Breeder Curt Leake has had 65 winners in his career, but only two have ever won a graded stakes race. The most recent happened Preakness Stakes (G1) weekend in the Chick Lang Stakes (G3) at Pimlico Race Course. Ryvit, by Competitive Edge and out of a Medaglia d'Oro mare, She Is Bedazzling, took home the six-furlong race.
Based in Northeast Louisiana, Leake said he is about as far away from any racing circuit as anyone could be. "I'm probably three hours from Louisiana Downs, four hours from Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, and then another four hours to Evangeline Downs," he said. From a family of farmers, Leake has made Thoroughbreds the newest crop to be passed down as his son, David, works alongside him.
Leake sat down with BloodHorse MarketWatch to discuss his introduction to racing, breeding Thoroughbreds, and what he wants people to know about his family and their business.
BloodHorse: How did you get your start in Thoroughbreds?
Curt Leake: We had some cattle when I was in high school. When I got out (of college) I decided that if I wanted to make money in the horse business, it wasn't by raising Quarter Horses; it was going to be something that could race. Over at Winnsboro (La.), I knew someone and he had a racehorse. … I asked him, "What does it take to buy Thoroughbred broodmares?" He told me, "Just get in it, just get in." That's when we didn't have Internet or any of that stuff, so six months later, he had a horse that broke down at the Fair Grounds. He said, "Go down there and get it, she'll make a good broodmare for you. You can have her. She's costing me money; just go get her."
It wasn't long after that, I went to Arkansas and bought three more mares; paid less than $5,000 for the three. That was where I met my buddy Jody Huckabay (of Elm Tree Farm). My dad and I went up there, we just happened to be at the hotel restaurant eating supper one night. We were father and son at one table, father and son on the other table. That's how we met Jody. And then we followed up on that introduction, and that's how I got my start.
BH: With your family being farmers, has that ability to grow and nurture passed on to your horses?
CL: I think it has. When we plant a crop, when wintertime rolls around, it's not anything we can do. And then the springtime gets here, and then you put seed in the ground. Corn is first, then beans, then cotton. That's kind of the order, but we plan to start planning late February, March, April, May, and we just kind of nursed that whole crop the whole year. And put the seed in the ground, you baby that crop, and in harvest season in September, October, you either reap from your benefits or cry from your failures. So it is with the horse business. This is kind of the same thing. You get a mare, get her bred, have the baby, nourish that baby, keep it in good graces, and hopefully you can sell it as a yearling or something down the line.
BH: What can you tell us about your breeding operation?
CL: We've got two sets of horses. You've got a Kentucky set, and you've got a Louisiana set. (I) breed most of my mares at Clear Creek Stud, which foals all my Louisiana stuff. And then depending on the program, we'll send some babies, some mares to Kentucky. Then we breed some in Louisiana and we participate in the Louisiana program. We've probably got seven or eight Louisiana mares. The rules change with the program, but right now we can breed to Kentucky stallions every year. We try to take those babies, if they're good enough, and send them to Kentucky. Jody will sell them and we (do) OK up there. Then sometimes we'll sell in Louisiana, and sometimes in another regional market like Texas. We've got four mares either in ownership or partnership that stay in Kentucky year round. Then we try to breed as much as we think we can afford, raise babies and put them in the sale, and enjoy those fruits of our labor there.
BH: You mentioned how far away you are from some of the tracks. What challenges do you and others in Louisiana face in the industry?
CL: I don't think our industry is any different than anybody else's. The costs that are associated with raising good horses are just getting challenging. Two things you want to do with your broodmares: you want to cull off the bottom and then add to the top. Then also you want to breed as much as you think you can to be in the top tier of your yearlings. We all know that yearlings that get in the hands of good trainers, then good things happen. We sent Ryvit, he's of course a Kentucky-bred, but we sent him to Texas because Competitive Edge moved to Texas, and we got lucky and a guy named none other than Steve Asmussen bought him, and so the rest is history on that one. I think that's what the challenges are—trying to make enough money to offset the things that we'd like to do to stay at the top level.
BH: You've had just one other graded stakes winner (Big World) before Ryvit. What does his Chick Lang win mean to you?
CL: It means the world to me. We all know that this industry is full of ups and downs and cycles and all that. We keep doing what we think is the right thing to do by way of breeding and taking care. And things don't always work that way. But once in a blue moon, or as some of the people in Louisiana say, "When a blind hog finds an acorn." You never know. You never know where they're coming from, but it means the world to me.
BH: Who have you bred that you're excited about coming up in the near future?
CL: Well, of course She Is Bedazzling has a yearling Collected on the ground right now. We call him "Little Real." And so we're excited about that one. We have a Cairo Prince that's going to be sold in Kentucky. We also have a Bolt d'Oro that we're going to send to the Texas sale, a regional sale, and also we have a pretty good-looking Vino Rosso at Elm Tree Farm.
BH: What would you like for readers to know about you and your business?
CL: Two things that I think people ought to know, and you read about this a lot, and we're always talking about the horses and things that we get the horses to do and this didn't do right, this did right. If it weren't for the relationships that we have—one of which is us and Elm Tree Farm—we might not be as involved as we are. But those relationships have allowed me to meet people and have friends. Second thing is my son. He's got some mares now. He's 29 years old, and he lives and works with me right here on our farm. And he's all-in and he's following a lot of my footsteps. We need to pass these things on down to the next generation. We need to encourage these young adults to take it, run with it, give it a chance, and keep our industry sustained for years.
