Vol. XLV January, 2009
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THE SYNDICATED COLUMN
I am happy to announce a new addition to the ThoroFan Voice, a weekly Syndicated Column. The inaugural edition profiles four syndicate racing groups: Karakorum Thoroughbred Partnerships, Mosaic Stables, Parting Glass Racing, LLC, and Sackatoga Stables LLC.
 Karakorum Racing Team began in 1994 with an enthusiastic bent to offer the thrill of owning racehorses to people at affordable rates. To date this group has successfully delivered the racing experience to over a thousand people.
Their program is primarily targeted to New York-breds which can compete on the NYRA circuit. They buy most of their horses as yearlings and whenever they have the opportunity to apply the name, Karakorum is in it somewhere.
In New York, Jeff Odintz handles the bulk of the training duties but on occasion horses are placed with Jimmy Jerkens and Linda Rice. When the NYRA circuit is not suited to a particular horse they employ the services of trainer Chris Englehart in the Middle-Atlantic region.
The Karokorum group presently has 30 horses in training and you can track them at www.karakorum.com.
Karakorum Starlet has been their best horse to date. The chestnut daughter of Horse of the Year Skip Away won the Iroquois Handicap, Union Avenue Stakes, Broadway H. and Personal Girl Stakes and accumulated earnings of $481,801. She was purchased at the end of her racing career by Frank Stronach and she presently resides at his Adena Farms in Kentucky. She will be bred this year to either Ghostzapper or Awesome Again.
I compliment this group on the educational nature of their website and encourage anyone who is toying with the idea of becoming a horse owner at any level with any group to look on this site for the rich material it furnishes to a curious mind.
ThoroFan Voice wishes the Karakorum Racing Group continued success. The leg-up you provide to new owners and the services you deliver to your clients are commendable. We hope our new fan brokering efforts will yield you more people wanting to step-up and enjoy one of the greatest experiences in the world—owning a winning Thoroughbred racehorse.
 I’m pretty intimately involved with Mosaic Stables. I put the early training into their only horse (Vicarious) and several of my friends own a piece of her. It paid off because when I became involved in ThoroFan, I was able to tap them for sponsorship and it paid off again when the gray filly won a race at Saratoga last summer.
Monica Driver is the managing partner and this is the second syndicate which she has formed. A unique feature is that Monica operates as an equal partner and receives no management fees. The group has only one novice owner and earlier experiences in the racing game for the others yielded education and some pleasant times but few winners.
Allen Jerkens trains for them. And why were they so lucky as to get their NY-bred maiden in that illustrious barn? Monica paid her dues way-back-when, walking hots for Allen and later Jimmy Jerkens trained some good performers from another generation of the same pedigree. Bruce Levine has had several stars from this family too.
The forte of Mosaic is the welfare of the horse comes first. Fifteen percent of race earnings are reserved for retirement and Vicarious’s first CD (Certificate of Deposit) matured in December. A second CD will be assigned when she returns to an earning mode.
The filly is presently on sabbatical in Aiken, SC. She is learning to bend from the experienced leg of Gonzalo, a talented show rider. Reports are that the intelligent filly is having a ball learning new tricks. The cross-training offers two benefits: agility combined with fitness to return to race training, and early schooling for her anticipated career as a show horse later.
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VICARIOUS PREPARES EARLY for a SECOND CAREER |
photo by Barry Bornstein |
Vicarious is a 4th generation homebred from Driver’s three-time New York Broodmare of the Year Loose Wire. The unassuming, narrow-framed gray filly has delivered untold joy to the lives of everyone who has touched her. You can learn more about Vicarious and see photos of her at www.mosaicracing.com.
ThoroFan Voice applauds Mosaic Stables for the responsible ownership which dictates every decision they make regarding the care and future of their sweet-natured filly. This one-horse syndicate should be a billboard for our sport. They represent every positive side there is to owning all or part of a horse. One day I hope they have the experience of owning a 'big horse,' But ask them and they’ll tell you they have tasted paradise with this moderately talented but generous daughter of Vicar.
 Thomas J. Gallo, a horseracing authority from every angle of the business, and Joan Desadora, owner of the Parting Glass Pub in Saratoga Springs, are the founders of Parting Glass Racing, LLC. Since 2001 Gallo has offered his expertise and seasoned knowledge about the management of the Thoroughbred horse to the public through Parting Glass Racing racehorse partnerships.
Parting Glass Racing is a syndicate built on a solid foundation. With numerous successes, the partnership boasts countless members who have been delighted in their owner experience, many of whom I have met or know personally. My level of appreciation for how Tom manages this syndicate was taken to another level through our sessions in preparation for this article.
Like ThoroFan this group understands that an educated consumer is the best potential racehorse owner, and Parting Glass Racing puts forth a lot of effort into this facet of the game. Year-round monthly meetings at the Pub are not sales meeting. Rather, they are educational forums which also provide wonderful opportunities to socialize with fellow owners and others interested in the racing game.
I have been to several of their events and have enjoyed hearing Charlie Hayward, Steve Haskin, P.J. Campo and dozens more speak. The meetings are free and open to the public, and provide a great service to the racing industry and to a population in Saratoga who may be more naïve about racing than one might expect.
PGR presently has fifteen horses in training and about two-hundred people involved at various percentages of ownership. Barclay Tagg, Tom Bush, and Bruce Levine handle the training chores. Tom Gallo begins the syndicate process with NY-breds purchased privately or at auction, and the Parting Glass partnerships are formed when the young horses have been broken and trained at premier farms and their abilities given some measure.
PGR prefers to syndicate fillies, since the opportunity to recover residual value can be greater with that sex. As Tom says, “A good filly can sell well as a broodmare prospect, but it’s like one in five-hundred colts that is good enough to earn a chance at stud.” However, a few male horses get into the PGR program, usually become geldings, with some wonderful successes. Graded stakes winner Dave is their deserving poster boy.
I encourage everyone in the Capital District to come to the monthly Thursday meetings at the Parting Glass. Dates and times are announced on their website, but typically meetings are the 3rd Thursday of the month, always at 7 p.m. The next three will focus on getting you ready for the Kentucky Derby and will include a movie screening of the Eclipse Award winning film First Saturday in May.
Tom currently has five retired horses at his farm. PGR works with ReRun, the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, and other Thoroughbred horse rescue and adoption organizations. The responsibility for their horses does not cease when the purse earnings stop. The PGR group is a friend of the horse and they are an asset to the business community of Saratoga.
If you’re thinking about jumping in the pool and becoming an active owner I encourage you to look to www.PartingGlassRacing.com or visit them in their lovely offices at 73 Henry Street in Saratoga Springs.
 Almost everyone knows about Sackatoga. Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide and that yellow school bus filled with an exuberant bunch of old high school buddies carried the message to people in and out of racing around the world. Jack’s odyssey with horses began much earlier; he started out as a fan and owner of harness horses.
He was the racing manager in the glory days of Funny Cide and had other horses under his advisement too, but Sackatoga Stable LLC was actually officially set up in 2006. Jack is the operating manager and Ed Mitzen another experienced racehorse owner heads the communications and other aspects of the partnership.
Barclay Tagg selects their horses and serves as the stable trainer. They target to New York-breds for the same reason our other syndicate sponsors do, to take advantage of the larger purses and restricted races. Funny Cide is the sole NY-bred to win the Kentucky Derby.
The yearlings are selected through a carefully designed screening of pedigrees, conformation, soundness and the many other factors that enter into the equation of purchasing horses. The process is as intense as a horse race. Everyone knows the risks of the game and every attempt to minimize them is employed. To start with a well-bred, promising yearling is a step in the right direction.
Another aid in the minimization of risk is to target to quality horses. This group has learned the age old lesson that it costs just as much to feed a cheap one as a good one and they aim for the good ones. Typically the LLC’s are capitalized in the $250,000 to $400,000 range. The minimum investment with Sackatoga is $10,000.
The young horses are prepared for racing at New Episode Training Center in Ocala, FL. The talented Tony Everard heads up this wonderful facility. When I spoke to Jack last week he was there checking on the progress of the education of his youngsters.
Loyalty is a key component in their syndicates. The same team has stayed together for years. Most of their syndicate members participate in two or three different horses. This spreads the risks and increases that chance of a “good one.”
This group believes in retiring their own runners. They even allowed Barclay to make a stable pony out of their Derby winner!. Jack is a member of the New York Task Force for Retired Horses, works with Re-Run and with Funny Cide momentum carries the message of responsible ownership to people at tracks around the country
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FUNNY CIDE DID IT ALL |
photo by Barry Bornstein |
Through the years this fun-loving group has introduced 75 to 80 new people into the ownership ranks. Here you see Doc N Roll winning the “Cab Calloway Division” of the New York Stallion Series. The purse was $150,000 and in the winner’s circle there must be 60 people and they range from jubilant children to pleased old men. And why do we want to race horses? A picture is worth a thousand words.
photo courtesy of Adam Coglianese
I cannot over-emphasize the pleasure it has been working with Jack. He has answered every call I’ve put in to him about this article and myriad questions about building ThoroFan into a stronger magnet for fans. Of course he has more reasons than most to love this game. Winning the Kentucky Derby remains the pinnacle of “The Sport of Kings” and he and his team proved that you don’t have to be a king to do it.
The ThoroFan Voice cannot send any stronger message to why this sport deserves more fans and why more fans should consider taking the leap into ownership. Funny Cide did more to promote our sport to the common man than has any other element in the industry and Jack works hard to continue to deliver the message. Success in this business is possible, but to gain it you have to get in the game. We look forward to continued affiliation with Jack and Sackatoga—together our “voice” is stronger.
When you love this game you want to share it, when you really love it you want to be a bigger part of it, and owning a horse is the ticket to the inside greatness of our sport. You may think you know everything there is to know about racing but I can assure you that until that horse hitting the wire in front is yours, you have an excitement not yet fulfilled.
I ask you to review the roster of trainers in these four syndicates. These syndicates retain trainers that would be very difficult for most owners to place horses with. The loyalties and deep experience the managing partners offer is a commodity trainers have learned to trust. Jerkens' status as the only Hall of Famer, is a statistic that won’t last. Think of the thrill it would be to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony when your trainer gets inducted.
From the maiden-claiming victory of Vicarious, to Karakorum Starlet, to graded stakes winner Dave, to Doc N Roll, and to every horse who laid his heart out on the track—we celebrate this great sport and the syndicate ownership options that make being a part of it accessible to everyone.
Marilyn Lane
Editor-in-Chief |
