Fun, Family, and Friends
January 5th, 2002by Jude T. Feld
Summer Wind Dancer Wins!
Benoit Photo
Like so many people in Thoroughbred racing, Richard Wira was introduced to the sport by his father, who loved going to the track. It didn’t take long for the son to become a huge fan.
“When I was a kid, I spent every birthday at River Downs,” Wira said. “After the races we’d go have ribs at a place called ‘The Barn.’ It was in an alley someplace in Cincinnati. They served the best ribs I have ever had. That was my birthday present every year.”
After spending some time in the military, the Ohio native settled in Southern California, where he introduced his wife Yvette to the spectacle and thrills of racing.
“Richard would take the kids and me to Del Mar during summer vacation,” Yvette shared. “They would pick out the prettiest horse or the jockey whose silks they liked and we would bet for them. They always picked more winners that way than we did out of the Racing Form.”
The Wira’s began to invest in Thoroughbred partnerships in the early nineties to increase their family’s involvement.
“We really wanted a way to help keep our family together,” Richard stated. “Our daughter Wendy was about 14 at the time. For us racing has always been about the three Fs – Fun, Family and Friends.”
One of the horses that the Wira’s owned in partnership was a filly named Native Wind Dancer.
“She was a big, strong-willed, two-year-old with great potential,” Richard said. “She ran five times, with a win, two seconds and a third.”
Most good racing stories contain a bit of serendipity and this one is no exception.
The Wira Family and Friends
Benoit Photo
“Unfortunately, she was injured while training,” he continued. “Yvette and I had such high hopes for her. We decided to buy our partners out when the filly was retired and get in the breeding business. It was one of our better decisions.”
“Yvette works very hard at selecting the stallions that we breed to,” Richard said. “She is a great student of pedigrees and she also uses the Werk Nick Ratings and Analysis. After doing her research, she picked Siberian Summer to breed to Native Wind Dancer.”
The resulting foal was to give the Wira’s more fun with family and friends than they ever thought imaginable.
“She was a favorite of mine even when she was a weanling,” Yvette stated. “She has always had an affinity for people. She figured out early-on that the people were the ones with the carrots.”
After taking her early lessons from trainer Kellyn Gorder at 505 Farm, a few furlongs from the Wira’s historic Valley View Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, the aptly-named Summer Wind Dancer was shipped to the West Coast barn of trainer Jenine Sahadi, almost ready to run.
“Jenine had trained an Ohio-bred named Impatient that we had owned,” Richard said. “That filly won the The Best of Ohio and became the Champion Three-Year-Old Ohio-bred Filly, so naturally we wanted to send Summer Wind Dancer to her. Jenine is a great communicator. She calls Yvette every day to tell her about our horses. We really appreciate that.”
Summer Wind Dancer made her racing debut early in the Del Mar meeting, in a Maiden Special Weight race going five and one-half furlongs. The pretty gray filly, although overlooked in the wagering, coasted to an easy victory, paying $20.00.
“As an owner and a breeder, you always dream to have a good one,” Richard said. “But we have learned to take it one race at a time.”
A month after her maiden voyage, Summer Wind Dancer was entered back at Del Mar in the six furlong Generous Portion Stakes. Despite a trouble-filled trip, she managed to finish a game third, the only loss of her career.
In her next outing, the shrewd Santa Anita fans made the pride of the Wira’s odds-on to win the seven furlong Cover Gal Stakes, during the opening week of the Oak Tree meeting, and saw their choice post a sharp win, stopping the teletimer in an eye-catching 1:22 4/5.
“Our goal when we started to breed in California was to run a horse on Cal Cup Day,” Richard shared. “So we were thrilled when Jenine entered Summer Wind Dancer in the Juvenile Fillies.”
Her first time going two-turns, Summer Wind Dancer ran her usual race, cruising along off the pace early-on, picking it up around the turn for home and pouring it on in the drive to garner her third victory in four starts.
“When you raise young horses,” Yvette said. “They are kind of like your kids. You feel such a sense of fulfillment when they reach their potential. When they win, I never even think about the purse money. I just feel so good for them.”
“It was amazing,” Richard said of winning the Cal Cup Juvenile Fillies. “When I look back to her first race, there were just a few of us there. But at the Cal Cup, we probably had fifty people come to the races and share the experience with us.”
“That night,” he continued. “We had at least another twenty phone calls. I was so exhausted, I finally decided to unplug the phone at 11:30, but like I said before, Fun, Family and Friends – that’s why we do it.”
