Green Turns Business Savvy Into Racing Success Cont
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2018 GREEN TURNS TAKING STOCK: BRAZILIAN-OWNED BONNE CHANCE ESTABLISHING ITSELF BUSINESS SAVVY INTO by Sid Fernando When Brazilian billionaire Gilberto Sayao Da Silva purchased RACING SUCCESS Nat Rea’s Regis Farm (formerly part of Rick Trontz’s Hopewell Farm) on Pisgah Pike in Woodford County in 2015, his wife christened the 300-plus acre property Bonne Chance Farm. The name, which means “good luck” in French, has been prophetic. That same year, Gilberto Sayao also bought Canadian champion Sealy Hill (Point Given) for $750,000 from the Regis dispersal. The Medaglia d’Oro filly she was carrying, the first Bonne Chance-bred yearling sold at auction, made $1.25 million at Keeneland September in 2017, positioning the farm as a boutique commercial breeder for the moment. However, plans to race a stable of homebreds in the future are already underway. Cont. p12 (click here) IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Click here for an accompanying video feature on Len Green CLOTH OF STARS BRINGS PEDIGREE, CLASS by Christie DeBernardis When Len Green went to his first horse race in the 1980s and TO LOGIS watched his friend’s horse win, the CPA thought he had just Kelsey Riley speaks with Julian Ince of Haras du Logis about new stallion Cloth Of Stars (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Click or discovered the “easiest business in the world” and decided to tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. jump into the horse business himself. He quickly discovered that succeeding in the world of horse racing was anything but easy. However, once Green began to apply the business savvy and entrepreneurial spirit that had served him so well in his professional life to his latest endeavor, he turned his D. J. Stable into his latest success story, which now includes a Breeders’ Cup victory thanks to Jaywalk (Cross Traffic). “It’s been a very exciting ride,” Green said while seated in his conference room, which is covered in racing memorabilia. “The horse business has a great learning curve. Many businessmen believe because they’re successful somewhere else, they can just walk into the horse business and do it. The problem is, the horse business is not regulated, so, in many ways, you have to learns all the things you do and don’t do.” The Babson College lecturer continued, “Having the advantage of being a taxman, at least I knew the government was going to pay for 50% of any losses that I took care of, but that is no fun unless you win. So, we started winning in an interesting way. We got into claiming and ended up winning four different titles for owners at different tracks for most wins, but we were losing money every single year.” Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Friday, December 14, 2018 Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photo Editor Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew [email protected] Back to where it started: World of Trouble (Kantharos) scorched the track in the Social Media Strategist Jan. 20 Pasco S. at Tampa Bay Downs, stamping himself as a force to be reckoned with Justina Severni in the 3-year-old sprint division. On Saturday, the speedball returns to the same local Director of Customer Service seven-furlong trip in the FTBOA Marion County S. on the heels of a runner-up finish in Vicki Forbes [email protected] the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. “We’re just looking at this as a good starting point back and planning to go from there,” said trainer Jason Servis. | SV Photography Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen Director of Information Technology PIMLICO REBUILD AMBITIOUS, BUT WHO’LL PAY? 7 Ray Villa T.D. Thornton examines the questions surrounding the [email protected] $424 million demolition and reconstruction of Pimlico Bookkeeper Race Course proposed by the Maryland Stadium Authority. Terry May [email protected] WORLDWIDE INFORMATION COLONIAL DOWNS GETS APPROVAL FOR 2019 11 International Editor Racing will officially return to Colonial Downs in 2019, as Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN the track has been formally approved by the Virginia Racing [email protected] Commission to conduct 15 live racing dates from Aug. 8-Sept. 7. European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 17 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • DECEMBER 14, 2018 Green Turns Business Savvy Into Racing Success cont. from p1 Green decided to claim fast fillies with the goal of breeding them to sires who were distance runners. He accumulated 72 mares and sent their pedigrees to Ken McLean, manager of the mighty Storm Cat. Green’s wife, Lois, thought he was crazy, but sure enough McLean called and invited Green to meet him in Kentucky. “I was in heaven,” Green recalled. “Suddenly, I thought I really had made the transition from being a businessman to being successful in the horse business because Ken McLean was interested in breeding some of my mares to Storm Cat, who at the time was the number one horse.” McLean chose just two mares, but both matings produced top horses with Princess Alydar foaling MGISW November Snow and Kermis producing Senate Appointee, winner of 14 stakes. “After those two, he suddenly stood up and walked out the door,” Green said of his meeting with McLean. “I said, ‘Where are you going? I’ve got more mares.’ He said, ‘Where are they?’ I said, ‘New Jersey.’ He said, ‘No, where specifically?’ I said, ‘They are in different fields.’ He said, ‘Open the gates,’ which was a nice way of saying to me that they were worthless and to get rid of them. That was my first big shock in the business, but you learn over a period of time that this is a business, so you have to cut down the odds of failing to increase your odds of winning.” Len Green & Joel Rosario | Eclipse Sportswire/Breeders’ Cup Over the years, with the help of his son Jon, Green has done just that. He has built a broodmare band whose foals are worthy of Books 1 and 2 in the yearling sales and put together a team of trainers, short listers and partners that have increased his stable’s success. The Greens have also been smart about letting go of horses when necessary and putting them in spots that give them their best chance of winning, even if that spot is in a claiming race or at a second-tier track. Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 17 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • DECEMBER 14, 2018 “I think we are successful because, for one, we certainly know upended Belmont’s GI Frizette S. Oct. 7 with a front-running 5 the tax world better than anybody else,” said the Founder and 3/4-length score at odds of 10-1 (video). Chairman of The Green Group, an accounting and equine “Every once in a while, you get something like Jaywalk and advisory firm that has over 400 clients in the racing industry. that changes everything,” Green said. “It’s easy in hindsight to “Two, we associate ourselves say the game plan was followed. with very good trainers who we She kept on improving and can trust and who know the improving and we wouldn’t have game. We have consignors that gone to a Grade I [in the we know well. We also have Frizette] unless we felt we had partners who have the same an opportunity to win. We took philosophy we do. Aron Yagoda a shot at the Breeders’ Cup and has been a great help because we were the fourth favorite. The he knows an awful lot of people horse had a mind of her own in the business. Chuck Zacney and broke with [Joel Rosario] has been a great partner to have and never looked back. How far because we see eye-to-eye on can she go? We will find out, what to do and where to go, because now we have a ticket to etc.” go to what is the [female] Green has bred or owned the equivalent of the [GI] Kentucky likes of Songandaprayer, Do It Jaywalk winning the BC Juvenile Fillies | Horsephotos Derby, the [GI Kentucky] Oaks.” With Style, Rhum and This was the first Breeders’ Hoppertunity over the years, but he teamed with Zacney for a Cup victory for D. J. Stable and Green hopes it is just the first of career high just last month when winning the GI Breeders’ Cup many. Juvenile Fillies with Jaywalk (video). The John Servis trainee also Cont. p5 MACHO UNO Holy Bull - Primal Force, Proven Source of Classic Speed by Blushing Groom (FR) | Fee: $10,000 S&N 7 stakes winners in 2018, “A great stallion to start off young incl. G2 winner BOBBY ABU DHABI mares with.” - Sierra Farm and G3 winners TOMMY MACHO Sire of 5 G1 winners and KIRBY’S PENNY and 5 millionaires, incl. Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) hero and exciting young sire MUCHO MACHO MAN CLICK HERE to submit your mare Inquiries to Dermot Carty (859) 559-4928 Classic Bloodlines Donald Wells (859) 470-9963 Classic Performance Ken Wilkins (859) 699-4887 www.AdenaStallions.com | (859) 987-1798 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 5 OF 17 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • DECEMBER 14, 2018 “I saw first of many because I spoke to Peter Brant, who has won four Breeders’ Cup races,” Green said.