A Very Special Life
January 21st, 2002by Buck Jackson
All Smiles After Lone Star Sky Takes The Cradle Stakes
Pat Lang Photo
Buddy New was playing baseball for the University of Texas in 1959 when he met classmate Bill Heiligbrodt, a Longhorn football player. The two athletes became associates in the banking business after graduation and are friends for life. In 1988, the men purchased five thoroughbreds with partner Ted Keifer at a Texas yearling sale. It was the start of something big.
One of those five yearlings, Appealing Breeze, won six of his eight starts at two, including the 1989 edition of the Jean Lafitte Stakes at Delta Downs, New’s first stakes win.
“The race lasted 48 seconds,” New said. “But we talked about it for six hours on the ride home.”
Appealing Breeze parlayed his Jean Lafitte victory to a WHAS Stakes win on the day of the great Sunday Silence’s Kentucky Derby victory.
“We’ve had our fair share of nice horses,” New stated. “We’ve even been able to run in the Derby twice, in 1994 with Southern Rhythm and in 1996 with Blow Out, but Appealing Breeze probably gave me the most pleasure. He won eight stakes in 14 starts. It was really fun.”
Being a collegiate athlete, New loves competition and now finds it in Thoroughbred racing.
“Your horse almost becomes an extension of your family,” he says. “It’s great to watch the young horses develop and then go to the races. It’s like watching your son or daughter compete in sports. It’s an unbelieveable feeeling. You want them to do well.”
The best horse to sport New’s Longhorn burnt orange and white colors was multiple stakes-winner Forty One Carats. The versatile son of Tactical Advantage set a six-furlong track record of 1:08 2/5 at Calder Race Course in the Smile Sprint Stakes and ran a record-breaking 1:45 2/5 capturing the mile and one-eighth Pegasus Handicap (G2) at Meadowlands.
“We also won the Indiana Derby with him,” New said. “He was an exciting horse. If he hadn’t had so many feet problems, I think he would have been one of the all-time best.”
New shares almost everyone in Thoroughbred racing’s ultimate goal of winning the Triple Crown and his recent Miller Genuine Draft Cradle Stakes winner Lone Star Sky might just be the horse to do it.
Lone Star Sky stylishly won his debut at Arlington Park in June and made a successful jump to stakes company, taking the Bashford Manor (G3) at Churchill Downs in July, beating Bill Heiligbrodt’s well-regarded Posse. His August start came in New York, where the son of Conquistador Cielo finished second in the Saratoga Special (G2) after a troubled trip.
The Cradle Stakes made it four starts at four different racetracks in four different states, but all that traveling didn’t bother the colt named for the great state of Texas. Racing in the coral and green colors of New’s wife, Sandy, Lone Star Sky sat just off the early pace under jockey Mark Guidry and scampered away from the field in the stretch, posting his first victory around two turns.
“He’s the real deal,” New said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do. Tom Amoss has done a great job with him and he really likes him. If everything goes as planned, we’ll be back at Arlington for the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).”
“My wife and I were at a wedding,” New continued. “So we didn’t make it to River Downs for the Cradle, but my daughter and her family were there to get the trophy from my old friend Jack Hanessian, who is the general manager of River Downs. Jack’s wife was a very kind hostess to my grandaughter. Our family had a wonderful day!”
“Sandy always says that it is fun to run horses, but it’s better when your horse wins,” he continued. “We’ve had a lot of luck in racing and made some great friends. We have a very special life.”
