“I have so many good memories of Marty Wygod. I was telling Emily [Bushnell, Wygod's daughter] this morning, one of my favorite things about Marty was he had a great sense of humor,” said trainer John Shirreffs, who conditioned some of Wygod's heaviest hitters on the track.

Wygod, said Shirreffs, was also something of a prankster.

“The first time I met him at the barn, he was standing in front of this horse, and he's studying it very carefully. I remember thinking to myself, 'I wonder what he's doing,'” recalled Shirreffs.

“He then leaves the horse and he walks down to me, and he says, 'John, that horse has a headache.' I didn't know what to think–that's Marty Wygod. He told me the horse had a headache. I'm not going to question that!” said Shirreffs. “From that moment on, we had a really good relationship.”

The hub of Wygod's breeding empire-which he owned and operated with his wife, Pamela-was the 250-acre River Edge Farm, in California's Santa Ynez Valley, close to Santa Barbara.

There, they stood several successful stallions, like Bertrando, Tribal Rule, Benchmark and Dixie Chatter. But it's the many talented performers Wygod bred, owned and co-owned that he's arguably best remembered for in the racing world.

The Wygods bred Life is Sweet (Storm Cat), a two-time Grade I winner who took the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic. Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) won the 2004 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Tranquility Lake (Rahy) was a seven-time graded stakes and dual Grade I winner and went on to produce a $9.7-million Keeneland September sales-topper. Idiot Proof (Benchmark) claimed the 2007 GI Ancient Title S. at Santa Anita and was runner-up in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

In 2010, Harmonious (Dynaformer) took two G1 scalps: the American Oaks at Hollywood Park and the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland.

“Harmonious wins the Queen Elizabeth and Marty and I are the two out of towners. We go up to the director's room for a celebratory drink, and I think we were off standing by ourselves in the corner after that!” said Shirreffs, who trained both Life is Sweet and Harmonious, among several Wygod-owned luminaries, remembering that win as one of their sweetest.

The Wygods' latest work of art is the Kentucky Derby-bound GII Wood Memorial S. winner Resilience (Into Mischief), co-owned by Bushnell.

“That has been one of the best things for him these past few years–he was very excited about that,” said jock's agent, Tom Knust, who struck up a firm friendship with Wygod stemming from his days as Del Mar and Santa Anita racing secretary.

Over the years, Wygod's list of trainers included Julio Canani, Dan Hendricks, John Sadler, Clifford Sise and Bill Mott.

Wygod sat on or was involved with several prominent racing boards, including the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, as a trustee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and as a member of The Jockey Club.

“Marty's inclusion on our board proved to be a blessing over and over again,” said DMTC's longtime CEO Joe Harper. “His insights and feel for both the world of business and our racing game helped us repeatedly make the kind of good decisions that have seen us rise to the top of the national racing community. We will dearly miss him.”

As a businessman, Wygod's fortunes were forged through various successful companies, perhaps most notably WebMD, a widely used online repository for medical news and information, through which he rose to the position of chairman.

“He'd come to the barn at Del Mar because he lived at Rancho Santa Fe, and he'd sit on a chair at the front of the office and conduct his business over the telephone,” said Shirreffs.

“It was kind of a thrill for me to sit next to him and listen to him on the phone talking to whoever he was talking to about his business. He was such a logical person who appreciated all sides of every conflict or interest,” said Shirreffs.

“Anybody in the horseracing industry that had any medical problems, he was right there to help them. It didn't matter if you were a groom or a hotwalker,” said Knust, who credits Wygod for twice saving his wife's life, connecting her with much-needed medical advice and help.

Like Shirreffs, Knust remembers a man with a wicked sense of humor.

“About 10 years ago, Marty brought a really good 3-year-old into Del Mar. He was by a $300,000 stallion out of his best mare,” Knust remembered. “He said, 'Tom, I'm giving you a share of this horse, it'll be your retirement. I just want you to call Pam, tell her that I'm giving you a share in this horse, and to figure out the paperwork.'”

When Knust called Pamela Wygod, he said she seemed a little confused, but assured Knust that she would straighten it out with her husband.

“I just kind of felt strange about something,” said Knust. “So, I went and looked up the papers and it was a gelding. That was Marty's sense of humor. He had a great sense of humor.”

Said Shirreffs: “He was just a great guy. We was a fantastic individual. A brilliant man. A great horseman. He was something special to be around.”

Aside from his daughter Emily and wife Pamela, Wygod leaves behind his son Max.

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In the nearly 40-year history of the Breeders' Cup, only two sets of full-siblings have won Breeders' Cup races. It's difficult enough for a mare to produce one Breeders' Cup winner, but two individual Breeders' Cup winners? That's such a rarity only six mares have ever done it. And only two of those six have had lightning strike twice as they've produced two Breeders' Cup winners by the same sire. The first set, Juddmonte homebreds Banks Hill (GB) and Intercontinental (GB), won the GI Filly & Mare Turf in 2001 and 2004, respectively. By Danehill and out of the wonder mare Hasili (Ire), each wrapped up their broodmare careers in Great Britain.

Closer to home are full-sisters Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet. Both by Storm Cat out of the Kris S. mare Sweet Life, the Sweet sisters won the 2004 GI Juvenile Fillies and the 2009 GI Ladies Classic, respectively. Both raced as homebreds for Pam and Marty Wygod and both were uber-talented with a number of other top-class graded events on their CVs to go along with their Breeders' Cup wins.

The moment was cemented alongside Trevor Denman's call in 2009 at Santa Anita. Life Is Sweet, despite capturing the GI Santa Margarita and two other graded stakes earlier that year, had the distinct misfortune of running against the mighty Zenyatta three times in 2009. She was always a bit in Zenyatta's shadow, magnified because the two shared a conditioner in John Shirreffs. Zenyatta, the defending Ladies Classic winner, would skip the race in 2009 and face the boys in the Classic instead, which of course she would win in one of the most thrilling Breeders' Cup races to date. Without her stablemate, Life Is Sweet finally had her moment to shine and shine she did.

Life Is Sweet takes the 2009 Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic | Sarah Andrew

Life Is Sweet trailed about 20 lengths behind the leader leaving the backstretch, was still last coming off the turn, and borrowed a Zenyatta-like move. Denman captured the excitement:

“Life Is Sweet exploding in the center and Life Is Sweet looking like she just joined in at the quarter pole! And it's Life Is Sweet and Garrett Gomez annihilating them in the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic. Life Is Sweet could not have been more impressive!”

Denman didn't mention the significance at the time of just the second set of full-sisters to win the Breeders' Cup, but owner Marty Wygod did in the winner's circle. And make no mistake, for a broodmare to accomplish that is a very, very big deal. Sweet Life would be named Broodmare of the Year in 2009.

The sisters Sweet were both foaled and raised at Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington. Ric Waldman of Storm Cat fame worked with the Wygods on the matings, according to Mill Ridge's Price Bell, Jr. Donnie Snellings, now with Denali Stud and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club's 2018 Farm Manager of the Year, was instrumental in raising both as fillies at Mill Ridge. Even today, so many years after they'd left his care, his affection for them still rings through.

“It was an immense gratification [to see them win the Breeders' Cup],” said Snellings. “That's what we do this for. We obviously work long hours and to see something you've raised turn out that way is immensely gratifying.

Sweet Catomine with Ruben Trujillo | Sarah Andrew

“Sweet Catomine was my special one. I really liked her. We raised her there on the farm and she was just a special filly. Sometimes when you're around good horses, they just give you a feel. She was super easy to deal with, had a great attitude, would do anything you asked her to do, very willing.”

Bell confirmed that Snellings knew early something exceptional was brewing with Sweet Catomine.

“Sometimes when you work with them, you just know there is something different,” said Bell. “I still remember him gloating about Sweet Catomine. He said she breathed different air. He had a soft spot for her. He talked about her with passion.”

Snellings was pleased to confirm it.

“You get a sense that the animal is special and she was very special. We had her up until she was a yearling, both of them until they went off for breaking,” said Snellings. “To see horses like that move on and go on to win the Breeders' Cup means we raised them the right way. It's very gratifying.

Life Is Sweet | Sarah Andrew

“Life Is Sweet I don't remember as well as Sweet Catomine, but that's just a fantastic family. How often does this happen? Two full-sisters winning the Breeders' Cup. How fortunate it is that both those fillies were raised at the farm. Mill Ridge has had some very special mares and some very special owners.”

Sweet Catomine broke her maiden in the GI Del Mar Debutante as the first in a five-race win streak–all in graded races–which included the Juvenile Fillies. She was a part of the late Julio Canani's barn. Her Breeders' Cup win, five years before her younger sister's, happened during the championship's stop at Lone Star Park. Tom Durkin had that call and it was just as exciting as Life Is Sweet's. Let's pick it up leaving the backstretch, with the patented Durkin energy that made every Breeders' Cup call indelible.

“Oh! Sweet Catomine had to check and it cost her dearly. She checked in traffic… Sweet Catomine now has running room. And here comes the big filly on the outside… Sweet Catomine has overpowered them and strides away impressively and unquestionably the 2-year-old filly champion. She wins by five.”

Sweet Catomine with Ruben Trujillo and Life Is Sweet with Pedro Valdivia at Lane's End | Sarah Andrew

Sweet Life was carrying Life Is Sweet in utero when Sweet Catomine won her Breeders' Cup. The mare had three more foals by Storm Cat: the MSW & MSP colt named Calimonco and two unraced fillies. Another daughter, by Bernardini, would produce MGSW Modernist, a son of Uncle Mo whose first foals were born this year. He stands at Darby Dan Farm.

“It's a phenomenal family that we worked with and raised for the Wygods,” said Bell. “Those [Breeders' Cup] races were incredible.”

Both Breeders' Cup winners raced briefly after championship day. Sweet Catomine would be named the Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly and the next spring parlayed a GI Santa Anita Oaks victory into a try against the boys in the GI Santa Anita Derby. To the disappointment of many in the sport, she wasn't herself that day and finished fifth as the odds-on favorite, one spot behind eventual GI Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo. A controversy ensued, resulting in the Wygods removing her from Canani's barn to the Shirreffs shedrow, where she only spent a brief amount of time. She was eventually retired without racing again.

Life Is Sweet finished second in her one start the spring following her Breeders' Cup win, but she had a history of tying up and it was decided to retire her. It was in the days before TikTok and Instagram, but Shirreffs surely would have been a sensation if they'd been around. At the time, he uploaded a number of videos of Life Is Sweet around the barn to YouTube and they were extremely popular. Bell remembers them, too.

“In those early days when John would have a camera in the barn, he spent a lot of time with Life Is Sweet. He would feed her each morning as she was laying down. I just remember John loving on her, feeding her in the stall on the ground. It was beautiful, individual attention he would give to her and I'm sure all of his horses. He really showcases them as individuals.”

For an example of one of the videos, click here. Spoiler alert: it will warm even the hardest of hearts.

When contacted recently, Shirreffs shared the video and commented, “This is Life is Sweet, everything on her time.”

Ruben Trujillo and Sweet Catomine with Pedro Valdivia and Life Is Sweet | Sarah Andrew

Both Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet were retained by the Wygods and each produced several winners. They are now living the life of Riley together at Lane's End Farm near Versailles.

“Both are pensioned,” said Alys Emson, who works in client management at Lane's End. “Sweet Catomine had her last foal in 2018. Life Is Sweet had her last foal in 2021. This is the 2-year-old filly called Life's for Living [by Uncle Mo]. She was sold as a yearling [to Mathiesen Racing at Keeneland September for $170,000]. Mr. and Mrs. Wygod still board their mares with us and have retained various offshoots of the family.

“They are different physically,” continued Emson. “Sweet Catomine is a big, wide-chested mare that is very powerfully made. Life Is Sweet is a little smaller and more refined in type.

“We have a group of retired mares that live in two to three separate fields depending on the time of year. These two are in the same field. They are outside all the time unless they need special care. They are fed and checked twice a day and just allowed to enjoy life and do as they please.”

Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life passed away earlier this year at the age of 27 and was buried at Lane's End. As Juddmonte's Hasili was based primarily in Newmarket, Sweet Life remains the only U.S.-based mare to produce two Breeders' Cup-winning full-siblings. To borrow words from Bell and Snellings, surely “she breathed different air.”

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The 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life (Kris S– Symbolically, by Flying Paster), the dam of champion Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) and MGISW Life Is Sweet, has passed away at age 27. Sweet Catomine was crowned champion 2-year-old filly in 2004 after capturing the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, GI Del Mar Debutante S. and GI Oak Leaf S. At age three, she was victorious in the GI Santa Anita Oaks and GIII Santa Ysabel S. Three years after foaling Sweet Catomine, Sweet Life foaled a full-sister to Sweet Catomine, Life Is Sweet. She won over $1.8 million on the racetrack, including victories in the GI Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic and GI Santa Margarita Invitational H. Sweet Life also produced Calimonco, a stakes-winning full brother to the Grade I-winning fillies.

Bred and owned by Pam and Martin Wygod, Sweet Life resided at Lane's End Farm since 2008 and was retired from the broodmare band in 2018. She will be buried in the cemetery at Lane's End Farm. Her daughters, Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet are now retired from the broodmare band and reside at Lane's End.

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“We're obviously thrilled that the first foal by Modernist is such a good one,” Darby Dan Farm manager Charlie McKinlay said. “This stallion has been very well-received and supported by his shareholders and breeders alike. He's a very well-bred horse from the Wygod family program and comes from really good horses like [champion] Sweet Catomine (Storm Cat) and [Breeders' Cup winner] Life is Sweet (Storm Cat). We're really looking forward to more Modernist foals arriving.”

Modernist, who is out of the unraced Symbolic Gesture (Bernardini), competed for three seasons and earned $576,300 from a career line of 11-3-2-2. He won the 2020 GII Risen Star S. and 2021 GII Excelsior S. and placed in three other graded events.

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Most new licensees start out hungry for that one lionheart of any stripe to announce their arrival. Those trainers who are routinely sent the big weekend warriors learn to acquire a more refined palate, to remodulate their ambitions accordingly.

But scant few are fortunate enough to have harnessed the sort of thunderbolt that doesn't just electrify a trainer's career but leaves a patch of scorched earth for posterity. And really, how many ever expect to?

In part one, we deconstructed some of the scaffolding of the Shirreffs training philosophy-today, we take a peek beneath these outer-workings.

And where better to start than with a horse who, for three years between November of 2007 and October of 2010, danced her way to a 19-race win-streak that encompassed 14 Grade Is before signing off with a narrow defeat in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, the collective groan to which still resonates today.

“She was difficult,” said John Shirreffs of Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}), as though narrating her movie trailer. “She was very difficult.”

For one, the shell was ill-designed for the engine, with back-end problems and creaky joints a source of constant headaches. “We had to be really careful with her,” Shirreffs continued. “I don't know how she did it. She overcame so much.”

Nor did it help that she was wired with an electric current, evident from the moment she pranced off the horsebox and into the Shirreffs barn at Hollywood Park that looked out onto the old training track.

“She was very highly strung and very nervous on the track. At the start, I don't know how many times I saw her drop the rider and come running back to the barn,” he said. “So yeah, she was difficult.”

By the time the 2008 GI Vanity H. at Hollywood Park rolled around, personality quirk was devolving into vice–she washed out in the preliminaries, all jittery nerves and sweat, before dispensing with her rivals in unusually grueling fashion.

“Almost cost us the race,” admitted Shirreffs, about her pre-race antics. “That's when we realized we needed to do something on the racetrack to conserve her energies.”

Shirreffs pressed reset, stood her by the quarter pole every day. Why there? “From the quarter pole, it was only an eighth of a mile walk to the gate,” he said. Stretched and supple from her parade-ring yoga, Zenyatta needed no warm-up.

“And while all the other horses were warming up, we'd stand her just to conserve her energy.”

Her next race–the GII Clement L. Hirsch H. at Del Mar–was won in customarily graceful fashion, setting a Polytrack record in the process.

“I'll have to go back to the basics.”

Superstition runs like the Nile Delta through any backstretch, with good fortune sought from many an idol, false or not-voodoo amulets nailed to the wall, lucky socks, the empty stall nearest the office reserved for the trainer's next oracle.

Shirreffs, however, appears less than dogmatic about one of the staple deities of the track-old father time, whose avatar is the trusty stopwatch. “I don't even clock my horses any more,” he said.

“What makes everybody excited? Speed. You're watching your horse work and, 'wow, we went in :23. My goodness, he's going that fast.' But the stopwatch is like a treat, right? It can give you a lot of satisfaction-but that's all it is, a treat. I think that will never change.”

Nor is he beholden to the rigid sanctity of the morning set-list. Just take Life is Sweet (Storm Cat), the 2009 GI Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic winner, a veritable sleeping beauty who Shirreffs sent out for morning exercise only when she deemed the hour ripe to rise, yawn and stretch.

And once again, patience is the key virtue when it comes to returning sheen to tarnished reputation. Or as Shirreffs puts it: “Is that not the joy of training, having fun with different personalities, doing something that'll help them bridge that gap?”

No finer example of that can be found than in Morning Line (Tiznow), a Grade I winner on the East Coast whose career had jack-knifed. Two starts after claiming pole position the GI Carter H. at Aqueduct, he brought up the rear in the GI Whitney H. at Saratoga. Jim Stark in need of a cause.

Indeed, when Morning Line arrived in California, “He would just go to the outside fence and he wouldn't move,” Shirreffs explained, about the son of Tiznow's black mood of a morning. “I didn't know what to do. So, I thought to myself, 'well, I guess I'll have to go back to the basics.'”

Back to basics isn't a euphemism for a few weeks of jogging or tack-walking around the shedrow. No, this was the equivalent of sending Einstein back to grade school.

“We would put the driving reins on him and drive him around the racetrack,” said Shirreffs, of the foundation stone of the rebel's rehabilitation.

When Morning Line became accustomed to the driving reins, then a rider was put on. When he acclimatized to both driver and rider, they increased the pace–a performance that necessitated a relay race, where the more athletic members of the Shirreffs Olympic team would be situated around the track, ready to be handed the driving reins from their rubber-legged counterparts.

“Pretty soon, it got to the point where we just started him with the driving reins, and then the rider would let go of them and carry on like usual,” said Shirreffs.

On his first start post Betty Ford, Morning Line won the GII Mervyn LeRoy H. at Hollywood Park, and two starts later, finished third in the GI Triple Bend H.

A more timely war of perseverance concerned the recently-retired Hard Not to Love (Hard Spun).

A one-eyed bag of nerves. “She obviously needed to see what was going on, so when she got nervous and upset, she just she'd have to spin around and spin around.” Shirreffs experimented with a mirror in her stall, an optical illusion for the optically challenged. “It made all the world of difference.”

Still, Hard Not to Love had a greater phobia to overcome if she were ever to make her mark. “She was terrified of the gates. Absolutely terrified,” he said.

In a nod to Hansel and Gretel, Shirreffs built a starting gate from straw. “But she'd just run through it, and then she wouldn't want to go back.” Then came an eureka moment–the same straw replica of the starting gate, but positioned around the entrance to her stall.

“So, when she went through it, tried to run, she could only go to the back wall-it made all the difference.” Indeed, the daughter of Hard Spun ended up winning the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita, cementing herself a star of the West Coast distaff division.

“Let them drink as much as they want the first time”

Not all idiosyncrasies are created equal, however, and as anyone who sweats the details can attest, even a small realignment of the daily routine can suddenly unlock the vault. But in Express Train (Union Rags), Shirreffs is rewarded the long game.

Indeed, the improving son of Union Rags recently ran a career high when finishing second in the GI Santa Anita H., a race that once was a high-tide mark on the calendar, but in its sublimation by other dueling interests has become a barometer to the shifting fashions of the West.

It's instructive to hear Shirreffs's commentary of these changing fads, some of it dusted with nostalgia, like a hankering for the journey-man days of the old California circuit. Or a time when the backstretch community dispensed horse-sense like penny toffies.

“I was new to the track, and one day I remember Don Porter, a great trainer up North, he saw me walking into the receiving barn to give a horse a drink.

“He said, 'John, just remember the first drink a horse takes will be its biggest drink in there. So, let them drink as much as they want the first time, because otherwise they're not going to rehydrate themselves well enough.' I mean, back then people helped each other.”

Has that changed?

“I don't see a lot of that going on now,” Shirreffs replied.

Some have a historical bent, observations that betray hokey bygone truths–like the way he and others once used arsenic to stimulate the appetite and on bandages to cool the legs. “I used to use a lot of lead to help cool the legs, as well.”

Some of it reflects shifting industry winds. “I think the jockeys are fitter now than they were before. As soon as the gate opens, it's like, 'go, go, go,' right? There's more pressure on jockeys to perform all the time and in every race.”

Fitter jockey, tougher race. “Back when I started, people didn't expect the horse to win first time out-they expected the horse to have a couple of races and eventually race himself into shape. The demands on the horse are, I think, a lot higher now than they were, so we've had to adjust.”

Telling are those trainers he holds in high regard. “I think Neil Drysdale's a really good trainer,” said Shirreffs. “I think he's one of those people that understands horses and doesn't overtrain, tries to get along with them. The trouble is, he's English!

“I think Bobby Frankel was another great trainer. His approach, I thought, was always interesting. Another one who wouldn't over face them.”

Is there a connecting thread between these names? “All these trainers, I think, they just love their horses.”

If there's another, then surely it pertains to the little things. Which brings us full circle to Giacamo (Holy Bull), the horse that gave the Shirreffs name its international flavor.

The day before the 2005 GI Kentucky Derby was a lazy and warm spring Kentucky morning. Shirreffs was in the paddock schooling his great white hope, Giacomo, when the son of Holy Bull twisted off a shoe.

“We had to get him back to the barn to get re-shod, but Giacomo had very shallow feet–he really didn't have strong feet–and as you know at Churchill Downs, it's very gravely.”

Shirreffs dispatched the exercise rider to the barn, who returned with a bandage that they used to swaddle the foot, carefully led him back to the barn. The next day, Giacomo won the Derby at 50-1.

It can be all too easy to dismiss anecdotes like this as insignificant–just one of a million incidental decisions made along the winner's path. “Just doing those little things, you know, they don't seem like they're really important,” admitted Shirreffs.

But we need look no further than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle–he of Sherlock Holmes fame, with the microscope eye-for redress: It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.

“I mean,” Shirreffs added, in explanation, “were it not for what we did, he probably wouldn't have won the Derby, right?”

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