Kenneth Ayres has been in the Thoroughbred game for a long time, but when Demolisher was foaled in 2021 he never could have guessed the journey the gelding would take he and his wife, Resia.
The son of Dominus was a dominant force at Horseshoe Indianapolis throughout the summer of 2024. In fact, he performed so well that the Ayres were expecting him to be honored as the Indiana Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's top Indiana-bred 3-year-old male. What they did not expect was the announcement proclaiming Demolisher as the 2024 ITOBA Horse of the Year.
"It's about as high as we ever expected to have any of our horses," Ken Ayres said. "It's hard to put words to it. Obviously, we're super excited about it."
That loss for words extended further when their homebred Maggie Sue, dam of Demolisher, took home ITOBA's Broodmare of the Year honors.
"When his dam got broodmare of the year, all of that far exceeded any of our expectations," Resia said. "We were just hoping that he would win a few races in 2024 and keep us going. We had no expectations at all to be in any kind of stakes races, let alone him win three stakes races in Indiana."
The fact that the Ayres were on that stage at all was a longshot. Sure, they had bred a state champion before when Hard Ten was honored as Ohio-bred champion 2-year-old male after a quartet of stakes victories, but that was 35 years prior in 1989.
The Ayres described their involvement in the Thoroughbred industry as "modest," typically only keeping one broodmare and racing her foals. That's why they tend to dabble in the Ohio- or Indiana state-bred programs despite living in Lexington.
"It has been a little more helpful to be in a program like Indiana's for someone breeding on the modest end," Resia said.
Ken's involvement in racing began when a friend pulled him to a sale and convinced him to go in on a yearling. The horse never raced, but his interest was peaked, and soon he was claiming horses.
Resia, who became operations manager for the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation in 2008, knew nothing about the sport when she first met Ken, but picked up the bug quickly after she joined him on a trip to Beulah Park in Ohio. However, her main concern that day was how to get to the winner's circle for the winning photo.
"He was explaining to me that when you win the race, you go to the winner's circle and get your picture taken. So I asked where will we be going," Resia said. "He said it doesn't work that way, it happens very rarely. ... I found out he was right when he told me that because we didn't go down to the winner's circle very often."
Hopefully the couple had been practicing their smiles ahead of Demolisher's debut as the winner's circle has now become a frequent stop—a true miracle given what the young foal had encountered just months into his life.
Born Feb. 28, 2021, the spunky colt was the fourth foal out of Maggie Sue and appeared to be the best one yet in his early days. However, all that excitement came to a halt in mid-May when they received a call no horse owner wants to hear from Laura Cain of Delaverne Farm, where the colt lived.
"They called us up and said he can't breathe and we need to take him to Hagyard's right now," Resia said. "We arranged to get him there, we met him at the doctor."
When Demolisher arrived at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, he was diagnosed by Dr. Rana Bozorgmanesh with a serious case of Rhodococcus equi pneumonia.
"Upon arrival, the 3-month-old colt had good body condition but was breathing hard with flared nostrils and a worried look in his eye," Bozorgmanesh wrote in an assessment published in the Summer 2021 edition of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation's Research Spotlight. "He had been seemingly normal the previous day and was suddenly found struggling to breathe and about to embark on the fight of his life.
"Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon presentation of Rhodococcus equi pneumonia in foals presented to our hospital. Rhodococcus equi is ubiquitous in the environment of horse farms and is present in the manure of most mares. Infection is thought to occur due to inhalation of airborne bacteria during the first couple of days of life, although the disease progresses slowly and insidiously, with a lot of foals showing no clinical signs until they have developed abscesses in their lungs. Clinical signs include fevers, lethargy, coughing, nasal discharge, and, in cases like this foal, difficulty breathing."
Bozorgmanesh described Demolisher's condition as complex as he also demonstrated significant associated inflammation—the main threat to the colt's life. She informed the Ayres that some horses with this disease she worked with have been treated and lived, while others did not respond to treatment and died. Wanting to give Demolisher a chance, they discussed what they could afford in treatment with Bozorgmanesh and came up with a plan.
The colt entered the hospital on Friday and was kept on oxygen until Sunday night. If Bozorgmanesh believed he could breathe on his own Monday, and have a chance of survival, she'd release him to a farm that could administer needed medication on a 24-hour schedule.
"We were on pins and needles Monday," Resia said, "until she called us and said she thought he can make it.
"Dr. Rana said before he left (the hospital), 'He's got a lot of fight because it took three people to get the oxygen set up for him.' She said he's got determination and fight, that's what will save him."
The colt and his mother were transferred to Phoenix Farm in Paris, Ky. Kathie Maybee, owner and manager of the farm, kept the colt in a stall just outside her office and was hands-on. Demolisher received an intensive list of various pharmaceuticals administered through a nebulizer, catheter, and orally on a 24-hour, around-the-clock schedule for six to eight weeks.
"He had to stay in the stall for six weeks," Resia said. "(Maggie Sue) stayed with him. She was in foal but she didn't carry that foal. I don't know if the stress of everything was too much, but she did not keep that foal, she shut down pretty quick. Both of them were really good about being smart and allowing them to do what they needed to do."
Miraculously, Demolisher recovered. In early July, he was well enough to be taken off medication and returned to running around the fields.
The Grayson-Jockey Club, where Resia works, is funding a project by Dr. Noah Cohen at Texas A & M University, who specializes in R. equi treatments, to create a vaccine against this deadly disease. He was working on this project at the time of Demolisher's illness and was a helpful consultant for the Ayres. When Resia sent him details on the horse's racetrack accomplishments, he told her that he was smiling ear-to-ear.
"With the help of all those different people, he made it to the other side of that," Resia said. "We were just lucky because there was a horse in the same barn two stalls down that didn't make it—same situation with the R. equine pneumonia."
The Ayres also got lucky that the disease left no scarring on his lungs, meaning his racing career would not be impacted. Demolisher entered training as a 2-year-old, but trainer Cipriano Contreras felt he would benefit from being given more time to develop.
Demolisher entered the starting gate for the first time halfway through his 3-year-old season on Ken's birthday, June 11, in a Horseshoe Indianapolis 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race on the dirt. He dominated by 8 3/4 lengths. That same fight he exhibited to save his life had transferred to his competitive instincts.
"It's amazing. He's a very calm horse in the stall, at the track," Ken said. "But when you put the blinkers on him and bring him over to the paddock, it's like you turned a switch on him. He can't wait to get in the starting gate."
"He gets a look where he kind of looks off," Resia said. "You can see he's thinking about his game plan."
After a wire-to-wire six-furlong allowance victory one month later, Demolisher was entered in the one mile and 70-yard Governor's Handicap. Restricted to registered Indiana-bred 3-year-olds, the $250,000 Governor's Handicap is the second-richest race in Indiana, trailing only the $300,000 Indiana Derby (G3).
"We've always been on the low-end of the races," Resia said. "His half sister won some allowance races for us and we had a few little lucky things here and there, won a few stakes races. But the Governor's Handicap was the biggest race we ever raced in."
Video: Governor's H. (BT)
It became the biggest race they've won to date as Demolisher aced the test from his wide post to win by a length. A few weeks later he was moved to turf to win the Bucchero Handicap and then back to dirt to complete his Indiana campaign with a four-length triumph in the To Much Coffee Handicap.
"It's been overwhelming," Resia said of seeing his success after the early struggles in his life. "We were just lucky to have him live. To go from that just to race, we would've been thrilled to see him just race and win. He went so far beyond any expectations that we ever dreamed of."
Maggie Sue is a special mare for the couple. A homebred daughter out of Right Time Matty, who the Ayres purchased for $8,500 at the 2007 Adena Springs Mixed Sale, Maggie Sue accomplished a lifelong dream for the Lexitonians by winning at Keeneland, taking a $40,000 claiming race in 2015.
"She hit the bucket list for us," Ken said. "She won at Keeneland for us; that was exciting."
"To even get to run at Keeneland, it's hard for us—let alone to win a race there," Resia said. "That's why Ken wanted to keep her, she was the only horse that got a win for us at Keeneland.
"I have to credit Ken because I said I don't think we need to be in breeding anymore. He goes, 'No, I want to breed Maggie Sue.' I go, 'Oh no, we're going to get in bed again.' She has been a really good broodmare and she always puts together a nice foal. They don't always run, but they're good-looking foals."
Resia credited Maggie Sue's build, attitude, and intelligence for making her a good broodmare.
"She's about 16.2 (hands), built like a tank," Ken said. "All of her babies have come out fantastically."
Maggie Sue has meant so much to the Ayres that they have kept her Run Away and Hide daughter, three-time winner and $100,000-earner Image Run, as a second broodmare. Maggie Sue recently delivered a Maximum Security foal while Image Run is ready to foal her Mystic Guide foal in the coming days. Joining Demolisher in the racing stable this season is his 2-year-old Cloud Computing half sister, Cloudless Day.
The Ayres were hopeful that her son could follow in his mother's footsteps and took a chance against open company to close out his 3-year-old season in the Bryan Station Stakes (G3T) Oct. 26.
"He had never traveled before," Resia said. "Keeneland in itself is so amazing with all the people and crowd and everything. He shipped that morning of the race, I just think the whole thing was overwhelming for him.
"But we're still very proud of what he's done. It's been a dream for us. It's not the (Kentucky) Derby, but we love him as a horse."
"It's our Derby," Ken cut in.
"It's our horse, he's just such a sweet horse," Resia continued. "We're proud of him."
