Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Totally Boss farm fresh for BC
A horse is a horse, of course, of course – even when that horse is a graded stakes winner who is one of the favorites for a Breeders’ Cup race. So Jim and Susan Hill of Margaux Farm make sure that their stable star Totally Boss gets to act like the horse he is between races by coming back to the farm, a training method that has taken him to the threshold of a tilt at the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.
Totally Boss does not just spend his winter break at Margaux in Midway, Ky., about 20 minutes from trainer Rusty Arnold’s Keeneland base. He spends time at the farm between each of his races.
At a racetrack or training center, life is more regimented and access to turnout is limited. Totally Boss gets to spend time in a grass paddock, behaving like a normal horse instead of a competitive athlete, which has both mental and physical benefits. The gelding is able to remain racing-fit and ready for action because Margaux has several training facilities, including all-weather straight and undulating tracks that allow training regardless of weather, and a turf course.
“Mr. Hill likes to do that, and it works great for this horse,” said Arnold, who also will saddle graded stakes winner Leinster for owner Amy Dunne in the Turf Sprint. “He sent him in to me late this year. I only had the horse like two weeks before he made his first start. He won. We sent him back home, he came back happy.
“He doesn’t just go home and lay in a paddock. He comes back usually three weeks before he runs, and with this horse, it’s worked great.”
The Hills, of Calgary, Alberta, became partners in the original 320-acre Margaux Farm in 2012, along with Steve and Shelley Johnson and Joseph and Lynn Fowler. The following year, the Hills purchased 370 acres adjoining the property. In 2014, the couple bought out their partners, expanded Margaux onto their additional acreage and further developed the operation, including its training facilities.
Earlier this year, the Hills made another investment in their operation by hiring Richard Budge as their farm manager. Budge was the head trainer at WinStar Farm for nearly two decades, overseeing the early lessons for young horses including Triple Crown winner Justify.
“My wife and I enjoy racing at Keeneland very much, but also prefer to have our horses freshening during the winter,” Jim Hill said. “Margaux Farm allows us to do both. We can keep our horses in Kentucky enjoying winter turnout in groups in large paddocks, but also we can start their conditioning for the spring meet with daily exercise on our synthetic gallop and synthetic straightaway.”
Totally Boss, 4, purchased as a yearling by the Hills, has emerged from his winter freshening at Margaux to win 4 of 5 starts this year. His only loss came when he was beaten a nose by graded stakes winner Om in a salty allowance race at Churchill Downs.
“We thought his race at Churchill showed he belonged, the race where he got beat,” Arnold said. “His first two were conditioned allowance races, but when he got beat in that race, that was a good field. We thought at that point he was a good horse.”
Totally Boss will come in to the Breeders’ Cup off backto-back stakes victories in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint at Ellis Park and the Grade 3 Runhappy Turf Sprint Stakes on Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs. After the Kentucky Downs win, the gelding was in line for a $1 million bonus if he could add wins in the Grade 2 Woodford Stakes on Oct. 4 at Keeneland and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. But the Hills and Arnold resisted the temptation in favor of giving Totally Boss his usual time at Margaux, then training him up to the Breeders’ Cup.
“He’s really turned it around, figured it out,” Jim Hill said.
“He gets stronger every race, so we’re happy.”
Totally Boss adds to a roster of top performers in the Hills’s colors, including Grade 1 winner Grand Arch and graded stakes winners Daddy Is a Legend, Go Blue or Go Home, Sharp Sensation, Solid Appeal, and Tizahit. The Margaux staff also starts young horses for other owners and trainers at its training facilities, with graduates including Gunpowder Farms’s multiple Grade 1 winner Divisidero. The farm will have another rooting interest in this year’s Breeders’ Cup in Allied Racing Stable’s multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Money, who is expected for the Dirt Mile. Other trainers who have received horses from the farm also have sung its praises.
“It’s always a smooth transition to full training when horses come in from Margaux in such good condition,” said Brian Lynch, who trained Totally Boss earlier in his career. “Their strong fitness level makes it easy to go right on with them at the racetrack.”
Totally Boss and stablemate Leinster have gone on with his preparations for the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, with plans to ship to Santa Anita on the Tuesday of Breeders’ Cup week. Both individuals worked Oct. 20, followed by their final series breezes for Arnold on Friday – Leinster on the turf, but Totally Boss on the dirt.
“He’s a better work horse on the dirt,” Arnold said. “We’ve always kept him on the dirt. I think he’s only worked on the turf one time . . . . Everything has been smooth sailing so far.”