Mike Ball remembered being a young horseman and passing on the chance to enter a colt in the 1980 Kentucky Derby (G1). At the time, Ball was training Summer Advocate, a dark bay/brown son of Advocator.
"He would have beat half of them but you know, back then it was 'Oh, we'll have another one a couple years from now' or whatever," Ball said. "I mean, he wasn't going to hit the board.
"He ended up making about $600,000 back in the early '80s. He was a grade 2 horse. He wouldn't have won the Derby but he was definitely good enough to lead over there."
Any regrets?
"I can't go back on that one," Ball said, "but I never have led a horse over for the Kentucky Derby or been a part of it. It'd be pretty neat. I'm a Kentucky boy."
Forty-six years later, Ball and his wife Katherne (K.K.) are owners and breeders of Chief Wallabee, the morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park March 28.
For Mike and K.K. Ball, the road to this moment has been decades in the making—rooted in family, patience, and a belief that the next good horse might always be just around the corner.
Their Donamire Farm in Lexington traces back to Mike's father, Don Ball, who bought the original property in the 1960s and later expanded in the early 1980s.
Don Ball also built a successful home construction business, but his passion for Thoroughbreds never faded. He died in 2018. As Mike recalled, "He always wanted to have a Derby horse."
Mike's mom, Mira, continues to breed and race under the Donamire Farm name, even winning the Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1T) at Kentucky Downs in September with Troubleshooting, son of Not This Time .
Mike followed his father into the sport, training horses for about a decade in his 20s before stepping away to join the family business. K.K. trained the family's runners for a time as well.
In recent years, the couple shifted their focus, sending horses out to established trainers while gradually building a broodmare band that now numbers eight.
Their re-entry into the game was sparked in part by Limousine Liberal, a hard-knocking sprinter who earned nearly $1.8 million under the direction of trainer Ben Colebrook and won back-to-back runnings of Churchill Downs Stakes (G2) in 2017-18 on Kentucky Derby Day.
"He's the one that kind of got us hooked again," Mike said. "Having a horse like that ... he was always taking us to the big days."
Chief Wallabee represents something different: a homebred colt with classic aspirations.
The bay son of Constitution is out of A La Lucie, a daughter of Medaglia d'Oro who was a $1.1 million purchase from the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling sale but who never made it to the track.
The Balls own a 2-year-old A La Lucie filly by Not This Time, and the mare currently is in foal to Life Is Good .
Chief Wallabee is A La Lucie's first foal, making his emergence all the more meaningful for the Balls, who breed primarily to race rather than sell.
The mating itself was more instinct than science.
"No special reason," Mike said of choosing Constitution. "He was a very good stallion, the right price range ... just thought he might be the right kind of horse for her."
If the pedigree suggested promise, it was horseman Bill Harrigan who first saw something more. Harrigan, who breaks and develops young horses at his Georgetown, Kentucky, farm and winters at Payson Park in Florida, had Chief Wallabee among several Ball homebreds in his care.
As the colt progressed through his early training, Harrigan noticed he was separating himself.
"This horse started to shine," Harrigan said. "I told Mike, 'You've got to make a decision—this horse needs to go.'"
When the Balls were considering trainers, it was Harrigan who helped make the connection with Hall of Famer Bill Mott. With an established relationship and mutual trust, Harrigan reached out on their behalf, confident the colt belonged in Mott's barn.
The result is a partnership that now has Chief Wallabee on the Kentucky Derby trail.
Though lightly raced, the colt has already shown significant ability. After breaking his maiden impressively, he followed with a strong closing effort in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) to finish second by a neck to Wathnan Racing's Commandment.
"I thought he ran great," Mike Ball said. "I hope he improves a little bit off that. Maybe he will, maybe he won't —but he ran an awfully nice race."
Harrigan has been equally impressed, not just with the colt's talent, but his temperament.
"This horse has a really good mind," he said. "He's chill. That goes a long way. He handles everything—the paddock, the crowd, everything you throw at him. That's important, especially at this stage."
That composure could be critical Saturday in the Florida Derby, one of the deepest and most important Kentucky Derby preps on the calendar. While Chief Wallabee was installed as the morning-line favorite, both Mike Ball and Harrigan view the race as wide open. Commandment is again a principal foe, and also competing are Holy Bull Stakes (G3) winner Nearly and Tampa Bay Derby (G3) winner The Puma.
Still, simply being in this position is meaningful for the Balls.
After years of developing their program—buying yearling fillies, building a broodmare band, and breeding with patience—they now find themselves on the cusp of racing's biggest stage.
It's a journey that reflects both their horsemanship and their restraint.
"We've bred to race for the most part," Mike said. "We're trying to keep good mares and build it the right way."
