so good—it was a tough spot,” said O'Connor. “We thought we could be third or fourth but (my mentor), Nick Zito has always told me that if you think you can run even fourth in a stakes race, you take the shot. That is how you find the big horses. It all panned out and I'm glad we took that shot. I've only run 50 or so horses so to get a win like that on the tail end of my second year training is a big accomplishment for me and my team.”

In terms of a career metaphor, there could be no more aptly-named stakes winner for O'Connor than Clear Vision. Born in Manhassett, New York, in 1998, just a stone's throw from Belmont Park, O'Connor's exposure to racing came early. Some of his first memories are of his early morning outings with his father to Saratoga's Oklahoma training track and the barn of Dennis Brida, who trained a handful of horses for his family.

“I spent every summer of my life at Saratoga,” said O'Connor. “When I was 5 or 6 years old, I would wake up early and my dad and I would go out to the barn every day. Horses were just always there, so my interest just grew as time went on. I can't say that racing consumed my life, but it's always been a major part of my life.”

In the early 2000s his uncle, Anthony Bonomo, began buying into more horses as an owner racing under the banner MeB Racing Stables. It was under Bonomo's trainer, Dominick Schettino, that O'Connor began learning his first horsemanship skills. In 2014, he received his hotwalker license and began working in earnest for Schettino. There he had the opportunity to interact closely with Grade 1 winner Greenpointcrusader, as well as eventual 2017 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Always Dreaming, who made his first few starts with Schettino before being transferred to Todd Pletcher.

After entering college, O'Connor assisted trainer Robert Falcone, Jr. before finally landing a job with Hall of Famer Nick Zito, who became—and remains—his closet mentor.

“Nick does it right, that's for sure,” said O'Connor. “I talk to Nick at least once or twice a week. We've always kept in touch ever since the moment I started working for him.”

Concurrent to working with Zito, O'Connor graduate from the Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona and decided it was time to break out on his own.

“I took out my license in late 2019 and I got my first horse in February of 2020,” said O'Connor. “It was a really tough time, trying to start out in the middle of a pandemic, but by the time it really started going we were too far in it to turn around so we had to keep going.”

O'Connor's first winner came in April of 2020 when he saddled Duellist to a maiden victory at Gulfstream Park. Since that time, O'Connor has continued to grow his stable, running his horses in New York in the summer and Florida in the winter.

“We now have four horses in Florida,” said O'Connor, who runs his barn with the help of a tight three-person crew. “At the highest point I had 18 horses this past summer in Saratoga. That being said, they weren't all the highest quality horses so we decided to trim down and just bring a handful that we thought could be competitive to Florida. Hopefully we will start growing more again.

“We did some shopping in Saratoga and bought a Gormley colt and a Tiznow filly who are both New York-breds. Wherever the good horses are, we try and find them and get them in the barn. I will have to see how many owners I have and how many are looking to get something, but I would expect we should get two or three out of the sales this year. Hopefully it'll be more, but I think that is a good place to start.”

With plenty of races ahead of him in the new year, O'Connor looks forward to every new start and credits his continued luck on the track to the dedication of his team and their combined passion for the sport. And as for Clear Vision, O'Connor is targeting a run for the gelding in the Feb. 5 Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T) at Tampa Bay Downs.

“Without my team, and my horses and owners, I'm just another guy on the backside,” said O'Connor. “To have a first start of this year be the first winner of the year … it's a great way to start. Now we just have to try and top that.”

Matthew O'Connor leads his first graded stakes winner, Clear Vision, into the winner's circle after Saturday's G3 Tropical Turf at Gulfstream Park

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