west coast region gayle force - gayle van leer ... · handicap (gr. iiit) and the 2003 carleton f....

T H E B L O O D - H O R S E ■ F E B R U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 0 61082

M aybe Gayle Van Leer was destinedfor a career in Thoroughbred racingand breeding.

“I was born in Centinela Hospital acrossfrom Hollywood Park,” said the Californianative. “But I didn’t even know that until Iapplied for my first passport. It was almostlike I was preordained to be in the horsebusiness.”

Now a resident of the San Diego area, VanLeer works as a consultant and bloodstockagent. But her background includes a vari-ety of experiences, and she’s been associat-ed with some of California’s most successfulhorses, trainers, owners, and breeders. She’salso known as one of the state’s most enthu-siastic promoters of the Thoroughbred in-dustry, speaking at numerous seminars andcontinuously working to bring new ownersinto California’s racing program.

“This is such an interesting business;every day, there’s something different,” saidVan Leer, who turned 52 Feb. 18. “You meetso many people from all walks of life. You’llsee Sheikh Mohammed walking around andleaning on a fence near a handler or groom.It’s also such a challenging business becauseit levels the playing field. Even though hav-ing a lot of money really helps, you still getpeople who come up with horses that didn’tcost very much and that outrun horses thatcost $4 million. It’s also a business where

B Y D E I R D R E B . B I L E S

R E G I O NWest Coast

Gayle Force

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Gayle Van Leerexcels in all facets

of California’s horsebusiness

Bloodstock agent and consultant Gayle Van Leer is one of California’smost enthusiastic promoters of the Thoroughbred industry

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you can do everything right, and it stillwon’t go right.”

But while the Thoroughbred industry’senvironment is tough, Van Leer has man-aged to not only survive, but thrive. Her ac-complishments include the following:

• She was the racing stable manager forJohn and Betty Mabee of Golden EagleFarm from August 1988 until early 1997.They won their first of three EclipseAwards as outstanding breeders in 1991and captured North American earnings ti-tles as breeders and owners in 1992.

• She broke 1982 Eclipse Award winnerRoving Boy and prepared him for racetracklife while she was a trainer at San Luis ReyDowns.

• She purchased or advised clients topurchase such horses as Runaway Dancer,winner of the 2005 Jim Murray MemorialHandicap (gr. IIIT) and the 2003 Carleton F.Burke Handicap (gr. IIIT), and Cause to Be-lieve, who scored in the Jan. 29 El CaminoReal Derby (gr. III). Before Leave Me Alonecaptured the 2005 Test Stakes (gr. I), VanLeer, as agent, sold the filly for $35,000 atthe 2003 Del Mar yearling auction.

“Gayle is a first-class person,” said BettyMabee. “She’s very sincere and very dedi-cated to what she believes in, which is thehorse. She’s also very knowledgeableabout bloodlines and all the other thingsthat go into breeding and racing.”

Katie Kennedy of R L Stables, whichraces Runaway Dancer, believes Van Leerhas been the key to the operation’s suc-cess.

“When my stepfather (the late Bob Dud-ley) had R L Stables, he got in with a sort ofbad trainer. He had 32 horses, and he hadoverpaid for them. They weren’t winninghardly at all. Gayle came in and within twomonths she had turned the whole stable

■ W E S T C O A S T ■

Van Leer broke 1982 Eclipse Award winner Roving Boy

while she was atrainer at San Luis

Rey Downs


around. We’re indebted to her. She’s veryhard-working.”

Even though Van Leer was born andspent part of her childhood near HollywoodPark, it had little impact on her early life.Her family later left Inglewood and movedto the Santa Barbara area, where her fathermanaged apartments.

“I can remember when I was a kid goingout and catching goldfish in the Santa YnezRiver,” Van Leer said. “I don’t know wherethey came from originally; I guess some-body turned them loose. They were like koi;big, giant things, and we would catch themand put them in our pond in our backyard.”

Her home was near a school for special-needs children that had a therapeutic ridingprogram. Van Leer and her sister volun-teered to work there in exchange for ridinglessons.

“I was in my early teens,” she said.“When people ask me how I got involved inthe business, I tell them, ‘Well, I was justone of those girls who loved horses.’ Lots oflittle girls love horses, but I just happened tohave the opportunity because of thatschool.”

The school’s property eventually wassold to the University of California, SantaBarbara, but that change didn’t prevent VanLeer from continuing her involvement withhorses. Instead, it provided new opportuni-ties.

“I haven’t been back there in years,” shesaid, “but the original plan was to expandthe UC Santa Barbara campus. I’m assum-ing that they’ve done that by now. But atthat particular time, they didn’t really have aplanned use for the horse property, so theycreated a program for the students to be ableto bring their horses to school with them.And so my sister and I, being enterprising,we introduced ourselves to the students andbasically created this little business of feed-


Van Leer works her cell phone at Santa Anita


ing and taking care of their horses. Wewould go over there to feed and takecare of the horses each morning beforewe went to school.

“Then, UC Santa Barbara put togeth-er a day camp program and a ridingcamp program, so I ended up workingas a camp counselor and a riding in-structor, too. A lot of the college stu-dents had horses that were good showhorses, and I started showing them injunior classes. I was able to increasetheir value by earning points, and theIn her formative years, Van Leer worked as a riding instructor and camp counselor


“My second love ismarine biology.I work hard in

the horse businessso I can go

scuba diving.”

Hot Time for Cal-breds

The Sunshine Millions, held at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita Jan.28, pitted California-breds against Florida-breds, and unlike last

year, when Florida-breds took five of the eight races, it was Cal-bredsthat dominated this year by that five-to-three margin. Cal-breds alsolaid claim to the day’s biggest prize.

Lava Man proved too hot to handlein the $1-million Classic Stakes atSanta Anita. The $550,000 in first-place earnings upped his careerwinnings to $1,584,706 for Steve

and Dave Kenly’s STD Rac-ing Stable and Jason Wood. Not bad for a 5-year-old geldingwho began his career for a $12,500 claiming price and whowas claimed by his present owners through trainer DougO’Neill for $50,000 in the summer of 2004.

Lava Man has reached a new level in O’Neill’s hands. Hewon the Derby Trial Stakes at Fairplex Park in his first start forhis initial stakes win after being claimed and later placed inthree other stakes that year. But it was in 2005 that he reallyexcelled.

Lava Man captured the Hollywood Gold Cup (gr. I) and Cali-fornian Stakes (gr. II) and was third in the Pacific Classic (gr. I).He recently was voted 2005 California Horse of the Year andchampion older male.

A son of Slew City Slew, Lava Man was bred by trainer Lon-nie Arterburn in partnership with Dr. Kim Kuhlmann and hiswife, Eve. Arterburn had claimed Lava Man’s dam, Li’l Ms.Leonard, and later took in the Kuhlmanns for the mare’s breed-ing career. Lava Man was Li’l Ms. Leonard’s third foal.

Following Lava Man’s birth, Arterburn and the KuhlmannsLava Man winning the $1-million Classic

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students liked that. I showed pretty ex-tensively in just about everything—Western pleasure, hunter/ jumper.”

She also graduated from high schooland attended Santa Barbara City Col-lege.

“One day,” she remembered, “whileI was warming up a horse in the backring at the Earl Warren Showgrounds,this guy flags me down. He says he’ssetting up a small farm in the SantaBarbara area and he needs exercise rid-ers. Somebody had recommended meto him as someone who could handle atough horse. I don’t remember exactlywhat the pay was, but it seemed outra-geous for working just four hours everymorning and it fit right into my sched-ule. It was my first Thoroughbred job.One thing led to another, and in a fairlyshort amount of time, I ended up be-coming the assistant manager of thefarm, which was called BerkshireFarm.”

While at Berkshire, she preparedhorses to be sold at 2-year-olds in train-ing sales and worked with prominentCalifornia bloodstock agent RollinBaugh at the auctions. She later ran a


gave Li’l Ms. Leonard to Carol A. Lingenfelter, who had bred the mareand initially raced her in partnership.

“We just wanted the foal (Lava Man), so we gave the mare to her,”Arterburn said.

Li’l Ms. Leonard has produced twolater foals.

Slew City Slew, who has stood hisentire career at Brereton C. Jones’Airdrie Stud near Midway, Ky., cov-ered 97 mares in 2005 and is ex-pected to cover 80 to 100 mares thisyear.

Bordonaro ran his win streak to three with a score in the PaduaStables Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Bordonaro, a son of Memowho was voted California champion sprinter of 2005, races as home-bred for Fred Carrillo and Daniel A. Cassella.

Carrillo and Cassella board Bordonaro’s dam, Miss Excitement, atPat Thompson’s Ridgeley Farm near Hemet, Calif., where Memostands. Miss Excitement, whom Thompson said lived up to her nameon the racetrack, is in foal to Siberian Summer and is booked toMemo. Her 3-year-old Memo colt is in training with Bordonaro’s condi-tioner, Bill Spawr.

Thompson said Memo figures to cover about 40 mares this year.Moscow Burning, another former claimer, reached millionaire sta-

tus by virtue of her victory in the Warren’s Thoroughbred Filly and MareTurf Stakes at Santa Anita for Don Van Kempen’s Bullseye Racing. Cali-fornia’s 2004 Horse of the Year, Moscow Burning was bred by John C.Harris’ Harris Farms and Ken Maddy Trust, and sired by the HarrisFarms stallion Moscow Ballet.

Moscow Ballet, who has stood his entire career at Harris Farms, is24, but farm manager Dave McGlothlin figures the son of Nijinsky II

Van Leer (far left) in the winner’s circle with John and Betty Mabee and Best Pal

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Bordonaro shipped east to win the Padua Stables Sprint

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public breaking, training, and lay-up oper-ation known as Fairbrook Farm. She alsoworked on the racetrack as an exerciserider for future Hall-of-Fame trainer NeilDrysdale.

“I ended up getting sucked into the race-track,” said Van Leer, explaining why sheleft college and dropped her marine biologystudies after two years. “My second love,after horses, is marine biology, but now Ican do that for fun by scuba diving. I workhard in the horse business so I can go scubadiving. I’ve been to Fiji, to Australia, toNew Zealand, to four or five differentplaces in the Caribbean, and to Hawaii.”

Van Leer spent eight years as a trainer atSan Luis Rey Downs, where her clients in-cluded Drysdale and other conditionerssuch as Gary Jones, Joe Manzi, David Hof-mans, and John Russell. She also had hors-es for owners Robert E. Hibbert, Saron Sta-ble, and Summa Stable. In addition to Rov-ing Boy, other horses Van Leer workedwith included 1981 Santa Anita Derby (gr.I) winner Splendid Spruce and FlamingLeaves, who captured a division of the1979 Manta Handicap at Santa Anita Parkand placed in a pair of grade II events.

“I had the second-string horses, basi-


will give a good account of himselfin this year’s breeding season.

“His health and fertility willenable him to get the job done,”said McGlothlin, who indicat-ed Moscow Ballet will coverabout 20 mares.

Da Stoops was a wide-margin winner of the Dash Stakes atSanta Anita. Bred by Brian Boudreau’s Malibu Valley Farms, theson of Distorted Humor won by 71⁄2 lengths for Kathy Watson andPaul Weitman’s Watson and Weitman Performances.

Boudreau, who owns two shares in Distorted Humor, sent DaStoops’ dam, Glamorous Lady, to Distorted Humor because themare is from the same female family as one of Distorted Humor’searlier stakes winners, grade II winner Humorous Lady. Humor-ous Lady was bred by Malibu Valley.

Distorted Humor stands at Bill Casner and Kenny Troutt’s Win-Star Farm near Versailles, Ky.

House of Fortune also was an easy winner. Bred by JohnTreasure, she captured the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Distaff Stakesby 61⁄2 lengths at Gulfstream for Arnold Zetcher over the previousyear’s winner, Sweet Lips.

House of Fortune, who won her first stakes as a 2-year-old in2003, was the initial stakes winner sired by Free House. The pop-ular stallion stood at Frank “Scoop” Vessels’ Vessels StallionFarm near Bonsall, Calif., prior to his death in 2004.

By David Schmitz

Van Leer with trainer Dan Hendricks

Da Stoops

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House of Fortune

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cally,” Van Leer said. “I broke horses andbrought lay-ups back from their injuries.When they were just about ready to run,they went to their trainers. I never saddledany horses on the track even though I hadmy assistant trainer’s license. Basically, atone point in my life, I had to make thatchoice: Do I want to go on and be a traineron the track or not? But I just didn’t like LosAngeles, so when I had the opportunity todo the second-string horses, I took it so Icould live in the beautiful area around SanDiego County.”

In 1985, Van Leer became the racing sta-ble manager for Leonard Pearlstein, andalso managed his broodmare band. That joblasted a little over 31⁄2 years, until Van Leerbecame restless and started looking for abigger challenge.

“He (Pearlstein) had some business is-sues, and he wasn’t really paying attentionto his horses,” she said. “I started seeingthat I needed to move on from there. I’llnever forget it; one morning I was standingat the racing office at Del Mar. Two trainerswere arguing about what horses they were

Van Leer

spent eight years

as a trainer at

San Luis Rey Downs




going to enter. I mentioned this to the train-er I was standing with and I asked him,‘What’s going on here?’ He said, ‘This hap-pens all the time. Those trainers with theGolden Eagle horses don’t talk to eachother, so nobody knows what’s going on.John Mabee really needs somebody to helphim out.’ ”

Hearing those words, Van Leer saw anopportunity.

“Ding, the lightbulb turned on,” she said.“I knew John Mabee a little bit, so I thought,

‘I ought to ask him for a job.’ He wanderedaround the stable area a lot in the mornings,and I was very bold. One day, I saw him andsaid, ‘Good morning. If you’ve got a minuteI’d like to talk about why you should hireme.’ He was really taken aback, and he said,‘Well, let me think about it.’ Then, the nextday, he called me up and said, ‘You canmeet with me.’ We ended up having a break-fast meeting, and we talked for a while. Hebasically handed me the list of all the horsesin training and all the broodmares and said,‘You’re hired. Take it from here.’ I thought,‘Oh my.’ The moon and the stars kind oflined up, and that’s how I got the job.”

The Golden Eagle racing and breeding op-erations were among the largest in the coun-try, with hundreds of horses and thousandsof details that needed to be worked out fortheir care.

“I became an administrative person,” VanLeer said. “Foal crops were at least 100 hors-es every year. Some of them got sold atKeeneland, and the rest we had to break.Then, when they went into the racingstring, there was constant organizing andwe had a lot of turnover because we wantedto make sure we didn’t just collect horses.


Van Leer worked with the Mabee’s Golden Eagle operation, among the largest in the country at the time

“(John Mabee) basic-ally handed me the list

of all the horses intraining and the

broodmares and said,‘You’re hired. Take

it from here.’ ”

(continued on page 1106)


We had at least 80 coming in every year, so80 had to go out. Some became broodmares;some went into claiming races. We were al-ways shuffling horses. At one time, I had 16different trainers I was working with. It wassuch a challenge, and I loved it.

“He was a really neat guy to work for, “Van Leer said of Mabee, who died in 2002.“He could be a micromanager, but once hecould see you were capable, he let you runwith it. He reeled out a lot of rope to you,and as long as you didn’t get tangled in therope, he would keep reeling it out. He wastough, but he was also fair. Even when hewas totally against your decision, he wouldgo along with it. If it failed, he wouldn’tgive you a hard time, but he would needleyou a little bit about it. But on the flip side,if I requested something and he didn’t wantto do it, and it turned out we should havedone it, then he would let me needle himabout it.”

Under Van Leer’s supervision were a hostof top runners, among them six-time gradeI-winner and $5,668,245-earner Best Pal,1996 Buick Meadowlands Cup Handicap(gr. I) winner and $2,567,630-earner Dra-matic Gold, and River Special, who cap-tured the 1992 editions of the HollywoodFuturity (gr. I) and Norfolk Stakes (gr. I).Other Golden Eagle standouts during VanLeer’s tenure included 1988 Fantasy Stakes(gr. I) winner Jeanne Jones, 1989 Fantasywinner Fantastic Look, and 1991 Santa AnaHandicap (gr. IT) winner Annual Reunion.

“Best Pal was a really special horse to bearound,” Van Leer said. “He was so intelli-gent, and he always seemed to be one stepahead of you. He seemed to know what wasgoing to happen. He was classy and nothingfazed him. You could blow up a bomb infront of his stall, and he would just standthere. He wasn’t a pretty horse, but therewas something mechanically about himthat made him able to run the way he

could. And he loved carrots. You’ve neverseen a horse that could eat carrots as fast ashe could.”

In 1997, Van Leer left Golden Eagle andwent out on her own as a bloodstock agentand consultant.

“It was time for me to do something else,”she said. “Mr. Mabee’s health was declin-ing, and he wasn’t as involved as he hadbeen. The whole operation was changing. Ialso wanted the independence of being onmy own.”

Gayle Van Leer Thoroughbred Serviceswas born. She buys and sells horses, andalso manages racehorses and plans matingsfor broodmares.

“I’m happy,” Van Leer said. “I have a lotof small clients, and I’ve had so much funwith them. It’s a home run when you buy ahorse for $20,000, get it to the races sixmonths after you buy it, break its maiden for$40,000, win $50,000 with it, and then loseit for $25,000 in a claiming race.”


Van Leer buys and sells horses under her company name, Gayle Van Leer Thoroughbred Services

(continued from page 1102)


Van Leer also has worked for the Califor-nia Marketing Committee, supervising apromotional effort to encourage Thorough-bred owners to run their horses in the Gold-en State. Two hundred people received atrunk from the committee last year contain-ing a bottle of wine, sunblock, a CD withsongs about California, a stopwatch, andmaterial with information about Californiaracing. Her duties with the committee alsoincluded developing a California racing Website (www.calracing.com).

“Given the circumstances, I think Califor-nia is doing a lot better than what’s per-

ceived,” Van Leer said. “We have high purs-es and some of the best trainers in the coun-try. We also have beautiful weather. Andthere’s Zia Park over in New Mexico that isgiving away more than $200,000 a day; it’san easy ship from Southern California.There’s also uncertainty about the Indians,not having slots, and the future of Holly-wood Park, but I think we’ll get them all re-solved, one way or another.”

One of Van Leer’s special areas of interestis the mentoring of new Thoroughbred own-ers. On her personal Web site (www.gaylevanleer.com), she has a section called

“Ownership 101” that provides basic infor-mation about getting started in the Thor-oughbred business, the costs of ownership,insurance, tax considerations, and choosingtrainers.

“I just feel that it’s really important to getnew owners into our business in a healthyway,” she said. “I volunteer countless hoursto speak at new owner seminars and variousracing-related functions, and I try to answerevery single e-mail that I get. I think themore information we, as an industry, canput out there for the new owner, the betteroff everyone will be.” b


Van Leer likes to mentor new Thoroughbred owners and has an “Ownership 101” section on her personal Web site

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