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Owners/Owning Archive

Just the Start

Steve Zorn explains New York ownership basics:

Now we’re at just about $43,000 for the year, before the horse has set foot on the track in the afternoon. How do we pay it? From the purses? Don’t we wish.

Posted in Owners/Owning on July 16, 2008

Harry Aleo, 1919-2008

Harry Aleo (in the cowboy hat) with Lost in the Fog in the Golden Gate winner’s circle after the 2005 Golden Bear. Photo by ibison4.

Reports the Blood-Horse:

Harry J. Aleo, the crusty Northern California Thoroughbred owner who burst into national prominence with 2005 champion sprinter Lost in the Fog, died at his San Francisco home on the afternoon of June 21. He was 88.

Aleo campaigned many good horses in northern California with trainer Greg Gilchrist, but the late champion Lost in the Fog was his big horse, the one who brought Aleo to racing’s pinnacle, although not the Kentucky Derby. Displaying sense and restraint, qualities rarely seen among people with exquisitely talented 3-year-olds in the barn during Triple Crown season, Aleo refused to enter then-undefeated Lost in the Fog in the 2005 spring classics, recognizing his colt was a brilliant sprinter, dazzling in the way he muscled his way out of the gate to snatch the early lead, repelling all challengers. Before Lost in the Fog finished seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint that year, he ran his record to 10 straight wins, including the King’s Bishop Stakes:

That was one of the best races I saw at Saratoga that summer, and I remember it felt like a gift all that year, seeing Lost in the Fog do over and over again what he did so very well. My thanks to Aleo for the happy racing memories, and my sympathies to his family and friends.

Posted in Horses, Owners/Owning on June 22, 2008

Egos Legends Launch Fund

Nick Zito, Bob Baffert, and D. Wayne Lukas are teaming up to launch the Thoroughbred Racing Legends Fund, which plans to raise more than $75 million by late August and create a 100-horse stable within three years. Partnerships are nothing new in racing, reports the Wall Street Journal:

But while most partnerships buy established horses with some track record of success, the Legends fund plans to acquire mostly unproven — and cheaper — thoroughbreds and utilize Messrs. Lukas, Baffert and Zito to scout and develop them. Investors must commit a minimum of $3 million over three years to participate in the fund, which will charge a 2% management fee and keep 20% of profits from racing and sales.

Sounds like the three were inspired by plans for a certain other racing hedge fund recently in the news.

Posted in Owners/Owning on June 9, 2008

Material Information

On the IEAH web site, co-president Michael Iavarone is described as “a high-profile investment banker on Wall Street,” but Bloomberg turns up a different story, reporting that the man behind the $50 million Big Brown stud deal and a proposed $100 million racing hedge fund is a sanctioned penny stock broker and failed dotcom bubble day trader.

The NYT adds a few more details: “Iavarone told The New York Times that he had worked for Goldman Sachs, the world’s largest investment bank…. But he never worked for Goldman Sachs.”

Iavarone said he couldn’t reveal much about his background earlier, because it would have been “misunderstood.” No, I doubt that’s it … everything that’s come out is quite understandable, as is why he’d want to keep it quiet.

5/29 Addendum: Investors tell DRF they support IEAH. “We’re all entitled to screw up a little in our pasts, and you get to make up for those things,” said one. “They’ve been nothing but professionals.” The same investor did admit, though, that the information, new to him, about Iavarone’s experience, “disturbs me, maybe, a little bit.”

Posted in Owners/Owning, Triple Crown on May 28, 2008

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