R.A. Hill Stable | Horse Racing Free Tips

General George Favorite Funny Guy One Serious Racehorse

His name evokes a smile, and though he has yet to register a win against open competition, make no mistake – Funny Guy is one serious racehorse.

Gatsas Stables, R. A. Hill Stable and Swick Stable's Funny Guy is a five-time stakes winner against fellow New York-breds that owns six wins, six seconds and $638,645 in purse earnings from 17 lifetime starts.

The 5-year-old son of 2008 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) winner Big Brown has fared well in the occasional foray into open company, including a runner-up finish behind Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire in the Vosburgh (G2) last fall at his home base of Belmont Park.

Funny Guy is entered to make his graded-stakes return in Saturday's $250,000 General George (G3) at Laurel Park, where he is the 9-5 program favorite against a field boasting seven other stakes winners including Grade 3 winners Laki, Majestic Dunhill and Share the Ride.

The 45th running of the General George for 4-year-olds and up and $250,000 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) for females 4 and older, both sprinting seven furlongs, serve as the co-headliners on a nine-race Winter Sprintfest program featuring six stakes worth $900,000 in purses rescheduled from Feb. 13 due to weather.

Funny Guy has been at Laurel since last week under the supervision of Tonja Terranova, wife and assistant to trainer John Terranova. Though training has been intermittently interrupted by weather, John Terranova said Funny Got got in a “strong gallop” Wednesday morning.

“It's all good. We'll just do what we've got to do during the week,” he said. “I guess everyone else is in the same boat with the postponement. We'll just ride the wave.”

The General George will be only the second time Funny Guy has raced outside of New York. The first came in the 2019 Oklahoma Derby (G3), when he ran sixth behind Owendale, third in that year's Preakness, and runner-up Sleepy Eyes Todd, most recently fourth in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park and running in Saturday's $20 million Saudi Cup.

“He's been great. He's honest, he does everything right. He's been a fun horse to be around,” John Terranova said. “He's versatile and just keeps coming back for more each time. He's had a couple little circumstances where maybe the track got to him a little bit or it just didn't set up quite right, but he's always given us a big effort.”

One start prior to last year's Vosburgh, Funny Guy wound up fourth by 2 ½ lengths in the Forego (G1) at Saratoga to Win Win Win, another veteran of the 2019 Triple Crown trail, and Grade 1 winner Complexity, the runner-up. The seven-furlong Forego was contested during a thunderstorm that rolled through at post time. In a sign of respect, Funny Guy was sent off as the favorite in the Forego and Vosburgh.

“The Forego was one of those circumstances with that horrific rainstorm we were in the middle of when they snapped the gate on us. Everybody rushed out to the track and it was an absolute deluge,” Terranova said. “You couldn't even see them. It was like running through a river. He was down inside, just buried in there. The track took away from a lot of performances on that afternoon.”

Funny Guy's stakes wins have come at distances from 6 ½ furlongs to the 1 1/8 miles of the Albany, which he captured by a neck in 2019 at Saratoga, earning him a shot in the Oklahoma Derby. Given some time off after that effort, he returned with back-to-back stakes wins in the one-mile Commentator and seven-furlong John Morrissey last summer.

In his 2021 debut, Funny Guy ran second as the favorite in the seven-furlong Say Florida Sandy Jan. 9 at Aqueduct, his first start since a neck triumph in the New York Stallion Series Thunder Rumble Nov. 22, also going seven-eighths at the Big A.

“The track was a little loose on him. He's a big, heavy horse and winter tracks, they get cold, they get cuppy, they get loose and dry,” Terranova said. “He doesn't really get his feet that far up off the ground so I think he struggled with it, having that quickness to him. It took it a little bit away from him the last start. Our jock said the same thing after getting off him.”

Funny Guy owns two wins and two seconds in five career tries at the General George distance, and is two-for-three on an off track. A second winter storm is scheduled to pass through the Laurel area Thursday into Friday morning.

“He's certainly doing well coming into this. We're just kind of like in this holding pattern, not much to do this week,” Terranova said. “He's doing great. We've been looking forward to this race. Wet or dry, he's been great. Everything's good.”

Terranova has shipped in to Maryland and left with graded-stakes before, taking the 2019 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) with Killybegs Captain. It was the trainer's most recent of more than a dozen graded triumphs.

“We've been lucky down there and very fortunate that we've had some good success with our horses,” he said. “Hopefully it continues with Funny Guy.”

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‘I Never Imagined Getting A Champion’: Hill Reflects On Channel Maker’s Eclipse Season

Randy Hill's perseverance over two decades of owning thoroughbreds was rewarded this week when his multiple Grade 1-winner Channel Maker was crowned 2020 Champion Turf Male at Thursday's Eclipse Awards.

Owned by Hill's R.A. Hill Stable in partnership with Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, Gary Barber and Wachtel Stable, Channel Maker posted two gate-to-wire Grade 1 victories on the NYRA circuit in 2020 with triumphs in the Sword Dancer Invitational at Saratoga and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Park, the latter of which he also won in 2018.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Ontario-bred son of 2007 Champion Turf Male English Channel capped off his Eclipse Award-winning season with a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland, where he replicated his career-best 108 Beyer Speed Figure earned in his previous two races.

“When I first got in the game, I just wanted to win a Grade 1 or two, but I never imagined getting a champion,” Hill said.

The racing bug bit Hill at a young age when attending the races at Monmouth Park with his mother. But it wasn't until 2000 that the mutual fund owner and financial services executive ventured into buying racehorses. Among the first horses he purchased was a Broad Brush colt by the name of Maybry's Boy, with the hope of eventually having a horse good enough to run at Saratoga.

“I named him after my mother. Her name was Maybry and I was her boy,” Hill said.

Maybry's Boy went on to win the Grade 3 Spectacular Bid in 2002 at Gulfstream Park in the first start of his 3-year-old campaign, and it didn't take long for Hill to get hooked.

“Maybry's Boy was the favorite in the Kentucky Derby futures book after the Spectacular Bid. I thought, 'Oh this game isn't that hard,'” Hill recalled with a laugh.

Although Maybry's Boy never did see graded stakes success after the Spectacular Bid, Hill stayed in the ownership game enjoying success with graded stakes winner Devil's Preacher and dual stakes winner and graded stakes placed turf sprinter Fiddlers Patriot, who gave Hill his first stakes winner on the NYRA circuit when taking the 2012 Willard Straight at Saratoga.

Even then, Hill said owning a multiple Grade 1-winning champion seemed far-fetched.

“I had about a year and a half where I had maybe one winner and I kept on getting all these bills,” Hill recalled.

The past few years have certainly been more prosperous for Hill, who began partnering with several other owners in campaigning top-class horses. In addition to Channel Maker, he owned last year's Grade 1 Runhappy Carter and Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile winner Vekoma in partnership with Mike Gatsas' Gatsas Stables.

The son of Candy Ride was a finalist for Champion Sprinter, which was won by Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Whitmore. Vekoma is currently standing his first year at stud at B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthrift Farm.

Hill is also a part owner of multiple graded stakes winner Tax and New York-bred stakes winner Funny Guy.

“This year, to get an Eclipse champion, and a horse like Vekoma to become a stallion prospect and win multiple Grade 1 races has just been incredible,” Hill said.

Hill credits jockey Manny Franco for helping Channel Maker improve last season. Following his pair of front-running Grade 1 wins, Channel Maker was again forwardly placed in the Breeders Cup Turf and held a 2 1/2-length lead at the stretch call only giving way in the shadow of the wire when a length back of the victorious Tarnawa and edged a nose for second by Magical.

“Manny really fit him like a glove and turned him around by putting him on the front end,” Hill said. “Also, English Channel horses get better with age. That said, I was expecting him to get better. I always believed that he would get better. I really thought in the Breeders Cup that we were home. He got beat for second by a whisker against two of the best turf horses in the world.”

Hill said he is hoping Channel Maker can pick up where he left off in his 2021 bow, which could take place in either the $2.5 million Long Distance Turf Handicap or the $1 million Middle Distance Turf Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Saudi Arabia on February 20. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will pilot Channel Maker in his first venture outside of North America.

“That's no step down,” Hill said of Velazquez taking the irons. “He's one of the smartest riders I've been around, and no one studies the form like him. I have all the confidence in the world in Johnny. We have a Hall of Fame jockey and a Hall of Fame trainer going to Saudi running for millions.”

Hill said he was over the moon to hear the news of Channel Maker's Eclipse Award and celebrated exactly how one expects an avid wine collector would.

“I couldn't imagine Channel Maker wouldn't get it,” Hill said. “But we were thrilled. When I found out he won, I opened a big bottle of Chambertin.”

The thrill of victory is something that Hill relishes and he said it's even more special to experience such euphoria alongside partners that he calls friends.

“I'm not a huge owner so that many Grade 1 wins is a lot,” Hill said. “I've been having fun again and I love the game. I love being in it and I love the people around it. I'm very fortunate to have good partners in Dean Reeves, Mike Gatsas and of course Gary Barber and Adam Wachtel. We've all gotten a long very well.”

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Tax Team Hoping Perseverance In Pegasus World Cup Will Finally Pay Off

No owners have supported Gulfstream Park's Pegasus World Cup Championship Invitational program more than Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and R.A. Hill Stable.

With Tax in Saturday's $3 million Pegasus World Cup (G1) for the second straight year, Dean and Patti Reeves and Randy Hill will have competed in the headliner four of the five years since the stakes was transformed from the Donn Handicap into one of the world's most lucrative races for older horses. The only year the partners weren't in the Pegasus, they were represented in the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational (G1) with Channel Maker.

Now, they just need to hit the board for the first time in a Pegasus event. Tax finished ninth last year after stumbling badly at the start of the 2020 edition. He's raced only twice since, finishing fifth in the May 2 Oaklawn Handicap (G2) and returning from a 7 1/2-month hiatus for a dominating front-running 4 1 /2-length victory in Gulfstream Park's Harlan's Holiday (G3) Dec. 12. Luis Saez has the return mount for the Pegasus.

“I think he's as good as anybody in the race, and I think we'll be very competitive,” said Dean Reeves, who campaigns his large stable with wife, Patti. “I think this is the best shot for Randy and I, hopefully, to get some of our money back that we put into the Pegasus. Because we've had a horse in it every year since they started it, and maybe perseverance will pay off for us.”

Trainer Danny Gargan claimed Tax out of a $50,000 maiden claiming race in his second career start with owner Hugh Lynch. Gargan offered part of the horse to Reeves and Hill, but they decided they had enough horses and weren't interested. After Tax finished third in Aqueduct's 2018 Remsen Stakes (G2), “We called Danny up and said, 'We just became interested,'” Dean Reeves recalled with a laugh.

The gelded son of the late Claiborne Farm stallion Arch has been a terrific acquisition, including winning Aqueduct's Withers (G3) in his next start for his new owners and taking second in the 2019 Wood Memorial (G2) to land in the Kentucky Derby (G1). While he languished home 15th in a quagmire that day, Tax rebounded to be a close fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and went on to capture Saratoga's Jim Dandy (G2). If he finishes in the top seven in the Pegasus, he'll become a millionaire.

After the Oaklawn fifth-place performance that Gargan says was deceptively good, Tax was given time off with the goal of pointing to the Breeders' Cup. A particularly untimely temperature kept him out of a Breeders' Cup prep race, with the Pegasus then becoming the objective.

“It seems like the best thing we did was giving him some time over the summer,” Dean Reeves said. “He ran as good as we've ever seen him run in the Harlan's Holiday.”

Gargan, who could win his first Grade 1 race in the Pegasus, agrees.

“He's doing tremendous,” he said. “The time off helped him grow up. He's a better horse than he used to be. I think this year is going to be the best of his career. He's bigger, he's stronger, he's doing better, eats better. He looks phenomenal. When he was a young horse, he had some issues, little things that plagued him through his 3-year-old year that have gone away with time and the layoff.”

The Reeveses were fairly new to horse racing, and definitely new to the sport's top echelon, when they bought into a 2-year-old named Mucho Macho Man, whose eventual nine victories and $5.6 million in earnings included the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita. He also finished third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby.

If the Reeveses quickly were at the top of the sport, they subsequently learned how difficult that is to achieve.

“I want to say it was five years before I won a graded stakes again,” Dean Reeves said. “I thought you just go down there and buy you another one, and they're going to be like Mucho Macho Man. It really showed me what a great accomplishment that horse had in his career, what he was able to accomplish with [trainer] Kathy (Ritvo) and the work everybody did. I realized five years later, when Classic Rock won a Grade 3, just how difficult it was. Looking back, it's tough to win a Grade 1. Those are few and far between.”

Mucho Macho Man got better with age, and Dean Reeves believes the same is true for Tax.

“I understand how everybody has to look at it financially,” he said of deals with stud farms. “But we're retiring some of these horses well in advance of them reaching their full potential. I think I saw that in Mucho Macho Man. He ran well as a 4-year-old, finishing second in the Breeders' Cup, but then won it as a 5-year-old.

“I see a lot of similarities between Mucho Macho Man and Channel Maker, how as they've gotten older how they've gotten so much better,” he added. “And I think they become so mentally tough. I just think Tax is going to have a tremendous year, and I hope we run well in the Pegasus.”

Reeves and Hill finished eighth in the 2017 Pegasus with Breaking Lucky and 12th in 2018 with Toast of New York, while Channel Maker was fifth in the 2019 Pegasus Turf, sparking Reeves to quip, “I'd have loved to have had Mucho Macho Man run in it.”

Mucho Macho Man was sent to stud at age 7 in 2015, his subsequent progeny including 2020 Pegasus World Cup winner Mucho Gusto. With both Tax and the 7-year-old gelding Channel Maker, a leading contender to be voted 2020's male turf champion, Reeves doesn't have to worry about a stallion career.

“Let me tell you: I used to go, 'Oh, it's a gelding. I don't want him,'” Reeves said. “Now, to have a gelding that can run and win money for you for four or five years is great. For Tax, we may run in the Pegasus three times with him or three more times. We may go to Dubai or Saudi Arabia with him. A lot of his competition is retired, so having a good gelding is not a bad deal.

“Channel Maker's another gelding. Look, it isn't all about being a stallion. I mean, we're in it for the races. Hey, if we can win it, they still pay you,” he added.

While Mucho Macho Man retired from the track to a palatial stud home, first at Adena Springs and now at Hill 'n' Dale Farms, most horses don't have such post-racing guarantees. The Reeves' are big supporters of the nonprofit Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, which accredits, inspects and awards grants to its approved aftercare organizations to retrain, retire and adopt out horses using industry-wide funding.

“It's important to make sure retired horses get a good home,” Dean Reeves said. “When you buy them, you think they're all going to be superstars. Some obviously have more talent than others, but that doesn't mean they're not trying. They become like family. When they do leave the nest, so to speak, you want to make sure who they're going to, keeping the (registration) papers so they don't race anymore, just doing your due diligence.

“We've gotten as much satisfaction seeing some of our horses come back as great dressage horses or eventing horses, where people send us pictures of them when they've won ribbons and awards. We just love that. We take a lot of pride in seeing them where they access in a second career,” he added.

The Reeveses also are supporters of accredited TAA facilities such as New Vocations in Lexington, Ky., and South Carolina's Equine Rescue of Aiken and other organizations. They are among the horse owners committing a percentage of any Breeders' Cup earnings, such as Channel Maker's third in the $4 million Longines Turf, to the TAA.

“Patti and Dean Reeves have been very successful in Thoroughbred racing, and they really do care about their horses long term,” said TAA operations consultant Stacie Clark Rogers. “Their stable has been very supportive of the TAA and of our TAA accredited organizations.”

Florida consultant Jay Stone and trainer Kathy Ritvo are instrumental in helping the Reeveses find new homes for their equine retirees. Patti Reeves says she works to spread their horses around and find the best match, including what its new career might be.

She points to Mac Daddy Mac as a prime example. The Reeveses purchased the colt after he won his debut at Santa Anita at 40-1 odds, finishing second in a Grade 3 stakes in his next start. A throat issue compromised his ability, and Mac Daddy Mac was ultimately retired after three more races spread over his 3- and 4-year-old seasons. Now he's finding success in the show world, with equestrian Ashley Keller retraining Mac Daddy Mac into an eventing horse at Chattahoochee Hills Eventing near Atlanta, where the Reeveses live.

“He was a great horse, just loved his job, had great personality,” Patti Reeves said. “We found a new home for him in the Atlanta area at Chattahoochee Hills Eventing. (Keller) taught him dressage, jumping, eventing. What she has done with this horse is amazing. He's just a great example of a horse that just because he couldn't race, he wasn't done. You're involved in racing, but that's just a short part of their life. We care about the entire program for the horse. We don't want to just be good to the horse while they're racing. We want to make sure they end up in good places and are treated well.”

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Spendthrift Welcomes A Third Met Mile Winner

While there’s never one fool-proof indicator for determining stallion potential, Spendthrift Farm has found one race that they feel consistently produces winners who draw their attention.

In the past four years, they’ve welcomed a trio of GI Metropolitan H. victors to their stud barn.

First was Mor Spirit (Eskendereya), the first Grade I-winning two-year-old to later win the Met Mile since Holy Bull in 1994. Then came Mitole, another son of Eskendereya who would go on to be named the 2019 Eclipse Champion Male Sprinter. This year, they welcome a third winner in five-time stakes-winning millionaire Vekoma (Candy Ride {Arg}).

“The Met Mile, every year, seems to be one of the most competitive races that is run,” said Spendthrift’s Stallion Sales Manager Mark Toothaker. “Everybody seems to point to that race. It just is a race that everybody has circled on their calendars. To have three Met Mile winners here at Spendthrift, they’ve all be supported very well and all have gotten really big books of mares, so now they just have to go do the deal on the racetrack.”

This most recent Met Mile hero was a 2017 $135,000 Keeneland September purchase for R.A. Hill Stable. The late-May foal made his winning debut in September of his 2-year-old year before taking the GIII Nashua S. at Aqueduct for an undefeated juvenile season.

Campaigned by R.A. Hill Stable and Gatsas Stables, Vekoma ran third in his sophomore debut in the GII Fountain of Youth S. behind eventual dual Grade I winner Code of Honor (Noble Mission {GB}). He became a top consideration on the Derby Trail after taking the GII Blue Grass S. in his next start.

After failing to fire in the GI Kentucky Derby and staying on the sidelines for the remainder of his sophomore year, Vekoma returned for his best season yet in 2020.

The George Weaver trainee first took the Sir Shackleton S. in March, then followed that effort with an overwhelming 7 1/4-length victory in the GI Runhappy Cater H. to register a 110 Beyer in the Belmont slop. One month later, he faced off with fellow Grade I winners Code of Honor, McKinzie (Street Sense) and Hog Creek Hustle (Overanalyze) in the GI Runhappy Metropolitan H.

“He broke well and just sat right there and waited until it was his time,” Toothaker said, recalling the race. “He got his cue in the stretch and opened up and drew off in what was a very, very dominating performance. [The Metropolitan H.] is always a very difficult race to win and this year was no different. It was a very talented field that he was able to beat that day, and he beat them pretty soundly.”

Although Vekoma was set to be a top choice in the GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint, a fever days before the raced forced him to scratch.

“It was very unfortunate that Vekoma didn’t get to run in the Sprint,” Toothaker said. “He was going to be the heavy favorite against that field. No knock against anyone, but I feel like Vekoma would have had that bunch over a barrel.”

Over his three-year career, the speedy chestnut was well known for his unique way of going. Toothaker admitted that this delayed Spendthrift’s consideration of the stallion prospect.

“I’ve known George Weaver for a long time and he called me one day and he said ‘Tooth, you’ve got to come see this horse.’ I said, ‘George, he’s got to be really crooked’ but he replied, ‘How many crooked horses do you know that I buy? Listen, he walks really well. We had no idea he did that until we breezed him.'”

Toothaker made the trip to New York to see the prospect and sure enough, he was sold at first sight.

“George picked me up at the airport and we went and looked at him and I loved him,” he recalled. “I thought he looked like a rocket ship. I’m thrilled to death to be able to have him here at Spendthrift.”

Vekoma will be the first son of Candy Ride (Arg) to join the Spendthrift stallion roster.

“Spendthrift has been looking for a son of Candy Ride for a while and we had not been able to land one that we really liked,” Toothaker said. “This horse, when we had a chance to see him, we felt like he was the one we had been looking for. Candy Ride’s sons are doing extremely well and we were very happy to land Vekoma.”

The dual Grade I winner is out of the Speightstown mare Mona de Momma, winner of the 2010 GI Humana Distaff S. and GIII Las Flores H. and a $1.55 million Keeneland November purchase for Vekoma’s breeder, Alpha Delta Stables. While Mona de Momma died soon after foaling Vekoma, his half-sister Bloody Point (War Front) earned over $100,000 and is now a producer. Big names under his third dam include influential sire Mr. Greeley (Gone West), champion juvenile and sire Street Sense (Street Cry {Ire}) and dual Grade I winner Paradise Woods (Union Rags).

Toothaker said that Vekoma’s physical trends strongly towards his female side.

“Vekoma really looks a lot like Speightstown,” he said. “I mean, I’ve had people come out and say they see Candy Ride in him as well, but to me, he looks very much like a lot of the Speightstowns you see out there. He’s got good bone, he’s got a really strong body and a good hip.”

Already, Toothaker is imagining the first foals from Vekoma.

“I can foresee him having just absolutely beautiful, rocket ship-like weanlings down the road. I think he’ll be a very precocious sire- his body looks very precocious. He was so fast and hated to loose. So we’re looking forward to getting mares to him this year and then seeing what the foals look like in 2022.”

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