Got Koko Makes History
January 10th, 2003by Jude T. Feld
Texas breeder Eileen Hartis, always on the lookout to improve her broodmare band, took a liking to mare in foal to Signal Tap that Fred Seitz had consigned for Rojan Mack Farms in the 1998 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale.
“I try to buy mares who are conformationally excellent and then plan the matings physically,” says Hartis. “I spend a lot of time looking at the new stallions, even though I can’t breed in the upper tier.”
Little did she know that the foal that Baby North was carrying would make so much history.
Got Koko and Alex Solis
Benoit Photo
Trainer Bruce Headley is a paradox. His barn can best be described as “no frills,” quite a contrast from the well-manicured lawn and white wrought-iron settees of long-time neighbor D. Wayne Lukas.
His Santa Anita office is wall-to-wall winners’ circle photos and an old, beat-up desk, but Headley’s home in Arcadia is symphony of fine art, bronzes, paintings and antiques and in the garden, his amazing cactus collection makes the neighboring Los Angeles County Arboretum green with envy.
If you see him galloping his horses in the morning, he looks like a well-worn racetracker, past his prime and down on his luck. No Ralph Lauren here, most days, Headley sports a moth-eaten, v-necked sweater covering a thin, white, v-necked undershirt and an ancient helmet that he hates to wear.
Headley cleans up well however and in the afternoon at Santa Anita you might mistake him for Robert Redford, resplendent in a seersucker sportcoat, the suntanned face of a successful Californian, his crystal blue eyes shrouded from the brilliant sun by a pair of expensive Oakleys.
Needing every bit of his vision, the sunglasses come off in September at Keeneland, where Headley and his sidekick, trainer Richard Matlow, hang out in the back searching for the right yearling to catch their eye – those bargain purchases that have made millions of dollars in purse money.
Headley lets the big boys fight over the horses in Book One and Book Two, he starts warming up in Book Three and is in full swing by Book Four. At Keeneland’s 2000 September Yearling Sale he was perusing the yearlings in Book Six when hip number 3655, consigned by Denali Stud as agent for Mrs. Hartis, drew his attention.
“She had a great top line,” Headley said. “Years of experience have taught me how important that is. She was a good mover with a deep girth. I loved her long graceful neck and her great head.”
“Down below, she was very correct,” he continued. “Flat knees, good feet and a lot of bone. Everything I like to see. And, she was in my price range.”
The winning bidder at $30,000, he sent her to 505 Farm in Lexington, Kentucky to mature. Headley shipped the filly, now named Got Koko (an island expression referring to possessing native Hawaiian blood), to California in March of her two-year-old year and broke her at his backyard farm in Arcadia, eight furlongs from Santa Anita.
Unraced at two, she broke her maiden in her second start at three and won a conditioned allowance in her fourth trip to the post.
The pride of Eileen Hartis’ Texas breeding operation really began to blossom during the summer at Del Mar, running third in the Sandy Blue Stakes and then winning the Torrey Pines, her first race in blinkers.
“The blinkers turned her into a business woman,” Headley shared.
Freshened after a horrid trip on the lawn at Oak Tree, Got Koko posted a 17-1 upset in the La Brea (G1) opening week of Santa Anita. That victory allowed her to join the elite company of Groovy and Two Altazano as the only Texas-breds to win a Grade 1 race, cementing her as Champion Three-Year-Old Filly bred in the Lone Star State.
“Bruce and I have always thought she was a Grade 1 filly,” jockey Alex Solis said in the La Brea winners’ circle. “She proved it today.”
Wheeled back 22 days later in the El Encino (G2), Got Koko got the candy again, despite another horrible trip.
“This is the first horse that I’ve ever run that was maybe six-wide on the first turn and four or five wide on the next turn, that kicked in the stretch,” Headley stated post-race. “Usually bad racing luck finishes you, but it was a powerful race today, probably one of the best races (performances) I ever trained, because their was no luck whatsoever, just determination.”
Only two other fillies have swept the La Canada series in Santa Anita’s sixty-year history. Taisez Vous trained by the late Bob Wheeler and Mitterand trained by Randy Winick, so when Got Koko nailed Sightseek on the wire in the La Canada (G2), the importance of this achievement was not lost on Headley.
“It’s quite a moment,” he said. “I’m very proud and I really love this filly. I knew it was going to be a duel in the sun and it really was. (But) Got Koko is Got Koko, so we’re proud to make history. To set history at Santa Anita is really something special for my wife and my family and my partners. We’re all extremely happy.”
Got Koko earned $120,000 for her La Canada (G2) victory. She races for Aase Headley (Bruce’s wife, pronounced “o-suh”) and Jerry Leung and has now has amassed a bankroll of $453,946 making her one of the greatest Keeneland bargains of all time.
