Travis Foley | Horse Racing Free Tips

Foley Family Teaching New Lessons at Old School Stable

It was a day Greg Foley will never forget when his stable got to the winner's circle for not just one, but two stakes wins last Saturday at Ellis Park. The barn's beloved Bango (Congrats) added to his already impressive resume when he took the Kelly's Landing S. Not long after, Stitched (Mizzen Mast) pulled a 46-1 upset in the GII Wise Dan S. to give Foley his second career Grade II victory.

“It was an exciting day for sure,” Foley said later the following week. “It was one of biggest days, if not the biggest day, of my career. The whole family was there–my wife Sheree, my sister Vickie, and my two sons.”

How did they celebrate?

“Well we went back to the barn to check the horses out. The crew had a couple of beers back at the barn. Sheree and I actually drove back to Louisville and I think we got a Big Mac on the way home.”

That last part was added with a grin and a wink as Foley sat in his office at Barn 11 at Churchill Downs, where the Greg Foley Racing Stable signage has been a constant presence for several decades. A second-generation horseman, Foley began training on his own in 1981. Since then, he has made his mark as one of the winningest trainers in the history of his home track at Churchill Downs, but now, as new members of the Foley family join the operation, it might be that their barn is just getting started.

Not only has his sister Vickie Foley, herself a Grade I-winning trainer, molded her barn in with her brother's and become his assistant, but now Greg's two sons Travis and Alex have joined the 60-horse stable as well.

Travis, 39, has an MBA and worked in the business world for a few years, but he soon found out that corporate life was not for him. When his father asked if he would be interested in setting up their stable for the winter at Fair Ground 11 years ago, he agreed and has stuck around ever since.

Alex, 31, earned a law degree but also found his way back to racing and now heads up the Foley base at Ellis Park.

A packed winner's circle for the GII Wise Dan | Coady

With an impish laugh, Travis Foley describes working for his father as both awesome and terrible. He explained that while he and his brother have the utmost respect for their father's abilities as a trainer, their goal has been to use their business backgrounds to help grow the operation.

“Horsemanship-wise, Dad is as good as there is,” he explained. “My brother and I, we're just more social than he is. He's more of a barn guy and we're kind of the social guys. So it's a full-service operation and we've developed a pretty good team. It comes down to trying to do everything you can to win races and do right by the horses, but also make sure owners feel connected and have fun.”

While their father does just fine with his flip phone, the brothers are making sure owners receive updates through training and workout videos and they've also established an online presence for the stable with a website and social media channels.

Perhaps the greatest contribution the sibling pair is making is through their drive to go out and find the next generation of clientele.

Stitched is the first horse that the Foleys have trained for Nathan McCauley. When McCauley bought back his homebred as a yearling, he put together a partnership with friends and, having formed a relationship with Travis and Alex, sent the colt to the Foley barn.

Greg Foley and Grade II winner Stitched | Katie Petrunyak

A smart, good-moving 2-year-old, Stitched was a stable favorite from the start and the team had high hopes when he made his debut at Fair Grounds in December of 2021.

“He ran horrible,” Greg Foley recalled. “He was last, got beat like 25 lengths. You just sit there thinking, 'What the heck is this? No way this horse could have run that bad.' He's by Mizzen Mast and has a lot of turf breeding, so we put him on the grass next time and he wins at a big price. We actually ran him back in a one-other-than at Fair Grounds that same meet and he won again.”

Stitched went on to claim a pair of stakes wins as a 3-year-old, but got a knee chip later in his sophomore season that required surgery. He returned this spring at four, but was disappointing in his first three efforts. Even still, Foley believed that the bay's ability was much better than his recent performances indicated.

Foley debated between sending Stitched to the Wise Dan or the $100,000 Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial S. the following weekend at Horseshoe Indianapolis, but he decided to go with his gut and opt for the Grade II.

“Thank goodness we went in the race at Ellis,” Foley joked. “He ran huge. He was training great, like he would run a very good race, but we were jumping into the toughest race of his life. He's just a neat horse and is very smart. He's fun to be around.”

Foley said that their team is planning to head to the Kentucky Downs meet for Stitched to make his next start.

While the Foleys are enjoying early success with McCauley and his group, Bango's owners have been longtime supporters of the Foley stable.

Fred and Debbie Schwartz of Tamaroak Partners sent Bango's dam Josaka to Foley in 2009. The daughter of Smart Strike showed promise when she broke her maiden at three, but an injury forced her into an early retirement. Her first foal Eton Ridge (Stephen Got Even) launched his career with Foley and went on to become a stakes winner, but it was her fourth foal who would become a real star.

Now six years old, Bango is Foley's highest-earning trainee with eight stakes wins to his credit. The millionaire has won a stake every year since he was three, including the 2021 and 2023 editions of the Kelly's Landing.

“It takes a very special horse to just stay around that long,” said Foley. “I think he's as good right now as he's ever been. He looks amazing out of the race the other day. He's just dappled from head to toe and is a very sound horse to keep running up through a 6-year-old year.”

Optimistic that racing will return to Churchill Downs this fall, Foley said they are aiming Bango for a start in September in Louisville. Bango is one win away from tying the Churchill Downs all-time win mark, which is now held by Ready's Rocket (More Than Ready) from 2005 to 2012. While Bango came close to achieving the goal when he ran second to Gunite (Gun Runner) in the Aristides S. on June 3, Foley said their team has continued to eye the current record of 11 wins.

In the meantime, Bango's 2-year-old full-brother named Evan On Earth is approaching his debut.

Perhaps flying a bit under the radar amidst all the celebration last Saturday, Stitched's victory in the Wise Dan also provided Foley with his 1,500^th career win.

Greg, Travis and Alex Foley | courtesy Travis Foley

Travis Foley has watched firsthand as his father has remained steadfast through the many ups and downs of the sport and he believes his father's achievements can be accredited to a love of the game, but first and foremost, a love of the horse.

“Being a horse trainer is about discipline and doing it win, lose or draw, every day,” he said. “His ability to persevere through the tough times is really impressive. The way he is here regardless of what happened in the races, he just loves being with his horses. Kudos to him to be able to grind it out for his whole life, but to him it's not even a grind. He loves it. He lights up when he goes into the barn.”

Foley has been, and probably always will be, more interested in tending to his pupils back at the barn rather than going out and recruiting clients. Now, he has the next generation of Foleys helping to shine a light on what makes their father's expertise such a rarity.

“It's very deserved for him,” Travis said. “We're getting more clients and more money behind us and you're seeing some of the results stem from that.”

As for the seasoned horseman himself, Foley said he is grateful for the work his sons have put in to advance their stable, but also for the opportunity he has to work with his family on a daily basis.

“I don't think any of us planned for them to be doing this,” Foley admitted. “Whatever happened, they found their way back over here to the racetrack and I love it. That's what they want to do and they're doing a great job. I'm really proud of both of them.”

The post Foley Family Teaching New Lessons at Old School Stable appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Risen Star: Relationship Building Brings O Besos, West Point Thoroughbreds Together

Jeff Lifson, the executive vice president of West Point Thoroughbreds, always knew when the young, up and coming horseman Travis Foley made the call for him to buy into a horse, it would be for the right reason. It may have taken a bit longer than both had anticipated, but a partnership long in the making finally came to fruition this winter when West Point bought into Foley's Tagg Team Racing and Barrett Bernard's lightly raced O Besos, who has the look of a major contender in Saturday's $400,000 Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, La.

Lifson met Foley, trainer Greg Foley's son and assistant, several years ago on the backstretch at Churchill Downs and a friendship was born. Greg Foley has long been a Kentucky mainstay and West Point has long been the same on the national scene. The Foley family routinely sells an interest in their horses, and West Point has never shied from getting a piece of a nice prospect. A mutually beneficial relationship made perfect sense.

“I've gotten to know Travis over the years because we've had horses with Dale Romans and their barns are right near each other (at Churchill),” Lifson said. “They've always wanted to find a horse to get in with West Point because I think they like how we work, so we've tried to connect over the years. Travis called me a day or so before Christmas and said, 'I think I've got one for you.'”

The “one” was O Besos, a son of Orb who had run a troubled, but encouraging, sixth on debut November 11 at Churchill, making up several lengths in the stretch after a tardy beginning. He used that experience builder as a prelude to his maiden win December 20 in his Fair Grounds debut, when he settled in fourth early before exploding late for a 5 ½-length win going 5 ½ furlongs.

Foley knew the time was right to reach out to Lifson, who was immediately intrigued.

“I watched the replay and everything kind of came together,” Lifson said. “I told Terry (Finley, West Point president and CEO) to watch the race and he was excited too. Even the Churchill sixth was a good race. Travis and I trust each other and they only want to enhance the relationship, so if they didn't like the horse, they wouldn't have called.”

West Point reached the pinnacle of the sport in 2017 when Always Dreaming, a horse they bought into prior to his win in the Florida Derby (G1), won the Kentucky Derby, which added to a trophy case that includes countless other graded stakes wins. Still, Lifson knows things aren't always as they seem, and buying into a young horse can be filled with pitfalls, too. With O Besos, who showed maturity beyond his years while settling behind horses and kicking clear late in his races, he knew West Point was getting a colt with a future that was squarely in front of him.

“You always worry about being late and not first to the party,” Lifson said. “Sometimes it works out fine, but other times they don't pan out. You're always guessing 'Is this the one?' But for a young horse, you couldn't ask for a better education. A lot of times a young horse will gun early, improve their position, and just bury others, but you don't always know what you have. Our best horses of all-time have not necessarily been the go to the lead types. If you want to dream the dream, you have to have a horse that has no problem with the challenges they will get during a race.”

West Point bought into O Besos after his maiden win and he ran for the new partnership for the first time in a local January 17 allowance. He again broke a step slow, trailed the six-horse field early, then once again powered home late, this time between horses, while winning by 2 ¼ lengths and getting the six furlongs in a sharp 1:10.57. Once again O Besos showed he doesn't need things his own way to deliver a top performance, which impressed Foley.

“In the 1X, I didn't really know how he ended up where he did, but in the aftermath, we're glad he did, we got a really good schooling, had to go in between horses,” Foley said. “That was a nice group too, and he pretty much beat them in a gallop.”

O Besos gets thrown into the deep end of the pool in the 1 1/8-mile Risen Star, as he'll run past 6 ½ furlongs and try two turns for the first time. As a son of Orb, who won the Derby in 2013, he's certainly bred for the added ground, and has a running style that figures to appreciate distance as well, though Foley knows you have to run them to find out for sure.

“The big question is whether or not he can stretch (out), especially going from three quarters to a mile and an eighth, but he looks like he's really getting going right at the end,” Foley said. “Some closing sprinters will fool you, but he deserves the chance. He has to prove it but he leads you to believe he will do it. If he can do it, great, if not, there's a lot of other options too.”

West Point have been down this path before—literally—as their stretch-running Commanding Curve was sixth in the 2014 Risen Star before building off that to run third in the Louisiana Derby before running second in the Kentucky Derby. Lifson won't complain if lightning were to strike twice.

“Ideally, we hope he'll handle two turns, run well, and we'll take the next step to the (March 20) Louisiana Derby,” Lifson said.” You can't argue with the Risen Star since we have a nice horse who has won a couple of races over that track. It's all a progression and we're hoping he can take it.”

O Besos is part of a robust 13-horse Risen Star field that is by far the deepest and most competitive Kentucky Derby prep to date, and it will award a total of 85 Derby qualifying points (50-20-10-5).

The field, from the rail out, with jockeys and trainers, is as follows:
Trainer Dallas Stewart Racing Stable's and WinStar Farm's homebred Starrininmydreams (post 1 with Brian Hernandez Jr.);
Godolphin's homebred Proxy (post 2 with John Velazquez for Mike Stidham);
Marylou Whitney Stables' homebred Beep Beep (post 3 with Miguel Mena for Norm Casse);
Greg Tramontin, Joel Politi, Brittlyn Stable, and Asaro Enterprises' Carillo (post 4 with James Graham for Tom Amoss);
Joe Peacock Jr.'s homebred Senor Buscador (post 5 with Luis Quinonez for Todd Fincher);
Winchell Thoroughbreds' Midnight Bourbon (post 6 with Joe Talamo for Steve Asmussen);
Barrett Bernard, Tagg Team Racing, and West Point Thoroughbreds' O Besos (post 7 with Marcelino Pedroza for Greg Foley);
Kevin Porter's Sermononthemount (post 8 with Declan Carroll for Tim Dixon);
Nice Guys Stables, Manganaro Bloodstock, and Steve Hornstock's Defeater (post 9 with Dean Saenz for Amoss);
Calumet Farm's homebred Santa Cruiser (post 10 with Adam Beschizza for Keith Desormeaux);
Juddmonte Farms' homebred Mandaloun (post 11 with Florent Geroux for Brad Cox);
Cypress Creek Equine, Arnold Bennewith, and Spendthrift Farm's Keepmeinmind (post 12 with David Cohen for Robertino Diodoro);
Wayne T. Davis' Rightandjust (post 13 with Mitchell Murrill for Shane Wilson).

The post Risen Star: Relationship Building Brings O Besos, West Point Thoroughbreds Together appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Major Fed Team Decides To Skip Ellis Park Derby, Train Up To Kentucky Derby

Major Fed, runner-up in the Indiana Derby on July 8, had been under consideration for Sunday's Ellis Park Derby at the Henderson, Ky. track. Instead, Travis Foley, assistant and son to trainer Greg Foley, told the Daily Racing Form that the 3-year-old son of Ghostzapper will head straight to the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.

Based at Churchill Downs, Major Fed worked a half-mile beneath the Twin Spires in :50.20 on Aug. 1.

“We're happy with where we are with him and comfortable with the points situation,” the younger Foley told drf.com. “Everything's good and we didn't feel like we needed the race in between.”

Major Fed also owns a second-place finish in the G2 Risen Star Stakes, and a fourth from the G2 Louisiana Derby, leaving him with a total of 38 points toward the Kentucky Derby. He currently sits 16th on the points leaderboard.