Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
All eyes on Searing, Honor A. P.
DEL MAR, Calif. – First it was an uncle who played the daily double every racing day. Then came visits to Santa Anita and Hollywood Park to see the likes of Buckpasser, Round Table, and Swaps. Before there was Sunday racing in California, family trips to Caliente in Tijuana, which raced on Sundays, were part of the rotation.
Lee Searing was introduced to racing at a young age. His interest took hold and never left, and over the years he has progressed from passionate fan to passionate owner.
Searing and his wife, Susan, have won races like the Golden Shaheen in Dubai and the Santa Anita Derby, and have had narrow losses in Breeders’ Cup races, yet Searing, 71, might be the most prominent owner in the sport you don’t know much about. It’s not because he’s averse to press, just that he’s not one to seek the spotlight. But it has certainly found him this spring, as Honor A. P. – whom the Searings own under their C R K Stables banner – has progressed into one of the elite contenders for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.
Honor A. P. will have his final prep for the Derby on Saturday in the Shared Belief Stakes here at Del Mar, and Searing is overjoyed he can actually see it. The Thoroughbred Owners of California announced on Tuesday that beginning Friday an owner can attend races when their horses run at Del Mar, the first time that has been allowed on this circuit in four months. Searing, for one, won’t miss it.
“I’ll be driving down. This will be the first time, other than workouts, I can see my horses,” Searing said.
Searing, a resident of Claremont, Calif., has lived his whole life in Southern California, first near Pomona – where he watched races on the original half-mile oval at the fairgrounds there – and then Arcadia, hard by Santa Anita. The Searings’ children – Christina, Richard, and Katherine – whose initials were used for the stable name, attended Arcadia High School.
A privately owned steeltubing manufacturing business, originally started by Searing’s father, Richard, has grown under the direction of Searing and his brother Jim, and now has its longtime plant in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and a more recent one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The products made by Searing Industries are used in more ways than you could imagine, from wheelchairs to exercise equipment, bridges to freeways, and countless others. The success of Searing Industries has enabled Searing to play at a high level in racing, emphasizing quality over quantity.
“As long as the company does well and I do well, I want to compete at a high level,” he said. “I want to run in really good races at really good tracks.”
He buys about 10 to 14 yearlings per year. Two years ago, he bought a son of Honor Code for $850,000. The initial budget was $500,000. But Searing had told David Ingordo, who buys on his behalf and had recommended the horse, to stay on the phone with him in case the price went north of that. It did, and Searing had Ingordo keep going. Good thing. That horse turned out to be Honor A. P.
Last month’s victory by Honor A. P. in the Santa Anita Derby was the biggest local win the Searings have had. They also won the Golden Shaheen with Our New Recruit, won four graded stakes with the sprinter Kobe’s Back, and two graded stakes with Midcourt, who suffered a brutal loss to Maximum Security on Saturday in the San Diego Handicap, a race the Searings won in 2013 with Kettle Corn. Their most successful runner was the twotime Grade 1-winning sprinter Switch, who finished second (2011) and third (2012) in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Their only Kentucky Derby runner was Candy Boy, who finished 13th in 2014 two starts after capturing the Robert Lewis Stakes.
Susan Searing, now retired after 37 years as a specialeducation teacher, names many of the runners. The Searings are big Lakers fans, the inspiration for runners like Courtside, Draft Pick, Kobe’s Back, and Midcourt.
The development of Midcourt has been one of the great local success stories, a testament to the patient work of John Shirreffs, who also trains Honor A. P. “Midcourt would twist and turn and dump the rider. John took six months getting him to comply,” Searing said. “I don’t know a better trainer who could take that time and develop him. The way he handles horses is remarkable.”
That long-term, patient approach is evident with Honor A. P., who has made four starts in a career interrupted by a foot bruise in January and later the coronavirus pandemic. It has paid off with a horse who is now a top contender for the Derby, and whose breeding rights have already been acquired by Lane’s End Farm, the home of Honor Code and where grandsire A.P. Indy resided until his death in February.
“He’ll run through his 4-yearold year,” Searing said. “You live for having a horse like this.”