Always Dreaming team wants to keep star around for good of sport
The co-owners of Always Dreaming — Anthony Bonomo and Vincent Viola — aren’t ready to look that far beyond Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, but both hinted on Wednesday that they also expect their Triple Crown candidate to continue racing beyond the Triple Crown series.
Minutes before his horse drew the No. 4 gate at Pimlico’s post position drawing, Viola talked about the responsibility he and Bonomo feel to keep the horse in front of the racing public for the good of what he thinks is a rebounding industry.
“The duty that Anthony and I have to manage Always Dreaming and give him the best chance to win the Triple Crown, we really, really take that seriously,’’ Viola said. “One of the things we always spoke about is that we were blessed by serendipity. We would have to think long and hard about giving him a 4-year-old season, for the fans…we really would.”
Bonomo has been around horse racing a long time and he served as chairman of the New York Racing Association. He said that during his tenure it always troubled him that the sport’s biggest stars usually were retired to stud at the height of popularity.
“Part of the things I’ve been saying about racing is, the stars don’t stay around long because the pressure of money and things like that,’’ Bonomo said, “and I think that’s the disconnect with people because people get connected to a horse and then he’s in the breeding shed.
“I don’t think there’s a rush to do that with this horse. I think that if we can attract a fan base to follow him it’s good for racing.”
Of course, there are cautionary tales such as the tragic story of Barbaro, a budding superstar who broke down in the Preakness in 2006 and eventually had to be destroyed. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be about the millions and millions in stud contracts the most successful thoroughbreds can command, but it’s an expensive sport.
Bonomo and Viola, who also owns the NHL Florida Panthers, probably can afford to take that risk, and both seem committed to expanding the reach of a venerable sport that is struggling to attract new and younger fans.
The only way to do that is with star power and the only way to increase that is to keep the stars on the track instead of swapping them out every Triple Crown season.
“People really don’t know who owns them,’’ Bonomo said. “They really get attracted to the horse and its name. In most sports, they (the stars) stick around. Derek Jeter had a great career, right? In horse racing that doesn’t happen. So your stars disappear and every year you’re looking to create the next star. I think it’s good for the sport if we can let the horses stay around and not get enticed by the rewards that lay ahead. He’s going to have a long history and a long career at that (stud), but why not give him one more year if we can.”
Viola said he’s convinced the horse racing industry is entering a renaissance and he’s bullish on the future.
“I consider myself a value investor,’’ he said. “I like to think I’m able to identify when situations are at a point of turnaround, and I said to my close associates about five years ago…I said if horse racing was an equity — a stock — I’d be a huge, huge buyer of it. I think this sport is going to eclipse, by every measure, its former glory.”
That’s a tall order and it will depend on the horse racing industry reaching out to a new generation of fans by refashioning a centuries-old sport for a 21st-century audience.
“It’s going to come in a different form and utilize different mediums to distribute the experience,’’ Viola said. “The athletic elegance that is required to get a horse — these majestic animals — to perform hasn’t changed. People appreciate achievement that is grounded in hard work and excellence. It’s really what this country is all about and has always been about.”
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