McIngvale Walks Away From Thoroughbred Racing, Breeding

Longtime owner/breeder and Houston businessman Jim McIngvale, known for his philanthropy and high-energy marketing and promotion efforts, is walking away from his Thoroughbred racing and breeding investments. An owner since 1995, McIngvale is now selling his last horse—the stallion Runhappy, who won the 2015 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and became that year's champion male sprinter. A deal is pending on the 13-year-old son of Super Saver who entered stud in 2017 at Claiborne Farm. No details on the agreement are available yet because the deal is not expected to be finalized until early October. "Claiborne is handling everything, and I have nothing but the highest praise for them. They are great people," McIngvale said. "Jim was very supportive of the stallion and for that we are very appreciative for all he did," said Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne. Despite his good experience with Claiborne, McIngvale told BloodHorse Sept. 19 that he is out of Thoroughbred racing because the industry lacks integrity. "We refused the drugs and refused the injections so we could not compete. This is why the game is spiraling downward; there is no confidence in it," McIngvale said. "The only thing I have in life is my integrity, and I am not going to impugn my integrity for a horse race. "It is a fair game if you have a needle, and that is not sour grapes, it is just the facts. I knew what I was doing, fighting an uphill battle and until we had a freak horse like Runhappy, we had no chance. He ran on hay, oats, and water." Since 2000 and racing under his own name, McIngvale's horses won 207 races in 1,395 starts and compiled $9,743,963 in earnings, according to Equibase. Runhappy took McIngvale on an amazing run in 2015 when the colt won the King's Bishop (G1), Phoenix (G3), and Malibu (G1) stakes as well as the Breeders' Cup Sprint. Runhappy won seven of 10 career starts and banked $1,496,250 in purses. McIngvale also campaigned three-time grade 2 winner During and 2004 Louisiana Derby (G2) winner Wimbledon. As a breeder, McIngvale bred four black-type stakes winners—Goodprofit, Objective, Runup, and Underpressure—along with 25 other winners. Runup was a homebred daughter of Runhappy who won the 2021 Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park. McIngvale's history with horse racing has not been the smoothest. He filed a lawsuit in 2006 against multiple trainers and bloodstock agents for "secret commissions and kickbacks" on horses bought at auction. The suit was settled in 2007. In 2015, McIngvale was sued by former trainer Maria Borell, who was Runhappy's trainer of record from July-October 2015. Borell was seeking commissions off of the horse's earnings during that time, while McIngvale and his racing manager Laura Wohlers said those commissions were not part of their arrangement with her as a private trainer. The owner proved an innovator in race sponsorships, in 1999 turning the Jim Beam Stakes (G2) at Turfway Park into the Galleryfurniture.com Stakes. That race has continued to feature name sponsors and currently is run as the Jeff Ruby Steaks. READ: Gallery Furniture's 1999 Sponsorship Helped Racing Think Outside the Box More recently McIngvale also provided an extraordinary amount of support to the industry through a multiyear, nationwide race sponsorship program supporting Runhappy's stallion career launch and through financial support of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. In recent years McIngvale has received attention for making seven-figure wagers on sporting events, including the Kentucky Derby (G1), with those million-dollar bets sometimes tied to promotions at his Houston-based Gallery Furniture stores. In 2022, McIngvale was honored by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters with its Mr. Fitz Award for typifying the spirit of racing. Then in 2023 he was honored as the Jockeys and Jeans' Person of the Year. The all-volunteer fundraising organization that benefits the PDJF chose McIngvale because of his support of the PDJF and advocacy for racing to be drug-free to improve the overall safety for the horses and well-being of jockeys. In 2021 McIngvale spoke as part of the University of Louisville Equine Program's fall speaker series, stressing that horse racing needed to "innovate or evaporate." "Horse racing needs to be the most transparent sport in the world, and it will be the greatest sport in the world," McIngvale said during his presentation. "We've got to get bigger fields and run on the grass like they do in England and Australia with those great, big grass gallops. They can get 20- or 30-horse fields, and all of a sudden you get some big payoffs, and you get a great bang for your buck." McIngvale went on to say that by 2015, he had lost $30 million on the industry. He said he planned to stop buying horses in 2014, but then at the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling Sale he found Runhappy. Today, McIngvale said he owned 150 racehorses and breeding stock at his peak and all those horses have been sold. "You get in the game, and you're all enamored. Then they take advantage of you at the sales, they run the prices up," he told BloodHorse. "Well, I got over that and learned how to protect myself at the sales. But the longer you are in it, then you realize all the injections of the joints and ankles and the Lasix, and we refused to do all that."