Prominent owner/breeder Helen Kleberg Groves passed away May 6 at her home in San Antonio, leaving behind a considerable contribution to the equine community in a variety of disciplines. Groves was 94.
Born in San Antonio Oct. 20, 1927, she was the only child of Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Helen Campbell Kleberg.
"Helenita" was raised on the legendary King Ranch where she developed a strong love for ranching, the land, the horses, the livestock, and the people of King Ranch. She became a skilled rider who raised and campaigned many champion cutting horses. Known as the "First Lady of Cutting," Groves was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1998.
She had a profound appreciation for horses as athletes in a variety of disciplines that included owning Grand Prix jumpers ridden by Olympian Michael Matz as well as several talented steeplechasers and an impressive number of elite Thoroughbred racehorses on the flat.
Owner/breeder Corinne Heiligbrodt, a longtime friend of Groves, reflected on their relationship and the moments they shared.
"She was a very good friend of mine, my husband, and my family. It goes way back," Heiligbrodt said. "To me, she was a true Texan, a true cowgirl. Once, we were having a conversation of our favorite memories of growing up and she said 'working cattle.' I started laughing and said 'Honey, that's my fondest memory, too.'
"She could remember information about racehorses that was awesome … She could shoot a shotgun like it was going out of style. We always talked about hunting."
Heiligbrodt often checked in with Groves and it was typical for her to receive a call before or after a race.
"If we were running a big horse, she'd call us and wish us good luck or she'd call us and congratulate us for winning," Heiligbrodt said. "She'd write little sweet notes about it. I think truthfully, she was keeping up with the racehorse business until the end of her life.
"She was a dear, dear, friend and a person that I am lucky to have known. She was hard to beat in a cutting pen. She was hard to beat on the racetrack … She was really, really fun… She was just a real family person. She loved the horses; there's no question about that. She loved to hunt. She was pretty much game for anything."
Another lifetime friend of Groves is Claiborne Farm's Dell Hancock.
"Her passion for everything that she cared about was huge. I'm grateful to her because she gave me some wonderful friends. Her daughters, I feel very close to them.
"(Her daughters) called her Mommy and she was amazing. If Helen (Alexander) was selling yearlings Ms. Groves was here to support her. If DD (Matz) was riding in a Grand Prix, she was there to support DD… She got behind her girls and was enthusiastic about it and encouraged them to do whatever.
"You'd go down to the ranch and there'd be Ms. Groves with her pistol. She could shoot anything. She was an amazing outdoorswoman and a great lover of sport. I'm afraid we don't have as many of them as we used to."
In addition to the lofty success in Thoroughbred racing enjoyed by her father and King Ranch, which bred and raced 1946 Triple Crown winner Assault, Groves' made her own contributions over seven decades. In the early 1960s, Groves bred and raced multiple stakes winner Saidam, who won/placed in seven stakes including the Suburban, Metropolitan, and Carter Handicaps as well as the Whitney Stakes. In partnership with daughter Helen Alexander and David Aykroyd, Groves bred and raced the brilliant champion Althea, who won three grade 1 stakes including the Arkansas Derby against males. Althea, in turn, produced several stakes winners and stakes producers.
Groves and Alexander bred grade 1 winner and successful sire Arch from Althea's graded-placed, stakes-winning daughter Aurora, who also produced multiple grade 1 winner Acoma. Antics, an unraced mare by Unbridled and daughter of Aurora, produced one of the fastest one-turn females in years in Covfefe—champion 3-year-old filly and champion sprinter of 2019.
While often working with partners, Groves was not shy about breaking out on her own, too, as she showed when acquiring sole ownership of And Why Not; a Street Cry filly out of Alchemist, a great, granddaughter of the extraordinarily influential Alexander-Groves mare Courtly Dee, at Fasig-Tipton's Select Saratoga Yearling Sale. The $775,000 sale could have provided considerable gain to Groves who was a co-breeder, but instead she raced the multiple grade 1-placed winner. The filly later became the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Fearless, who Groves sold for $725,000 and went on to win the 2021 WinStar Gulfstream Park Mile Stakes (G2) and this year's Ghostzapper Stakes (G3). And Why Not is also the dam of graded-placed stakes winner Just Whistle.
Groves made another astute purchase in 1987 from a dispersal of stock from Tartan Farms and John Nerud. She acquired 8-year-old Mochila in foal to Fappiano, and established a pedigree influence that continues to resonate in the American Stud Book. From Mochila, Groves bred and raced Ballerina Stakes (G1) winner Serape, who later produced record-setting multiple graded stakes winner and stakes producer Batique, who also ran in Groves' colors.
Through another of Serape's daughters, Trensa, Groves bred and sold grade 1 winner and sire Free Drop Billy and multiple group 1 winner and sire Hawkbill, who was purchased as a yearling by Godolphin and earned more than $4.7 million. In 2019, Hard Cloth, a granddaughter of Serape, produced for Groves a colt by More Than Ready, which she sold as a yearling. Now named Emmanuel, the promising 3-year-old was recently third in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) in only his fourth start for WinStar Farm and Siena Farm.
Rogers Beasley, former vice president of racing for Keeneland and current chief strategy officer for the Breeders' Cup, knew Groves well and remembers her as an "icon."
"She was such an amazing lady. She was a highly accomplished horsewoman in both cutting horses and Thoroughbreds," Beasley said. "She was extremely well-read, inquisitive, and generous with her time to all of us that knew her in all facets of life. Whether it was horses, agriculture, charities, all the things that she was interested in, and she was interested in a lot of things.
"She had friends across the world who truly miss her. She was equally at home on the ranch in Texas as she was at a Presidential dinner. She never met a stranger, and she was really interested in what you did, how you did it, and was always happy to give you advice when you asked her. She was an icon. I don't use that word lightly, she was truly an icon."
Services will be Tuesday, May 17, at First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation at grayson-jockeyclub.org or the National Sporting Library nationalsporting.org.
BloodHorse staff writer Corrie McCroskey contributed to this story.
