Aron Wellman knows a thing or two about horse racing. He gave up a lucrative practice as a litigator to follow this crazy dream of running a racing partnership, where there are no negotiated settlements and your chances of losing are much greater on the track than in a courtroom.
He formed a partnership group called Eclipse, just like the awards given out for the best horses in the country. In fact Eclipse has an Eclipse, winning the 2022 3-year-old filly division with Nest. Eclipse also won the 2017 Belmont Stakes with Tapwrit and has had some reasonably good showings in the Kentucky Derby.
But this year is different. Very different.
Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which is managed by Wellman, is front and center in the road to the Kentucky Derby with a standout colt named Journalism. The son of Curlin is the future book leader at 4-1, with betting in the final Derby advance pool set to close Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT.
Before he travels to Churchill Downs, however, he must prove himself again Saturday when he runs in a small but talented field in the Grade 1 $500,000 Santa Anita Derby.
Journalism doesn’t have to win, or even finish second, in the five-horse field as he already has 47.5 points after wins in the Los Alamitos Futurity and San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita. Even finishing last in Saturday’s race will bring him more points, most assuredly gaining him a spot in the Derby starting gate. Although if he runs poorly, it might make Wellman and trainer Michael McCarthy rethink a trip to Louisville.
“This is a Grade 1 that carries with it a lot of importance and it would be a huge feather in Journalism’s cap to add it to his resume,” Wellman said this week. “So we are going out there on Saturday with every intention of him competing to the fullest extent of his abilities. We have an enormous amount of respect for Citizen Bull. He’s the champion. So until somebody knocks him off his throne, he’s the champ.”
Citizen Bull won the Eclipse Award as best 2-year-old male last year for trainer Bob Baffert after winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November. Citizen Bull won the Robert Lewis Stakes on Feb. 1 and is the 9-5 second choice on the morning line behind Journalism at 6-5. Also in the Santa Anita Derby is Barnes, named after Baffert’s longtime assistant Jimmy Barnes, who is 3-1. Unlike Journalism and Citizen Bull, Barnes, a $3.2-million purchase, needs a good finish to get enough points to make the Kentucky Derby starting gate.
“The analogy that I’ve used this entire season is that these are all battles building up to the war and the war, of course, is the Kentucky Derby,” the 47-year-old Wellman said. “So, dating back to his 2-year-old season, he ran three times in seven weeks. He sprinted to get education, got a lot of dirt in his face first time out and came running to be third [in a maiden special at Santa Anita]. We knew [six furlongs] was going to be too short for him. Then he came back in three weeks and won going two turns at Del Mar and we came back in a month’s time and won the Los Alamitos Futurity, a Grade 2 to cap off this season.
“Then we started the year in the San Felipe, off a little bit longer layoff than we had really hoped for to start his 3-year-old campaign. But he certainly rose to the occasion and stamped himself as a true Classic prospect right there. He’s just a very intelligent, manageable, smart, ratable kind of horse that will do anything his rider tells him to do. He and [jockey] Umberto Rispoli have a great war with one another. Umberto has been part of his development from the beginning, along with, of course, trainer Mike McCarthy.”
Partnerships in racing is not new. The exorbitant cost of buying a well-bred racehorse is not for the faint of wallet. Perhaps the most successful ownership group was put together by Tom Ryan, who represents SF Racing and includes Madaket Stables (Sol Kumin), Stonestreet Stables (Barbara Banke) and others. The group pools its considerable assets and lets Baffert buy horses that can win the Derby. Citizen Bull is one of those horses.
“When we decided to bring Journalism to Southern California it was with the knowledge that we were going to have to take on the Baffert behemoths. We did it in the Los Alamitos Futurity. We did it in the San Felipe, and now the waters are going to get just that much deeper having to face both Citizen Bull and Barnes, a two-headed monster from the Baffert stable on Saturday,” Wellman said.
“It’s not like we stole him for $825,000, which is a ton of money. But thankfully he’s made himself worth that and then even multiples more.
“We have a ballpark for what we are willing to pay for horses that are on what we call our short list. It’s usually a ballpark, but in an environment like the Saratoga sale, you know that the major players in the sport are there with extremely deep pockets. So, you just have to be there so that if you feel as though there’s potential value at the bid then you go for it, and a lot of times you get blown out of the water and you got to move on to the next. You pick and choose your spots and we’ve taken a lot of pride over the years of being very selective.”
Journalism has earned $338,880 and this week signed a breeding rights deal with Coolmore Farm to begin at the conclusion of his racing career.
Eclipse is the equity partner in Journalism, which also lists as owners Bridlewood Farm (Joan and Leslie Malone), Don Alberto Stable, Elayne Stable 5 and Robert V. LaPenta.
Eclipse bought 11 horses during what would be Journalism’s yearling crop. And it has two potential Kentucky Derby qualifiers in Journalism and Built, although it’s likely Built will be pointed to the shorter Pat Day Mile.
“At public options and buying horses in the private market, you’re going to be wrong way more than you’re going to be right,” Wellman said. “It’s the ones that you’re right about that you hope make up for the duds that you’re going to encounter along the way.
“I actually can’t stand it when people congratulate me for buying a horse at sale or privately. All that means is you might be the only fool in the world that’s going to pay as much for that horse. I much prefer being congratulated after a horse won a race, not than when you’re signing a ticket at the sale.”
The industry consensus is that one of every 10 horses you buy will be a success, a word that Wellman says belongs in thick quotes.
“You could define success any number of ways,” Wellman said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that it translates into financial success in this crazy business. But the cardinal rule of one of my mentors, Cot Campbell, who was a pioneer of racing partnerships with Dogwood Stables, said that about one out of every 10 that you buy will be a success. And you just hope that that one makes up for the nine inevitable duds that you are going to encounter.
“To have two colts on the Kentucky Derby trail this deep into the season, with basically the season concluding this week and then a month leading up to the Derby, it’s a big feather in our cap. True to form, we’ve got a filly that’s qualified for the Kentucky Oaks with Fondly, who won the Virginia Oaks, and we’re going to run in the Kentucky Oaks.”
There is no doubt that Journalism is an odd name for a horse in a sport that seems more suspicious of the media than embracing it.
“We believe that good horses should have good names,” said Wellman, the former sports editor of the Beverly Hills High School newspaper. “We’ve historically followed the Claiborne Farm way of naming horses, which tries to tie the name to the pedigree.
“He’s out of a mare called Mopotism, so we thought ending in an ‘ism’ was a way to go. So, we came up with Journalism. I’ve always been a huge fan of journalists and journalism.”