11/5/2023 0 Comments Golden farms super market![]() Racing from 1990 to 1996, Best Pal won 18 of 47 starts, including some of the premier races in California-the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Santa Anita Handicap and the 1991 Pacific Classic at Del Mar, a $1-million race that Mabee had just installed at his own track. It was estimated that he would have brought no more than $10,000 at auction, so Mabee kept him and had him castrated, which meant that he could not earn high stud fees. But Best Pal, not regally bred, was given little chance before he raced. Mabee’s best horse, Best Pal, won three $1-million races and earned $5.6 million, the second-highest total for a California-bred. It takes 12 years to become a doctor, and it took 12 years or more to learn the horse business.” “People think it’s a sport,” Mabee once said, “but if you’re going to breed and race, it’s like becoming a doctor. In 1998, horses he bred earned a leading $8.2 million. He won Eclipse awards, racing’s highest honors, for breeding in 1991, ’97 and ’98. In 1992, Mabee led all North American breeders with purses of $7 million, and he also won the owners’ title with earnings of $5.4 million. ![]() Mabee’s own runners won 60 races and earned $2.1 million. Golden Eagle-bred horses won 206 races last year and earned $5 million, which ranked seventh nationally. Mabee bought shares in top Kentucky stallions, breeding his mares to the likes of Nijinsky II, Secretariat, Mr. Golden Eagle Farm gave California horse breeding a national presence in a business traditionally dominated by Kentucky horsemen. “No one man has had more involvement in racing in California, or has done more for Del Mar in particular than John,” said Joe Harper, president of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.
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