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Lilac Fire Survivor Lovely Finish Scores Emotional Win For Her Connections

Joe Herrick Racing Stables, LLC and Red Silk Stables LLC.'s Lovely Finish scored an emotional maiden victory for her connections in the first race on Saturday at Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, Calif. The win came three years after the now 6-year-old mare and her trainer and co-owner survived the 2017 Lilac Fire while at San Luis Rey Downs.

Ridden by Anthony Locke from post number eight, Lovely Finish won in style, pulling away from her rivals in route to a 3 ½-length win in the 1,000-yard race.

“I had to keep myself from getting emotional because her and I almost lost our lives together,” said Herrick, who trains the now 6-year-old California-bred mare by Marino Marini.

In saving Lovely Finish from the wildfire on Dec. 7, 2017, Herrick was burned on 23 percent of his body. After months of recovery for both trainer and horse, Lovely Finish made her return to the races, running third in a 5 ½-furlong race during the LA County Fair Meet at Los Alamitos Race Course on Sept. 20, 2018.

ESPN's award-winning magazine show E60 and the San Diego Union-Tribune were on hand to capture that part of Lovely Finish's journey. When she was on the right side of a photo finish to earn her third place in that race, the result felt like a victory, Herrick said.

“That was more than a horse race,” the trainer said back then.

Now, Lovely Finish's record does indeed include an official victory after having finished third or better in each of her previous seven starts.

“She's ran well every time,” Herrick added. “She's never had a bad race. I've taken care of her and never ran her when she was compromised. We've really taken care of this horse. It was an eight-month layoff (since her last start). I've always given my horse time when they need the time and run them when they're perfect. Obviously, she was perfect tonight. It was good for her come out here and get it done. It was special.”

Occasionally, Lovely Finish has been a little finicky while waiting in the starting gate. Herrick has responded by spending a lot of time schooling her in the mornings at San Luis Rey Downs.

“We got some training done this morning so that she would mind her manners,” Herrick added.

“She can be a tough, tough horse. I wanted to take her to the gate again today and Tony Locke said, 'Joe, we've taken her to the gate 10 times already,'” Herrick added with a laugh. “Sure enough, tonight she didn't want to load in the gate. I told Tony after the race, 'See, we should have taken her to the gate this morning.' She was waiting on the horses to come to her tonight. She was only going to run as hard as she needed to.”

Herrick is looking forward to the next chapter with his most special of trainees.

“It was a good tightener for us,” he said. “We'll see what we can do with her next.”

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Fenton Elected Chairman Of Thoroughbred Owners Of California

The Thoroughbred Owners of California board of directors unanimously elected Gary Fenton to serve as the new chairman of the organization replacing outgoing chairman Nick Alexander, who stepped down after five years in the role. Fenton has been on the TOC board since 2016 and has served as chairman of the TOC Racing Committee since 2018 and TOC vice chairman since 2019.

Fenton is the managing partner of Little Red Feather Racing (LRF), California's largest syndicate with over 85 horses and over 400 owner/partners. LRF has campaigned Breeders' Cup Mile winner Singletary as well as Grade 1 winners Egg Drop, Midnight Storm, Secret Spice, Fault and Mirth. LRF has the fifth most starts of all owners in Southern California since 2010.

Fenton grew up in Beverly Hills, Calif., and caught the horse racing bug at an early age attending races at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and Del Mar, including the first Breeders' Cup in 1984. He began his career as an entertainment attorney working for the William Morris Agency and media companies including ATG, Carsey-Werner, and AMC before transitioning to LRF full time in 2005. Fenton will be the 11th chairman of TOC following most recently the five-year terms of Nick Alexander (2016 – present) and Mike Pegram (2011-2015).

“Mike Pegram and Nick Alexander are giants in our industry who successfully steered this organization through unprecedented times and left the TOC in a strong operational and financial position,” said Fenton. “It is an honor for me to step into their big shoes at a very exciting time for California Thoroughbred racing. I have great respect for the hard work of TOC staff members and my fellow TOC board members who have each worked tirelessly over the past few years to achieve the TOC's core mission “to maximize purse revenues and preserve the long-term viability of our sport in California.”

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George O’Bryan, Agent For Five Hall Of Fame Jockeys, Passes At 100

Regarded as one of the best jockey agents in America for decades, George O'Bryan, who turned 100 years of age on Oct. 25, passed away early Thursday afternoon at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, according to his son, Craig O'Bryan.

One of nine children, George Albert O'Bryan was born in Taylorville, Ill., and left home at age 16 for a career in racing, which included a brief stint as a jockey, riding for eventual Hall of Fame conditioners Ben Jones and his son, Jimmy, in the Midwest.

Athletic, hard working and tremendously knowledgeable, O'Bryan went from exercise boy to jockey to jockey agent, representing many jockeys, including five Hall of Fame riders, Johnny Adams, Ralph Neves, Manuel Ycaza, Laffit Pincay, Jr. and Donald Pierce, spanning parts of six decades from the 1940s into the 1990s.

When asked what his secret was for working with so many top jocks, O'Bryan jokingly responded, “You've got to keep getting fired!”

In a rough and tumble business that has always required sharp elbows, none were ever any sharper than O'Bryan's, who was known as an agent who could and would move lesser riders off any horse that he knew his rider would fit.

George O'Bryan (Benoit photo)

When asked years ago if he preferred to wait until the next morning to follow up with the trainer of a well-backed horse that got beat with anything resembling a questionable ride in an important race, O'Bryan responded with a twinkle in his eye:

“No, you go to the man right then, preferably with the owner right there. If you see a muck-sack ride, you take advantage of it.”

Following his career as an agent, O'Bryan, along with his late wife Mercedes, was also an owner/breeder of note in California. His biggest achievement in the breeding arena came with the Don B. mare, Don's Quillo, who was the dam of Megan's Interco, an earner of $1,062,000.

An avid golfer until about 10 years ago, O'Bryan and his wife were regular race day attendees at Santa Anita long after his retirement as an agent and he and his wife relished reminiscing with the many racing figures they had known throughout his career at Santa Anita's annual George Woolf Memorial Award functions.

George O'Bryan was predeceased by his wife Mercedes (2016) and is survived by his son Craig, who is currently representing Santa Anita's leading rider Juan Hernandez, daughter Shannon, grandsons Brandon (agent for apprentice Jessica Pyfer) and Kyle, as well as three great grandchildren.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there are no services planned at this time.

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‘Team Deal’: Aidan Green Celebrates First Training Win At Oaklawn Park

Aidan Green was holding her 4-month-old and pushing a stroller through the grandstand early Thursday afternoon at Oaklawn. Less than an hour later, Green was strolling into the Larry Snyder Winner's Circle following her first career training victory recognized by Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.

Green achieved her personal milestone with Kristo ($18.20), who won the fifth race, a starter-allowance route, by 3 ¾ lengths under Elvin Gonzalez. Kristo marked the 21st recognized starter for Green, who saddled her first horse in 2020, according to Equibase. Green's husband, Ike, is a former trainer who now assists his wife and Robertino Diodoro, Oaklawn's leading trainer in 2020. Aidan Green said she has seven horses on the track in training.

“Like Ike and I, we've won a lot of races, it's just the first time it's been under my name, so, it doesn't really feel like a first win,” Green said. “But it's cool to have it under my name now. We've always been a team. We've run Cody Autrey's barn in the past and we've run Robertino's in the past.”

Green, 33, grew up in Canada around the Quarter-Horses and draft horses her family owned. A star volleyball player, Green signed with Texas Tech before transferring to Texas-El Paso, where she was a four-year letterman (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009). Green, also an aspiring photographer, said she met her future husband in 2010 when he was training at Sunland Park in suburban El Paso. They married in 2013 and have three children, 5, 4 and 4 months.

“Team deal, you know,” Aidan Green said. “With three kids and all the horses, Ike and I kind of rotate around, wherever we're both needed. We do it as a team, everything we do. I'm not a full-time photographer. I'd like to be. Full-time mom and then, I guess, second is horse trainer after that.”

Green owns Kristo, a 10-year-old Distorted Humor gelding, with sister-in-law Delinda Green. Ike Green's brother, trainer Greg Green, had claimed Kristo for $8,000 early last year at Sunland Park.

Kristo was exiting a third-place finish in a starter-allowance sprint Jan. 22 at Oaklawn.

“He ran really good his last start,” Green said. “Elvin just gave him a good ride. He kind of picks his certain riders and likes them. He ran really good for Elvin, so we were excited to get in this spot. Thought it was a good one.”

Kristo's victory came roughly seven years after Green said she won a race as an owner/trainer at a weekend fair meet in Fargo, N.D. That victory, Green noted, isn't recognized by Equibase.

“When we were at Canterbury, we shipped over with one that we owned ourselves,” Green said. “They had like tents set up. It was so much fun. This was my first real recognized one, as me as trainer.”

Ike Green unearthed and broke multiple Grade 1 winner and 2018 Triple Crown hopeful Bolt d'Oro when working for former business partner Mick Ruis. Green has 98 career training victories, according to Equibase, the first coming in 2001.

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