“Anthony was a great partner,” said WinStar Farm President and CEO Elliott Walden. “He had bought in on most of our racehorses over the last few years. He was a man who was never satisfied with the status quo. He always wanted to improve things. He continued to press into difficult issues and that's what I'll remember most about him. He taught me an awful lot. He was a great mentor. The interesting thing about Anthony was, that while he was in his seventies, he was more technologically savvy than most people in their thirties. He continued to look toward the future with a zeal and an energy that made everyone around him better. ”

“This is a tough one for the game,” said Breeders' Cup President and CEO Drew Fleming. “He was one of the best. Anthony was officially on the Breeders' Cup Board for four years and as a member for more than that. He was always extremely supportive of the company and the business. Everyone will say that Anthony Manganaro was a visionary who had a passion for the game. That passion for the game went way above and beyond breeding and racing. He wanted to improve the sport as a whole as well as the people involved at all levels of the sport. Anthony had a passion for innovation and technology and wanted to introduce that to our sport to modernize it and make it available for new, future generations. The forward thinking he had was like nothing I have ever seen.”

Manganaro grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood just outside of Boston and attended Suffolk Downs with his father. He remained in Boston for his college career, graduating from Northeastern University.

Manganaro moved to Maryland in 1981, where he built a number of successful businesses. That list included Siena Corp., a real estate development firm, which Anthony and his son, Todd, used to turn ezStorage into one of the nation's largest regional self storage companies. Prior to that, Manganaro started and ran Boston Medical Corporation, making it one of nation's leading distributors of disposable medical supplies.

In 2007, looking for a new challenge, Anthony headed to Kentucky and found 220 acres of land in Paris on what he called a “rundown cattle farm.” Manganaro turned that tract of land into Siena Farm; a state-of-the-art boutique breeding operation that would normally have about 25 mares. His goal was nothing less than to breed the soundest and fastest race horses possible.

“Our goal at Siena Farm is simple: breed and raise superior, world-class racehorses by melding hundreds of years of traditional horsemanship with leading-edge technology,” reads a passage on the farm's website. Manganaro believed the result would be “happy, healthy horses ready to succeed in their racing and breeding careers.”

The Siena team includes General Manager Ignacio “Nacho” Patino and President David Pope.

“He was a big influence in my life and in my family's life,” Patino said. “We last talked on Friday and some of it was on business, but he was mostly asking me about my family. I was taking a bike ride the other day and for some reason I started thinking about Anthony and everything he had done for my family. He was a mentor to me and was just the type of person where you could talk to him about anything. He was always there to help you. Anything you needed, he would help you. I was shocked when I learned he had passed away. We were together here at the farm for 15 years. This is hard. You want to be able to talk to him, but you know that he is gone.”

Siena Farm hit the winner's circle almost immediately. The farm bred and owned Angela Renee (Bernardini), whose biggest win came in the GI Chandelier S. in 2014. At the 2015 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, she was sold for $3 million. A year later, the Siena homebred Isabella Sings (Eskendereya) won the GII Mrs. Revere S., one of four graded stakes she captured during her career.

Throughout his career in racing, Manganaro was always on the lookout for a good horse and didn't always rely on breeding to find them. Two weeks prior to the 2017 GI Florida Derby, Manganaro, along with Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds, bought into Always Dreaming (Bodemeister). He would go on to win both the Florida Derby and the GI Kentucky Derby.

“There was buzz about Always Dreaming all winter because his works were so impressive,” Manganaro told the TDN. “Bodemeister ran one of the gutsiest races of the modern era in the Kentucky Derby, and there's significant stamina influence on the dam's side, so we're optimistic the colt will continue to blossom as the races get longer.”

His ties to West Point, which purchased Flightline for $1 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, helped him get in on the ground floor of a horse who would go on to be regarded as one of the best to ever race. Siena Farm was one of five co-owners of the horse.

“Anthony Manganaro and his nephew Paul are great partners of mine,” bloodstock agent David Ingordo told the Daily Racing Form. “And Anthony has done things with Terry Finley at West Point on and off over the years. So Terry brought him in on [Flightline] on their end of it.”

“The only thing I thought about today was just how incredible a person he was and what a great family man he was,” Finley said. “He was big thinker, a creative thinker. I wished there were more Anthony Manganaro-like people in the world. This is a big loss. This is a tough one. He lived a full life and from what I've heard he was at the races Saturday. He lived life to the fullest and did so right up to the end.”

Siena continues to breed and race top-class horses. Along with WinStar Farm, Siena owns Emmanuel (More Than Ready), a winner of four graded stakes. Siena also bred and co-owned, along with Timothy Hamm, Dayoutoftheoffice (Into Mischief), the winner of the 2020 GI Frizette S. She would go on to be sold for $2,850,000 at Fasig-Tipton November. Other horses raced by Siena Farm alone or in partnership include Catholic Boy (More Than Ready), Bal a Bali (Brz) (Put It Back), Royal Ship (Brz) (Midshipman) and Queen Picasso (Kingman).

Tributes to Anthony Manganaro…

Nick D'Amore (Manganaro's Grandson and Managing Member, Cold Press Racing LLC)

“It's hard to put into words what my grandfather meant to me and those who had the privilege of meeting him. He was a problem solver and visionary always looking to solve the great puzzles in the world. He introduced me to racing when I was five and I fell in love with the horses, but he fell in love with the challenge, the challenge of breeding top-class horses with consistency. We got to share a passion for racing together and it meant the world to me. I've gotten to speak to many of those who knew him over these last 24 hours and what was clear is he made an impact on everyone he spoke to.”

Barry Weisbord, founder Thoroughbred Daily News

Last Monday I spent my morning enjoying a scheduled breakfast conversation at Anthony Manganero's newly built home in Saratoga, with just us two. He welcomed me on the porch. We shared bagels and smoked salmon (always great conversation food), and in that idyllic setting I relished all three hours of our sharing thoughts, as anyone who has had the pleasure of his company would attest. I was not prepared for that being the last meal we would share.

His family lost Anthony Sunday. The Siena Farm and Thoroughbred worlds, the Northeastern University world, and I'm sure many other worlds share this loss of a very special person, who was filled with joy, love, energy, intellect and philanthropy.

He was the most kind and caring a person could be. He was also the most interesting, inventive, and forward thinking a person could be. I'm sure the Dos Equis ad campaign of “the

most interesting man in the world” was modeled on him, beard and all. If you wanted to learn about the possible application of  AI technology to our industry, you called Anthony. He was always on chapters 4-5-6 when most had not even heard of the book.

He was about improving everything he had cared about, and about making the world a better place. He practiced his philosophy every day.

We spent the morning on a variety of subjects, as one always did with Anthony. Better organizing our industry especially from the Owner/Breeder/Horseman's perspective, possible new sources of industry revenue utilizing technology, and his computer research into predictive data in the bloodstock world, just to name a few. He had an insatiable appetite for learning that was always on display.

I am so thankful that he was a great friend to me and my family. I am so thankful that he enjoyed the Thoroughbred industry. He was truly irreplaceable. He had shoes impossible to fill. I hope some will join me in honoring his contributions by carrying on his legacies.

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“The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance plays a vital role through its accreditation of aftercare organizations and grants to safeguard the most vulnerable of our retired Thoroughbred racehorses and Siena Farm is very proud to participate in the TAA Holiday Giving Campaign,” said Siena Farm President, David Pope. “We invite all industry participants to join us this holiday season and show your support to a great organization.”

TAA's Holiday Giving Campaign commenced Nov. 29 and is scheduled to conclude New Year's Eve. Those wishing to support the TAA, its 81 accredited organizations, and thousands of retired Thoroughbreds can donate through the TAA's website or text DONATE to 56651. During the Holiday Giving Campaign, TAA is also offering donors the benefit of sending digital holiday cards to colleagues, friends, and loved ones.

Please visit their website to learn more and donate to the TAA's Holiday Giving campaign.

The post Siena Farm Pledges $5,000 One-Day Match December 17 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Editor's Note: In honor of Veterans Day and the 247th birthday of the United States Marine Corps (USMC), celebrated Nov. 11 and Nov. 10, respectively, we are honored to share this story from USMC Captain Matt Koch of Shawhan Place, a second-generation Marine following his father, longtime Claiborne Farm manager Robert “Gus” Koch. Matt, who will be honored next month as the 2022 Ted Bates Farm Manager of the Year by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club (KTFMC), is also the state representative of the 72nd district (Bourbon, Nicholas, and Fleming Counties).

Even Marines need a hero. Mine is David Pope. David is quiet, he goes to church every Sunday, and he works for a Thoroughbred farm in Bourbon County. His wife Kym works at the local extension office, and to put it simply, they are just good people. Good people who have done something extraordinary. David stepped up and donated a kidney to a man in another state whom he had never met. I don't think I can tell this story without first starting with my father's journey.

My father received his final orders last year after a long, hard fight with kidney cancer. USMC Sergeant Gus Koch proudly served in Vietnam from 1966-67. Thirty years later, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and that started the fight that continued for the next 25 years. Whether it was the Agent Orange or the drinking water at Camp Lejeune, we don't know for sure. Dad had a kidney removed, faced multiple rounds of chemo, had brain tumors and stomach tumors. We moved up countless family weddings and anniversary celebrations because doctors told us Dad wouldn't make it six more months. The Marine in him wouldn't stop. He saw all 10 of his children graduate college, get married, and start families.

It wasn't long after Dad passed away that I learned the story of one of my Marines from Afghanistan. Corporal Chris Kilpatrick and I worked in the S-2 (intelligence) shop together. On Oct. 31, 2019, Chris had been diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD). He was in end-stage renal failure and in urgent need of a transplant.

PKD is normally an inherited disease, but in this case, it was due to the toxic exposures to the burn pits which we were exposed to in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no cure, and the only option is a kidney transplant.

Chris's story hit me pretty hard. I started the donation process. Many others also started the process and were weeded out. In January, 2022 I shared the post about Chris on Facebook. I didn't say anything about Dad or the back story. Unbeknownst to me, a friend of my father, David Pope, saw the post and felt the call to action. Just a month prior, while attending Christmas Eve mass with his family in Ohio, David had heard a sermon about giving of yourself. He prayed for an opportunity that he may have that chance. The Popes didn't realize that something would come along so soon. When David and Kym saw the Facebook post they thought maybe they should give it a try, with the thought that there was no way he would match. He started the process and passed stage 1. He continued the journey and passed again.

David ended up being such a good match that the doctors said it was almost like they were brothers. He traveled several times from Kentucky to Florida for a man he never met and to make a major life decision. He was going to give Chris a kidney.

When David called to tell me he was going to be the donor, I shed a few tears. You see, he had been friends with my father. They shared common bonds of being in the horse industry and served in the Knights of Columbus together at the Church of the Annunciation in Paris. He didn't know that Dad's cancer was service related.

Far too often veterans believe we live on an island. We can rest easy knowing that good men and women like David Pope have our backs. David, we salute you for having our backs when times were bad. Gunny Brossette, our Intel Shop Staff NCO (Noncommissioned Officer), said it best: “David, although you were never in uniform, you saved the life of one of our Marines and that, sir, makes you one of us for life.”

David and Chris are both recovering and doing well.

Happy Birthday, Marines!

Semper Fi, David.

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Her dam, Gottahaveadream (Indian Charlie), was a relatively large mare and had consistently thrown size and scope in her first three foals, so the Siena team had decided to pair her with Into Mischief. The resulting foal, Patino said, was better than what they had imagined.

“I loved the filly when she was born,” Siena Farm's General Manager explained. “She was a big, strong filly with the size and scope we were hoping for. I remember calling Anthony [Manganaro, Siena Farm Chairman] and telling him the mare got a beautiful Into Mischief filly.”

As spring turned to summer, Dayoutoftheoffice looked to be the prized weanling of her foal crop at Siena. But one foggy morning in September, the trajectory of her career changed entirely.

Manganaro was in town and told Patino he wanted to take a look at Gottahaveadream's filly.

“It was very foggy and the guys were bringing the weanlings closer to the gate,” Patino recalled. “We were driving up to the barn when we heard all this commotion. The horses had spooked and they took off running in the field. When the guys finally brought them into the barn, that's when we saw Dayoutoftheoffice had run into a fence. Her knee looked like somebody had taken a sledgehammer and hit her.”

Patino immediately sprang into action, loading the injured weanling onto the van and calling the clinic as soon as they were on the road.

“When one of these things happens, you pretty much know that as far as this horse becoming a racehorse, it's probably not going to happen,” he said.

But at the clinic, they discovered that there was minimal damage to the bone or the ligaments. The filly returned to the farm a few days later and for weeks, Patino diligently changed her bandage daily.'

“After three weeks, the knee looked great,” he remembered. “There was a lot of swelling, but the wound had closed. The problem was that for everything to heal, the skin had become stiff and there was no flexion in the knee.”

Dayoutoftheoffice and her dam Gottahaveadream at Siena Farm | Siena Farm

Patino and his team worked with the filly daily to get some flexibility back in the joint, using the cold-water spa and trying out other forms of therapy. When it came time for sales prep to begin, Patino decided to keep her on the same track as the other sales yearlings.

“You could see that the knee was never going to be normal, but running around in the field, she looked fine,” he said. “I think the knee was probably bothering me more than it was bothering her. I was kind of hesitant to put her on the walker or exercise her like the other yearlings, but we started sales prepping and it was a completely different horse. Everything she was doing was very easy for her and she just loved it. You didn't have to make her work, she did it on her own.”

Even as the filly flourished in her training, the veterinarians told Patino she had a 50-50 shot of seeing the racetrack. He knew she would be overlooked at any sale.

“People would take one look at the knee and turn around,” he said.

Patino and Manganaro, along with Siena's President David Pope, decided to send her to Tim Hamm, a conditioner they had shared success with in 2016 with My Dear S. winner Velvet Mood (Lonhro {Aus}).

“Tim has a program that he will work out a deal with us and for 50% equity, he will train them at no expense to us,” Pope explained. “So it was a win-win. Dayoutoftheoffice was in a group of three or four horses that we sent him and we thought she was probably the least likely [to race] because of her injury.”

But Patino said that when Hamm first saw the young filly, his eyes lit up.

“I don't think it took him two seconds to look at the filly,” he recalled. “He loved her size and the physical was there, just looking at the knee you didn't know if she would make it. I remember going to visit her in February and you could see she loved going on the track and she looked normal galloping.”

It wasn't long before Hamm was asking for a name for their juvenile. Pope and Patino discussed options back in the office at Siena.

“Her dam's name is Gottahaveadream,” Patino had reminded Pope.

“Nacho, my dream is to have a day at the beach,” Pope had replied.

They looked up the name Day at the Beach, but it was already taken.

“Well my dream is to have a day out of the office,” Patino suggested.

They tried again with Dayoutoftheoffice, and the name was available.

“We didn't even tell Anthony, we just gave her the name,” Pope recalled with a laugh. “Next thing we know, Anthony is calling us up and he hated the name. But after she won the Schuylerville, he called us and said, 'You know what? I love that name.'”

Dayoutoftheoffice made a winning debut at Gulfstream in May last year, flashing through a speedy opening quarter of :21.89 to win the 4 1/2-furlong contest by 4 3/4 lengths. She was dismissed at long odds in her next start in the GIII Schuylerville S., but bested the rest of the field by six lengths.

“I loved the fact that she was 20-1 because we made a little bit of money on that bet,” Pope said with a grin. “We were running against the big boys and it's nice when you're the underdog and you win. She made us proud. You look at the field that day and you see the top outfits in the country that we were racing against. It wasn't even a close race; she dominated.”

Dayoutoftheoffice returned several months later to remain undefeated in the GI Frizette S., besting GI Spinaway S. winner and eventual GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies champion Vequist (Nyquist) by two lengths at Belmont with over 10 lengths back to the third. She earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure in the mile-long contest.

Meanwhile, Patino proudly watched these dazzling performances back at Siena with the rest of his team, a group that was undoubtably responsible for getting the filly to the racetrack in the first place by helping her overcome her early setback.

“It kind of validates what we're trying to do here, for the guys more than anything, because every day we were trying new things with the filly and after a while, I think they probably thought we were just wasting our time,” Patino said.” We didn't know if it was going to work out or not, but we kept working with her and now she's a Grade I winner. Now they believe that any horse we're working on could be the next one.”

Patino said that for each of their star filly's races, all of “the guys” at the farm would congregate at the office to watch.

“They like to bet so of course they're betting on our filly,” he recalled. “When they would go back to work, you could see that they really enjoyed it because this horse just won a big race and now they know they're doing something special. For me, she was special because of overcoming her injury and for all the work that we had to put in to get her there.”

Dayoutoftheoffice scores a 95 Beyer in the GI Frizette S. | Sarah Andrew

Dayoutoftheoffice gave a gutsy performance to finish second to Vequist at the Breeders' Cup to cap off her juvenile season, defeating the likes of Grade I winners Simply Ravishing (Laoban) and Princess Noor (Not This Time).

She returned at three this year with a runner-up performance in the GII Eight Belles S. and a fourth-place finish in the GI Acorn S. While recording works at Thistledowns over the summer, she sustained an injury and was retired soon after.

Much thought was put into what to do with the Grade I winner, but it was ultimately decided that she would go to the Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

“I come from the business side of it and I see an opportunity that we could take any funds we generate from that sale and reinvest to get multiple mares to grow our broodmare band to do bigger and better things,” Pope explained. “With her being our third Grade I winner, it's been very special and while we do approach it as a business, we also get emotionally attached to these horses. So we'll always be a fan of hers.”

Dayoutoftheoffice will sell as Hip 156 at the 'Night of the Stars' on Nov. 9 with the ELiTE consignment.

“We're excited to have Dayoutoftheoffice at the sale,” Fasig-Tipton's Boyd Browning said. “It's unusual to have the opportunity to sell a Grade I winner at two by Into Mischief. It's a pretty unbeatable combination from a sales perspective and it's a pretty unbeatable combination from a breeding perspective. I think what made Dayoutoftheoffice special on the racetrack was the ease in which she won. When you watch the replays, she's pretty much winning in-hand against the best in New York in some very key races. I think when you look back at that group of 2-year-olds last year, we're going to say it was a really deep group and a very talented group of horses.”

Dayoutoftheoffice's pedigree is another factor that Browning said will attract buyers at the upcoming auction.

“One of things I really love about Dayoutoftheoffice is the influence on the broodmare side of things. I think we're going to look up in 15 or 20 years from now and say Indian Charlie was a remarkable broodmare sire. He's already off to a great start, being the broodmare sire of some horses like Mitole (Eskendereya) and Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow).”

Gottahaveadream is a half-sister to GI Forego S. winner Here Comes Ben (Street Cry {Ire}). Her granddam, GISW Race the Wild Wind (Sunny's Halo), produced G1SW and sprint champion King Charlemagne (Nureyev) as well as Chasethewildwind (Forty Niner), the dam of successful young sire Daredevil and GISW Albertus Maximus (Albert the Great).

“Indian Charlie is one of the top broodmare sires out there and her pedigree has got graded stakes horses all over the page,” Pope said. “She is something that you're looking for in a broodmare. I think you'll see a lot of people in the industry focusing on Into Mischief as the next top broodmare sire, so this is a great opportunity for people. How many opportunities do you get with a Grade I-winning filly by Into Mischief coming to the marketplace?”

Take a look at our full 'Spotlight on the Night of the Stars' series here.

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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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