Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Ownership by committee
It is said that a racehorse is an animal that can take several thousand people for a ride at the same time. Certainly, when Justify turned for home in the Belmont Stakes, he was carrying far more than jockey Mike Smith with him. The Triple Crown winner’s ownership line in the program, listed in alphabetical order, included China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm – and that doesn’t even fully encompass the number of individuals with a vested rooting interest.
Justify was born at Glennwood Farm in Versailles, Ky., operated by the fatherdaughter team of John and Tanya Gunther.
“It’s been so exciting for the whole farm,” Tanya Gunther said. “Everyone is so excited they were part of this horse’s journey – they remember him as a foal, prepping him as a yearling, taking him to the sale. It’s brought everyone together – they never thought this would happen, and they’re so proud. We’re so proud. I grew up thinking about Secretariat and watching those races, so to see our horse, his name with those great horses of history . . . wow.”
Justify, who is from the penultimate crop of Coolmore sire Scat Daddy, is out of Grade 3-placed Stage Magic. The Ghostzapper mare also was bred, and campaigned, by the Gunthers, and there are physical and personality traits shared by the mare and her famed son.
“They’ve got a similar hind end, in terms of the hind leg,” Tanya Gunther said. “He’s a bigger, stronger ‘man’ of a horse, of course, but they do share a lot of similarities in terms of their physical traits. And she’s also a mare who knows what she wants. I’ve heard [trainer Bob Baffert] talk about how he’ll tolerate you for a minute and then
Justify took his diverse ownership group on the ride of a lifetime
he’s kind of done. She is exactly like that. When she’s foaled, she’ll let a couple people in there, but if there’s too many, she’ll let you know.”
Glennwood consigned Justify to the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale, where he went through the ring as Hip No. 50, in the early hours of the bellwether auction. Kenny and Lisa Troutt’s WinStar Farm, in partnership with the China Horse Club, appeared on the $500,000 sales ticket. Also involved in the purchase was SF Racing, overseen by executives from George Soros’s investment firm.
“This is a great ownership group,” WinStar president and chief executive Elliott Walden said after the Kentucky Derby. Teo Ah Khing “and the China Horse Club and SF Bloodstock, who is also involved with all our 3-year-olds. They just came to us two years ago. And we put together a partnership to try to buy some 3-year-old colts, yearling colts at the time. And it gave us more opportunity – typically, we would put 20 colts in training for this opportunity to try to get here each year. And it gave us an opportunity to put 30 with the extra resources.”
WinStar, which has won Eclipse Awards as both outstanding owner and breeder, was established in 2000 by Kenny Troutt
and Bill Casner, who purchased the former Prestonwood Farm to house their operation. Casner left the partnership in 2010. Over its fairly brief history compared to other prominent Kentucky operations, WinStar has grown by leaps and bounds and currently sprawls across 2,400 acres in Versailles. As it built up one of the largest stud rosters in the heart of horse country, WinStar constructed a state-of-the-art new stallion facility in 2013 that currently houses 21 stallions.
“Our racing stable is geared towards trying to produce stallion opportunities,” Walden said. At the sales, “we first look at pedigree and try to look through the catalog . . . and then look for the right physical. That sounds easy, but it does eliminate a lot of horses that are potentially very good racehorses. You can fall in love with a horse physically, but then you look at the page, and you think, ‘Is this a horse that we’re going to stand in the stud barn?’ And the answer is no a lot of times, so we try to start with the end in mind.”
The China Horse Club, founded in 2013, is the brainchild of Malaysian billionaire Teo Ah Khing, a Harvard-educated architect whose company designed and built Meydan, home of the Dubai World Cup. In seeking to develop the racing industry in China – which does not yet allow parimutuel wagering – Teo describes China Horse Club as a “lifestyle club,” attempting to build interest in the culture of high-end Thoroughbred racing.
“If I had to be honest with you, of course we set up a five-year plan,” Teo said after the Belmont Stakes. “This is our third-year plan. It has gone beyond our five-year plan. We have to go back to the drawing board.”
Justify received his early training at WinStar Farm – and also, while there, received his official name.
Executive assistant “Amy Nave helps me with names, and she does a remarkable job because we have 30 to name each year, and we look for strong names that can be stallion kind of names. We’ve had Commissioner, Creator, Constitution, strong names,” Walden explained. “A lot of times we use biblical names, and Justify is a term in Romans 9 and 10, talks about being justified by faith, and it was a name that was available.”
After Justify won his first start impressively on Feb. 18, the bandwagon needed more room. While SF Racing retained its breeding rights in the colt, it sold its racing rights to Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners and to Jack and Laurie Wolf’s Starlight Racing in deals completed in March. Ten partners from Louisville are involved in Starlight’s share, and Justify made them the first Louisville residents to own a Kentucky Derby winner since Old Rosebud, campaigned by H.C. Applegate in 1914.
“I was there for that,” Jack Wolf joked after the Derby.
Kumin focuses his wide-ranging Thoroughbred investments on horses who have already proven themselves on the racetrack.
“Obviously, our group was super-fortunate to be allowed to participate,” Kumin said of the stake in Justify. “I went out to the Santa Anita Derby and spent a lot of time with Bob, and I just saw the way he looked at this horse and the way he was acting around the barn. Came back and said this thing has got to be the real deal, because you could just feel it from his body language.”
Justify indeed proved to be the real deal, resulting in crowded winner’s circle celebrations at Churchill Downs, Pimlico, and Belmont Park. And while the colt is now back in California, training toward potential summer and fall starts, his crew hasn’t given up the thrill of the Triple Crown chase.
WinStar and China Horse Club purchased 13 yearlings in partnership at last year’s Keeneland September sale, led by a $725,000 Ghostzapper colt now named Fearless.
The Kentucky Derby “is the race everyone wants to win,” Walden said as he and Troutt accepted the Kentucky Derby trophy at an annual ceremony in June at Churchill Downs. “That’s what we get up every morning and try to do, year in, year out. Starting now, we’re looking for next year.”
Meanwhile, looking even farther down the road, the Gunthers have a yearling Will Take Charge colt at Glennwood who is a half-brother to their Triple Crown winner. The family may retain the colt and campaign him themselves.
“It’s so tempting to keep him and try to live the dream a little bit longer,” Tanya Gunther said.
“He’s a good-looking horse. The dream lives on.”