Big Babies They're Off!

Come Spring, however, Two Year Olds began to race. Babies were big, BIG Business. Local Horsemen dove into each new crop like Blue Runners into a school of Finger Mullet. There were Weanling sales, Yearling sales, Two Year Old In Training sales. Babies were "pin-hooked" two, three times, going up in value each sale. People paid incredible money for these animals based on blood lines and a one furlong work.

Many others, however, did not have the pedigree, did not develop early, show that quick work, did not command much at auction. Some thoroughbreds are not blessed with the best conformation, might have physical flaws, but had heart, a will to win you couldn't see until they raced. As a result over the years a fantastic after-market had developed in South Florida. Babies started racing locally, and ones that did well became extremely valuable.

People bought Two Year Olds for 20 to 30 thousand, raced them once or twice, and if they showed ability you got offers for hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. Because when a Baby started doing good in Florida, through the heat of the Miami summer, Big Time Horse Racing Outfits came flying in - from New York, California, Kentucky - or (dare you even dream it) The Mother Lode - Japan or Saudi Arabia.

This was not Once-In-A-Lifetime, Pie-In-The-Sky type stuff. This was year in, year out. A number of these deals, every year.

A Two Year Old, bought in February for $30,000, breaks his Maiden, Places in a Non-Winners of One Other Than, hits the board in a minor Stake, privately purchased for $125,000. These stories were commonplace. A homebred, wins a Maiden Special Weight, the owner is offered $250,000. He takes it. Next day the phone rings, somebody else offers him $400,000. A St. Ballado colt breaks his Maiden by 10 lengths, gets into the Derby hunt - somebody offers the owners a million dollars.

These were not isolated incidents. The culmination of the Summer Baby Racing, Calder features a series of Stallion Stakes - The Florida Stallion Stakes, three races for the colts, three for the fillies - $1.2 Million in purses. The winners' share was $800,000. The third race was the big prize, a $400,000 Purse. One year the winners of both divisions were purchased privately (for a reported $250,000 each) the very morning of the race.

The colt who finished Second in the third Stallion Stakes that year, Comeonmom, by Jolie's Halo, went up north, won the Grade II Remsen Stakes. The Arabs flew in, bought him for a reported THREE MILLION DOLLARS.

News of these deals shot through the backside of Calder like wildfire. Made you absolutely sick when you heard about it. For the first thought that ran through your mind was: "Hey! I was at that Sale."

Every year there was a new crop of Two Year Old Babies to be picked over, bid on, bought, sold, trained and raced.
And every year, every Trainer, every owner, every breeder, bloodstock agent and pinhooker - EVERYBODY - they were all looking for Big Babies.

With serious money on the line Horsemen in South Florida went after it hammer and tong. With the cheerful good nature of barracuda. And the ethics of piranha.

You could find better sportsmanship in most Gang Wars.

I go into this at some length so everyone can fully appreciate the backdrop to my little story - the colorful and diverse city of Miami, stifling tropical heat, several hundred sharp, ruthless people in a highly speculative, highly competitive dog-eat-dog business, trying to out-hustle each other for vast amounts of money.

Sound much like a fairy tale to you?