The betting public may have somewhat overlooked Daddysruby at 6-1 odds in the Dec. 26 La Brea Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park, but her success was not a surprise to those who spotted racing promise from the California-bred Frac Daddy filly almost 12 months earlier.
This past winter, following a Jan. 7 debut win at Golden Gate Fields for trainer Tim McCanna and owner/breeder Jethorse, owners Adam Wachtel and Gary Barber partnered with Steve Reger of Jethorse to race her in partnership. And the results of the La Brea—in which pacesetting Daddysruby outlasted fellow California-bred Big Pond in a head-bobbing photo finish—rewarded the high hopes they long maintained.
A La Brea photo that took a couple of minutes for the placing judges to scrutinize “seemed like it took an hour,” Wachtel said Dec. 27.
He did not travel from his New York home to California for the race and instead waited out the photo results while on the telephone with a trackside Barber. He expressed relief to be on the winning end of the photo with the Juan Hernandez-ridden Daddysruby after a slow-motion replay showed Big Pond, under Frankie Dettori, in front just before the wire and a moment past it.
The victory, her fourth in five starts since Wachtel and Barber joined in ownership and turned her over to trainer Peter Miller to race in Southern California, earned the partners $180,000 and exponentially increased her residual value as a grade 1 winner.
Wachtel and Barber followed their modus operandi with Daddysruby. Through the years, the duo have excelled at the highest levels of the sport, not so much by acquiring high-priced unraced yearlings or 2-year-olds, but by purchasing racehorses—typically in the early stages of their careers—whose Ragozin Sheet figures suggest they are of eventual stakes quality. Wachtel also examines pedigree and race replays.
In 2016, they bought an interest in a 2-year-old gelding in Canada whose name racing fans would soon learn well: Channel Maker . He would become a multiple grade 1 winner, earning nearly $4 million.
Then in 2020, they partnered in a 2-year-old maiden based at Parx Racing. That filly, Vequist , also rose to the heights of the division, winning two grade 1s later that year, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).
Both Channel Maker and Vequist were honored with Eclipse Awards that year—Channel Maker as male turf champion and Vequist as champion 2-year-old filly. Bill Mott trained Channel Maker for a variety of partners over much of the gelding’s long career, and Butch Reid conditioned Vequist for Barber, Wachtel and owner/breeder Swilcan Stable.
Wachtel allowed himself to dream the day after the La Brea—evaluating races that might take Daddysruby and the partnership to the Breeders’ Cup next year at Del Mar. The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) is also seven furlongs on dirt.
Daddysruby heads to the winner’s circle after her victory in the La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita Park
As for her more immediate future, either the Feb. 3 Santa Monica Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita or the Feb. 17 Barbara Fritchie Stakes (G3) at Laurel Park, both $200,000 races at seven-eighths of a mile, are attractive spots if Daddysruby is healthy and training well, Wachtel said. He believes those races would allow good spacing to another seven-furlong race, the April 6 Madison Stakes (G1) at Keeneland.
Wachtel, 61, has been involved in horse racing since he was introduced to the sport as a teenager by his father, Ed, who raced and bred horses. He studied business and law and earned two degrees from Emory University in Atlanta before focusing on horse racing and private equity investments. Involved in the sport for more than four decades, he was elected as a member of The Jockey Club in 2021.
He expressed his appreciation to Reger for partnering with Daddysruby. The transaction was brokered with bloodstock agent Don Brauer, with Reger and Wachtel also involved in communication.
Though Barber and Wachtel are separated by much of the country—the South African-born Barber is a famous film producer in Southern California—their interests align.
Gary Barber at Del Mar
Introduced by Aron Wellman, president and founder of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, with whom they raced the horse Amira’s Prince beginning in 2012, Wachtel and Barber have since become frequent partners and close friends in a sport in which they both passionately participate.
Both owners have large stables, running together and separately. In another success story, in partnership with WinStar Farm, they won the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1T) with Tourist , who now stands in New York at Rockridge Stud.
“I like partnering,” Wachtel said. “I don’t want 20 partners, but I like having one or two because that way, I feel like I’d rather own 25% of 10 horses than all of two or three. It just gives me a better chance because I know not every horse I’m gonna pick out is gonna be a Vequist or a Channel Maker.”
