In September 2000, I and three others bought 16 yearlings (one year old horses) at the Keeneland September Sale. We formed a partnership called Real Deal Racing. At the conclusion of the sale the yearlings were shipped to Ocala, Florida to “learn how to be race horses”. All 16 spent the Spring and Summer of 2001 in Ocala and were shipped north to Churchill Downs to begin their racing careers as 2 year olds. While not all of them started racing as 2 year olds, many of them did. As the 2001 racing season concluded, all the horses went back to Florida to race at Tampa Bay Downs in Tampa, Florida in 2002. The best of the group was a horse named Red Masque who in the Spring of 2002, won the Forerunner Stakes on the turf at Keeneland Racecourse. When you win a stakes race at Keeneland Racecourse it is customary to receive a trophy on the Keeneland turf course. It was a raucous celebration after the race and thoughts of running in the Kentucky Derby went through our minds. Red Masque did not have sufficient earnings to run in the Kentucky Derby and as a turf specialist it would have been a big mistake. To think we won a stakes race at Keeneland with a yearling we bought for $16,000 was hard to believe. By the end of 2003 our partnership had concluded and the four of us went in different directions.
Earlier this Fall I was researching a 2013 California Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine (Post Parade) was getting high marks from various wine critics and caught my attention as the winemaker is Thomas Rivers Brown. Thomas Rivers Brown has consistently received accolades (eight Robert Parker 100 point rated wines) as winemaker for several well known wines:
– Turley Estates
– Schrader Cellars
– Maybach Cellars
– Outpost Wines
– Rivers-Marie
– Round Pond
– Aloft Wine
– Double Diamond
– Revana Family
– Kinsella
– Tamber Bay
– Jones Family
– Hestan Vineyards
– Aston Estate
– Seaver Vineyards
It turns out one of my Real Deal Racing partners is leading the Post Parade venture. What a small world. I had not spoken to him in 13 years, only to find out he is producing a very good Cab with acclaimed winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown.
Post Parade is 100% Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, produced with fruit from two vineyards (Tench and Red Head). Post Parade has a very small production with only 263 cases of the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon produced.
It’s not often you get to enjoy a very good Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon produced by a talented winemaker in conjunction with an old friend. It’s even more rare that we (Woodford Racing) have the opportunity in April 2016 to win another stakes race at Keeneland Racecourse on the turf, with another Keeneland September yearling sale graduate. We are currently pointing Catapult to the Transylvania stakes on opening day.
