When trainer Phil D'Amato claimed Red King for $35,000 in early 2019 on behalf of Little Red Feather, Gordon Jacobsen, and Philip Belmonte, no one was thinking about the Breeders' Cup. Yet here they are.
Red King has a legitimate, if long, shot in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T). Victory in the Aug. 27 Del Mar Handicap (G2T) gave Red King a Win & You're In berth, and in that race he defeated United, who finished second by a head to Bricks and Mortar in last year's Turf and is returning again this year.
"We're taking a $35,000 claiming horse and running for $4 million for free," said Billy Koch, the founder and a managing partner in Little Red Feather. "We know we're going to be 30-1. We know no one gives us any chance, and to be honest that's actually quite nice. But it's a dream come true for a lot of our partners."
Little Red Feather has surprised the Breeders' Cup before. In 2004 the partnership brought Singletary to Lone Star Park for the NetJets Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) at 16-1. Ridden by David Flores and trained by Don Chatlos, Singletary topped a $2 Exacta payoff of $1,495.60 when European 30-1 shot Antonius Plus finished second.
More memorable, however, was the enormous sound that exploded from the Little Red Feather group. Never before, or perhaps since, has a winning group enjoyed the experience as boisterously.
Red King will be the fifth horse and seventh starter for a Little Red Feather partnership in the Breeders' Cup. Singletary competed twice in the Mile. Midnight Storm , co-owned with Alex Venneri, finished third in one of two Mile starts. Last year Mirth ran in the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T) and Secret Spice, co-owned with Bobby Flay, competed in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1).
Unlike the previous runners, Red King is part of a different type of Little Red Feather partnership.
"This is our flagship partnership," said Gary Fenton, Little Red Feather's other managing partner. "I think a lot of owners start in this flagship partnership and then move on to other horses. It's become our most popular partnership through the years."
In Little Red Feather's more traditional partnerships, several people invest in each horse. This partnership is designed as a one-time fee for a one-year partnership to claim horses and buy privately. The idea is to give the partners plenty of action and starts with multiple horses. At the end of the year, the horses are sold, though in the case of a horse like Red King doing well, the fund can be held over to the next year.
The fund began in 2011. Little Red Feather began putting some of its horses in training with Mike Mitchell, who excelled at claiming horses and turning them into stakes-caliber runners.
"We thought it might be fun if Mike were in charge of claiming horses for us," said Fenton. "The first year we had something like 25 starts in six months, and we noticed that our partners loved it."
Mitchell died in 2015 after a long illness. D'Amato, Mitchell's longtime assistant, took over the stable when Mitchell could no longer train and has become a leading trainer on the Southern California circuit. Ben Rosen, one of Little Red Feather's partners, has also become more instrumental in helping them identify potential claims.
Last year's fund, which includes about 40 people, has been the best ever. In addition to Red King with D'Amato, the fund claimed Super Patriot, also for $35,000, with trainer Richard Baltas and several other partners. Super Patriot has since won the 2020 Fran's Valentine Stakes and placed in four other stakes, including the 2020 Megahertz Stakes (G3T).
"It's a really fun partnership," said Koch. "We're going to take these funds to other jurisdictions in 2021. We're going to have an East Coast fund, we're going to have a Midwest fund, and we'll have our regular SoCal fund."
In this time of COVID-19, all racing partnerships are finding it challenging to continue to give owners the full racetrack experience. Owners not only enjoy attending the races and partnership parties, they like to visit their horses in the stable area and watch morning workouts.
Little Red Feather has expanded social media and other ways of staying in touch. Several of the partners are going to be able to attend the Breeders' Cup at Keeneland, adhering to strict safety protocols, just as they did for the Del Mar Handicap.
Red King even has his own Breeders' Cup connections. Bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm, he is a 6-year-old son of English Channel—Youre Speeding Luv, by A.P. Indy. English Channel won the Turf in 2007, the year he was voted an Eclipse Award as champion male grass horse. A.P. Indy captured the 1992 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and was named Horse of the Year that season.
But in the end, the former claimer has to face a plethora of talented Europeans, headed by multiple group 1 winner Magical, who finished second in the 2018 Turf and is trained by Aidan O'Brien, and group 1 winner Lord North from the John Gosden stable. United tops the U.S. contingent, which includes Breeders' Cup veterans Arklow and Channel Maker.
"We're going to watch the best horses in the world run," said Koch. "That alone, with also being able to watch Red King, is going to be quite a treat."
