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Lookatme Afleet races to the Winner's Circle at Tampa Bay Downs. Owner Pete Mattson, CEO of distributorship MHC Companies, Burnsville, Minn., breeds and trains thoroughbreds in Minnesota and Ocala, Fla. [Inset] Sharp Country and her filly enjoy grazing in open pasture.
At Canterbury Park, Shakopee, Minn., novices see thoroughbreds run as fast as possible around a track during each race. Pete Mattson’s practiced eye looks for something more. The CEO of distributorship MHC Companies, Burnsville, Minn., observes how each horse handles the “traffic,” being surrounded by so many horses bumping into each other and jostling for position. He also looks to see which horses have a kick at the end. “The more you watch, the more you pick up things,” he says. “If two or three horses are dueling on the front end, they’re all going to fail. Chances are that someone’s going to pass them from the back.”
Mattson likes to bet on horses, but like many racing aficionados, that wasn’t enough. So he and two partners bought a horse together a decade ago. Now Mattson owns all or part of 20 thoroughbreds, which he races and breeds. He raises and trains them in Minnesota, and Ocala, Fla.
The competition and the challenge to succeed in the industry drive Mattson. “It seems simple, but it’s not,” he says. “It’s a challenge to get good, get better horses, win races and be profitable.” Trainers enter horses in races according to their ability, hoping to match them against competition where they’ll thrive. “You’ve probably had them in training for six to nine months before their first race, so you know what their talents are going to be,” says Mattson. “Once you start running them, you let them find their level.”
The horses race on dirt or grass tracks. Mattson generally finds races on grass more exciting because they feature tighter turns and rely more on the jockeys’ skills. Also, the pace tends to be slower at the start, so it’s more likely that positions will change, even at the end. “Somehow the horses are able to conserve their energy a lot better on grass, so they have more spurts at the end,” he says.
Mattson’s favorite place to watch horses race is Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “It has a lot of tradition,” he says. “All the good trainers are there, lots of good horses, and races with a lot of history.”
The racing industry isn’t easy to navigate. It requires a substantial investment of time and money. “They say the way to make $1 million in horse racing is to start with $10 million,” Mattson says. When he got involved in horse racing, he adhered to the same philosophies that make his distributorship successful. “Deal with people who are honest,” he says. “If you try to cut corners and deal with the wrong people, you’re going to get your clocked cleaned. Long term, the successful people in the business have good ethics and work with good people, just like any other business.”
Mattson starts with good trainers, because they attract the best jockeys. Most jockeys have agents, Mattson says, whose goal is to pair them with the fastest horses. All the jockeys are paid the same per race, plus a percentage of any winning purse, so they have an incentive to win. Sometimes a jockey will ride a trainer’s slower horses for the chance to ride his faster ones, but generally it’s difficult for new jockeys to break in. “The best jockeys get the best horses, and they stay the best jockeys because they’re on the best horses,” says Mattson. “A good jockey can’t win a race on a slow horse.”
When he’s not racing horses, Mattson often is buying and selling them. He helps run an auction in Minnesota that draws between 200 and 300 people, and horses sell for an average $8,000. That’s nothing compared to other auctions, Mattson says. He attended a four-day auction in Ocala where 750 horses were sold for an average $34,000. “Many sold for several hundred thousand dollars,” he says. “It’s pick your poison as far as how much they cost. Generally speaking, you’re going to spend $10,000 to $20,000 to have a chance at horses that can run.” He notes that the least expensive horse in the Kentucky Derby probably cost $60,000 and the highest more than $1 million.
One perk of owning horses is that you get to name them. Usually the names are derivatives from the foal’s parents. For example, one of his horses, “Willy Wompus” was the son of a mare named Kitty Wompus. He named another horse “Last Wompus” after the mare died. Other methods are less methodical. Mattson named one horse “Document Express” after MHC Companies’ software package. “You name them after your wife or your grandkids or whatever,” he says. “People have all sorts of ways. One guy in California names them after his favorite bars.”
—Andy Brown