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POST ACCESS: STAR POWER By Brooke Avana Hal Earnhardt Owns One Of The World’s Greatest Racehorses – And That Ain’t No Bull! The President of Earnhardt Auto Center owns Indian Blessing, Breeders’ Cup winner and an incredibly special racehorse who has set off a bidding war around the world.
The love of horses, and the business of horse racing, is something the Earnhardt family has known about as long as they’ve been selling cars. Their list of accomplishments in the auto industry speaks for itself — in fact, Earnhardt Auto Center is one of the most, if not the most successful privately owned auto retailer in the entire country. And here’s a little secret that the horse racing industry has known for a long time, and folks in the Valley are starting to realize – under the direction of Hal Earnhardt III, the family is becoming one of the most renowned thoroughbred owners in the industry. "We have been blessed with a lot of success in horse racing," Hal Earnhardt told POST. "I don’t own the Phoenix Suns, or the Cardinals or Diamondbacks, so this is what me and my entire family do. My grandfather started me in the business, and I worked around it growing up and I actually used to be a jockey for him. Luckily, I got too big." |
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Well, Hal is definitely a big deal in the horse racing world right now, and a big reason is because of the prized horse in his stable. Her name is Indian Blessing, and ever since she was timed in a workout for the first time ever by Bob Baffert, who has been working with Hal and training his horses for over 30 years, everyone knew this horse was indeed a blessing. "Bob (Baffert) called me the first time he worked her out a pretty good distance. As I was talking to him, I thought, 'Okay, this is good,’ and I told Bob that. He said, 'No, Hal, you don’t understand. This is beyond freaky.'" There is no way to overstate just how special a racehorse Indian Blessing is. She absolutely stole the show at the Breeders’ Cup in New Jersey this past fall, running away with the $2 million Juvenile Fillies race and leading wire to wire on a very sloppy track. She has raced three times, and won convincingly every single time. "We felt she was great, but before the Breeders’ Cup race, she had only run in two races. The mud was a concern, she had never run in the mud before. She had never run against so many horses either, there were 13 in the race. A lot of things can happen during the race with 13 horses getting into the gate and getting in position, but she had a great post position in gate 4." Believe us, you haven’t heard the most amazing part of this story, which involves one of the richest families in the world, and a very large, blank check. We’ll get to that soon, but first here’s another interesting nugget about Hal’s horse racing career that is not widely known in the Valley. He is the longest-running client of Baffert, who is a legendary trainer in the industry. Hal and Baffert have worked together for well over three decades. "Bob is as down to earth as we are, and that’s one of the reasons we have worked together so well for as long as we have. When it comes to horses, though, he’s one of the most serious guys I know and has a great passion for the sport. Like me, Bob grew up in a family that raced horses. My approach is, I’m a pretty hands-off owner; I am smart enough to go on what Bob says because he is there and handling things daily. I do hold him responsible for our success, and on the other hand, if we aren’t successful as well. Overall, he pushes all the buttons, and to this point, he’s pushed all the right buttons." Just like the car business involves almost all of Hal’s immediate and extended family in some capacity, it’s the same thing with horse racing. Hal’s wife Patti is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the industry, and Patti has named all the horses the Earnhardts have owned, including Indian Blessing. Of course with Earnhardt Auto’s slogan of "No Bull," Patti has worked Bull into many of their horses names over the years, including No Bull Baby, Talk A Lot Of Bull and Total Bull. Hal and Patti’s children Dodge, Daisy, Derby and Dream all share their parents’ passion for horse racing and go to all the big races, and of course were on hand on that glorious but wet day in November at the Breeders’ Cup when Indian Blessing stole the show. "We’ve named horses after our children, too," Patti added. "It’s not always a good thing to do, I might add, because if we sell one of them or they don’t run well, the kids really miss them." While the ESPN cameras did a great job capturing Indian Blessing’s domination in the Breeders’ Cup race (her jockey Garrett Gomez was the only rider who was not covered in mud because his horse led the whole way), the cameras did not show the incredible drama that had been going on behind the scenes for about 48 hours before and 24 or so after the race that catapulted Indian Blessing into the very ultra elite of thoroughbreds. "Two days out before the race, the son of the Prince of Dubai approached us and wanted to purchase Indian Blessing. These are people that money is no object to, and believe me, what they were offering was crazy money, life-changing money," Hal recalled in the conference room of Earnhardt Ford in Chandler. "The Prince of Dubai no doubt represents the most prolific entity in the horse racing business. They have the means to purchase any horse they covet, and usually do. This whole episode really turned us upside down. It was very stressful. Bob and I and my wife Patti discussed it, and ultimately we turned them down. But then after the race they called again. We run our horse racing operation as a business, so we had to and did seriously consider the offer, but on the other hand, there is something special about Indian Blessing. To this point, we are saying she is not for sale. It did turn us upside down for a while, though, and I thought my wife was going to have a nervous breakdown because it was an unbelievable offer on their part." So Indian Blessing will continue to be owned by the Earnhardts, which is literally like a pro basketball team having Michael Jordan or a baseball team hanging on to Babe Ruth. She’s that special. Next up, Indian Blessing might run in the Kentucky Oaks on Kentucky Derby weekend. It’s a race for three-year-old fillies, and she would enter the race a huge favorite. "We’ve been very fortunate to compete on the highest pinnacle in horse racing, and it’s very difficult to get to that level. I believe there about 54,000 or so thoroughbred horses born each year for racing purposes, so if you cut that in half, half male, half female, for us to have the top horse in the world this year is pretty incredible." Yes, it is. And the Earnhardts are going to enjoy every second of it like they have for many years. "We love it, we definitely love it. As a family, we work hard and we also play hard. We love doing it as an entire family. Our auto dealership has been a family-owned operation since 1951, and we’re going to be involved in both businesses for as long as we’re around." |
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