Homebred Golden Pal Takes Lowe to New Heights

Owner/breeder Randall Lowe scored his first Breeders' Cup victory Nov. 6 at Keeneland when his colt Golden Pal led every step of the way in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T). The victory was extra sweet as five years earlier at the Lexington oval, Golden Pal's dam, Lady Shipman, was second, beaten a neck, in the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T). Trained by Wesley Ward, Golden Pal is now slated to return during the Keeneland spring meet before heading to Royal Ascot next year for a run in the King's Stand Stakes (G1). BloodHorse MarketWatch spoke with Lowe, a Las Vegas resident, about his recent success at the World Championships and the equine family that has taken him to the top of the sport. MarketWatch: This was your first Breeders' Cup win. How was the experience? Randall Lowe: When we went there only five years ago with Lady Shipman, I didn't know what to expect. When we ran her, gosh darn it, we were ahead right before the wire and her head came back at the wire; one more step we would have won it then. I said, 'We're not coming back this time to lose. If we're going back to the Breeders' Cup, we're going to win this time,' and thank God I was right. MW: Golden Pal is a homebred, as was Lady Shipman. Does he bear any similarities to his dam? RL: They're both very smart, No. 1. I bought (Lady Shipman's dam) Sumthingtotalkabt out of Leon Rasmussen's sale when he passed—he was the dosage authority for the Racing Form. I raced her, she made me about $170,000, I had her with Wally Dollase. With Lady Shipman I started reading and looking at all the things that John Mabee had taught me, and I picked Midshipman as the stallion (for Sumthingtotalkabt to be sent to) and we got Lady Shipman. With Lady Shipman, I kept thinking Sumthingtotalkabt. When Sumthingtotalkabt ran 6 1/2 furlongs, she ran 1:14 and three and she lost to a horse named Lady Belsara, who went on to win the Chicago Handicap (G3). To just get touched off by that horse, I thought if I breed Midshipman to Sumthingtotalkabt hopefully that she can pass speed on to Lady Shipman, which she did. Lady Shipman was a wonderful mare to have, and I still own her. When I started breeding Lady Shipman, I chose Uncle Mo because he's a big, grand horse and she was kind of on the smaller end, so I thought if we put them together then maybe we might have a nice-looking individual, and there's Golden Pal. But they're both very quick and they're both very smart. MW: Is Lady Shipman back in foal now? RL: Yes, she's carrying an Omaha Beach baby right now. … She's at Tom VanMeter's Stockplace Farm in Kentucky. I'm excited. The baby should be born the end of February, beginning of March. MW: Lady Shipman has now stamped herself as a race mare and a broodmare—how does that make you feel? RL: I look at all the horses like when we were up for the Eclipse Award with Lady Shipman. There was La Verdad, which is owned by Sheila Rosenblum, and then there was Wavell Avenue. Wavell Avenue had a baby and La Verdad had a baby, but the La Verdad baby can't seem to break its maiden—you have to excuse my favoritism over here—and Wavell Avenue hasn't done much anything at all. I kept telling everybody Lady Shipman, because she was a grass filly, we kind of got a bad deal at the end because in North America they don't recognize the grass horses. They always favor the dirt horses more than anything else. So maybe you beat us in the Eclipse Awards, but now what baby is beating the other babies? Am I a proud father? Yes, I am. MW: After winning the Breeders' Cup, you mentioned Mabee was a mentor to you. How did you meet him? RL: At Santa Anita one day, I had bet a $96 Pick Six ticket. I had $120 on me and I spent $96 of it on the Pick Six. I was sitting in a box, and as the races were going, I just sat there because I didn't really have any other money to bet. Back then I was very, very poor. I won the first race with a 35-1 shot, and I won the second race, and I won the third race, and then I won the fourth race. To make a long story short, I won the Pick Six. I was the only one sitting there waiting for the results, and then you heard, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Pick Six paid $156,000." That was in 1985. I couldn't believe it. I rushed down to the phone booth down below because we didn't have the mobile phones back in those days and they had to unlock them. I called my dad and said, "Dad, I just won the Pick Six," and he's like, "Well, how much did it pay?" I said, "$156,000." He goes, "What?" and I go, "It's $156,000. Do I take it in cash, do I take it in check, what do I do?" I'd never had that kind of money before. I took $100,000 in check, the rest in cash, whatever the IRS took out in taxes. I carried around that check for a couple months and then I read and heard that John Mabee was going to start an insurance company. I looked for his Golden Eagle horses and I would go out to Hollywood Park, would stand by the press elevator, and would hope to catch John coming off the elevator there. One day he came walking off and I was there in my suit and I said, "Mr. Mabee, my name is Randy Lowe. You don't know me but if I could just have a minute of your time, please?" I hand him the check, he opens up the check, he goes, "Is this real?" because it's a check for $100,000. He hands me back the check and says, "No, I don't take any partners, but if you really want to do some work with me, you need to come down to San Diego." A week later, I go down to San Diego, and where does he take me for the job interview? He takes me to Del Mar. We were there for six races. He had a couple horses running. I gave him six winners out of six races, and he said to me, "If you can sell insurance as well as you can pick racehorses, we will go very far." MW: How did you get introduced to horse racing? RL: My father used to take me to the racetrack—Santa Anita, Del Mar—back when I was like 7 years old when we started. He would take me as reward for being a good little kid, and I enjoyed it. My father used to sit at the dining room table studying the racing form, and I'd be looking over, "Hey Dad, what are you doing?" He would try to explain to me. Of course, when you're that young, you don't understand. My uncles and my cousins would understand the Racing Form. I would look and see how they would pick horses. I'd ask questions. Then I started reading books and everything, and I put together my own formula. I turned out to be a very, very good handicapper, enough when I was talking to John all the time, he'd say, "Who's in the race?" I'd tell him who he had to beat and how I thought the race was going to go. It was just a bond. It was a meant-to-be kind of scenario. He treated me great. John treated me like I was his son. MW: How long have you been owning and breeding horses now? RL: Thirty-five years owning. I started breeding about 10 years ago. MW: Lady Shipman is in Kentucky and Golden Pal is a Florida-bred. Where do you have your horses based? RL: The reason he's a Florida-bred is because Ryan Barbazon, who I've been dealing with the last 11 years, used to be in Kentucky. He was in Danville, Ky., he was managing a farm there, then he went to Ocala, Fla. Actually, he went to Morriston, Fla., first with his dad, Joe Barbazon—he owns Pleasant Acres over there—and then Ryan went out on his own. Because I'd been with Ryan all this time, I thought, wherever Ryan's going, the horse is going as well. That's how he became a Florida-bred. I had a couple other horses I didn't think about too much because I have to assess everybody's ability. I'm not like some of these multimillionaires that can afford to keep losing money. I trimmed down the roster. One of them I gave as a San Jose police (mount) now. The other one I gave away is an equestrian riding horse where they teach young girls how to ride and jump. The other ones were claimed away or sold. I sold Just Talkin to Michael Dubb of New York. I sold Sumthingtotalkabt to Tom Ryan of SF Bloodstock. I've narrowed it down economically because it's just too expensive to have so many racehorses. I'm not an owner that likes to get into partnerships because I had partners before and it was nothing but problems. I own them 100%. That's why it gets pretty expensive. Lady Shipman and Golden Pal (are my only horses now). I wouldn't trade them for anybody in the world. MW: What kind of job have you seen Wesley Ward do with Golden Pal? RL: He had called me before when he had heard I was going to switch trainers because I wanted to run in Dubai. Kathleen O'Connell, who used to train Lady Shipman, she did a great job. But I just felt that she didn't have the experience of going overseas. So I picked Kiaran McLaughlin because he had done this for Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and trained for Sheikh Hamdan, Shadwell. It was between him and Wesley Ward. When I entered 'Pal' in the (Keeneland) September Yearling Sale, I would go out and hang around the barn area, looking at all the owners looking at all the horses. I'm sure they were staring at me as well, wondering what's this guy doing over here. When Wesley came up there, he just stared at the horse and looked at him and kept looking at him. I think the first time he was there, he was there for over half an hour just staring at the horse's legs and looking at everything. When (Golden Pal) went up to the sales ring, Wesley was following the horse the whole way and was looking at the horse. We struck a deal with Coolmore where I thought they were going to buy the horse (after he did not meet his reserve in the ring). I gave them 60 days—that's how confident I was that he should be no problem. … I thought the horse was sold. They called up and said, 'We decided to return the horse to you.' Then Wesley tried to put an ownership together to buy the horse. I gave Wesley a week to do that and he couldn't get it together, so I said, 'Wesley, I'm taking the horse back.' I sent him back to Ryan Barbazon's farm, Barbazon Bloodstock, over there in Ocala, Fla. I was thinking about it and said, "You know what? I'm going to give this horse to Wesley Ward." And everybody thought I had lost my mind. I said if he wanted the horse this bad—this was supposedly his pick of the whole September auction—let's give him a try. I couldn't be happier. My gut instinct has been right. MW: It sounds like Golden Pal and Lady Shipman have been the dream of a lifetime for you. RL: I can honestly tell you that owning racehorses has been my lifelong dream. I used to own insurance business, but almost every dollar I ever made, other than paying for necessities, just went back into the horses. Everybody who owns racing horses, especially on the higher end, they have other businesses which are making them tons of money. For me to do this, I used to be the guy at Hollywood Park standing there begging for a Racing Form and a program for the last race so I could bet my $2. To go from that level all the way up to owning Golden Pal, it's unreal. Back on Lady Shipman, I'm glad they are recognizing her now because there was a time when I was thinking about selling her and getting out of the business. … I retired her early. We could have come back and run. These races nowadays (upgraded turf sprints), had they been back then, I would have came back and ran. But then again, we wouldn't have Golden Pal. He's the first foal.