It’s incredible to think of the impact one afternoon of bore-dom can have on the course of a sport’s future. In the case of Harry Mangurian Jr., it was boredom that prompted him to wander into Bay Meadows one day in 1946. Mangurian and a few of his Navy buddies were on shore leave and look-ing for something to do. He didn’t walk into another track until 1948, when he happened by Arlington Park on the day of Citation’s American Derby. Those two experiences stuck with young Mangurian for some 20 years before he bought his first horse.

Mangurian was born in 1926 in Rochester, N.Y., to Ar-menian immigrant Harry Sr. and Ethel Roberts, who ran a retail furniture business. After World War II broke out, Mangurian enlisted as soon as he was of age and served three years in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Upon his return to the East Coast, Mangurian went to work in his family’s business and expanded it by the 1960s, opening more than a dozen stores with 300 employees and eventu-ally taking the company public.

Mangurian parlayed his new fortune into more business ac-quisitions, including the formation of Drexel Investments, a Florida real estate construction and leasing firm which built 10,000 residences throughout the state. He purchased the First National Bank of Rochester and Southeastern Jet Corporation, though sports fans will remember him best as the owner of the Buffalo Braves and then the Boston Celtics.

Finger Lakes Racetrack opened its doors in 1962, and the prospect of having racing close by to his New York home renewed his interest from those bygone days at the races. Mangurian bought his first racehorse in 1966 and his first farm—the former Tartan Farm in Ocala—three years later. He renamed the operation Mockingbird Farm and used it as a base for his commercial breeding and racing stable.

Within a few years, Mockingbird was in the winner’s circle.

Sales Legends: Harry MangurianBy Natalie Voss

SPECIALMarch 18, 2015 www.PaulickReport.com

While attending a 1972 auction at Hialeah, Mangurian bought the mare Desert Trial from the dispersal of Mu-riel Vanderbilt Adams and thought so much of the mare that he also paid $40,000 for her 2-year-old filly by In Re-ality. The filly turned out to be Desert Vixen, who won six Grade 1s with trainer Tommy Root, Sr. Voters gave her two Eclipse Awards for her 3- and 4-year-old seasons, and she was inducted to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame just five years after her retirement.

The foal Desert Trial was carrying at the time of her sale, a full sibling to Desert Vixen, became Valid Appeal. The bay did not parallel his sister’s success on the track, earning eight wins from 36 starts; his impact was in the breeding shed. There, he was a foundation stallion for Mockingbird

ASK RAY

QUESTION: What’s this about Shared Belief rac-ing next in the Charles Town Classic? I thought he was going in the Oaklawn Handicap.

ANSWER: Trainers of good horses know never to make a commitment to a handicap race until the weight assignments come out. You’ve got to make sure the racing secretary knows you have options.

continued on Page 5

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www.PaulickReport.com Page 2

Stallion SpotlightSpeightstown

By Frank Mitchell

PRS

It takes little imagination to envision a champion sprinter as a leading sire. Racers of that ilk have speed; that’s a cham-pion sprinter’s calling card and one of the most desirable traits in a sire prospect.

As a champ on the track, Speightstown has the speed and has proven vastly popular with breeders. A top sales year-ling and a great-looking horse, Speightstown won 10 of 16 starts and earned more than $1.2 million.

The only surprise in a salty race re-cord is that Speightstown won his first stakes at 6, when most top stal-lion prospects are already at stud. In that championship season, Speight-stown won five stakes, including the Churchill Downs, True North, Vander-bilt, and Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Sometimes a nagging afterthought like not winning a stakes till 6 will have a chilling effect on breeders and taint a horse’s opportunities. But not so with Speightstown, who has stood his entire career at WinStar and has been strongly and pragmatically promot-ed by WinStar and Taylor Made.

Today, Speightstown is a well-established stallion and lead-ing sire who stands for $80,000 live foal in 2015.

Further proof of Speightstown’s standing with breeders and buyers is seen in his offspring at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March auction of 2-year-olds in training. The stallion had a dozen youngsters breeze at the March sale previews, and even more impressively, four went in :10 flat, and four more ran a furlong in :10 1/5. Of the remain-

ing four, one ran a furlong in :10 2/5, and three worked quarter-miles. One in :20 4/5 and two in :21 1/5.

That’s the consistency breeders dream of.

Part of the reason for Speightstown’s success is physique and part is genetic. The 17-year-old son of top sire Gone West is out of the Storm Cat mare Silken Cat, and he com-

bines the most prolific male lines of Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer with the unerring brood-mare contribution of Secretariat.

As a result, Speightstown is fre-quently seen with recombinations of these famous lines. In the case of the stallion’s Hip 62, which was one of Speightstown’s four work-ers who sped the furlong in :10, the dam is Dance Swiftly, a stakes-producing daughter of the North-ern Dancer stallion Danzig.

An unraced mare, Dance Swiftly is a full sister to the splendid cham-

pion mare Dance Smartly, winner of the Canadian Triple Crown and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. Dance Swiftly has produced two stakes winners, Paiota Falls and West Coast Swing, the latter by Speightstown’s sire Gone West.

Dance Swiftly is out of champion Classy ‘N Smart, dam of four stakes winners, also including leading sire Smart Strike (Mr. Prospector), who has several hot prospects in this sale. And this is the sort of family that regularly fill the book of leading sires like Speightstown, which guarantees them the best chances of reproducing success.

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www.PaulickReport.com Page 3

Honor RollItsmyluckyday Proved His Mettle on the Track

By Mary Schweitzer

2010 Dkb/br Colt, Lawyer Ron — Viva La Slew, by Don-eraile Court. Consigned by Brandywine Farm, agent, to 2011 Keeneland Sept., purchased by Nick J. Hines for $47,000. Consigned by Eisaman Equine to 2012 OBS March Sale, purchased by Eddie Plesa for $110,000.

Itsmyluckyday was a model of consistency throughout his racing career, winning nine of 21 starts and finishing in the money 15 times. A stakes winner from ages two through four, Itsmyluckyday was classic-placed at three and cap-tured the Grade 1 Woodward stakes as a 4-year-old.

Itsmyluckyday was from one of only two crops sired by 2007 Eclipse Champion Older Male Lawyer Ron before his untimely death in 2009. Bred in Kentucky by Libera-tion Farm and Brandywine Farm, Itsmyluckyday sold as a yearling at Keeneland September to agent Nick Hines for $47,000 then reappeared as a $110,000 pinhook in the OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

“What I remember most about him, he was always a very good student,” consignor Barry Eisaman recalled recently. “Very healthy, always did everything asked, a good mover,

was sound and with a good attitude and temperament.”

Itsmyluckyday was purchased by trainer Eddie Plesa, Jr., on behalf of David Melin at the OBS March sale. Under Plesa’s tutelage, Itsmyluckyday broke his maiden in his sec-ond career start and then was quickly moved into stakes company. The colt won Calder’s Fasig-Tipton Turf Dash and Foolish Pleasure Stakes as a juvenile.

As a sophomore, Itsmyluckyday proved to be the real deal, winning both the Gulfstream Park Derby and G3 Holy Bull Stakes before finishing second to future Kentucky Derby winner, Orb, in the G1 Florida Derby.

After the Florida Derby, Churchill Downs appeared to be the logical next start for the colt. Although fortune didn’t smile upon him on the first Saturday in May, Itsmyluckyday bounced back to finish second to Oxbow in the G1 Preak-ness two weeks later.

Itsmyluckyday missed the remainder of his 3-year-old sea-son when he was pulled up in his next start, the G3 Pega-sus Stakes, with a fractured ilium.

The son of Lawyer Ron returned to the races as a 4-year-old and quickly developed into one of the top older horses of 2014. Itsmyluckyday broke through for his first Grade 1 victory in August as he took the Woodward Stakes by 1 ½ lengths over Moreno.

Itsmyluckyday is standing his first season at stud at Spend-thrift Farm in Kentucky.

RANDOM FACTS by Ray Paulick

“Thirty Tons a Day” is an entertaining memoir of racetrack ownership written by the late Bill Veeck, better known as a creative,

offbeat marketing genius during his days as a Major League Baseball team owner. The book title is based on the amount of manure and waste produced daily at Suffolk Downs in Boston.

About

For advertising inquiries pleasecall Emily at 859.913.9633

Ray Paulick - Publisher ray@paulickreport.comEmily Alberti - Director of Advertising emily@paulickreport.comScott Jagow - Editor-in-Chief scott@paulickreport.comMary Schweitzer - News Editor mary@paulickreport.comNatalie Voss - Features Editor natalie@paulickreport.comEmily White - Weekend Editor emilywhite@paulickreport.comFrank Mitchell - Contributing Writer

COPYRIGHT © 2015, BLENHEIM PUBLISHING LLC

www.PaulickReport.com Page 4

PRS

What would you be doing if you didn’t work in the horse industry? Real estate development. I went to school for it at the University of Wisconsin business school’s real es-tate program. I like the idea of building something – a big project, to try and make it successful. I thought I had an interest in real estate until I got involved in horses.

You’ve just been named the all-powerful horse racing czar. What are the first things you’d do? The first thing I would do is try to clean up the sport; establish uniform medication policies for every racetrack. The second thing I would do is try to create bigger racing days. Less racing overall but bigger days. I think bigger days, lots of stakes races and attendance helps sell the sport and should af-fect gambling handle.

What’s your favorite part of the business? The people. I love the morning chatter. I love dealing with owners or clients. I love winning races. The thrill of winning a big race and being there. And it’s not after the wire, it’s from the

quarter pole home. That’s a feeling that you can’t get any-where else in the world.

What gives you hope for the future of horse racing? There’s a lot that gives me hope. We have a product that wealthy people love. Not many wealthy people can afford to buy their own sports teams. But a lot of them can afford to buy racehorses. So at the ownership level, I think rac-ing has something other sports don’t have. They can capture somebody’s brain and heart that other things in life can’t do. When you turn on your boat or fly your airplane I don’t think that gives as much excitement as winning a horse race. From an owner-ship standpoint, that is crucial. Fans love to gamble on a product that is interesting, that creates large payouts. It’s not a football game, it’s not red-black, it’s not rolling dice. You have to have some intelligence and you have to study.

Favorite racetrack? Saratoga. The history, the old grand-stand. Sitting in those boxes and winning at probably one of the hardest meets in the world to win at, especially a baby race.

Best racetrack food? None.

What is your best characteristic? Enthusiasm. Some-times it’s a negative. I don’t like to lose, but I’m an enthusi-astic positive person.

What do you appreciate the most in friends? Honesty.

Favorite sports team? Philadelphia Eagles.

Last concert you went to? Jay-Z, with Graham and Anita Motion.

Do you have a go-to app on your smartphone? Uber.

If it comes down to the University of Kentucky and Wis-consin in the NCAA basketball tournament, who do you like? Wisconsin. Last year I had to watch Aaron Harrison hit that prayer three-pointer (to beat Wisconsin) sitting at Dudley’s in Lexington wearing a Wisconsin jersey.

There’s no worse feeling than getting beat at the buzzer in Lexington rooting for the Badgers. This year we’d play in the semi-finals. I hope Wisconsin beats UK to get to the finals.

Getting to know Al Shaqab Racing advisor Bradley Weisbord

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PRS

as the sire of Grade 1 winners K.J.’s Ap-peal, Proud Appeal, and Southern Ap-peal, as well as stal-lions Valid Expecta-tions, Valid Wager, Seacliff, and Mister Jolie.

His experience as an owner on the court taught Mangurian to appreciate his suc-cess on the racetrack.

“In basketball, if you sign a Larry Bird or an M.L. Carr or the right coach, you can turn a team around pretty quick if you set your mind to it,” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1979. “But to win the Kentucky Derby, you have to be very, very fortunate.”

He also learned what can be the bitter lesson of the com-mercial breeder when he sold eventual Eclipse Award winner Gilded Time at auction for $80,000.

“It was a business decision pure and simple,” he said at the end of the horse’s Breeders’ Cup-winning season in 1992. “I get a kick out of breeding a good horse, and I am really pleased when buyers do well with my home-breds.”

All the time, Mangurian was expanding Mockingbird—the property went from 300 acres to 1,100 during his ownership, and it was a prolific enterprise with 300 broodmares by 1990 and four stallions. At some point, Mangurian decided he’d rather not send his horses through someone else’s sale and helped found the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company. By his death in 2008, Man-gurian had left his mark on the business that he loved; he served on the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association for 30 years, garnered an Eclipse Award of Merit in 2002, and was inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame in 1995. Mangurian was twice named Breeder of the Year by the Thorough-bred Owners and Breeders Association and received numerous regional awards for his work in Florida.

He also left the sport with one of today’s top trainers: Mark Casse managed Mockingbird Farm early in his ca-reer and looked back on the time as a great learning experience.

“Besides my father, he was the most influential person in my life,” Casse told the Ocala Star-Banner upon Mangu-rian’s death. “And the older I got, the wiser he became. Many of the things I’ve done in my life are because of the things he’s told me. The world has lost a great man, but I lost a great friend.”

continued from Page 1

The Perfect Trip* Depart USA 12th June

* Arrive in Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Visit Chantilly training center. Prix de Diane 14th June Visit Le Havre, Siyouni, Kendargent etc.

* Arrive in London. Royal Ascot meeting 16th-20th June Visit Frankel, Dubawi, Dansili, New Approach etc.

* Arrive in Düsseldorf. Visit Dabirsim, Lord of England, Maxios, Soldier Hollow etc.

* Arrive in Dublin. Visit Galileo, Lope de Vega, Mastercraftsman, Sea The Stars, Invincible Spirit etc. Irish Derby Festival 26th-28th June

Contact Alix Choppin with any questions and toorganise your trip. Tel +33 624 331 189

info@destinationeuroperacing.com

www.destinationeuroperacing.com

Keeneland Library/John C. Wyatt

www.PaulickReport.com Page 6

Five to Watch

Hip 308 gray colt by Congrats x Night Edition, by Ascot Knight: This colt in the stylish gray outfit is a half-brother to G1 winner Jaycito (by Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gal-lop), winner of the Norfolk Stakes at 2, as well as being second in the Del Mar Futurity and Strub. Colt is by the A.P. Indy stallion Congrats, already the sire of G1 winners Turbulent Descent, Wickedly Perfect, and Emma’s Encore.

Hip 351 bay filly by Bernardini x Pure Clan, by Pure Prize: This January 10 foal is out of the very talented racemare Pure Clan, twice a winner at the G1 level and an earner of nearly $2 million. In addition to winning the American Oaks and Flower Bowl, Pure Clan was second in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, third in the Beverly D and Kentucky Oaks. Filly is by Preakness winner Bernardini, a leading son of A.P. Indy.

Hip 360 gray filly by Medaglia d’Oro x Quiet Dance, by Quiet American: This filly went a furlong in :10 2/5, which didn’t separate her from dozens of other sharp works that day, but her pedigree does. She is a half-sister to four stakes winners, including Horse of the Year Saint Liam

(Saint Ballado). Sire is known for quality of his fillies, includ-ing Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra.

Hip 510 dark bay colt by Congrats x Turko’s Turn, by Turkoman: This February foal is by leading freshman sire Congrats (A.P. Indy) and is a half-brother to Horse of the Year Point Given (Thunder Gulch). Turko’s Turn has also produced three stakes-placed runners and the dam of G3 stakes winner Street Story (Street Cry). As the sires indi-cate, this family has responded well with matings to classic stallions.

Hip 585 bay colt by Tiznow x Baffled, by Distorted Humor: This bay blazed a furlong work in :10 flat, which made a lot of heads turn because he is a half-brother to a pair of stakes winners, all out of a young Distorted Humor mare. The colt’s most famous sibling is last season’s G1 Florida Derby and this year’s G1 Donn winner Constitution (Tapit), and the oth-er stakes winner is G3 winner Jacaranda (Congrats). This progressive colt is by Horse of the Year Tiznow, twice a win-ner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The dam is a half-sister to G1 winner Emcee. PRS

A look at some of the sale’s top hipsBy Frank Mitchell

2TDN RISING STARS In As ManyWeeks3yo colt

DONWORTH (pictured)overcame traffic trouble to break his maidenat first asking Saturday at Gulfstream,becoming a new .

3yo colt

KENTUCKIANalso won his debut the prior Saturday, rolling to an 11-length victory in 1:08 4/5 at Golden Gate to become a .