Man or Beast, the Read Boasts a Formidable Pair

Bill Warren tells it this way: While in Kentucky a few years ago, a couple of women from Canada approached Warren's son, Andrew, and engaged in conversation. At one point, Andrew steered them to his father. "We hear you're The Man," one of them said, dazzled by just a taste of Warren's considerable accomplishments. A convivial exchange ensued, during which the description was embellished. And the next thing anyone knew, the name Formidable Man was attached to a young colt preparing to carry the fuchsia and teal silks of William and Suzanne Warren into racing battle. "We had fun talking about it," Warren said. "But it didn't originate with me, and it's awful nice of anyone who'd associate me with the name." Who else would it be? This is the William K. Warren Jr., who has led the oil and gas exploration companies founded by his father, who has funded a network of medical research, health care services, and health education through the William K. Warren Foundation, whose family built the $20 million Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and who even lured the U.S. Open and PGA Championship to his hometown of Tulsa, Okla., as president of Southern Hills Country Club. Then there are the horses, such as Saint Liam, winner of the 2005 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) and Horse of the Year, and City of Light, winner of the 2018 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1), and sire of Formidable Man, who will try to win a record sixth stakes event on the Del Mar grass July 26 in the 1 1/8-mile $250,000 Eddie Read Stakes (G2T). Warren, who turns 92 in September, has a place in La Jolla, not far from Del Mar, and has tried to be on hand to watch Formidable Man win the Oceanside Stakes, the Del Mar Derby (G2T), and the Hollywood Derby (G1T) in 2024, and then the Eddie Read and the Del Mar Mile Stakes (G2T) in 2025. His only setback at Del Mar came in the 2025 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T), when Godolphin's Notable Speech (GB) found an opening on the rail to turn back the Warren colt by 1 1/2 lengths. "That was a tough one to swallow, because he ran so good," Warren recalled from home, a few days before the Eddie Read. "But you can't fault the winner." There was some chatter about retiring Formidable Man to stud after his Breeders' Cup performance, a grand audition with the racing world watching. Beyond his physical gifts and athletic prowess, his pedigree sports a five-generation outcross, peppered with the likes of Sunday Silence, Deputy Minister, Irish River, and Danehill. But Warren said no, let's go. "I leaned on my trainer and asked if he thought he'd be up to it," Warren said, referring to Michael McCarthy. "He said, 'Yes.'" Formidable Man received a long rest and did not return to the workout tab until April 11. Six weeks later he won the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) to erase the taste of his fourth-place finish in the same race the year before. Since the Shoemaker, Formidable Man has turned in half a dozen works at regular intervals, including five-eighths on the Del Mar main track July 19. He drew post 8 of the nine in the Read, with John Velazquez, his rider in the Breeders' Cup, back in the saddle. "I like the post," Warren said. "He should get a pretty good trip from there." Warren ranks Formidable Man in the top five of the horses he and his wife have raced through the years. The company also includes Denis of Cork, who won the 2008 Southwest Stakes (G3), then finished third in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and second in the Belmont Stakes (G1), and graded stakes winners Saint Anddan, Mrs McDougal, and Charitable Man. "I'd love to have another one like Saint Liam," said Warren, who named the champion for his father, William K. Warren Sr. "That really bothered me, losing him so young to an accident." Saint Liam was only 6, with but a single season at stud, when he sustained a hopelessly fractured tibia in a slip-and-fall accident in August 2006 at Lane's End. His single crop of around 100 named foals included 2011 Horse of the Year Havre de Grace. To date, Warren has preferred to go it alone, buying young prospects such as Formidable Man—a $375,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase—without joining some of the high-octane partnerships becoming so prevalent at the top of the sales world. "It's getting tougher and tougher with all these syndicates who bid up the prices on us," Warren said. "You've got to really watch what you're doing. "Last year, for the first time, I joined in a partnership," Warren went on. "I got together with Eclipse Thoroughbreds and Robert LaPenta, and the three yearlings we bought are looking pretty good. Our trainer Mike McCarthy is pretty happy so far." In a perfect world, Warren would be front and center Sunday to watch Formidable Man take on eight opponents in the Eddie Read, named for Del Mar's venerated marketing and publicity director, who died in 1973. Read's son, Tim Read, continued the family tradition with a long career as the track's director and then vice president of operations. Alas, Warren reports that he is on the vet's list after sustaining a gash in his knee after a fall at home in Tulsa. "I'm on lame's end," Warren said. "I didn't break anything, but I'm kind of bruised all over. I look like I've been in a prize fight. So I'll be watching on TV and hoping our horse has a much better trip."