Tell us about your introduction to the horse racing industry?

My husband and I compete in horseback field trials, it’s a great sport. One of our friends who did it with us back in the late ‘90s said, “if you like this, you should get a racehorse.” So he somehow found a horse and advised us to buy it. Long story short, we bought him, and he did nothing but win so we thought everybody should have a racehorse!

We’ve been doing this about 25 years, and then about early 2000s we put in our own track and our own barns and decided to do our own thing. We got involved with Jessie (Harrington, trainer) back in 2008 or 2009.

We bought a Distorted Humour colt called Pathfork through Ben McElroy, and he wanted us to put it in training over in Ireland with her. And so, we did. He was a great success story for us. He won the Futurity in Ireland with Fran Berry on board in 2010. We’ve had a few others on and off with her.

How did you come across Hotazhell?

We’ve had horses from the States go to Royal Ascot several times. We always love it. So last summer, we were thinking it had been a while since we were last at Royal Ascot so we raised this yearling out of a mare that had run at Royal Ascot against the boys finishing fifth. We were going to send him over but he just fell apart, you know, like yearlings can do.

That’s when Richie (Galway) from Jessie’s suggested that we buy a horse in Ireland. He went to the Craven Breeze Up sale in April and there were two that he liked, but the horse he really did want was the one that we got, which is how we ended up with Hotazhell.

I’ve always preached to my husband that this is a numbers game. We’re from Kentucky so our goal is to have a runner in the Kentucky Derby. We have about 28 horses in the States, but we buy one horse in Ireland and he ends up being great.

We originally wanted him for Royal Ascot, but as soon as they got him back to Jessie’s yard, she said right away that he was quite large and it would be pushing him a bit to get him ready in time for Royal Ascot.

They’re not like cars, you don’t buy them knowing what they’ll be able to do. We were disappointed but Jessie reassured us that he was worth waiting for. On his first race, he got himself into all kinds of trouble and placed fourth, but then he came back and won pretty handily on his second start. Six months later, we’re perfectly okay that he didn’t run at Royal Ascot!

What was going through your mind watching the race?

I was sitting in the parking lot of the Lexington, Kentucky airport, watching it on my phone. My husband was at home, watching it on TV, and the feed cut out right at the finish line! My husband’s phone was blowing up. We didn’t know probably for 15 minutes that he had won.

I was trying to get through security on my phone, trying to find out if the horse won. So, you know, it’s all those little things that really make it exciting.

It was the most awful good that ever was! When he got back to the yard from Doncaster, their plan was to let him down for a week. I think it was the Tuesday, maybe when I got a text from Jessie saying ‘he’s going to have to go jog or he’s going hurt somebody!’

We love having horses with the Harringtons. They’ve had a bunch of good horses and they continue to be so enthusiastic yet humble, and that’s not always the case with most trainers.

Have you seen any qualities in Hotazhell that set him apart from other horses?

When you have a horse that’s consistently very, very good, you always question in the back of your mind, ‘was he beating anything good?’ or ‘was he just having a good day?’ I feel like at Doncaster, he just wanted to win that race.

There’s not a lot of two-year-olds that will look another horse in the eye like that and say, “I’m going to beat you today.” I think that cemented his mind frame to me, that he wants to win. Jessie said it very well, she said, “I don’t ever expect him to win by wide margins, because I think he really likes staring the other horse down.”

That’s not a quality you can train into them. I don’t know if it’s bred into them but it’s a hard quality to find, especially in a two-year-old. He gives us a lot of confidence. He’s got the talent, but now I feel like he’s got the mentality.

Tell us more about your training facilities at home?

We probably have 25 horses at the tracks right now. We raise eight to 10 youngsters a year, and then usually buy another eight to 10. We buy them, and then we keep them all at home, and they’re all broke at our training facility. I cannot say enough good about our staff. They’ve been with us forever, they’re like family. We work really hard for these horses to trust us and to spend time with them. We take things slow and none of our staff ever make a wrong move with them. I so appreciate that they always think of the horse first rather than who we can get to the races first or what trainer is going to get a horse. It’s always about the horse first.

What advice would you give to aspiring owners?

We try to surround ourselves with good people, whether it’s on the farm or at the tracks. We used to field trial with this old man, and mostly he just liked to drink, but he was great fun, and he’d always tell us “you’re not going to really win all that often, so it’s really important to be with good people and have a good time,” and I really took that to heart. Surround yourself with really good people, have a good time and enjoy the moment.