Showing Some Horse Sense : Owning a Stable Beats Retirement for Bob and Beverly Lewis

The last few years have been almost head-spinning for Bob Lewis.

In 1990, Lewis decided to turn over the everyday responsibility of running his beer distributorship company to his oldest son, Jeff.

Lewis, 71, could have sat back and, with his wife of 48 years, Beverly, enjoyed the good life from their home with a delightful view of the bay off Lido Island in Newport Beach.

They could have taken some ocean cruises on the 60-foot boat anchored at their private dock only yards away. Or played golf now and then. Or maybe just have taken more time to enjoy the home they also have in Sun Valley, Ida., when the snow piles high among the pines.

But not Lewis.

“Retirement would never have been the right thing for Bob,” Beverly said.

Together they decided to begin a new career as owners of a thoroughbred racing stable.

And they have been remarkably successful.

They had two horses in the Kentucky Derby this year, Serena’s Song and Timber Country. Neither won the Derby, but Timber Country, whose ownership they share with two others, won the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown.

And the filly Serena’s Song has been the sweetheart of thoroughbred racing all year.

Recently she won the $500,000 Haskell Handicap at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, becoming the first filly to win the race. It was her 11th victory in 19 races and boosted her career earnings to $1.8 million.

Five years ago, the Lewises had only a couple of horses they had purchased at Fairplex Park in Pomona.

Today the number has risen to more than 60, with 40 racing at various tracks around the country. They bought eight yearlings at the Keeneland sales in July, paying as much as $700,000 for one of the colts with rich A.P. Indy breeding.

“I guess I’ve never been able to do anything in moderation,” Lewis said with a laugh.

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Their stable is handled by several trainers. Among them is Wayne Lukas, the nation’s leading money winner for 10 consecutive years and 11 of the last 12. Lukas trains Serena’s Song and Timber Country, as well as several other Lewis horses.

Lukas spotted Serena’s Song at the yearling sales two years ago, and Lewis bought her for only $150,000, a price made paltry by her success the last two years.

“She fell through the cracks, but I remember at the time Wayne sort of punched me and said, ‘You just bought one of the most athletic yearlings I’ve ever seen,’ and he was right,” Lewis said. “He said he felt she was strong enough right then to run against the 2-year-olds.”

The Lewises have a special affection for Serena’s Song.

“I tell people we’ve been fortunate to have two sons and a daughter, but I almost feel as though we have two daughters when you count Serena’s Song,” he said, smiling. “We realize how fortunate we are to have her. She’s the epitome of a race horse. She just flows.”

But Serena’s Song and Timber Country aren’t their only horses that have been successful lately.

A 2-year-old, Hennessy, won the Hollywood Park Juvenile. Lewis said Hennessy probably will race at Del Mar in the current meeting and possibly in the next Breeder’s Cup. Laguna Seca, a 3-year-old filly, also has done well, and they have high hopes for a 2-year-old filly, Miraloma.

But the Lewis horse worth watching closely later on is Dr. Caton, a 2-year-old, who is expected to make his first start this fall.

The colt is named for Dr. William Caton, the Pasadena neurosurgeon who treated Lukas’ son, Jeff, an assistant trainer, when he was nearly trampled to death by Tabasco Cat at Santa Anita in 1993. He has fully recovered from the injuries.

“We went through it all on almost a day-to-day basis with the Lukases in the sense of our concern for Jeff’s well-being and our concern for their family,” Lewis said.

Beverly Lewis recalls that Lukas was the first to suggest naming the horse Dr. Caton, but the Lewises eagerly approved.

“We told him we’d definitely like it to be one of our horses,” she said. “And I remember saying to him, ‘Well, pick a good one.’ And Wayne said, ‘I already have.’

“From what we were told later, Wayne had asked several of the people who work for him about which young horse was potentially the best they had, and all five of them picked the same horse. That’s the horse named for Dr. Caton. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could make Dr. Caton a very famous horse?”

As in winning-the-Kentucky-Derby famous. And winning a Triple Crown?

“We’re dreamers, but I think you have to be dreamers in this sport,” Beverly Lewis said.

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The decision to become involved with thoroughbred racing was hardly a bolt out of the blue.

Bob Lewis grew up in Glendale, and going to the races at Santa Anita was a favorite pastime for his parents.

“It sort of became a family ritual on Saturday when Santa Anita was running,” he said. “And my parents would go to Hollywood Park after it opened too. They’d take me along some of the time.”

The Lewises met at the University of Oregon, and they went to Portland Meadows Race Track together on dates during college.

Their honeymoon was to Tijuana and Del Mar. “We were married on a Saturday and on Sunday we went to the races at Caliente, and, as it happened, Del Mar opened the following Monday, so we went there next,” Beverly Lewis said. “Our three-day honeymoon involved three days at the races.”

Lewis’ father was an executive with the California Brewers Assn., and Lewis also gravitated to that business after college, first taking a job with a distributing company in Los Angeles.

“Finally, though, Beverly and I decided that if we were ever going to have two nickels to rub together, we probably should go into business for ourselves, and we became a distributor in Pomona,” he said.

There were some early financial struggles, but Lewis gradually built up the business, and horse racing turned out to be an important part of it.

Lewis landed the contract to distribute beer to Santa Anita 38 years ago, a relationship that continues. His company also has sold beer to other tracks in California, and it continued to expand into other areas as well.

“The business has been very good to us,” Lewis said.

Their financial success has enabled the Lewises to pledge $5 million to help establish a family cancer care facility in Pomona named in their honor as well as being prominent in racing.

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Lewis was briefly a thoroughbred owner 20 years ago in partnerships with some friends in the brewing industry, but he was not actively involved.

About 10 years ago, he owned a few harness horses for a while. That, he said, evolved from his associations at Fairplex Park. But that also didn’t last long.

When he became involved again with thoroughbreds five years ago, he again began modestly.

“We bought two horses at the start,” Lewis said. “One of them never hit the board in 11 races before finally winning, and the other had to be destroyed.”

“But we didn’t let that deter our interest. We bought a horse named Sunshine Machine. He was a real hard-knocker and won his first race for us at Hollywood Park with Laffit Pincay aboard. With that experience, we were bitten, and it just went on from there.”

Actually, it surged, and the Lewises were racing several horses at American tracks and had a horse named Fatherland in the Epsom Derby in England three years ago.

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This past year has been particularly successful. Are the Lewises surprised?

“Astounded,” Lewis said. “Our horses won 11 graded races in the last year, and six of them were Grade I.”

Lewis couldn’t resist joking a little about the good fortune: “Not bad for a couple of country bumpkins, although people have been nice enough to say we made some good moves as well.”

Lewis said they decided five years ago to treat their new involvement in thoroughbred racing as a business, not an expensive hobby.

“One of the things Beverly and I said when we got into this was that we weren’t going to let ourselves become emotionally attached to any of these horses,” he said. “But you can’t have these magnificent animals around you and not feel differently. You gain a great deal of respect and love for them. You can’t avoid that.”

Lewis said he’s especially fond of a 6-year-old gelding named Competitive Edge. “He’s had all kind of physical problems, but he keeps coming back. He’ll be running in some of the lower claiming races, but as far as we’re concerned he’s a part of the family.”

But there is a bottom line to all this, and Lewis asks his trainers to respect that. But he also gives them the opportunity to run the show.

“You never feel any pressure from him, which allows you to train the horses the way you think they need to be trained,” said Bob Baffert of Huntington Beach, who has charge of some Lewis horses. “And when he does get a good one, he lets you handle it the same way. Some owners tend to want to push the horse a little in that situation. He lets you do the coaching.”

Baffert notes that Lewis also maintains reasonable expectations.

“He understands the ups and downs of the business, and knows there’s going to be be both good and bad, and he’s very trusting,” Baffert said.

Lukas calls Lewis an ideal owner.

“He’s an unbelievable asset to our sport because of his enthusiasm and upbeat attitude,” Lukas said. “He has such a strong belief in the sport and he sells it wherever he goes . . . in airports, at lunches, no matter where he is.

“And he’s he kind of owner who doesn’t hold back. He’s ready to step up to the plate with his money, and it’s worked out for him. I haven’t looked at the books on it lately, but I feel certain he’s had a profitable year, especially based on the number of horses involved.”

Lukas believes the future outlook is even better. The Lewis stable is relatively young with more than 40 of the horses 4 or younger.

“The 3-year-olds are very good, and he has a great group of 2-year-olds,” Lukas said. “I think it will continue through the yearlings he’s bought and beyond that. And I think Dr. Caton is going to be a major horse.”

Top horses also have huge value in the breeding industry once their racing careers end. “People are already coming to him with offers,” Lukas said.

But the Lewises are too busy enjoying themselves to think too much about that.

They’ve been traveling around the country lately watching their horses. “We feel we have a responsibility to our trainers to show enthusiasm and offer our support,” Lewis said.

Earlier this year, they were at the Eclipse Awards dinner in Washington, took a flight to Florida the next day to watch one of their horses, then were back at Santa Anita for another race a day later.

“My mother and father have been having more fun with this than they can believe,” Jeff Lewis said. “But my father has always been a very entrepreneurial person, and so this isn’t just a lark that they’ve had some good luck with. They’re very involved from a business standpoint.”

And on workdays when he’s not involved with the racing stable, Bob Lewis still goes to the office he keeps at his company in Pomona, although he says it’s more to visit with friends and have lunch with his son than anything else.

“The involvement in racing has been a great transition for us,” Lewis said. “I don’t think anything we’ve ever done has been more enjoyable. And Beverly’s willingness and cooperation have made it that much better.”

And, Lewis added: “No matter what happens, I think we could say it was one hell of a go and a great experience.”