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The G-Biscuit Stable Story Part 1
The story behind G-Biscuit Stables
The idea for G-Biscuit Stables didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it began with the “what if” daydreams of three friends, Matt Spencer, Nick Caraganis and Jim Campanini.
We wanted to take on the sheiks, the bluebloods and all the rest of the racing world.
“What if we had the money to breed a quarter horse with Spectacular Bid?” Matt would ask. “Could we corner the market with a kind of horse that could fly like Pegasus and have the stamina of Odysseus?”
Nick and Jim would laugh. Matt always came up with intriguing – and thoroughly impossible – combinations.”How about breeding an Arabian horse with a turf champion? What would we get then?”
“Probably, a freak that couldn’t run a lick,” replied Jim. “But we could show it at the circus.”
In 1997, Matt, Nick and Jim traveled to the Belmont Stakes, joining John Campanini, Pat DiMasi and other members of the Rosario Club of Providence on their annual trek to the third and final jewel of the Triple Crown.
That’s when Silver Charm lost his bid to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Silver Charm was outdueled by Touch Gold in a dramatic stretch run before 98,000 fans. It was exciting.
A year later, the trio witnessed Real Quiet’s heartbreak in losing his Triple Crown shot to Victory Gallup.
Matt, Nick and Jim all had the bug, but owning a horse seemed far away and impractical.
Nick and Jim had mortgage payments and kids to put through college. Matt, though single, had bills too.
Still, the three friends would talk about horses at The Lowell Sun newspaper where they worked. Sometimes they’d go to Suffolk Downs and play the ponies, always dreaming about spotting a Seabiscuit in the crowd of low claimers.
Ah, Seabiscuit. In 2001, when author Laura Hillenbrand wrote her best-selling book on the American legend of the 1930s and 1940s, the newsroom buzz began all over again.
At Christmas 2002, Jim had baseball caps made for his friends. Each bore the icon of a racehorse with a fictitious name. Matt’s read “G-Force,” a nickname he acquired for the way he bucked every pressure he faced in his life. Nick’s read, “Czar’s Racing Stables.” It was self-explanatory, for his proud Greek heritage.
In the spring of 2003, the boys got a jolt from a New York gelding named Funny Cide. The horse won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, before finishing third in the Belmont Stakes. By then, Funny Cide had electrified a nation of horseracing fans with his story. He wasn’t regally bred or beautiful as a yearling, and sold for just $22,000 at an auction sale. As an unraced two year old, Funny Cide was sold to a group of 10 friends from Sackatoga, N.Y., for $75,000, after their prize filly was “lost” in a $62,500 claiming race at Gulfstream Park. It turned out to be the luckiest “loss” of their lives.
As the story goes, each of the friends invested roughly $7,500 in Funny Cide. By the end of 2003, their investment had produced nearly at $4 million profit from purse winnings, bonuses and sales of Funny Cide memorabilia.
We wanted a Funny Cide, if only in our dreams.
Nick, Matt and Jim took their dreams to the Breeders’ Cup Classic races at the Mohegan Sun in November. They had a great day, pooling their money to bet on longshots of 10-to-1 or more. They built up a show pool of winnings that ended up paying for an overnight suite, dinner at Michael Jordon’s Steakhouse and pocket money for the slots.
And that’s when the talk of owning a racehorse took on a more serious dimension.
“We could get a group together too,” said Matt. “We’ll all put in $5,000 apiece and buy a yearling that we can name. We’ll take it to Saratoga.”
Matt was on a roll.
Nick, who had owned several greyhound racers, knew it wasn’t so easy. He had spent several thousand dollars on breeding and training fees, only to see his dogs get injured racing at Seabrook Race Track. It was fun, he would admit, but it wasn’t profitable.
Jim too had experienced the highs and lows of “owning” two racehorses. In the 1980s, when he worked at the Salem Evening News, he held a minority interest in two such thoroughbreds, Smoggy Lady and Heck’s Chessie. Although Smoggy Lady won several races at huge odds, she was often hurt. Her veterinary bills outpaced her earnings by a wide margin. Heck’s Chessie was a slow horse, plain and simple. The filly won just one race in 23 starts. In between, she ate well and didn’t seem to mind that she was taking food off Jim’s table with her back-of-the-pack efforts. Jim cut his ties after a year, getting a “lucky” break when Heck’s Chessie died instantly when a horse trailer she was riding in overturned on the highway leading to the Brockton Fairgrounds.
But it sure would be nice, agreed the friends, if they could pull it off, sharing the risk with other like-minded horse lovers.
In December, Jim jumped the gun on the dream by commissioning a local sports shop to produce T-shirts with the name “G-Biscuit Stables” emblazoned across the left pocket. Below the icon of a horse, it read “Home of Stakes Winners G-Force, G-Man and G-Whiz.” He gave the gag gifts to Matt and Nick for Christmas, saying, “If we own a stable, all our yearlings will be named beginning with the letter ‘G’.” Everyone laughed.
Soon thereafter, the friends started to talk serious about building a partnership of investors. Everytime they got together for coffee or lunch, they mapped out a business plan on a napkin, wondering what it would take to get the venture off the ground. Finally, Matt brought up the name of Barry Roos, a Massachusetts horse agent who had a Web site that had piqued Matt’s interest. Matt called Barry and asked him if he’d meet with us for dinner. Matt also contacted his friend, Frank Catapano, and invited him to attend.
We met in March, at a restaurant in Allston-Brighton, and Barry laid out all the details of starting from scratch. There were major risks, he said, but the idea was to minimize them with a sound business plan. He suggested that we begin by claiming a moderately priced horse rather than purchasing a yearling or an unraced two-year-old. “You could be buying a horse that might never run,” he said of a yearling. “You should get into the game, see how it goes, and maybe things will work out where you can take the next step.”
Barry explained the costs involved. Just to train a horse, he said, ranges from $55 to $85 a day depending on the trainer and the track. The cost included feed, but it didn’t cover veterinary bills if the horse got sick. Also, a runner needed new shoes each month, another $100 expense.
Horses weren’t cheap, Barry said. Plus, it could get more expensive if a horse doesn’t help out by earning his own living. “You want to try and claim a steady earner to pay the bills,” he said.
We all agreed it was an “iffy” proposition to get a big stake together to finance a horse for a year. Still, we were intrigued. We started listing names of possible investors.
Over the course of the next month, Nick, Matt, Frank and Jim met regularly to draw up a potential financial plan. We agreed the operation would need at least $40,000 to be viable for one full year, based on the purchase of a $15,000 thoroughbred. Next, we set a share price at $3,000, figuring we’d take in as many as 15 investors although we didn’t have a clue as to whom might be interested.
Frank and Nick worked on putting together an LLC contract agreement for all partners. This would bind the investors for one year and spell out all rules. The original document was edited and refined over two weeks before being unanimously approved.
Frank and Nick also filled out paperwork to obtain a federal business tax number, at a cost of $500.
We called another meeting with Barry, held at the Macaroni Factory in Burlington. We questioned him about a trainer and where the horse would run. He suggested Michael Gorham, a former Massachusetts trainer who wintered at Gulfstream Park in Florida and summered at Delaware Park. Gorham had a solid reputation and Barry had a personal relationship with him.
Barry said Delaware would be the place to set up shop for two reasons. It featured larger purses because it had slot machines and there were several other tracks within a 100-mile radius that offered racing.
Barry said he’d agree to be our horse agent and make contact with Gorham. This meant Barry would work with Gorham to find us a suitable horse and to set up our “stables.”
We decided to give Barry a stake in our enterprise for his services, voting him one full share. If the operation proved profitable, he’d benefit just like the rest of us.
Of course, all this would be premature if we didn’t raise the money. Matt, Nick, Jim and Frank had each pledged $3,000 apiece. Later, Frank said he’d take three shares, for $9,000. That gave us $18,000 total. We were a long way from our goal.
In the meantime, Jim was designated as the licensee for the stable. He was required to submit to an FBI fingerprint test and give other background information to the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission. They called and questioned him at work. A week later, he was approved for an owner’s license. Next, he had to pay a $50 stable fee and then designate a horse agent to access the G-Biscuit Stables account. The “agent” became trainer Michael Gorham.
The money was now flowing in from Frank’s family and friends, and Jim’s brother and his friends, Nick Narducci and Pat DiMasi, who goy in under the deadline. We had $45 grand in the bank.
Somehow we had done the impossible. The excitement was building in late-May when we finally gave Barry the go-ahead to start hunting for a quality horse. Nick, the group’s financial manager, mailed a $20,000 check to Delaware Park to open up our account in the name of G-Biscuit Stables. We were right up there with Nick Zito, Richard Dutrow and the rest of the heavy-hitters of horse racing.
Since June 10, Barry and Michael Gorham have been checking the stock at the track. They tried claiming one horse, Vicechairman, for $9,000 but lost out to another trainer in a “shake” for the rights. Another horse, Jurmeno, piqued Barry’s interest but didn’t gain Gorham’s confidence at track side, so they passed on a $12,500 claim.
As of July 5, G-Biscuit Stables is still patiently awaiting a thoroughbred it can call its own.
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"The Inspiration"
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