2021 SOURCE BOOK OWNER-TRAINER-JOCKEY BIOGRAPHIES STAKES WINNING JOCKEYS & TRAINERS BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 2021 Hit the Road and jockey Umberto Rispoli have their photo taken in the “winner’s circle” following their victory in the 2020 Opening Day Runhappy Oceanside Stakes. Del Mar conducted racing despite the world-wide pandemic, but it did so without fans and also minus a winner’s circle in line with social distance guidelines. Owners ...................................3 Trainers .................................28 Jockeys ..................................61 u Del Mar thanks Equibase for their statistical aid in compiling this publication. Owners’ Del Mar statistics are for that owner, or owner group, only. No partnerships are considered, except where specifically noted. On the cover: The strange scenario of a land full of masks played out throughout the year at Del Mar and our photographers – Benoit and Associates – captured the community of horsemen going along with the program, one by one. Photos by Benoit & Associates Owner Profiles • Del Mar 2021 Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Owner Proles — 2021 O W trust, turned his dealership over to his son and daughter Nick Alexander N and headed north to the Central California wine and E Born: September 13, 1942 horse country of the Santa Ynez Valley. R Santa Monica, California • There he purchased his 280-acre ranch – Horse Haven S Reside: Santa Ynez and Del Mar, – in the town of Santa Ynez and went all in as a rancher California specializing in racehorses. These days he notes that the ranch is home to approximately 100 horses, including Silks: White, blue yoke, orange 30 broodmares, 25 to 30 racehorses and dozens of and white “MM” on juveniles, yearlings and foals/weanlings. The former front, white bars on blue city boy now can be spotted atop his tractor helping to sleeves, white and blue raise and harvest all the hay, alfalfa and feed needed for cap his growing equine population. DMR Career Starts Wins Purses • Alexander recalls first dipping his toes into the 214 37 $2,379,520 Thoroughbred world in 1978 when he bought a small share • Though the low-key Alexander demurs, it has been of a horse that never won a race. But he followed that suggested he could wear the title “Mr. California Racing.” by purchasing a half interest in a runner named Pashanat A quick check gives reasons why: has owned horses in Reb and – bingo! “He was just a wonderful racehorse; the Golden State for more than 40 years; Los Angeles everything you’d want a horse to be,” Alexander said. “He native chose to buy a farm in Santa Ynez and now lives won races, tried hard every time, he was exciting. Right on site as he breeds, raises and races his own stock from then and there I was in love with horses and horseracing.” there; agreed to become chairman of the Thoroughbred • Subsequently, Alexander teamed up with claiming- Owners of California in 2016. All that, plus he never trainer-deluxe Mike Mitchell and, over the next 30-plus misses a chance to beat the drum for a game he loves. years – despite a time or two apart – they assembled a “I’m no big deal; just a regular guy who fell in love with well-respected barn full of runners and put together a horses,” he says. solid run of success. Mitchell, sadly, died of the effects • Graduated from Pasadena High, did two years at USC, of brain cancer in 2015 and his chief assistant, Phil then dropped out to do something he turned out to be D’Amato, took over the stable. Alexander stuck with exceptionally good at – selling automobiles. him, as well as sending some horses to another former • He sold Fords and Volkswagens, then found his groove Mitchell assistant, Steve Miyadi. with BMWs and opened his own dealership in 1979, • Alexander now has gone from a “claiming” owner to a later adding Mini Coopers. breeder/owner who produces 100% of his stable on his • His popular radio campaigns using the catch phrase “Nick ranch. “Raising your own, then racing them. That’s the Can’t Say No” was something everyone in Tinseltown best,” he says. knew and helped him grow his import dealership into a • The key to that transition for him was his first “big” horse, hugely successful enterprise. the gray speedster Grazen, whom he bred, raced and now • As his auto business expanded, he had some fun on stands. The stakes winning son of the late California sire the side delving into a unique “California thing” -- Benchmark does stallion duties at nearby Tommy Town collecting Woodies -- V-8 powered Ford and Mercury Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez (he covered approximately wood-bodied cars built between 1932 and 1952. His 65 mares recently), then returns to Horse Haven after assembled collection, which experts called the world’s the season to be the ranch’s chief pet. Alexander keeps most comprehensive, grew to more than 60. In 2009, him in a covered paddock alongside his house and can when he decided to transition from horse power under check on him from his living room window. the hood to the four-legged kind, he sold the Woodies • Among Alexander’s top runners – all homebred stakes with most of the proceeds going to a charitable remainder winners – have been Enola Gray, Pee Wee Reese, Sunday 3 Owner Profiles • Del Mar 2021 Rules, S Y Sky, Tough Sunday and Just Grazed Me. • Their top money winner was turf ace Oscar Performance, • Had his best year to date in 2019 when he had 147 starters, a multiple graded stakes star who captured the 2016 26 winners and more than $1.7 million in earnings. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita, one of his • Coming into the 2021 Del Mar meet, his overall record seven graded stakes wins. Retired after the 2018 season shows 373 wins and more than $13 million in purses. with $2,457,632 in earnings and now stands at Mill Ridge O • Having grown up in Pasadena, it was natural for him to Farm in Kentucky. W root for one of the town’s favorite sons -- a pretty fair N • The couple shifted an underperforming 5-year-old baseballer named Jackie Robinson. That helped make E homebred Ghostzapper gelding of theirs named Award him a lifelong Dodgers fan (even in their Brooklyn days), R Winner from the east coast to west this year and put him as well as a horse owner given to tying baseball names S in the capable hands of veteran trainer David Hofmans. to his runners: For example, the previously mentioned He’s fired nothing but good shots since, topped by a tally Pee Wee Reese, as well as Preacher Roe, Clem Labine, in the Grade II Charles Whittingham at Santa Anita on Catfish Hunter, Van Lingle Mungo, Nap Lajoie, Sudden May 29. Sam (McDowell), Satchel Paige, Moose Skowron and • Amermans have raced 17 different graded stakes winners. Arky Vaughan. • As they head into the Del Mar 2021 summer season, • Family: Wife Mary; one son, one daughter. Equibase says they’ve won 313 races all told, earning more than $26 million. Amerman Racing / John and Jerry • John is retired; formerly was chief executive officer of Amerman Mattel Toys. • Member of the California Horse Racing Board from Born: (John) January 28, 1932 2006 to 2008. Newark, New Jersey • Elected as a member of The Jockey Club in 2011. (Jerry) September 11, 1937 • Amermans have been generous to good causes in racing, Gadsden, Alabama notably the California Equine Retirement Foundation Reside: Palos Verdes Estates, (CERF). He serves on the board of directors of Tranquility California Farm and previously was on the board of the Winner’s Silks: Royal blue, blue A on Foundation. white ball on back, white • Operate Peacefield Farm in Temecula, CA, a rehabilitation bars on sleeves, blue cap facility for injured horses, with daughter, Anne, serving as manager. DMR Career Starts Wins Purses • Family: One daughter, one son 136 20 $1,349,644 • Got into racing through partnerships in Team Valor, and opened their own stable in 1996. First stakes winner was Madeline Auerbach Valor Lady. Born: October 4, 1944 • Earned first Breeders’ Cup championship win in 2003 Yorkshire, England as Adoration cruised to a front-running victory in the Reside: Bell Canyon, California Distaff, paying $83.40 to win. • She returned in 2004 to win Santa Anita’s Santa Margarita Silks: Navy blue, red cap Invitational Handicap, Churchill Downs’ Fleur de Lis Handicap and the Arlington Matron Handicap at Arlington Park. Retired that year with career earnings of more than DMR Career Starts Wins Purses $2 million. 66 7 $468,797 • Along with Adoration, Amermans were represented by • She and her late husband, James, claimed their first horse millionaires and multiple stakes winners Happyanunoit, a in 1977 and her interest now encompasses dozens of New Zealand-bred mare, Chilean champion Lido Palace racehorses, broodmares, weanlings and yearlings. and Balance, a half-sister to champion mare Zenyatta. • She lost her stellar stallion Unusual Heat in 2017 to the In 2010 they sold her first foal (a colt by super sire A.P. effects of laminitis. The son of Nureyev was claimed by Indy) for a Keeneland September Sales record topping a partnership led by Auerbach and her husband on the $4.2 million. 4 Owner Profiles • Del Mar 2021 Matter and Afternoon Deelites. recommendation of trainer Barry Abrams for $80,000 in • Heartlight No. One, named for the Bacharach song 1996 at Hollywood Park. Two years later he was retired performed by Neil Diamond and inspired by the film to stud. “E.T.,” won an Eclipse Award as 1983’s top 3-year-old • His initial success as a sire of winners mushroomed filly.