March 22 - Dream Empress  

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to race a Grade 1 winning horse? As a point of reference, in the past year, I have painted for two different clients who combined have been racing horses for 90 years . . . 90 YEARS!!!! One family had their first Grade 1 winner after 50 years and the other guy had his first graded stakes winner after racing for 40 years.

I say this to add clarity. You see, Dream Empress was raced by a new syndicate of owners called Living the Dream Stable, the same group of people also raced as Chasing the Dream Stable. In their first year of existence, they had a colt and filly both win Grade 1 races at Keeneland. The Grade 1 winning filly was Dream Empress, who was bought for $40,000, and the colt was Noble's Promise who was bought for $10,000. Both were bought and trained by Kenny McPeek Racing.

Ok, it makes me wonder if those partners fully appreciated the rarity of their instant success at the track.

Most of these racing partnerships sell their horses when they finish racing. Dream Empress is the exception in that most of the owners transitioned to the Dream Empress syndicate that owned her for several years after retiring from racing. They bred her and sold her foals. With that being said, maybe they do realize how special it is to be a Grade 1 winner or maybe they just really, really love their horse. I'm fine with either answer. (Before you ask, the partnership finally did sell her and like many of our better bloodstock, Dream Empress went to Japan.)

This is just a fun story, starting with the ownership group on this filly. Kelly Culliver put together two groups of syndicates (correct me if I don't describe this correctly) - one group was for colts and one group was for fillies. One group went by the name Living the Dream Stables and the other was Chasing the Dream Stable. Kelly took the horse syndicate idea to a new level in the breath of members and the price per share. After Dream Empress won the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland, Kelly said they had the largest crowd in the winner's circle in the history of Keeneland. What a great ride for all these racing fans turned owner as many of the partners on Living the Dream's Dream Empress were also partners on Chasing the Dream's Noble's Promise who was also a Grade 1 winner at Keeneland.

One of the common links between both horses was trainer Kenny McPeek who also plays the role of blood stock agent in selecting many of the horses he trains. Speaking of horses he trains, there is another link to the special filly in Kenny's barn currently. Swiss Skydiver wrote her name in the history book as a filly winning the Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown (in most years, but 2020 was not most years) What else does that Preakness win have in common with Dream Empress's Alcibiades win? The jockey: that is Robby Albarado in the irons on Dream Empress who also piloted the perfect race as Swiss Skydiver held off eventual Horse of the Year, Authentic, down the stretch.

Speaking of Authentic, when Kelly said that Dream Empress had the largest crowd in the Keeneland winner's circle, the idea of micro shares with thousands of owners hadn't even been conceived yet. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of fun in the sport of horse racing and the more the merrier sure seems to be the theme.