Brash 'Mattress Mac' and trainer Baffert

[Harry]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...gvale.7c36.html

Brash 'Mattress Mac' and trainer Baffert form a winning combination

Racing's strange bedfellows

01:53 AM CST on Thursday, April 1, 2004

By GARY WEST / The Dallas Morning News

When James McIngvale jumped with characteristic enthusiasm into horse racing's deep end, the resulting splash soaked the environs. And, even worse, swimming proved difficult.

But that was eight years and more than $20 million ago. That was also before he met trainer Bob Baffert. And Saturday, McIngvale and Baffert will send out Wimbledon as one of the favorites in the Santa Anita Derby. It could be the most telling prep of the Triple Crown season.

Less than a year ago, however, McIngvale contemplated a retreat from horse racing – not an all-out, run-for-cover retreat, which would have been totally out of character for the Houston businessman, but a meaningful scaling back. After all, he had only some tchotchke to show for all the millions he had invested in the sport, and the disappointments had overwhelmed the joys

Here was a guy who lived by the sort of inspirational slogans often found in locker rooms – such as, "Never give up," and "Don't look back" and "If it's to be, it's up to me." In fact, he once named a horse Ifitstobeitsuptome. Moving to Houston in 1980, the Dallas native and former UNT football player started selling furniture out of a tent. And by the force of his unbridled exuberance, "Mattress Mac," as he became known, had built Gallery Furniture into one of the most successful furniture stores in the country. But horse racing had beaten him – or at least had taken the opening rounds convincingly.

Then last July, McIngvale's During won the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park. That gave him, he said, an indication that with Baffert as his trainer he finally was headed in the right direction. Like a man with a mission, which indeed he had, McIngvale began buying racehorses in 1996. He bought promising racing prospects with purplish pedigrees, the sort of young horses that could develop into classic contenders, and he never hesitated to whip out his checkbook.

Mishaps galore

In 1998, with Nick Zito as his trainer, McIngvale seemed poised to make a run at major stakes races. But an avalanche of injuries crushed expectations. Laydown, one of his cheaper purchases at $29,000, won the Lord Avie Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Florida but tore a suspensory ligament. Super Special, Treasury, Lady's Choice and A.P. Ruler all injured themselves either in races or training mishaps.

St. Michael, purchased for $85,000, dominated in a maiden victory and seemed to be McIngvale's most promising prospect. But then St. Michael chipped an ankle in a workout at Gulfstream, and a month later, he died.

McIngvale had heard unflattering reports about the Gulfstream surface and reluctantly had agreed to have his horses there, The injuries only convinced him to get out of Florida. He took his horses away from Zito and shipped them to Kentucky. Zito and McIngvale still speak highly of each other. "We just didn't have any luck," Zito said.

The trainers and the scenery changed, but McIngvale's luck didn't. Accelerated Time injured a knee in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, and Sorceror broke down fatally in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

Over the next two years, he employed at least seven different trainers, including Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg. At one point, McIngvale turned his horses over to Leonard Atkinson, a former night watchman, and then to his sister-in-law, Laura Wohlers.

Crusader, too

And when he wasn't reeling from bad luck's body shots, McIngvale was butting heads with the sport's status quo. Through all the turbulence, he railed against unsafe racing conditions. He so valued the safety and care of his horses that he renovated a barn at the Kentucky Thoroughbred Center and had classical music piped in so they might better relax. Criticizing trainers generally, he said their priorities were awry. He argued that racing, a traditionally masculine world, needed to involve more women. He even pulled his sponsorship of a stakes race at Sam Houston when the track wouldn't agree to require female jockeys for all the entrants.

Although much of his criticism may have had merit and many of his ideas value, McIngvale gained a reputation as a wild man, too undomesticated for champagne sipping at Saratoga, too outspoken for a seat in the Jockey Club. And then, through J.B. and Kevin McKathan, McIngvale met somebody who could almost match him for flamboyance: Baffert.

The McKathan brothers, who operate a training center in Ocala, Fla., have enjoyed considerable success over the years finding and purchasing prospects. Although the McKathans have had many clients, they work most closely with Baffert. In 1996, they discovered Silver Charm, and the next year Baffert guided the gray colt through a championship campaign that included victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

Nearly four years ago, J.B. McKathan spotted McIngvale at a sale in Florida. Knowing the wild-man reputation, McKathan was reluctant, he recalled, to approach "Mattress Mac." But finally, he stepped up to the owner and said, "What the hell are you doing?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," McIngvale said, and soon they had a business relationship, an agreement for buying prospects that Baffert would train.

The right choice

Although reluctant to look back, McIngvale said he made many mistakes when he first jumped into the sport's deep end. It was a mistake, he said, to try to do so much himself – pick out horses, advise trainers. As for the inconstant relationship with trainers, McIngvale simply said he was slow to find the right one.

"I went in way over my head," he said. "But it looks good now. I just leaving the training to Bob."

During followed his success in the Swaps with victories in the Jerome, the Discovery and the San Fernando. Several of McIngvale's younger prospects also began to show promise. But before Wimbledon ever ran, and even after he ran a few times and lost, Baffert insisted that this long-striding gray colt was going to be McIngvale's best, maybe even his Derby horse.

The McKathans found Wimbledon, a son of Wild Rush, at a sale of 2-year-olds last year. They sent Baffert a video of the horse's workout, and they all agreed to pursue his purchase aggressively.

"He's a real big horse and has a long stride; it just took him a while to develop and get it all together," Baffert said.

Wimbledon, so named because of McIngvale's enthusiasm for tennis, disappointed as the favorite in his first four races. But then he won a maiden race by eight lengths at Santa Anita. Then he traveled to Fair Grounds in New Orleans for the Louisiana Derby, where he rallied from eighth and finished powerfully to win by more than two lengths.

"When a horse wins like that, you have a Derby horse," Baffert said. "Wimbledon can get it done. He's the perfect Derby horse. He's push button, and when you push the button, he'll get you where you're going."

Baffert, who has trained three Kentucky Derby winners, said he never worried about McIngvale's wild-man reputation. Nor, he said, has he seen any evidence that it was deserved.

"Mac's patient, and he's never shied away," Baffert said. "Maybe he can be brash, but some people think I'm brash, so it never bothered me. He's a workaholic with high standards, and horse racing is his excitement."

Baffert said McIngvale is, in fact, easy to work for. After all, they share a goal and a passion to win major stakes races, and no stable managers or farm managers are involved to intervene.

They could be quite a spectacle in Kentucky – Baffert, his white hair rippling in the breeze, handing out quips as though they're business cards; McIngvale, his Wimbledon cap proclaiming his allegiance, bubbling with such exuberance that he seems about to combust. And for McIngvale, being at the Derby will be all the more rewarding because he has invested so much in the journey and waited so long to arrive.

E-mail gwest@dallasnews.com

[CMJ]

I actually follow Horseracing pretty close. I thought about mentioning Wimbeldon in a thread a few weeks ago when he won the LA Derby. There's a good chance Mac will win the Kentucky Derby with this horse. He's pretty impressive.

[Harry]

I liked the "former UNT football player" reference...anyone have a clue as to how much Mac could win if his horse wins the Kentucky Derby?

[CMJ]

I liked the "former UNT football player" reference...anyone have a clue as to how much Mac could win if his horse wins the Kentucky Derby?

I believe the purse for the Derby is a million bucks. Of course the trainer and jockey get 10% each for their trouble should Wimbeldon win. Some tuneups have bonuses attached to the Derby - say the same horse wins the Florida and Kentucky Derby's a bonus goes to the connections.

Not all of these precursors have such bonuses but some do. On the same token...if a horse wins the Triple Crown, Visa awards a huge amount to the connections. I'd sure like a TC winner sometime soon...hasn't been one in my lifetime.