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TOBA December Member of the Month

Randy Lowe is the TOBA December Member of the Month

Randy Lowe

Randy Lowe

Anne M. Eberhardt

A product of Randy Lowe’s one-mare broodmare band, Golden Pal  registered back-to-back Breeders’ Cup victories in 2020 and 2021. And in 2022 Golden Pal competed in his third consecutive World Championship, heralding Lowe’s remarkable rise.

A Los Angeles native and current Las Vegas resident, Lowe has attended the races since age seven. “My father, he would take me to the racetrack for being a good little kid,” he recalled, “and I learned how to handicap the horses, ’cause he had the [Daily] Racing Form spread out over the dining room table.”

“Basically, I used to be in the insurance business,” Lowe said, “and I would always go to the racetrack whenever I had free time or extra money.” In the mid-1980s, Lowe hit the Pick Six for $156,000 off a $96 bet. “It’s actually been a dream come true to go from being the guy begging for a Racing Form; even then, some people wouldn't give it to me,” he said. “Everyone else is getting married, and I’m thinking I’ve got to stay with this dream and I’ve got to stay on this path and I somehow made it.”

At the 2003 Barretts October mixed sale, Gayle Van Leer (for Lowe) purchased Golden Pal’s granddam, Sumthingtotalkabt (by Mutakddim), for $28,000. The Wally Dollase trainee earned $172,123. “But one day at Keeneland, in a race against this horse named Lady Belsara who went on to win a grade 3[...] she got beat a neck,” Lowe said. In the 6 ½-furlong allowance contest, the clock stopped at 1:14 2/5, and Lowe realized his speedy filly might be a good broodmare prospect.

When picking a mate for Sumthingtotalkabt, Lowe looked to his late mentor, John C. Mabee. He selected Midshipman , a son of Unbridled’s Song out of Fleet Lady, a homebred graded stakes winner for Mabee. The resulting filly was named Lady Shipman. Lowe said, “Everybody kept telling me, ‘You need to sell the horse, and this is why,’” but Lowe stuck to his guns. Lady Shipman won turf sprint stakes galore, then ran second by a neck to Mongolian Saturday in the 2015 TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) and earned $902,387.

“When I used to go to all the races she ran—Canada, Dubai, I went every place with her—I’d go to her stall to say hello, pet her, stuff like that. She’d always come out and put her head on my left shoulder as if she’s giving me a hug,” he recalled. Lowe made the decision to keep the mare. “Sometimes there’s more to life than just money,” he explained. “Now I can say that.” In foal to Essential Quality , Lady Shipman is boarded at Tom VanMeter’s Stockplace Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

Lady Shipman’s Uncle Mo  colt, Golden Pal, was named for Mabee’s Golden Eagle Farm in Ramona, California, and that horseman’s top-class runner Best Pal. In just his fourth start, Golden Pal won the 2020 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T). “And he drew off and then he won, and it was just so exciting,” Lowe recalled, adding that he eventually sold the colt to Coolmore Associates. Lowe said, “He’s just an individual that I’m so proud that, number one, he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s almost as if he’s a son of mine.”

In 2021, Golden Pal captured three graded stakes, including the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Lowe remarked, “And I’m very proud of the fact that when we ran in the second Breeders’ Cup, we were stepping up to race against the older horses of the world. And that race at Del Mar, I was very nervous because, in my mind, I knew he could do it—or I know he could do it—but was he going to be able to do it on the racetrack? So turning for home, when he’s turning around the racetrack and Lieutenant Dan is chasing him and he kicked on to win, I was actually going berserk over there.” A three-time graded winner this year, Golden Pal finished 10th as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and is now retired to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky.

Lowe now has a few youngsters, including Golden Pal’s yearling Omaha Beach  half-brother, Lieutenant General (who RNA’ed for $385,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September sale). He is also considering buying mares to breed to Golden Pal. Lowe mused, “If you believe in the dream enough, it might not happen today; it might not happen tomorrow. But as long as you believe it, it will happen. It will happen. It’s just when it will happen.”