Leonard Liberto remembers some of the advice given to him when he decided to venture into Thoroughbred racing. He’s been in the game long enough to share wisdom as well.
“When I started in this business, I had $100,000 and knew nothing. Now I know everything there is to know about horses. But I don’t have the $100,000,” he joked.
Liberto bought his first horse 25 years ago, a Fast Gold gelding named Gold N Regal. He was a $5,000 claim that got Liberto started on a path that has him now standing a stallion at Bonner Hill Farms in Pennsylvania. That stallion, Capo Kane , won the 2021 Jerome Stakes and finished third in the Withers Stakes (G3), the next-to-last race of a five-race career in which he won twice and earned $147,500. The California-bred entered stud the following year. Liberto says that he doesn’t believe in comparing Capo Kane to other stallions, just those from the same sire—Street Sense .
“That’s really what I am more concerned about,” Liberto said. “I’m not too concerned about the other 20 stallions standing in Pennsylvania because I’m the only Street Sense. I’m not comparing Street Sense to Speightstown, I’m not comparing to Medaglia d’Oro. If you want a pedigree of Street Sense, you’re going to come to Capo Kane.”
Capo Kane is also featured in a children’s book titled, “The Story of Capo Kane”. Written by T.C Williams, the book is illustrated by children with and without disabilities, and the proceeds go to the T.C. Williams Youth Sports Camps, which strives to teach children the benefits of sport.
“Williams goes around to different underprivileged communities…and we donate money to that organization to help children with computers and things that they would need as far as learning experiences,” Liberto said.
Liberto, who partners with Anthony Como in Bing Cherry Racing, discusses his start in the industry, being in a regional market, and making horse racing a family affair.
“I love the industry. I love the business. I love the marketing end of it. I love trying to get people more excited about what I’m doing. And I always tell them, ‘Listen, if you need luck, just rub my head. I’m full of luck.’ ”
BloodHorse: You’ve got Capo Kane standing in Pennsylvania. What’s going on with him and how is his breeding going?
Leonard Liberto: So far, everything’s been going real well. We were accepted pretty favorably in the state of Pennsylvania, by the breeders in Pennsylvania. We got a few people outside of Pennsylvania, people from Virginia and people from Maryland that have nice mares. We’ve been hanging in; it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve got a passion for this. And it never gets old when you see the babies.
Capo Kane with Bonner Hill Farms’ Cristina Holmes
BH: What made Bonner Hill Farms the right place for him?
LL: When we originally were looking to stand him, we looked at what was available in the local area between New York, Laurel (Maryland), Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We kind of fell in love a little bit with the Pennsylvania program. … We really wanted to get somebody who certainly was already standing stallions. So Bonner Hill already stands Pat On the Back and now they have Buy Land and See. The fact that they have now three stallions really makes it nice because breeders have a variety to choose (from), and what breeding works well with their mares.
BH: Talk about being regional and being one of the little guys. What pressures do you feel as the industry keeps evolving?
LL: We don’t have any real pressures as regional. I’m sure the people in Kentucky are under are much more pressure than we are because they’ve got a lot of money invested. I’ll give you an example: McKinzie covered 500 and some (mares) since he stood. But when you break it down to who’s better than who, as a stallion, it’s going to be based on percentages. It’s going to be based on numbers. It’s certainly not going to be based on the fact that he’s better than Capo Kane or Maxfield is better than Capo Kane or Speaker’s Corner was better than Capo Kane. The only time those will determine who’s better than who as a stallion, or the best son of Street Sense, it’s going to be the numbers. I could have 10 foals and all 10 are graded winners. I’m better than Maxfield and McKinzie.
BH: How much are you following Capo Kane’s offspring? And are there any that you’re excited about?
LL: I’m excited about every single one of them that I see standing and nursing. Depending on the mares, the body types, certainly they’re going to be different. The conformation is certainly going to be different, but what’s it been looking like now is we’ve been getting some nice long-legged, big-chested babies, and so this year we have yearlings and actually Jan. 24 was our first foal for the 2024 season. And he’s looking real good.
BH: Your career in the industry has evolved a bit in the last few years. You haven’t run a horse on your own in a couple of years. Why the change?
LL: At one time, when I first started, I had 22 runners with one trainer, and obviously I moved around. I had a few other trainers in different states. … But recently, I have not run anything other than I had a horse named Marathoner, but he was under the Capo Kane Investments ownership. And he did okay. … When we bought Capo Kane, it was $26,000. I bought Ny Traffic for $22,000. … But the industry, I think, the biggest expense to make any money is in the breeding business. But I always looked at return on investment. So if I’m investing a lot of money, I should get a bigger return. That’s what we’re hoping for.
Pennsylvania is doing some big things and I don’t see anywhere else to be right now.
BH: What do you enjoy about the breeding aspect of the industry?
Capo Kane
LL: The breeding aspect of it is just a small portion of the success and joy it brings to me. If we had no breeders, we wouldn’t have any horses, right? We get excited when we see all these different owners with our babies. We haven’t had any yet, but we got 49 covers in 2023, we had 28 covers in 2022, and in 2024, we’re looking at probably getting another 30 or 35. So, you know, again regional, we don’t look at the numbers of mares. Not like Kentucky. They breed 150-200 a year. … The biggest joy is certainly watching one that you bred, run. And in Pennsylvania, if you’re the breeder, you get 40% of that purse forever. So you know, kind of a nice thing.
BH: Have you thought about getting back into the racing side of things?
LL: Yeah, we’re eventually going to be between my partner and I we have 10 mares ourselves. We’d love to be able to race them ourselves. But I calculate that by the time you breed a horse, wean it, and get into training and bring it to the track and hopefully, you can run as a 2-year-old. If not a 3-year-old. You got to spend about 30 to 40 grand on one animal, not a lot of money, but it’s a lot of money if you have 10 of them. So, you’re talking about spending, $330,000 to $400,000 to get your 10 babies to the races and sometimes it doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t matter how much money you have, you don’t spend it unwisely; you try to incorporate a bunch of other people that want to become part of a syndicate. And that’s what we’re looking at next. Hopefully, a Capo Kane racing syndicate.
BH: What made you want to get into the industry?
LL: A friend of mine said, ‘Hey, meet me at the track.’ We were up at The Meadowlands and I’m looking down at the paddock and on the TV I see him in the paddock. He gets done and his horse came in dead last but he came up and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. Looks like a loser to me.’ He said, ‘Come on, let’s get in. You give me some money and I will go buy one.’ I gave him $2,500 and he put up the other $2,500 and we went and claimed the horse. In today’s money that horse went on to make $276,000. … And then my first horse I bought was Lady Katie, who originally was named Blackjack Lady. And I changed the name to Lady Katie; my mother’s name is Katherine. And she went on to win $150,000. She won four in a row. She won the New York Stallion Park Avenue Stakes.
(From left) Anthony, Maryann, Leonard, Robert, and Frank Liberto
BH: What haven’t we touched on that you think people would like to know?
LL: I would love people to understand that this isn’t just a game that we play. This is a business. This is something that we have a passion for. Do you want to be a chef and be stuck in a kitchen at 120 degrees? Hell no. But if you’ve got a passion for cooking, that 120 degrees doesn’t bother you. So you know you have to have a passion for what you do, and I don’t care whether it’s horses, horse racing, caring for the elderly. I don’t care. Whatever you do in life, if you don’t have a passion for it, go find something else to do because you’re going to be one miserable person as you age. I have a passion for it. So do my sons. I have three sons who are operating my construction company. And my wife and I, we love it. We go into the winner’s circle. It’s just a family thing. I have photos that have 40 people in those win photos.
