By Bill Heller
Reading Laura Hillenbrand’s bestseller “Seabiscuit” changed Robin Malatino’s life. She’s been changing the lives of horses ̶ and now children ̶ ever since, a lasting tribute to her dear husband Tony, who she lost in March 2025.
In recognition of her impact on horses, she’s been named the New York Thoroughbred Breeding Fund’s 2026 Champion of Aftercare, and will be honored on July 14th. “It was something I felt passionate about from day one,” she said. “But I feel like there are so many more deserving people than me. I’m not sure I’ve made enough of a difference.”
They should give her a statue.
Horses were never part of Robin’s life growing up. Born in Manhattan, her family moved to Port Washington on Long Island when she was one or two. When she was 12 her family relocated in Hollywood, Florida. She attended George Washington University, transferred and graduated from the University of Miami, then graduated from Miami Law School. She went to work on Wall Street for Mario Gabelli, a money manager, and built a stellar business career, which included her and her husband taking over Saratoga Spring Water after Evian closed it in 1992, 120 years after its founding. She introduced the Saratoga blue bottle, and the company was revived and then sold to a private equity group. For the turnaround she was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Financial Women’s Association. She is currently in her 18th year at Morgan Stanley in Orlando, Florida, where she is Managing Director, Senior Portfolio Management Director and Financial Advisor.
Tony, born in Castiglione di Sicilia, Italy, emigrated to the United States aboard the USS Laguardia in 1949, settling in Albany, NY. He graduated from Philip Schuyler High School and Siena College. After serving as a U.S. Naval Officer for four years, he built a distinguished career in finance over five decades, beginning with First Albany Corporation. He then served on the Board of Directors at E.F. Hutton. After the Saratoga Spring Water revitalization, he worked at Dean Witter, which then merged with Morgan Stanley, in Albany. “My husband overcame every possible obstacle,” Robin said. “He was completely self-made. And he had a tremendous amount of integrity.”
He also had an interest in horses. When he was in college at Siena, he bought a trotter, Dash for Cash. He also spent a summer as a groom at Saratoga Harness. “One of his million jobs,” Robin said. “He dabbled a little.”
Tony and Robin met at an investment conference in New Orleans in 1988. “He was a prospect of mine,” Robin said. “Tony was a consultant to big pension plans. I was a money manager for pension plans. We’d see each other two times a year at these conferences. We were friends for a year.”
That changed in 1989, when they attended a business conference in Toronto. Robin was going to take 10 clients to a Blue Jays baseball game. She didn’t have tickets, planning to buy them from scalpers. She saw Tony, who was 16 ½ years older than Robin, in the lobby and asked if he wanted to come along. He did.
Then he told the group he’d go ahead and get the tickets. He came back and handed them out. Tony and Robin went to their seats on the first base side. Robin began looking around the stadium for her clients. She spotted them on the third base side. “I was so naïve,” Robin said. “I thought it was coincidence.”
It wasn’t. “He didn’t just separate us,” Robin said. “He completely separated us.”
She says she didn’t fall in love with him that night. But soon after, when she was living in Manhattan and he was living in Albany, she went to a Christmas party at his home. He then disappeared from the crowd. “He goes into the bathroom and changes from his tuxedo and comes out completely dressed as Elvis,” Robin said. “He gets down on his knees and sings, ‘I can’t help falling in love with you.’”
That did it, though she didn’t tell him for six to eight weeks. Ah, women. They married in 2000.
In 1990, Tony bought his first Thoroughbred, Well Well Well. Given to trainer Richie O’Connell, Well Well Well made his first two starts at Saratoga, finishing second by 3 ¼ lengths on August 8, 1990, then winning a maiden race by a neck 19 days later. In just two starts, Tony had achieved what horse owners dream about ̶ winning a race at Saratoga. Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey rode Well Well Well in both those starts. Later that year, Well Well Well won two straight at Aqueduct ̶ an allowance race by 10 lengths and the $75,000 Bertram F. Bongard Stakes by a head. He would finish his productive career three-for-16 with three seconds and five thirds, earning $146,571.
In 1992, the Malatinos took on Saratoga Spring Water, the company Evian closed. “We considered buying the Albany-Colonie Yankees (a minor league Class AA farm team of the New York Yankees), but we ended up buying Saratoga Spring Water,” Robin said.
That was easier said than done: “Evian closed the company and there were as many as 10 groups, one including Joe Bruno (the New York State Senator who became Senate Majority Leader). We had to go to New York City in a big room. We were competing against people in the beverage business. Tony and I had zero experience.”
But they had a strategy. “I’ve been an entrepreneur since the third grade,” Robin said. “I’d buy candy, mark it up and resell it. I grew up thinking I can do anything.”
She was pinhooking candy.
Robin went to the meeting alone. “I was 31 or 32,” she said. “I played I’m as dumb as a box of rocks. I convinced them I didn’t know what I was doing. I was manhandled. I lowered the price by $1 million because the guy pissed me off.”
They got the company.
“A year later, Snapple went public,” Robin said. “That opened a window in public markets. I talked to Mario (Gabelli, her former boss) and I said, “Let me take Saratoga Spring Water public in ’93.”
They changed the name to Saratoga Beverage Group. “Either Tony or I was going to have to run the business,” Robin said. “I came up to Saratoga for the business and him.”
She came up with an idea for her new company. “The blue bottle was my idea,” she said. “It was a survivor idea. I was at a meeting, selling the old glass bottles, which had a racetrack label. I put a bottle down on the table. A guy, who was a food and beverage manager, looked at it and said, `It’s still just water.’ I said, `We’ve got to do something.’”
She went blue. “We double the price, from $2 to $4 and sold a ton,” Robin said. “Blue bottle was a game changer.”
So was Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit book, which was made into a beautiful motion picture. “Tony reads the book in 2001,” Robin said. “He said, `Would you like to read it?’ I saw the book on the coffee table.”
She read it. “I loved it,” Robin said. “I memorized it. I thought it was the greatest book ever written. I’m reading this book in July 2001.”
A month later, Tony asked Robin, “Why don’t we go to the Fasig-Tipton Sale (at Saratoga)?” Robin went. Their lives would never be the same. “Her book is the reason all this happened,” Robin said. “And a lot of things happened.”
At the sale on the second night, they walked past a filly in stall 007. “James Bond,” Robin said. “The horse is laying on the ground. She gets up and we’re nose-to-nose.”
She told Tony, “I’m buying this horse.”
“I can do crazy things like that,” Robin said. “I just go for it.”
Tony said, “What are you talking about it?”
Robin said, “I love her name, Lemon Drop Kid.”
That was the yearling’s sire’s name.
No matter. But that yearling had been in the sale the night before. When she didn’t reach her reserve bid (RNA), she was still eligible to be purchased.
“This consigner comes out, a scary-looking dude named Stuart Morris,” Robin said. He asked Robin, “How can I help you, lady?” She tells him she wants to buy the yearling. He asks her, “Who’s your trainer?”
No response. “Who’s your vet?”
Robin tells him she hasn’t figured that out yet, but it’s okay because Tony was a groom at the harness track. Then she tells Tony, “You have to look like you know what you’re doing.’ I told him, `Run your hands up and down her legs.’”
He does. She asks, “How are the legs?” Tony responds, “The legs feel good.”
Robin tells Morris, “I’ll take her.”
She wasn’t cheap ̶ $140,000. Tony named the filly Sugar Plum Girl, and they raced her as Diamond M Stable.
Walking into the sale pavilion, a horse reared up and looked at Tony. That night, he asked Robin, “Did you see that horse look at me?” She said, “Yes I did, hip No. 159.”
That night, desperately seeking a trainer for their new yearling, Tony called Kenny McPeek at 10 p.m. He tells Kenny, “We’re in this situation. Can we meet you in the morning?”
They meet the next morning. Kenny likes the filly. “She was a pretty filly,” Kenny said 23 years later. He told them he had considered buying her, and he agreed to train her. Tony told Kenny, “If it was me, I would have bought a colt.”
Kenny said, “I bought a colt last night and I don’t have an owner.” Tony asks, “Can I buy him now?”
Robin said, “The horse was in a van already on the Northway. Kenny calls the driver. They turn around and come back. They open the door.”
The horse’s hip number was still attached: 159. “I’ll take him,” Tony said without even seeing him. He bought him for $220,000 and named him Belarion. He raced him in his own name.
Belarion, a son of Belong to Me out of Carly’s Crown by Wild Again, hit the board in his first five starts as a two-year-old in 2004, winning a maiden race by a length in his turf debut at Saratoga in his fourth career start.
When he didn’t do much afterwards, the Malatinos, wanting to keep racing in New York, switched trainers to Julianne Brida. McPeek annually returns his stable to Kentucky after the Saratoga summer meet.
Belarino suffered a serious injury, but returned to the races four years later as a steeplechase horse trained by Leslie Young. Belarion finished third once and got pulled up twice. He won a marathon hunt race maiden, and finished his career with two victories, two seconds and three thirds in 13 starts, earning $64,861.
Sugar Plum Girl, who was out of the Icecapade mare Indian Bride, fared worse, though she only lost her maiden debut by three-quarters of a length, finishing third in a mile-and-a-sixteenth turf race at Belmont Park. After her third start, she switched trainers to Phil Hauswald, then a year later to Michael Dickinson. She only managed one second and two thirds from her 14 career races, earning $26,007.
Robin still owns both 24-year-old horses. Belarion is nicknamed Uncle B because he buddies up with the yearlings on Robin’s Sugar Plum Farm, while Sugar Plum Girl is still working at Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga, a mile from Robin’s farm. “She’s 24 and still working,” Robin said proudly.
There’s a reason Sugar Plum Girl and Belarion have had fulfilling lives after they were done racing.
“A week after I bought these horses, I learned about horse slaughter and aftercare through Susan Wagner (whose Equine Advocates in Chatham has been a national leader in aftercare for decades),” Robin said. “I panicked. I said, `Tony, we have to buy a farm.’ He finally says to me, `If you can find a farm in downtown Saratoga, then we’ll buy a farm.’”
She found one ̶ a piece of property just two miles from downtown Saratoga on Gilbert Road. “It used to be the number one brothel in Saratoga,” Robin said, chuckling at the irony of it becoming her breeding farm. Owned by a state trooper, the property was supposed to be sold to the city for housing. But there was a deadline, and the meeting to finalize the deal had to be cancelled when a key person couldn’t attend. “The deadline expired,” Robin said. “I bought the property one minute later. Sometimes life unfolds and you know you’re on the right path.”
She has maintained that path. She’s held fundraisers for ReRun, which rehabs, retrains and finds adoptive homes for retired horses, as well as Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga, at her farm. “In my mind, ReRun is my go-to for horses coming off the racetrack. I always give a minimum of $5,000 when they take one of my horses. Horses of mine that are too injured to go to ReRun either retire at Sugar Plum Farm or THS.”
She’d like to do more: “I’ve been very vocal. I want to develop a social security program for horses, a one percent tax every time a horse is sold. In Hong Kong they set aside $8,000 for aftercare. If you want to play the game, that’s what it costs. I think the industry needs to do more.”
Despite dismissing Kenny twice as their trainer, they maintained a relationship with him. “I didn’t have business with them for a long time,” Kenny says. “I was always friendly with them.”
That’s why he let them buy into War Dancer, a son of preeminent sire War Front out of Deed I Do by Alleged, who took Robin and Tony to a new level of racing competing on grass. His six victories in 25 grass starts included the 2013 Grade 2 Virginia Derby and the 2014 Grade 3 Louisville Handicap. One of his five seconds was by a neck in the 2015 Grade 1 Man o’ War to Twilight Eclipse. He also had four thirds, earning $1,048,062.
Then he became the Malatino’s stallion. “It made sense,” Robin said. “New York didn’t have a War Front. What we didn’t know was that people want to breed to dirt horses. It makes finding mares more difficult.”
They decided to stand War Dancer at Rockridge Farm in New York, but had to devise a plan to get good mares to him in his first season.
“We went to a Kentucky sale to meet people who might send mares to him,” Robin said. “We had a bag of hats and t-shirts.”
The response was not what they hoped for. “We feel like road beggars,” Robin said. “Tony is like No. 1 in his firm, and I’ve been in finance my whole life and now it’s like we’re selling encyclopedias. We went back to our room at the hotel, and we said, `What are we doing?’ I said, `We’re going to come up with a plan.’ I looked at the size of the stallion directory. How do you know one from the other?”
She came up with a winner. They began “Breeding with the Stars,” providing free round-trip shipping to New York and 90-day board to owners of mares who were stakes performers and nicked with War Dancer. To promote the idea and their horse, Robin came up with a social media blitz, featuring episodes of “America’s Most Eligible Stud.” Featuring Fox Sports TV racing commentator Acacia Clement as host, Robin as War Dancer’s mom, Belarion as his wingman, two commentating goats Thelma and Louise, and their dog Oreo, multiple episodes were offered. “This is the life I love, being a stud,” War Dancer commented.
Clever and funny, dozens of episodes were offered and are still easily accessible on YouTube.
“Some people liked it; some didn’t, but everybody was talking about it,” Belinda Thompson, War Dancer’s stallion manager. “That is Robin’s genius.”
Kenny McPeek wasn’t surprised: “Robin is very innovative, very much a forward thinker. I’ve always thought that about her. Sometimes, she outthinks herself, but she always has good intentions.”
Robin held a coming-out party for War Dancer: “We walked into War Dancer’s paddock, six, seven, eight people putting a beach towel around him, sunglasses on him and a beach ball to simulate a beach date.”
She never considered what could have happened if War Dancer hadn’t cooperated: “We were standing three inches away. Never even thought about it.”
Did it work?
Incredibly so. As a new stallion in New York, War Dancer got 103 mares in his first year and 95 the second. “At least 80 of 103 were from outside New York,” Robin said. “They came from seven states and Canada. We had friends who had bought a share who didn’t own a mare. They had to buy one. We brought new people into the industry.”
And War Dancer delivered. He has been New York’s leading turf stallion four times and currently stands at Mill Creek Farm after standing at Rockridge and Irish Hill & Dutchess View Stallions.
In 2025, War Dancer finished 140th nationally in progeny earnings ($2,280,704) and was again the top New York-bred turf sire, ranking 52nd overall.
Last March, Robin’s world fell apart when she lost Tony. “My husband passes away in March 2025 and I go to the farm,” Robin said. “And I wanted to do something extraordinary.”
She did exactly that, creating a program that could be copied nationally.
First, she went to Tony’s old high school, now named ROOTS Academy, to see if the administration would participate in a program she envisioned to unite children and animals at her farm. The administration said yes, and she created the Sugar Plum Farm Foundation, a New York not-for-profit corporation linking children from ROOTS with horses, donkeys, goats and mini-horses at her farm. Belinda manages it. The program is for children in second to fifth grade.
“It’s going to be a place for animals and a place for children to learn with animals,” Robin said. “We built a general store on the property. They’re going to do half-hour chores and get play money and can spend it at the general store. The goal is to teach them leadership and expose them to things they don’t see. It’s a four-week program, and it will start July 20th. It will culminate with a day at the racetrack.”
The program actually started last October, two days before Halloween, when 20 student leaders visited the farm for a day of interactive learning. For many of them, it was a first opportunity to be up close to farm animals and experience life at a working farm. “The kids gave us their ideas,” Robin said. “They’re going to design a logo for the program. We gave them Halloween bags with candy and a box with 220 bags for the whole school. Each bag had a picture of Sugar Plum Farm and a real rainbow over it, and it said, `From Tony, Class of 1957.’”
In December, Belinda Thompson and Crystal Morris visited ROOTS to serve cider and cookies to the students.
A month later, they returned to discuss animals, their care and leadership with the students, sitting on the floor with them. “It was just incredible,” Belinda said. “The kids were so well-behaved. The teachers at that school are saints. It’s the most incredible interaction I’ve ever seen. We sat down on the floor and chatted about animals. The teachers encourage these kids to think outside the box, and it really shows. It’s a very rewarding experience for me, and I know it is for Robin too, but it’s really not about us, it’s about them.”
Belinda, who had previously worked at WinStar Farm and Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, has been working for Robin for eight years. “The thing that struck me about Robin was her energy. It’s absolutely boundless. Here’s the thing with Robin: she is involved with everything being done until it’s perfect in her eyes. There’s no backing off. Robin walks the walk and talks the talk. She is all-in on this. Anything she does, she does to the end. If she gets run over by a truck tomorrow, the foundation is still going on.”
Robin explained, “It’s part of my estate plan. When I die, there will be a foundation with an endowment.”
In doing this, she has reconnected with Tony: “When you turn your grief around, you connect to him in a big way. You can change a kid’s life. Who knows where this goes? We’re going to start with my husband’s school.”
