More than 20 years ago, Steve Smith left his budding passion for Thoroughbred racing behind to prioritize taking care of his daughters. Although absent from the sport, the passion never subsided as he continued to dream of returning to the thrills of the sport when the time was right—dreaming of days like he will have Aug. 3-4 at Saratoga Race Course.
On Sunday, Smith and his wife, Denise, will race their homebred filly, Meringue, in the $175,000 Adirondack Stakes (G3). The next evening, they will send a colt that they bred, Alekazam, through the sales ring at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale.
Those back-to-back experiences show just how far their racing operation—Elements Racing—and breeding operation has come since the acquisition of Mesingw Farm in December 2020.
READ: Elements Racing Finds Home in Kentucky
"It's huge," Denise said of what the weekend means to them. "This is what we've been trying to get to. With breeding, it's a long game. To get to the point where you can have homebreds racing in competitive races and horses that make the cut to sell at Saratoga is the dream."
Perhaps the best part is, they have real chances to be successful with both.
Meringue is a bit of a price in the Adirondack's six-horse field, sitting as the co-longest shot at 10-1 as she switches from the turf to the dirt for trainer Rodolphe Brisset.
"I'm putting a lot of faith in Rudy Brisset in saying we go from turf to dirt, because that's my anxiety with a baby especially," Steve said. "But he's been doing this a long time and worked for Bill Mott for many years, so his education was good."
Should the same talent she displayed in her debut performance on grass at Churchill Downs move with her to the dirt, she'll have just as good a chance as any.
The daughter of Frosted appeared to have lost all chance with a disastrous start—breaking outward from the rail, bumping into a rival, and being steadied—that left her last of the field of eight.
"Anyone who watches that replay says there's no way a 2-year-old should win that race," Steve said.
But win the race she did. With heart and determination, Meringue thundered down the center of the turf course in time for a neck victory, completing five furlongs in :56.98.
"We were just hoping that maybe she'd close to get a piece of it," Denise recalled. "We didn't expect her to make that stretch run in the time that she did."
The Smiths knew then they had a special filly on their hands, and the secret was now exposed to the racing world. By the time they settled in for dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant in Louisville, Ky., ROC, the phone was ringing with purchase inquiries.
They were not interested in selling that night, wanting to have at least one more race with the filly all to themselves before possibly entertaining a partner. That race is now here as Meringue aims to join Danse Macabre as a graded stakes winner for Elements Racing.
The filly's pedigree is filled with Godolphin blood. Her sire, Frosted, and dam, Catbrier, were both bred and raced by Godolphin.
"We think Frosted is a very underrated stallion," Steve said. "Most of the time, we look at stallions and say they're overvalued, that they're probably $10,000 or $20,000 higher than they should be. Frosted, I believe, is the reverse of that. We always look at the Godolphin broodmares because that's a good family."
Catbrier, a daughter of Street Sense , did not hit the board in two starts in a career that was shortened by soundness issues. The Smiths saw value in the pedigree and managed to acquire her for $32,000 at the 2022 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. She was carrying Meringue at the time of purchase, and they have already been rewarded by her Kentucky maiden victory earning $69,300, more than double her dam's purchase price.
A victory in the Adirondack would serve as quite the momentum builder as the Smiths' attention then shifts to the Fasig-Tipton sale with Alekazam. The already-named colt is a son of Good Magic out of the winning Shanghai Bobby mare Alpha Zulu. He is consigned by Warrendale Sales as Hip 36.
The dark bay or brown colt was one that immediately caught the attention of the Smiths as they watched him grow up on their farm.
"He's always been a great mover," Steve said. "He's never been out of balance. He's always been a great balanced colt and just moves incredibly well when you see him run. He has an attitude, he was one of the macho guys in the herd."
Those attributes also caught the eye of Fasig-Tipton as he was one of two yearlings selected from the Mesingw Farm crop to appear in the sale and the only one the Smiths opted to send.
Good Magic's great success at stud at Hill 'n' Dale Farms near Paris, Ky., has been highlighted by Mage 's 2023 Kentucky Derby (G1) victory and Dornoch 's 2024 Belmont Stakes (G1) triumph. Alekazam differs a bit in look from most Good Magics, who Steve analyzed to typically be more short-legged and compact. Instead, his colt acquired some of his dam's scope.
Smith said Alekazam received high praise from Fasig-Tipton's executive vice president, Bayne Welker.
"He told me this horse was the leggiest Good Magic he'd ever seen," Steve said. "He said, 'I really want that horse up here, it's one of the best Good Magics I've ever seen.'"
Alpha Zulu was raced by Elements Racing and showed her talent with a 1 1/4-mile maiden win at Colonial Downs in gate-to-wire fashion, stopping the clock in 2:01.03 over the outer turf. Unfortunately, just like Catbrier, physical setbacks kept her from reaching her full potential.
However, she made a perfect fit for the broodmare band with a strong pedigree. Through her dam, Cold Awakening, Alpha Zulu is a half sister to grade 2 winner Recapturetheglory (Cherokee Run). Her Street Cry half sister, Sweet Awakening, is the dam of two-time Sovereign Award winner Are You Kidding Me and grade 2 winner and grade 1-placed Kehoe Beach.
"She's another mare that we just believe in," Steve said. "She ran a great number down at Colonial. The family is very active. I think (Alekazam) will do well."
The Smith are no strangers to success at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. Last year, they sold a Raging Bull colt for $410,000 out of a very special mare, Run Like the Boss.
Denise had not been involved with horses until she began dating Steve a few years prior, typically tagging along at the sales for support while Steve analyzed the horses. Steve was looking for a daughter of Scat Daddy, one of his favorite stallions, at the 2021 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and Denise spotted a Scat Daddy mare in foal to Cupid in the back ring.
"It was just one of those things where you just have a connection with a horse and it was instant," Denise said. "It was the first time I ever said to him, 'I really want this horse.'"
"I thumbed the book to the page and I said, 'There's a lot of graded black type, but it's all South American,'" Steve said. "I'd be the first one to tell you I don't know what's a good race down there. I went back and looked at her. Her conformation was great."
Steve agreed to purchase her if the price was right, which it end up being at $20,000. The next fall, Run Like the Boss' 2-year-old Oscar Performance colt, Andthewinneris, won the Bourbon Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland and sparked offers to buy the mare. The two having recently been married, Steve was smart not to agree to any deals.
"Steve was like, 'I just got married, if I sell her mare this will be the shortest marriage ever,'" Denise said.
They did get to sell the Raging Bull colt they bred in her first breeding season at Mesingw Farm and even stayed in for 25% of him with West Point Thoroughbreds. Now named Bullfight, the colt is scheduled to debut in the sixth race at Horseshoe Indianapolis Aug. 6.
Originally, the Smiths had been hesitant to team up with West Point on the colt as they typically preferred to stay under the radar with smaller outfits. That was until a friend of theirs, bloodstock agent David Ingordo, gave them some words of wisdom.
"He said, 'Look, you want all the big guys looking at your horses, and you're producing nice horses,'" Steve recalled of their phone conversation before the sale. "David's been a great ally, a great mentor, gives us great guidance."
Mesingw Farm is now home to about 25 mares, many of which were purchased after having displayed reproductive issues prior to the purchase. Thanks to the great work of the team and reproductive veterinarian Dr. Nate Newton of Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, all but one mare on the farm is currently in foal.
"Steve does a great job, he's found some really good mares with solid pedigrees that maybe had some reproductive issues," Denise said. "Because we're so much smaller, we can afford to put the time in to figure out what's wrong and get them in foal when some of the big operations don't need to because they have so many other horses."
That sets them up well for the future as they continue to chase days like Meringue and Alekazam will give them this week, and dreams of lifetime achievements. Who knows, maybe Meringue and Alekazam would be the ones to check off both of their biggest dreams.
"He wants to have a (Kentucky) Oaks winner, that's his dream," Denise said. "I want to sell my million-dollar yearling.
"We're going to get there."
