By Bill Heller
Just four days apart, two New York-breds were in the national racing headlines as the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks appeared on the horizon. On Saturday, Gatsas Sables’ homebred Five G won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks by 2 ¼ lengths. On Tuesday, WinStar Farm, CHC Inc., Pantofel Stable and Wachtel Stable’s River Thames was made the morning-line favorite in the loaded $1.25 million Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, now scheduled for Tuesday, April 8 due to forecast heavy rain in Kentucky.
Could they turn the first weekend in May at Churchill Downs into a New York-bred celebration?
Mike Gatsas, a native of New Hampshire, bought a New York-bred when he decided to get involved in Thoroughbred racing. “That was in 1998,” Gatsas said. He purchased a New York-bred named Gander, the sleek gray horse who became a fan favorite. Here’s why: the gray gelding won 15 races, including six stakes, the biggest being the 2001 Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup. He finished second in the 2000 Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He had nine other seconds and nine thirds from his 60 starts spread over seven seasons. At the time, Gatsas raced under the New Hampshire-based Sovereign Stable with his brother Ted, a former state senator and mayor of Manchester. Gander earned more than $1.8 million for trainers Charlie Assimakopuolos and John Terranova, still ranking 13th among all-time New York-bred earners.
“Charlie thought it was a great opportunity to get a New York-bred,” Gatsas said. “I was sold on the program ever since then. It’s a phenomenal program.”
Gander suffered a career-ending and life-threatening injury at Saratoga on August 31st, 2004, when he had a straight-across fracture of the cannon bone. But the bone healed and Gander lived until the age of 26, dying in early December 2022. Gander was the 2000 New York-bred Horse of the Year. “Everybody loved him,” Gatsas said. “It was a great pleasure to go see him every summer. My grandkids got to go up and see him. He, literally, was a member of the family.”
Gatsas hit gold again with Negligee, a two-year-old filly who Sovereign Stable bought after her second start. She gave Gatsas his first Grade 1 Stakes winner when she captured the 2009 Alcibiades.
Then Gatsas had the good fortune to partner with Randy Hill, who races as R.A. Hill Stable, on Vekoma. Randy Hill’s box at Saratoga Race Course was right behind Gatsas’: “We met, and I said, `What do you think if we split some horses?’ He said, `Sure.’ We really got to like each other. We’re really having fun with these horses.”
They had a ton of fun with Vekoma, a son of Candy Ride (ARG) out of the Speightstown mare Mona de Momma. Gatsas’ son Matt came up with the name, one Vekoma shares with a Dutch roller coaster manufacturer. The remarkable runner won six of eight starts, including the Grade 1 Carter Handicap and Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, the Grade 2 Blue Grass and the Grade 3 Nashua, earning $1,245,525.
Along the way, he took Gatsas to the 2019 Kentucky Derby, finishing 12th. “When Negligee won the Alcibiades, that was a great day for us,” Gatsas said. “That was the first grade one we ever won. But don’t let anybody kid you. There is only one Derby.”
After his racing career was finished, Vekoma quickly became an elite stallion. He was the leading first-crop sire in 2024 thanks to 39 winners from 85 starters, and stands for $35,000 this year at Spendthrift Farm. “He’s hotter than anything as a stallion right now,” Gatsas said.
Gatsas bred his Quality Road mare Triumphant to Vekoma and was rewarded with his outstanding filly Five G, named to honor Gatsas’ five grandchildren. She is trained by George Weaver.
Her debut couldn’t have been much worse. Sent off at 5-1 odds in a New York-bred maiden special weight at Saratoga on August 22nd, 2024, she finished seventh by 22 lengths. Freshened by Weaver, she switched to grass and won a state-bred maiden race by four lengths and then finished second by a half-length in the $135,000 Tepin Stakes.
Returned to dirt at Gulfstream Park, she won the $150,000 Cash Run Stakes by nine lengths. At Oaklawn Park, Five G was a hard-fought second by a length to Quietside, who has since validated that victory with another in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes there.
Five G trained sharply for the Gulfstream Park Oaks. “We had a lot of confidence going into that race,” Gatsas said. “We went over there confident, optimistic. In the paddock, I told my wife, `Susan, she looks great.’ She was doing so good on the backside. Her ears were up and you know we were all confident all the way around.”
Now Five G will give Gatsas his first start in the Kentucky Oaks: “We don’t have a big stable, but we’ve been very blessed. George has done an amazing job with Vekoma. I’m very pleased to be associated with George and his wife Cindy. We’re very blessed to have George as a trainer.”
River Thames’ trainer is pretty good, too: Todd Pletcher. The colt by Maclean’s Music out of Proportionally by Discreet Cat was bred by CTR Stables LLC and isn’t far from being undefeated. The $200,000 purchase at the 2023 Saratoga Yearling Sale won his maiden debut at Gulfstream Park on January 11th by 4 ¾ lengths, then an allowance race by 6 ½. He then was extremely brave in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, battling Sovereignty through deep stretch to finish second by a neck. Sovereignty’s subsequent second-place finish in the Grade 1 Florida Derby made him a top Kentucky Derby contender.
River Thames has already earned $164,400 with his two victories and a second in three starts.
Miguel Ferreira of CTR Stables said, “He’s showing he’s the real deal. Hope we can get the ‘W’ (in the Blue Grass).”
He said he began learning about New York-breds by reading: “I have some buddies in the industry. I just started reading about the New York-breds. It seems to make a lot of sense. I think it’s a great program.”
