Kevin McKathan stood in the shade of the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course and summed up the sport of Thoroughbred racing in one sentence.
"Everybody's like, 'This is a sport for the rich and famous,' but let me tell you what," he said. "You just end up with a good horse and you can beat them all."
The question remains as to whether Fenwick, the horse McKathan will saddle in the Preakness Stakes (G1), is a good horse. It is a question that could be answered May 21, shortly after 7:01 p.m. ET, when the Curlin colt will break from the gate with Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) runner-up Epicenter , Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Secret Oath, and six other rivals with varying degrees of accomplishment.
For now, the chestnut maiden winner is the longest shot in the race at morning-line odds of 50-1, and he needs to rebound significantly after running last of 11 in the April 9 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland. Experts say he's a toss, but his connections believe in him enough to take a gamble in one of the sport's biggest races.
"The horse is doing great, he's thriving… he had a great breeze last week at Churchill Downs; he's ready," McKathan said. "I think this is one of those deals where you can stop and take a breath and say, 'You know what, we can do this, it can happen.' That horse has no idea. He has no idea what he cost, he has no idea who owns that (rival), he has no idea what kind of plane they flew in here on. I mean, they don't know. So if you lead the best one over there and you get the right trip, anyone can get lucky."
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Consider McKathan's training record for a moment. It won't take much longer. In the past 33 years the Florida native has sent out one starter, resulting in $12,500 in earnings. That starter was Fenwick. He picked up the money for cantering across the line in the Blue Grass.
"Even the horses I own, I usually don't start under my name," McKathan remarked with a wry grin.
Consider his contributions to the sport, however, and another story unfolds. Here is a man born to a legacy, son of the late acclaimed horseman Luke McKathan. Here, too, is a developer of his own fortune, along with his late brother J.B. In 1988 the two launched McKathan Brothers, a farm and training center in Citra, Fla., that counts 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Real Quiet among its graduates. They also sourced 1997 Derby and Preakness winner Silver Charm as a 2-year-old in training.
To say the standout trio is a source of pride might be an understatement. McKathan bears their names tattooed on his left bicep. He is especially fond of American Pharoah, his pride and joy, a "life-changing horse."
Those are the types the operation has become known for producing—graded stakes contenders, classic winners, "Saturday afternoon horses." Although McKathan briefly trained horses at the racetrack from 1987-89, his efforts over that three-year period resulted in seven total wins and $30,461 in earnings, and he quickly shifted his focus. The big money, the reputation, would be made with breaking and training, and with pinhooking youngsters and consigning juveniles. McKathan has four to sell next week at The Midlantic Sale, Fasig-Tipton's Maryland sale of 2-year-olds in training. He has kept the operation running strong, with the assistance of longtime associate Chris Alexander, in the wake of J.B.'s sudden death in 2019 from a heart attack.
"He'd think I'm crazy," McKathan reflected of his upcoming Preakness adventure. "My brother would be like, 'What are you doing? Don't do that!'"
What, then, is the argument for Fenwick's presence in the field?
"I thought he had a shot and he deserved a shot, so we're taking it," McKathan said.
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Let's go back to the beginning, or at least the early part of the story. Here's how it starts: Jeremia Rudan should not have been able to afford this horse.
It was 2020, and yearlings by Curlin were selling for as much as $1.2 million, this off a 2019 season that saw the Hill 'n' Dale stallion top the charts as the leading yearling and juvenile sales sire with eight million-dollar yearlings and a $4.1 million Keeneland September Yearling Sale topper.
The Villa Rosa Farm owner was just getting into the game, feeling his way along, dabbling with a few racehorses and trying his hand at pinhooking with McKathan's guidance. With business interests owned along with his brothers in restaurants, hotels, and land development, the 36-year-old Canadian turned to the sport after an illness in 2017-18 and found himself hooked.
"I used to be very active," recalled Rudan, whose stable now ranges from 15-20 horses, including 3-to-4 runners, weanlings, yearlings, and broodmares. "I was always working out, boxing, all kinds of activities. Then all of the sudden I wasn't doing much. I could work all the time, but who wants to do that? You need something to kind of stimulate you. Growing up, my mother had some horses and I rode horses as a kid. When I got sick, a guy that worked for me and my company was a trainer at Fort Erie and we went to a Canadian sale... this was just on a whim. I bought a cheap horse and dove in."
Ontario-bred Mr. Souperstitious was the gateway horse. After failing to meet his reserve for $14,281 at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's 2019 Canadian-Bred Yearling Sale, he headed home as the first Villa Rosa purchase. He never won, but his early days marked the beginning of Rudan's relationship with McKathan.
"I decided I was going to send this horse down to Florida (for breaking and training) and beat everybody in Canada; I was naïve at the time and didn't realize that's what everybody did," Rudan recalled. "I was doing research online and saw a documentary on American Pharoah and him training at McKathan Brothers, so I ended up calling Chris and sending my horse down there.
"When I went down there to see my horse train, they had (Ahmed) Zayat's horses, (Charles) Fipke's horses... when you're looking at those horses and looking at the horse I bought, I was like, 'I need to get a better horse.'"
The racing game is not for the faint of heart, and reality hit Rudan before he made his first trip to the winner's circle. His "better horse," a 2-year-old purchased from Ocala Breeders' Sales, suffered a catastrophic injury in a breeze before he even started. And at The October Sale, eyeing a racy chestnut then known as Hip 315, Rudan was thinking more about future investments than about a runner to campaign under his own silks.
"I didn't think I could afford him," he recalled of his first memories of Fenwick. "We were not supposed to be able to buy that horse for $52,000. We weren't even going to vet him, because we thought he was going to bring $300,000, and there's not much margin there to pinhook him."
The microscopic nature of the commercial sales scene worked in Rudan's favor that day. Gainesway's Brian Graves consigned the colt to The October Sale, Fasig-Tipton's fall yearling sale in Kentucky, and remembered the minor issues that came up along the way to market.
"Fenwick was a horse that I really liked, and I recruited to sell from Mr. and Mrs. Oxley, who bred him," Graves said. "I thought he was an absolutely beautiful horse. He did have a few imperfections... one of his knees kind of popped when he walked; he was just a little bit out in it. I remember we made a decision to do a corrective surgery to help him with that, and he actually finished out reasonably well. The horse had at some point gotten a blemish in a hind ankle; a piece of wood was stuck in there and we had to do a little mini surgery to get it out.
"Besides that, he went through a massive growth spurt as a yearling and he just became a little upright in his pasterns. It wasn't offensive at the end of the day—he had this really racy body and a just to die for physical—but he had a couple of these minor faults people pick on at the sales, and it hurt his purchase price."
"When they dropped the hammer on him, there was no way we were not going to make money on him," Rudan said.
If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.
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It was March 29, 2021. Sunny skies and strong winds greeted horses set to breeze during the under tack show for The Gulfstream Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select 2-year-olds in training sale in South Florida. Fenwick, cataloged as Hip 160, was on deck to complete an eighth-mile move that could catch buyers' eyes, with mere fifths of seconds key to a home run for his sellers.
Then a horse set to breeze on the turf dropped his exercise rider, ran loose the wrong way on the turf course, and collided with the inside turf rail. Injured from the impact, the colt was disoriented and waded into the infield pond, where he suffered a catastrophic collapse.
"They shut down the breeze show (temporarily due to the accident)… he was already tacked and standing, and when that all happened, obviously everything went sideways," McKathan recalled. "He was ready to breeze, he wasn't ready to go back to the barn and get untacked and wait, but we didn't know how long it was going to take… Then they didn't put water on the track after a two-hour break where they (had been) watering it every 30 minutes, like in Miami you have to do. So when he did get out there, he breezed well but he breezed average. He went (:10 3/5) when he should have breezed :10 1/5. If he goes in :10 1/5 he brings $900,000 and we're not here, someone else is. We had high expectations for him, so we weren't going to give him away because of the circumstances. So we didn't even lead him through the ring; we scratched him and decided to race him."
"We knew how good we think he is, so I just said, 'Kevin, I'm going to keep him,'" Rudan added. "He's got all the pedigree, everything is there. He's big, beautiful, sound... that's the thing with him, if he puts it all together."
Therein lies the crux of the matter. Putting it together has been a lengthy process for the colt, who made his first four starts under Steve Asmussen's banner. He managed a tantalizing second in October of 2021 at Belmont Park, but then, "Kept getting bad trip, bad trip, bad trip," McKathan said.
After he ran sixth and last in February, beaten 24 3/4 lengths in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Rudan sent the colt home to McKathan Brothers. He wanted to go back to the drawing board and make sure there weren't any issues brewing.
"I turned him out for a week or two and put a little sun on his back, and we vetted him," McKathan recalled. "He was perfect, and I'm like, 'What are we going to do?' So we ran him, because there was nothing else to do with him."
Finally, March 12 at Tampa Bay Downs in a $32,000 maiden special weight going a mile and 40 yards with McKathan's friend David Fisher as the trainer of record, the colt zipped to a 5 1/4-length victory over the grade 1-placed favorite Commandperformance. He paid $45.40 on a $2 ticket.
"He finally got the race he wanted and ran like everyone knew he could and should," McKathan said. "I think he is special. Unfortunately, over and over he just has troubles. But he's got such a high cruising speed. When you put him on front and he hits that gait, he's a different animal. It's hard to start him and stop him. He's a big, huge horse. But if he gets out of there clean with that high cruising speed, and they're like, 'Oh, he's 50-1, we'll leave him alone and not chase him,' they might not catch him."
Fenwick became the second winner for Villa Rosa, following the November 2021 allowance score at Remington Park of a mare named Say Hey, owned in partnership with Ballycroy Training Centre. That was also where he ran his career-high Equibase Speed Figure, a 91. It is the lowest top ESF in the Preakness field, but before you knock his take-a-shot connections, consider the entry of allowance winner Armagnac, campaigned by a powerhouse conglomerate that includes SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, and more. That colt's last-out ESF, also a career-best, was a 92. If Beyer Speed Figures are more up your alley, Fenwick has the career-best edge on one rival, Calumet Farm's Happy Jack. For the Tampa win, he was given an 88 Beyer. Happy Jack's career-best Beyer is an 83.
There is also the small matter of the Blue Grass.
"It kind of fell apart for us out of the gate," McKathan said. "He's kind of a big, free-running horse and he needs to be loose and hit that big speed, and he'll carry on. But he got shut down going into the first turn, stopped, he got stopped again down the backside, so it did not work out."
The Blue Grass marked McKathan's return to the training ranks.
"After the Tampa race, I said, 'Kevin, you know the horse, why don't you run him,'" Rudan said. "I said, 'I don't see that there's any problem with it. You're the one who believed in the horse, why not just run him in your name?'"
"I always feel like all of them are mine, I don't care who's saddling them, but it's neat to have my name on there and take a shot," McKathan said. "This was an opportunity that presented itself; it's kind of like if we're going to try to run in a Triple Crown race why not run in my name instead of putting someone on the program that I send him to?
"That is a big deal for me," he added. "Am I going to have 40 horses at Belmont? No. Am I going to have a barn at Saratoga? No. I'm going to continue to do what I do. But I think to have an opportunity to take one of these babies all the way and see it through, good, bad or ugly, I just think it's neat for everyone to be a part of it. All my staff are here, the people who have raised this horse since he was a (yearling)... I just think it's neat for everyone to be a part of it. I'm proud of them."
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The Blue Grass also marked another turn in the chestnut colt's story, as partner Michael Kimel of Harlo Stable—a friend of Rudan's from Canada—bought in before the race. Fenwick is his first horse.
"There was a bunch of people after the horse had run at Tampa that called, big-time trainers coming looking at him," Rudan recalled. "Do I cash out and move on, or what do I want to do? One of the stipulations was, I don't want to give up 80% of the horse. And there were a few people still interested, but everybody had their requirements: use this trainer, that trainer... They've been in the game much longer than I have, but we're the ones who bought him, we went through the struggles with him... I felt like maybe there's something special to him."
Rudan also has a sentimental connection to Fenwick, a horse he named after a community in Ontario, in the town of Pelham, located in the Niagara region. It's where his late mother Sharmaine was born and raised.
"She passed away when I was 21," he said. "Also, the dam's name is Make the Sun Shine, and my mom always called me 'Sunshine.'"
While bringing a friend in on a horse that means so much to him was the best fit for Rudan, you can blame the new guy for their Preakness aspirations. When Kimel saw 80-1 shot Rich Strike win the Kentucky Derby, Rudan said his new partner caught the fever.
"I was dead set that the next step was an allowance," Rudan said. "He's like, 'Did you see that horse win the Derby? He was 80-1. He wasn't even in the main body of the field. Why aren't we running in the Preakness?' He just kept saying, 'I'm a dreamer.'"
More importantly, when Rudan shared Kimel's dreams with McKathan, the lifelong horseman could see the vision.
"Sunday night, before we entered, I got a message from Kevin," Rudan recalled. "He's like, 'Mike's right, we should be running. I'm telling you, if he can get a clear shot at it, they haven't seen this horse run.''"
"He's got the pedigree, he's got the size, he's a classic-made horse," McKathan said. "I think that he's still just trying to figure out how to run, and that's OK, that's going to happen. I think there's a lot to come with him, even if this doesn't go right. I don't think we're going to get disappointed, we've just got to figure out where he wants to be, and he's got to figure out what he wants to do."
In the end, it was respect for McKathan's opinion and for the family legacy that fully swayed Rudan.
"I just figure these guys know horses," he said. "They can pick them. They know what they're looking for. Every single year, there's a couple great stakes horses that come out of their farm. If you look through the history of what they've done, they've had some of the best horses... I just feel like they know what it's like to be around good horses. That's why, if Kevin's saying he's a good horse and he can hang with these, I believe him.
"Maybe we're going to go out there and he's going to run his race and we'll get super lucky and shock the world. Maybe we're wrong. We're there anyway for the 2-year-old sale," he said. "Who knows? It might be the year of the upsets."
