Partnerships pave way to race horse ownership.
Prospective owners in the Mid-Atlantic region can choose from a variety of racing partnerships that market their services to the public.
by Bill Heller

There are lots of ways to become involved in Thoroughbred race horse ownership. One of the easiest, and least expensive, is through a racing partnership that markets its services to the public.

The six prominent racing partnerships profiled in this article are all based in the Mid-Atlantic region. But they are as diverse as the people who created them: a graduate of West Point, two third-generation horsemen, a retired journalist, a married couple in separate business careers, the son of a doctor and an automobile parts manager.

Some of these Mid-Atlantic based racing partnerships are brand new. None is older than 20 years. And all owe a debt of gratitude to Cot Campbell, the partnership pioneer at Dogwood Stable in Aiken, S.C. Thirty years ago, Campbell redefined ownership of Thoroughbreds.

" When I first started, it was preposterous," said Campbell. "Breeders in Kentucky looked down their noses at us. Now some of those guys are doing their own partnerships. It's become wildly popular, more popular than I thought it would."

Campbell estimates that as many as 40 percent of current Thoroughbred owners are involved in some kind of partnership. "And I believe that's low," he said.
" It lets somebody get in at the top of the game. At the same time, you control your expenses, your exposure. The minuses are for the people that want to talk to trainers every night. There are some people, who because of their ego, may want their own colors and their own name on the program and want to move their own checkers."

Others are delighted to put the fate of their investment solely in the hands of a man with Campbell's credentials. In 30 years, more than 1,000 new owners entered Dogwood partnerships, spending more than $90 million to purchase a thousand new horses.

The Mid-Atlantic partnerships haven't reached those numbers, and some of them may not even want to. "With West Point and Country Life, those are highly reputable, knowledgeable fine people and have been at it a while," Campbell said. "They¹ve both gone to school a little bit on Dogwood, with my cooperation."

That, of course, elicited the newcomers' admiration.
" I owe a lot to Cot Campbell," said Terry Finley, founder and CEO of West Point Thoroughbreds, based in Mount Laurel, N.J. "I can't say enough about that gentleman. I consider him a friend. He laid the groundwork. He's really the father of the modern day partnership."

Finley's father, a Philadelphia schoolteacher, instilled Finley's passion for horses. "He loved the horses," said Finley, the youngest of seven children and the only one to make a career in racing. "We'd go to Liberty Bell and to Saratoga. I was 9 years old. I've never seen myself doing anything different, and I don't want to do anything different."
Even so, it took him a while to reach his destination.

Finley, now 39, graduated from West Point in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering. After being stationed in Georgia for a year, Finley wound up a platoon leader in Schwinefurt, Germany, near Frankfurt. Then he was stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey as a company commander and administrative officer.

But even before he left the Army in 1994, he was thinking about horses. "I always knew I really wanted to get involved," he said. "I became reacquainted with some people I worked with as a kid on a farm, and with one of the trainers I knew, Dave Stubley. We put some money up and jumped in the business."

They claimed Sun Belt, a 3-year-old gelding at Philadelphia Park in the late summer of 1991. "We claimed him for a $6,500, and he won at $10,000," Finley said. "We lost him after two or three races. That was the start of it. It was a good start."
Sun Belt, carrying a couple of chips in one knee, would win only two of 15 starts after his 3-year-old season.

Finley would develop West Point Thoroughbreds into a major player in the Northeast in a little more than a decade. In 2002, West Point sent out 24 individual winners at 12 different race tracks. Collectively, West Point horses had 131 starts and 32 victories, earning purses of $1,161,674. All the numbers were increases from 2001 as West Point continues to grow.
" I never envisioned it," Finley said. "When you start with a claimer at Philadelphia Park, you don't expect it. We've been very blessed because we've got a lot of help from a lot of people."

None have helped more than West Point's bloodstock agent Buzz Chace."Buzz Chace has been instrumental in our growth," Finley said. "Before we got going, Buzz was kind enough to let us be associated with him. He was already a big-time agent and a very well-known person in the industry."

West Point is getting well known in the industry. Today some 250 partners are involved in 30 partnerships, all centered on 2-year-olds West Point purchased at 2-year-olds in training and, to a lesser degree, yearling sales. "We try to find good value and good athletes that we don't have to pay a premium for," Finley said. "This year alone, we'll syndicate 13 or 14 2-year-olds."

Partners must take a minimum of 5 percent, which, of course, means absorbing five percent of the bills. "Most are between five and 25 percent," Finley said. "There will be horses in the 2003 class in the range of $90,000 to $100,000. People could get their feet wet for $5,000.

Overall, expenses average $38,000 to $40,000 a year on the New York or Kentucky circuit."
Other Mid-Atlantic partnerships offer other strategies. "We all might have a little different slant on how we run our companies," Finley said. "Each has a different approach. You have to stick to the things you believe in. We know, and we're not afraid to tell people, it's a very hard business to make money in. The numbers are very tough. Last year, we made a million-two, but the fact remains there are no geniuses in the business. We believe in telling our customers the truth, not sugar-coating anything. We put everything on the table and make sure we're giving people as good as an ownership experience as we can. We do everything to make it an enjoyable endeavor whether their horses are winning or not."

West Point uses a cadre of trainers: Pat Byrne, Gary Contessa, Kiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart and Rick Violette Jr. "These are trainers new owners might not otherwise have access to," Finley said.

Finley's current clients range from CEOs of major companies to teachers, doctors, attorneys and businessmen. "It runs the gamut of American society," Finley said. "The one common denominator is a love of the racing business and a love for the horse. That's the bottom line."

The bottom line with all partnerships is that there are pluses and minuses. "The pluses are you can come into a packaged deal," Finley said. "By that, I mean we've been around for a little while. We've worked out, pretty much, the kinks. Our basic systems are in place. The minus is you just don't have the input you would have if you did it yourself. We don't attract or assemble a group of partners because we're looking for their expertise. That's not the reason we put people together. We put people together to share risk. We tell people that up front."

The third generation " Need some help to get started in racing?" beckons an ad in The Blood-Horse. "Get a piece of Country Life partnerships. We race fillies with residual value as broodmares. It's a safety net in a risky sport."

It's comforting to know the people holding the net, 46-year-old Mike Pons and his 48-year-old brother Josh, are not only well connected to the industry (each is a past president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association and Mike is currently president of Maryland Million) but have roots stretching back to their grandfather, Adolphe, the son of a winemaker in France who was brought to America by August Belmont II to develop a vineyard at his Long Island, N.Y., farm. Adolphe, who was 5 years old when he came to the United States, would serve as Belmont's business agent and bloodstock advisor for 25 years.

" My grandfather planned the mating of Man o' War and had Discovery," Mike Pons said. "He raced Discovery in 1932 and then arranged the sale to Alfred Vanderbilt, and with the money he made from the sale, he bought Country Life Farm in 1933."

The farm, 20 miles northeast of Baltimore, was named for a stop on the Long Island Railroad where a printing company, Country Life Press, was located. Country Life Farm was and is home to Mike's parents, Joe and Mary Jo. "My dad turned 80 last August and he's still a small partner in the farm," Mike said. "He's a race track rat. Mom is very involved, as well. She's also an executive director for a radio reading service for the blind. It's neat because, from my folks, I've seen how much you gain from giving, whether you get paid or not."

Getting paid is preferable if you want to stay in business, and Country Life, which once stood Saggy (who beat Citation by a length in the Chesapeake Trial at Havre de Grace, April 12, 1948) and would be the birthplace of two-time horse of the year Cigar in 1990, was struggling in the late 1970s as Mike's dad and his uncle John, also an integral part of the operation, battled alcoholism. "The turnaround came when Dad got sober in 1980," Michael said. "But the farm was a horse hotel that was empty."

" How do you start? Where do you begin? We started in the mid-'80s when the tax laws changed. We found a way with partnerships to manage risk and spread our capital. It was almost like a baseball hitter. We were a good hitter, but we weren¹t getting enough at-bats. This gave us more opportunities. That is what the partnerships have allowed us to do. We now have 15 partnership mares. We can choose which babies we want to sell."

The babies they don't want to sell are usually well-bred fillies. "With a colt, if he gets hurt and hasn't really shown himself to be a star, it's like you're on a high wire without a net," Mike said. "But the fillies, whether they win stakes or not, will have value to somebody."
He said 12 of the 15 partnership mares were due to foal this spring; there are currently eight partnership yearlings, seven 2-year-olds and about a half dozen older horses.

" Predominantly, we have moved toward fillies," he said.
Country Life has maintained an interest in all of its 25 current partnerships, which Pons said require a minimum investment of $5,000. The biggest share a partner can take is half interest. "Country Life keeps pieces of all the horses," he said. "If I'm in, and I'm trying to make money every single day of the year, that's one less thing you have to worry about."
Pons said the people who populate Country Life partnerships include mortgage bankers, accountants, doctors, dentists and entrepreneurs. "That's probably the most interesting thing," he said. "I meet people who are fascinating. It's a smorgasbord. We're finding people in other markets who want to play the game, too. That's exciting. We can hit folks in Colorado and Kansas."

Tony Dutrow, Tim Ritchey, John Tammaro and Billy Turner are the trainers Country Life uses, but more may be needed. Country Life is expanding.

In July 2001, Mike and Josh Pons purchased nearby Merryland Farm, and renamed it Country Life Nursery at Merryland. "Silent Screen trained at Merryland," Pons said. "Both these farms have histories of great horses."

Joining a Country Life partnership touches that history.
Malcolm in the middle.
The one constant in Malcolm Barr's ever-changing life is a love of horses, now manifest in his long-tenured Hampshire Alliance Inc., offering partnerships in units for as little as $2,500 in West Virginia and $3,500 in Maryland.

" If we don't get any credit for anything else, we get credit for longevity," the 69-year-old Barr said. "We¹ve been doing this for about 15 years."

On March 7 at Laurel, Landler, a 4-year-old gelding claimed by Hampshire Alliance five weeks earlier, scored the partnership's 100th career victory by winning a $7,500 claimer by five and a quarter lengths.

Barr deserves credit for introducing Thoroughbred ownership to more than 500 people. "They have ranged from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration (C. William Verity) to a bellhop at one of the Hilton hotels in Washington, D.C., shoe salesmen, lawyers, car salesmen, journalists and government lobbyists," Barr said.

Barr's tale began in London, England, where his dad was a $2 bettor. "I guess there is such a horse culture in the United Kingdom that it kind of rubs off on a lot of people," Barr said. "I always had a great love of animals, dogs and horses."

Barr served three years in the Royal Air Force as a magazine editor. "I was known for running bets," he said. "I used to go to the races once in a while there at Huntington Races. (Author) Dick Francis was an amateur rider there. I remember seeing him ride. I saw him win a race."

But Barr didn't remain in England. "I wanted to see the world," he said. So at 21, Barr moved to Vancouver Island in Canada, where he worked for two newspapers.
He returned to England briefly, working for the Derby Evening Telegraph, and then got a job with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The Associated Press picked him up a year later, and he worked as a military writer for the wire service for seven years, the final four after he relocated in Washington, D.C. After serving as Hawaiian Senator Hiram Fong's press secretary, Barr worked for the Department of Labor, Department of Justice and Department of Commerce before retiring in 1996 and eventually settling in Front Royal, Va.

While he was in Washington, Barr sampled harness racing at nearby Rosecroft Raceway. "I became fascinated by American harness racing," he said. "I'd never seen it before. I'd go to Rosecroft once a week on Friday nights."

Soon Barr began visiting Maryland's Thoroughbred tracks, Laurel and Pimlico, with a former San Francisco Chronicle reporter, the late Drew McKillips.
Barr became involved in two partnerships with little success. "Despite losing my initial stake, I realized there was a lot of fun in doing this," he said. "I thought there has to be a better way."

In the mid-1980s, Barr found that way with Bill Joyce, an attorney for the Department of Justice. "We had been in other partnerships and we learned from our mistakes," Barr said. "Bill the lawyer and Malcolm the public relations man and journalist figured we had enough experience between the two of us to cover all bases and set up a partnership involving 10 people, all friends and acquaintances. We got them to put up $1,600 apiece. At that point, I was beating the bushes for a trainer."

Barr and his partners then had the good fortune to be steered to a young trainer named Dale Capuano. "He was a 23 or 24-year-old kid who had just arrived on the scene," Barr said. "He turned out to be the top trainer in Maryland. We've stayed with Dale all this time and benefited from it."

Near the end of 1988, Barr and company (then known as the Hampshire Racing Partnership) claimed a 4-year-old gelding, Duke Toby, for $6,500 at Laurel. Duke Toby won his first two starts for them, but was claimed away for $8,500 and did little afterwards.

Barr had much more success with another $6,500 claim at Pimlico, Probably the One, who not only made $100,000 on the track, but also became the partnership's first broodmare, producing four winners. One of them, Probably's Devil, was fast enough to put a head in front of Orientate in a six-furlong allowance race at Saratoga on August 11, 2001, running a first quarter in :21.88. Probably's Devil faded to ninth, as Orientate, who would become the 2002 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter, won easily. Third in that race was Evening Attire, a subsequent multiple stakes winner in 2002.

There are 10 members in Hampshire¹s breeding partnership, and 14 to 16 partners in Hampshire's race horses. Hampshire doesn't have a website, but Barr has a hot-line phone number, an e-mail address and a thorough, attractive monthly newsletter in the stable's pink and black colors.

A successful first venture
What do you do after hitting a home run in your first at-bat? Obviously, you step up to the plate and try to hit another.

Having a tough act to follow is a pleasant problem for Joe and Pam Petruska, who formed Starview Stable in Montvale, N.J., in 1998. They watched their first horse, Successful Appeal, win $654,681 under the care of trainer John Kimmel, who had plucked the horse for $55,000 half an hour after the February 1998 Ocala Breeders¹ Sales Company 2-year-olds in training sale. Successful Appeal won eight of 22 starts, including the A.G. Vanderbilt Handicap-G2, Withers Stakes-G2, Kentucky Cup Sprint-G2, Cowdin Stakes-G2 and Amsterdam Stakes-G3. He was a graded stakes winner each of the three years he competed.

" It's not going to be John's last stakes winner and it won¹t be ours," said Joe, who earned an engineering degree at Trenton State. Even so, he conceded, ³Buying Successful Appeal was a very, very lucky day."

The beneficiaries included his wife, Pam, who earned a degree in biology at St. John's University, and three other original partners in Starview¹s first horse.

The Petruskas (he's 46 and she's 45) had been attending races at Monmouth Park, Garden State and Atlantic City and making annual trips to Saratoga since the mid-'80s. In 1991, they attended a new owner seminar at Saratoga conducted by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. "We went to other ownership seminars, and we decided, based on that, we would become members of a partnership," Joe said. "We got involved with different partnerships. In the summer of '97, I decided I would like to do it myself."

Petruska approached Kimmel and asked if he would train for him. Kimmel agreed and advised Petruska to wait to purchase his first horse until the Ocala sale the following February. They wound up with one of the best sprinters in the country. Successful Appeal finished fifth to Artax in the 1999 Breeders¹ Cup Sprint-G1 and is currently standing stud at Walmac South in Ocala.

Petruska said Starview has two current partnerships for anyone willing to risk between $15,000 to $20,000 for the minimum 10 percent of two recent 2-year-old purchases, a filly by Awesome Again and a Carson City colt. The maximum share is 30 percent, and Starview retains a 5 to 10 percent interest in every horse.

" Our focus is having horses that John Kimmel wants in his barn, and paying keen attention to our members," Pam Petruska said. "If they only have 10 percent of the horse, I want them to feel like they own 100 percent."

That's how Michael and Loretta Hannan must have felt when they sent this note to the Petruskas: "My thanks and appreciation for all you have done for Loretta and me. This includes, and certainly is not limited to, the securing of clubhouse passes for our friends, winner's circle photos, videos of winning races, etc."

Husband and wife
The Petruskas don't have a monopoly on successful husband-wife partnerships in the Mid-Atlantic. Trainer Kathleen (Kate) DeMasi and her husband Greg have been operating Pewter Stable in Mullica Hill, N.J., since 1984. "She trains, and I run the partnerships," said Greg, a 40-year-old native of Philadelphia whose dad, an internist, would take him to Delaware Park. "We'd play on the swings while he played the horses. Before I learned to read, I read the Daily Racing Form."

Pewter Stable has an elaborate website. An initial screen shows a swirling horse as the introduction program loads before the image morphs into a horse at the finish line. A second screen is labeled "Producing winners all the way," and a third "The Pewter Stable."
Browsers can then watch a video of one of Pewter Stable¹s stars, $300,000-plus earner Merry Princess, winning a stakes race.

The creators of that website have different backgrounds. Greg majored in business administration at Widener College in Philadelphia. Kathleen, 38, is a former assistant trainer to Richard E. (Dickie) Dutrow. She also trains for individual owners. "She was raised on a horse farm," Greg said. "She basically was born into it."

She's been running her own stable since 1984 and presently has a stable of 40 horses she races in Maryland, Delaware, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey and West Virginia.
Pewter Stable still has its best horse, multiple stakes winner Tj's Tuff as Nails, a 12-year-old gray mare in foal to Silver Charm purchased for $15,500 at a 2-year-olds in training sale in Ocala. Tj's Tuff as Nails won five of 27 turf starts and three of 12 on dirt, bankrolling $217,908.

" She raced in partnership and they retain interest," Greg said. "There were four people in that one. We will market the baby and they will get the same percentages."

Pewter Stable currently has 20 partnerships involving 20 to 25 horses. "Most of them are race horses, a small percentage are pinhooked yearlings and the rest are claimers or 2-year-olds," Greg said.

Investors take anywhere from five to 50 percent of a horse and spend as little as $2,500 or as much as $50,000. "I have people at all different levels," DeMasi said. "The pluses to me are you're minimizing your risk. You give people an opportunity to spread the risk around. That's the chief advantage. The minus is you have to get along with others. If you're the kind of owner who wants to call all the shots, being in a partnership is not for you.²
New kid on the block.

West Virginia-based Living Dreams Racing Stable, whose website boasts, "Making Dreams Come True," is in just its second year of operation under 40-year-old Rick Hardy, who is the parts manager at an automobile dealership when he¹s not involved with horses.

The native of Louisiana started going to the track at Louisiana Downs. "I fell in love with it," he said. "I fell in love with the whole thing. When I saw what was going on with West Virginia's slot machines, I figured out people could claim horses and make money. You can claim a horse for $5,000 and run for $14,000 or $15,000, as opposed to Louisiana, where you could claim a horse for $10,000 and run for $6,000."

After spending a year in other partnerships, Hardy decided to start his own in January 2002. He claimed Run Robin, a 5-year-old mare, for $5,000 at Charles Town, but did not have her for long. In a span of less than four months, "we took her for $5,000; she won two races and finished third, and got claimed for $5,000," Hardy said.

Sam Keyrouze trains for Living Dreams and Jerry Quinn will too, as the stable looks to expand.
Currently, Living Dreams has three partnerships involving 25 people. They took 5 to 50 percent ownership with an initial investment lower than most partnerships. "I made it cheap, where you could get in at $500," Hardy said. "For a 10 percent share, partners would be looking at $180 per month. That¹s what makes it so attractive. The expenses haven¹t skyrocketed yet."

Hardy has taken a 21st century approach to attracting customers. "I did some advertising on the Internet," he said. "You got a lot of people who enjoy the gambling part of it who wanted to enjoy the rest that racing has to offer. They want to be able to see the horse, pet the horse, watch the workouts. We have partners in California and Louisiana. I've got everything from lawyers to investment companies to a guy who's a handicapper and some guys who work at plants. It's a pretty wide range."

All have the same goal. Damian C., a corporate tax manager in New Jersey, e-mailed Hardy: "I started going to the races, Freehold and the Meadowlands, when I was 10 years old with my father. I've always loved horses and wanted to be an owner someday. This venture has really made my dreams come true."