Thoroughbred owner/breeder, Southern Legacy Thoroughbreds LLC farms and racing stable, racetrack enthusiast & unabashed animal lover. (I rarely reply to DM’s)
Texas
Joined May 2009
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The incredibly talented @DRFLivingston spent time with Grand Facile on Monday after the Derby. I think Barbara captured not just the kind eye, but the quiet nobility of our Louisiana Champion, don’t you? Grand Facile is the horse crush of my life & in foal to Goldencents.
There is just nothing like new life on the farm to help salve this week’s heartaches. I took one of our 2 year old fillies (by Competitive Edge out of Take Charge Taylor) to Louisiana Downs this morning to begin her race training. I then drove further down in Louisiana to bring to our home farm two of our babies (6 1/2 month old weanlings) to grow up. The two weanlings in these pictures are a Aurelius Maximus colt (blaze and stockings) out of Angelof Gettysburg (making him a Grandson of our Champion Grand Facile)and a Coal Front filly out of Private Promise (small star). Friendly and nicely built. Love them!! We need naming suggestions!!
Yesterday was one of our toughest days as an owner. We had to put down one of our sweetest mares, Belle. She became a good racehorse and once held the track record for a mile on turf at Evangeline Downs. She bowed a tendon at age 5, and then came back to us to live out her days, in fact the next 17 years, at our farm surrounded by other retired mares that were a happy little band. Yesterday afternoon when it was obvious she would not last the night, our dog Paddy spent every minute by her side not willing to leave her even for a moment. He knew she was special and hurting. He even stayed by her as we put her to sleep and then respectfully buried her. R.I.P. Belle and run free on heaven’s green courses. We loved you deeply and will miss you every day.
AMAZING video by Jockey Junior Alvarado aboard Sovereignty as they take down the 2026 Breeders Cup Classic. What a feeling he must have had knowing how much horse he had underneath him as they made their move on the far turn.
Congrats to Bill Mott, Junior Alvarado, Godolphin and all the connections of Sovereignty.
Woo Hoo!!! Volatile strikes again!! T O Elvis takes down Englishman to win the Breeders Cup Sprint!!
T O Elvis received a 112 Beyer for his brilliant win in the Breeders Cup Sprint even eclipsing the 108 he received for his earlier Grade 1 win in the Churchill Downs Stakes. From recollection his time for 6 furlongs at the BC was 1:08.20. A WOW run from the back of the field to inhaling a loose on the lead Englishman. That last 1/16 was truly amazing.
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Check out the Southern Legacy headless jock racing home for Halloween!
Be safe out there today and fill your bag with Breeders Cup goodies!
🤖 Made with AI
Check out Private Dreams, one of our 2 year old fillies taking her inaugural stroll around the New Orleans Fairgrounds main track. Notice her coat when she makes the turn and the sun hits her.
She is by Volatile and out of our homebred stakes- winning mare, Private Promise.
Well, we are finally bringing our Southern Legacy farm kicking and squealing into modern farming techniques, and we have embraced computerized/GPS spraying of our big meadows with large drones. Forgive my poor videoing as I was more excited to watch the drones than to watch my video efforts! Those big drones sprayed the first 80 acres in less than an hour! That acreage alone would have taken me all day. They will be finished with all the hay meadows in about 5 hours! Technology=impressive results!!
Today was one of those tough farm days that I didn’t think would ever end. While aerating paddock one I got out to adjust the pull levers and fell over the super sharp aerator cutting both arms and puncturing my rear.
After cleaning those wounds, a couple of hours later I had a big bucket on the front of the tractor, and barely hooked a gate post getting into paddock 6, broke a substantial gate post into 2 pieces, wrecked the gate and several sections of our 4 plank horse fencing. Damn. Even after decades working on our horse farm, it sometimes can be overwhelming. Glad to see this sunset which promises me (I hope) a better day tomorrow!!
Moved one of our mares by Take Charge Indy into a smaller paddock with a 2 year old filly by Competitive Edge and even though it was brutally hot, they tested each other for several hours. I had do wash them down to cool them off and then they went right back to their games.
Sunset on our thoroughbred farm this evening. We were working so hard and it was so hot today I almost didn’t notice. We are also starting the latest cutting of our Tifton 44 hay meadows. 107 degrees this afternoon. Farming is TOUGH!
Wow. Today our Flash N Class (son of our champ, Grand Facile) raced in a second level open allowance at 1 mile on the turf @LouisianaDowns. Flash had a nice break, followed Star Rock Star (as we suggested) around the clubhouse turn and down the backstretch while setting down blistering fractions of 22 and change, 46 and change thru 4 furlongs, 1:10 and change through 6 furlongs, 1:22 through 7 furlongs and Star Rock Star then set the all-time Louisiana Downs track record stopping the clock at 1 mile in 1:33 and change. Wowsa. (Flash couldn’t quite keep up with that heat down the stretch)…..and it was 98 degrees blistering hot as well during the race. Hot times indeed. Congrats to all the connections of Star Rock Star.
Late getting our Happy 4th of July wishes out to all of you but hope this holiday was truly so special for all & that America stopped & took a few minutes to remember what our founding fathers and so many since have done to make and keep us free and safe.
💥God bless the USA!💥
Visited with a couple of our mares and their foals before our race at LA Downs (Flash N Class finished a fast closing second in an N2X mile turf allowance in 1:36+).
But this pic of Angelof Gettysburg and her 3 month old colt by Aurelius Maximus really tugged at our heart. ❤️🏇
Our hay cutting “Army” begins to descend on Southern Legacy Farm today to cut and bale our Tifton 44 Bermuda over the weekend of the 4th of July.
It is extremely hot and humid but most are in good spirits to help us get the big job done. Fingers crossed-no rain for a few days!!
Southern Legacy Farm’s meadows are showing out with the timely rainfall we have received this Spring. The Tifton 44 Bermuda is tickling the bellies of the deer mamas that are coming through and loving the grass and getting ready to drop their babies here. Dads are in velvet.🦌🦌
Tuesday we set the all-time record for most rain in a day at our farm since we developed it as a Thoroughbred nursery 21 years ago. Our rainfall gauge goes to 10 inches and water was spilling over the top. Our contiguous neighbor adjoining us on the east boundary has a bigger gauge and his reading was 13”+.
By the way this broke a 50 year record for rainfall in our county!! Wow. Rivers are out of their banks and a small town to our west is literally under water.
We are set for a week of drying weather now and sure hope we get a little wind to also help dry the meadows so we can cut and bale the best stand of Tifton 44 Bermuda we have had since it was sprigged many years ago. The grass is now literally up on the backs of our resident deer population.
After the tragedy to our breeding program in Kentucky last week, it was so healing to watch Pocketful of Money overcome a really difficult trip in his allowance win @LouisianaDowns today. Pocketful of Money is a son of Goldencents and our stakes-winning mare, Private Promise. When you watch the replay you will see that “ Money” gets hammered leaving the gate, is knocked two lanes over, stays boxed in behind 3 horses and inside two others for most of the race, despite efforts to get through. When he finally finds a hole he explodes for the win and is even difficult to stop on his gallop out. It was Money’s first time on the turf!
Look at the clever win photo Cindy and I just received from our friends @HighlanderTrai3 “Money” received much of his early race training at Highlander. Big thanks to @JeffHooperCapH @dgomez90 @ChristyGrace83 and Jose Nava-Marin.
Highlander is such a resource in Texas. The men and women at Highlander run as fine a race training, rehab and layup facility as can be found in America. In fact Money was injured in his early race training and @JeffHooperCapH and his crew immediately had him in their rehab program and just look at how Money recovered from that injury.
Thanks Jeff and your entire staff and crew.