Roy and Gretchen Jackson Get to the Derby with Undefeated Barbaro
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TRIPLE CROWN P R E V I E W DERBY PREAKNESS BELMONT Batting 1.000 B Y T E R R Y C O N W A Y His business savvy earned Jackson posts The versatile Dynaformer colt follows in as president of three prominent minor the hoofprints of a pair of recent celebrated n the early 1970s Roy Jackson tin- leagues, and he parlayed those contacts Chester County, Pa., alumni. Smarty Jones into a thriving sports agency firm. Retired was bred there (about 40 miles southwest kered with minor league baseball Seattle Mariner hitting machine Edgar Mar- of Philadelphia) and Afleet Alex’s manag- tinez was a prized homegrown client. ing partner, Chuck Zacney, resides in the franchises. As a club president he “You could tell early on that Edgar had same region. Barbaro’s Florida Derby victo- I star qualities,” said Jackson. “He just need- ry—the Jacksons’ first grade I stakes win— ed the chance to show it at the major league was the culmination of nearly three polished his teams’ rough edges and level. In some ways it’s very similar to the decades in the racing game. This will be the racehorses we breed. They need the oppor- Jacksons’ first trip to the Derby. turned them into gleaming gems. Then tunity to show their ability. But like any Barbaro may find added competition from great athlete, the horse has to have the the Jacksons’ Lael Stables in the starting gate Jackson cashed his ticket, selling the heart, the will to win.” at Churchill Downs. The Jacksons also race Roy and his wife, Gretchen, witnessed the highly touted Showing Up, who broke clubs to local investors. that iron will when their Barbaro outdueled Gulfstream Park’s one-mile track record in Sharp Humor in a stirring stretch battle in March. Unbeaten in three starts, the flashy this year’s Florida Derby (gr. I). Their un- son of Strategic Mission was purchased for Roy and Gretchen beaten star’s latest conquest stamped the $60,000 by his trainer, Barclay Tagg, at the homebred colt as one of the favorites for the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in Jackson get to the Derby Kentucky Derby (gr. I) presented by Yum! training last May. The owners anteed up Brands. $6,000 for the chestnut colt to be a late nom- with undefeated “It was the first time a horse eyeballed inee for the Triple Crown. Showing Up won him, and he got it done,” said Roy Jackson. the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (gr. II) at Barbaro, Showing Up “Barbaro showed a lot of determination.” Keeneland April 22 (see page 2524). If that’s not enough Derby day excite- ment, consider this: another Lael-bred colt, George Washington, is the current 3-1 fa- vorite in the English Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) May 6. Last year’s champi- on 2-year-old male in Ireland, the colt also stands as an early choice for the Epsom Derby (Eng-I) in June. Demi O’Byrne paid $2.05 million for the son of the late Dane- hill, the top price of the 2004 Tattersalls Oc- tober yearling sale. “It killed us when we sold him,” Gretchen Jackson acknowledged. “It was a very hard decision with Danehill coming to an end. The only way we were going to part with him was if someone was really willing to pay a huge number, and they did.” The Jacksons count roughly 20 horses in training with Michael Matz and Tagg, both based at the Fair Hill Training Center in northeast Maryland. Their broodmare band totals 27, with two locally at Rick Abbott’s Charlton Farm, three in England, and the remaining 22 in Kentucky at Denali Stud and Mill Ridge Farm. Up until this year, the couple never had a sniff at a Triple Crown starter. S “We’ve never come close to breeding a O T O Derby contender,” said Gretchen, a lifelong H P R E equestrian. “But you just keep trying. It D Y N S makes it so special that we had Barbaro’s F F E J dam (La Ville Rouge) run for us. It’s amaz- Roy and Gretchen Jackson at their 190-acre Lael Farm ing. I can’t believe it happened.” 2500 T H E B L O O D - H O R S E I A P R I L 2 9 , 2 0 0 6 ©2006 The Blood-Horse magazine. Click here for subscription info. Roy and Gretchen Jackson son Toros, the Oakland A’s AAA club. Again, after a few years Jackson sold the franchise to a group of local investors. He ran the Pacific Coast League and the Inter- national League from 1975-82, then utilized his contacts to launch the sports agency firm Convest. From 1983-2001, Convest represented 60 players, including 25 major leaguers. “It was a unique business back then— none of us were lawyers like the agents today,” noted Roy. “We took some criticism for it but it really worked out well for us.” LAEL’S BEGINNINGS When Russell Jones, a friend since high school, mentioned that the farm adjoining his Lael Farm is in southern Chester County, Pa.; at right, Triple Crown silks...Triple Crown aspirations property was for sale, the Jacksons snapped it HORSE COUNTRY “Instead of going to church on Sundays, up in 1978. They named the 190-acre prop- In southern Chester County, the horse is my father would take me to the Philadel- erty Lael Farm, the Gaelic word for loyalty. truly king. Traveling the winding country phia Zoo where I would ride a pony,” re- Six of the Jacksons’ favorite runners lanes, visitors gaze out at rolling turf, small called Gretchen with a laugh. spend their retirement days in the sur- patches of woodlands, and historic horse Growing up in the Chestnut Hill area of rounding paddocks that spread out below farms. This is gorgeous countryside, not Philadelphia, she attended riding schools the couple’s home. Visitors also find a unlike parts of England and Ireland, and a and was taught by “Cubby” Haines, who champion retired show horse, three dogs, wonderful locale for foxhunting. competed in dressage at the Helsinki seven ponies, four miniature donkeys, two The Jacksons’ farm is located near Olympics. Gretchen met Roy at a school cows, and 15 sheep. The Jacksons have Unionville, an area sprinkled with top-flight dance in Merion, Pa., while in the 11th four children and 10 grandchildren who Thoroughbred owners and breeders as well grade. They both graduated from the Uni- ride the ponies when they visit. as celebrated connections from the world of versity of Pennsylvania and married in The couple first got started in the busi- steeplechasing, three-day eventing, and June 1959. A stockbroker for six years, Roy ness in 1978 when Jones, then co-owner of show horses. Nearby neighbors comprise a has a passion for baseball that finally won Walnut Green Bloodstock, convinced them “Who’s Who” of the sport-horse world: out when a friend introduced him to Bob to go in as partners on a mare at a Fasig- Valentine, Ledyard, Wicks, Jones, Han- Carpenter, the owner of the Philadelphia Tipton sale in Maryland. For two decades, num, Jenney, Cocks, Neilson, and Straw- Phillies. Lael Farm was set up for foaling, boarding, bridge. Across the road resides Ashwell Sta- “Mr. Carpenter started a business train- and breaking horses. The Jacksons’ success bles, home to Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan ing program to bring younger people into was relatively modest until eight years ago Sheppard and birthplace of Storm Cat and the game,” recalled Jackson. when they focused on racing and building a legendary steeplechase runner Flatterer. “I worked with the Phillies’ minor league broodmare band. Roy Jackson was raised about 10 miles clubs for nearly two years before the oppor- In 2003, they campaigned the 2-year-old away in Edgemont. His father, Roy Sr., was tunity arose to purchase the Class AA York filly Superstar Leo, an English and French a renowned Master of the Hounds for Rose Pirates and become the club president.” champion who made a habit of beating Tree and later Radnor in the 1930s and ’40s. A couple of years later, he sold the fran- males as a juvenile. She finished her racing He introduced a new, specialized fox- chise, and was named president of the East- career with five wins and four seconds from hound, known as the PennMaryDel, which ern League. In 1972, Roy launched the Tuc- 13 starts and earnings of $287,484. Among has become a popular Chester County fox- their top runners were North American hunting breed. grade II winners Belle Cherie and C’Est L’ Several years after the death of his father, Amour and grade III victors Love n’ Kiss S., Roy’s mother married Hardie Scott, a Storm Dream, Sweetest Thing, and Rashas Philadelphia attorney. The couple entered Warning. the racing game with the purchase of a few One elite colt that got away was mares from a dispersal of Elizabeth Arden’s Grandera. The Jacksons raced the son of Main Chance Farm. Later, the Scotts be- Grand Lodge in Europe as a 2- and 3-year- came clients of Robert Courtney’s Crestfield old with partner Viv Shelton. After he fin- Farm in Kentucky, where their mares ished third in the 2001 Prix du Jockey Club foaled each season. (French Derby, Fr-I) and won the Dubai “They were into racing, not the breeding Arc Trial, the racing partners sold him pri- side,” Roy explained.