Owners Content to Breed a Lack of Familiarity

To run or to breed, that has been the question for many of the thoroughbred owners who had horses eligible for the Breeders’ Cup, U.S. racing’s richest day, on Saturday at Santa Anita. Millions of dollars’ worth of horseflesh will be competing for millions of dollars in purse money at the Arcadia track, but an overriding theme for this year’s races concerns the horses that aren’t showing up.

Breeders’ Cup officials are putting on their best faces for the eight races worth about $14 million as the event comes to Southern California for the sixth time in 20 years, but there was a lot of frowning in recent weeks when Mineshaft, Empire Maker and Candy Ride dropped out, and owners and trainers of four of the best 2-year-olds in the country -- next year’s Kentucky Derby prospects -- also announced they weren’t coming.

One more setback for the Breeders’ Cup occurred last Monday, when a tendon injury waylaid Azeri, last year’s horse-of-the-year winner. The only celebrity horse left is Funny Cide, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness -- two-thirds of the Triple Crown -- in May. He is winless since then, and will be a longshot in the richest race in North America, the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Mineshaft, the best older horse in the country, and Empire Maker, who beat Funny Cide in the Belmont Stakes to deprive him of a Triple Crown sweep, were supposedly retired because of minor injuries, but cynical horsemen and fans have suggested that potentially lucrative breeding careers were behind the decisions to defect from Santa Anita. Both horses will be introduced to more than 100 mares next year -- and for many years after that -- at Kentucky farms that will be charging one-time stud fees of $100,000.

Empire Maker is owned by Khalid Abdullah, a 66-year-old Saudi Arabian prince who will be at Santa Anita, with an entourage of about 20, to watch three more of his horses run.

Without Arabian investors, U.S. horse auctions and racetracks would have suffered badly in the last two decades. An influx of Japanese money has also had an impact. But the Arabs, despite Croesus-like wealth, still have an affinity for the bottom line, both here and abroad. They too must balance their breeding and racing operations.

Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, made an appeal several years ago in England, where he has been horse racing’s leading owner.

“I am not exactly down to my last camel,” he said, “but it is important that my horses have the chance to run for higher purses.”

In the U.S., Bob Lewis, a 79-year-old Newport Beach man who recently retired as the head of a lucrative beer distributorship, buys, sells and races horses, quite frequently hitting home runs in big races. But he says his thoroughbred business doesn’t thrive on purse money alone.

“We need to keep selling horses to keep the business going,” said Lewis, who has twice won the Kentucky Derby as well as two Breeders’ Cup races.

Orientate, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint for Lewis and his wife Beverly, was quickly retired to stud, but the Lewises have been known to race their horses much longer. Silver Charm, their 1997 Derby winner, raced into his 5-year-old season.

“We have to make a lot of economic decisions,” Bob Lewis said. “When it comes time to make a determination about a horse, it depends on who’s buying and what they’re paying. The biggest financial gain comes when you sell a horse after they come off the track.”

In 1995, Lewis sold a stallion prospect named Hennessy for a reported $9 million, although he would not confirm the figure. Hennessy ran second to Unbridled’s Song in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, was beaten again in the Hollywood Futurity and was taken off the Kentucky Derby trail because of a bruised foot. He never raced as a 3-year-old, having had his best wins as a 2-year-old in sprints. But he was a well-bred son of Storm Cat, and John Magnier, the Irish breeder, and his partners made Lewis an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I’m sure they’re happy too,” Lewis said. “They’ve already quadrupled their investment with stud fees.”

Empire Maker, who would have been one of the favorites in the Classic, was retired when his trainer, Bobby Frankel, told Khalid Abdulla’s Juddmonte Farms manager, John Chandler, that he couldn’t get the colt ready in time for the Breeders’ Cup.

“They say this is the sport of kings, but it’s also a business,” Chandler said. “If a horse is a hot stallion prospect, like Empire Maker, we weigh what they might earn as a 4-year-old at the races and what they can command at stud. Waiting to start a horse at stud can sometimes be a costly mistake. You have to strike when the iron is hot. Fans can turn off the TV after a horse’s last race, pop open a can of beer and say we’ve done the wrong thing, but it’s not their investment.”

Bob Lewis said that in California, it costs about $3,500 a month to keep a horse in training. He doesn’t insure all of his horses when they’re running, but when he does, the costs can run as much as 4% of the horse’s value. So if a horse has a book value of $20 million, a one-year premium would cost $800,000.

“[Veterinarian] bills can run your expenses for a horse to $45,000 a year and more,” Lewis said. “And it seems like there are always vet bills. A horse has a bone chip that needs to be taken out, or there’s a cannon bone that needs to be fixed with a screw.”

Frankel, Juddmonte’s U.S. trainer, has stables in New York and California.

“A lot of the horses go back and forth,” Chandler said. “And every time they make a cross-country trip, it’s about $7,000.”

Occasionally, a horse will go to stud, then return to race. Bruce Headley, a California trainer, successfully bred, then re-raced, a couple of horses, Variety Road and Silveyville, in the 1980s. Seabiscuit, who had been injured, was bred to mares in 1939, then won the Santa Anita Handicap, his final race, in 1940. Carry Back and Candy Spots, both Kentucky Derby winners, were bred before their racing careers ended. “Horses can do both, if the farm exercises the stallion while he’s at stud, so he can remain fairly fit,” said veterinarian Jack Robbins. “But if it’s a stallion of any consequence, there’s always the chance he could be seriously hurt in a race and his stud value would go down.”

Ten Most Wanted, who ran second to Empire Maker in the Belmont before winning the Travers and the Super Derby while Empire Maker and Funny Cide were on the sidelines, is one of the favorites in Saturday’s Classic and is expected to continue running in 2004, as a 4-year-old.

But that doesn’t stop representatives of Kentucky breeding farms from visiting trainer Wally Dollase’s barn at Hollywood Park. Dollase, occupying the best of both worlds, is also one of the owners of Ten Most Wanted and the managing partner of the syndicate.

“The farms would like to have him right after this race,” Dollase said. “But I have a feeling that he’ll be an even better horse as a 4-year-old.”

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No Shows

Some of this year’s top horses will not take part in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup:

* Mineshaft, winner of seven of nine races as a 4-year-old, retired

* Empire Maker, Belmont Stakes winner, retired

* Candy Ride, Pacific Classic winner, being rested

* Azeri, 2002 horse of the year, tendon injury

* Ruler’s Court, likely favorite in the Juvenile after Norfolk Stakes victory, withdrawn

* Dalakhani, Arc de Triomphe winner, retired