Sire: Thunder Gulch

Grandsire: Gulch

Dam: Vertigineux

Damsire: Kris S.

Notable Relatives: Zenyatta (Half-Sister)

Sex: Female

Foaled: 2003

Country: United States

Colour: Bay

Breeder: Maverick Production, Limited

Owner: Amerman Racing Stables, LLC

Trainer: David E. Hofmans

Jockey: Victor Espinoza

Record: 16 Starts: 6 - 2 - 5

Earnings: $1,048,491

Major races: Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, Santa Anita Oaks, Las Virgenes Stakes

March 24 - Balance

I guess from now on she will just be known as Zenyatta's older sister. To her credit, Balance was quite the racehorse winning Grade 1 races as a 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old and finishing her career with over a million dollars in earnings.

She was raced by John and Jerry Amerman. John had an amazing career as a CEO for a few companies. The two things he was most proud of in the business world was that he was the CEO of Warner Lambert, best known for Listerine. When Scope came out with a "nice" tasting minty mouthwash, John replied with a series of "nice" tasting mouthwashes to retain their control of the market, (even though John says he still uses the old Listerine to this day because the taste just tells you that it's working!) John's other big home run was taking over as CEO of a toy company that was just about dead. He came on for enough share options to choke a horse (sorry) and took it upon himself to reinvigorate BARBIE!!! Lots of new Barbies - made her cool again and the nearly worthless stock skyrocketed.

When John retired, he said that during his entire career, his wife, Jerry, followed him and completely supported his every move. So, it was time to do what Jerry wanted. She told me this at dinner one night in Kentucky more than 15 years ago (Bob Feld, I think you were there that night.) Jerry said that as a little girl she put up on her wall the cover of TIME magazine that had a Richard Stone Reeves painting on it. She said when she came home from college it was still on her wall. She always wanted to have horses, but never had one. That was her desire when John retired - to have a horse (or two).

When they lived in New York, they lived in the same neighborhood as Richard Stone Reeves. When I visited them in California, their home was filled with Reeves' paintings of their Grade 1 winners. To say that I'm honored to paint for them now and add my paintings to that collection is an understatement.

Fast forward, not only have the Amermans had a very active and successful racing stable, but Jerry and daughter Anne opened an equine rehab facility in Temecula called Peacefield Farm. How's that for getting into horses and giving back to them as well!

By the way, congratulations to the Amermans who won the Jeff Ruby Stakes at Turfway Park yesterday. It appears Endlessly will be taking the Amermans to the Kentucky Derby!

Balance was a wonderful racehorse and then her little sister, Zenyatta, came along and stole the spotlight.

I painted this for John and Jerry Amerman who run Peacefield Farm in Southern California along with their daughter Anne. Peacefield is a layup rehab operation out in Temecula, which gets this away from the big cities but perfect for taking horses off tracks like Del Mar and Santa Anita.

Let me share a little about the Amermans, their place in horse racing, and why I find it very interesting right now. John had a long career as a CEO for a couple Fortune 500 companies. He rebuilt their main product lines against their top competitors sending their earnings sky high. Each time his efforts were rewarded by the fact that he took lots of options on the company’s stocks, in other words betting on himself and winning.  

When I sat down with the Amermans and Bob Feld, their bloodstock advisor, for dinner 14 years ago, I asked John how they got into horses. John said that for his entire career, Jerry followed him whenever work took them. In retirement, it was Jerry's turn to have what she wanted.  Then Jerry told the story of how as a little girl she always wanted a horse, but never got one. She talked about taking the cover of one of the big magazines with a horse’s painting by Richard Stone Reeves on the cover and putting that picture up in her bedroom. It was still up whenever she came home from college. After about 40 years, she was finally going to get a horse. That led to them having a rather large racing stable and having horses that have raced around the world. <<Side note: never underestimate the power of art!>>

What I didn't learn for a while, and this is what makes this story so timely. I referred to it again recently when talking about "good things" going on in the sport of horse racing right now. You see, like many others, the Amermans tip toed into horse racing. They did it by having a share or a couple horses through Team Valor. In the industry, we have seen the increased activity of syndicates bringing in more people into ownership of horses through a variety of partnerships available but what I think about is how many of this partners that are "sniffing" at the business; do get the bug and grow into their own racing stable?

I ask this because with my recent limited edition print offering of Authentic, I have met about 100 of the 5,300 micro share owners who own a piece through MyRacehorse. The concept allowed a lot of people to get what may be their one and only shot at owning even a tiny piece of a horse, almost in name only, but I can tell you, it means a world to these people. I think what many in the industry see are people who have just more than bragging rights. But, because of what I have seen over the years with syndicates being the entry point for many to tip toe into the game, this could be MUCH BIGGER than you think.

I will be very curious to see in another 5 or 10 years, how many of these micro share owners actually do have their own horses, stables, farms and what the sport has finally done is allowed the world at large to take a closer look at the game, a test drive if you will and I think we might all be surprised how much these new owners bring to sport in the way of friends and money on a variety of scales.

I'm not really done with the Amermans because my other birthday post today is a horse they bred.

PS. That little colt in the painting is by super stallion A. P. Indy and was the sale topper at the Keeneland yearling sale, later named Mr. Besilu (who never lived up to his expectations on the track, but that is a whole 'nother story for another time.)