Golden Gate Fields: Owner Lebherz finds another side to game

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as Phil Lebherz found out.

But that’s all right with him because weekly lunches at the old Bay Meadows led him to the passion of his life: horse racing.

It’s a passion that has taken root not only as an owner but now as a breeder with his purchase last year of Premier Equine Center in the California central-valley town of Oakdale.

“I would go to Bay Meadows for lunch,” he said of a weekly gathering of friends. “One day, I asked someone how racing worked.”

Lebherz was introduced to trainer Jeff Bonde in 1995. Since then, the two have teamed up to race such runners as Epic Honor, Epic Power, Sway Away, Smiling Tiger, and Eclipse Award winner She’s a Tiger.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Lebherz, 60, who has managed to keep his sense of humor after the ups and downs of almost 20 years in the game. “My sons even gave me a trophy for having the last horse to cross the finish line at Bay Meadows when we ran last in the last race ever run there.”

Lebherz may have fun with racing, but he’s also an astute businessman who notes that he has kept budgetary reins on his purchases with Bonde over the years.

Smiling Tiger, whom Lebherz bought with Alan Klein, was a $40,000 purchase who went on to win three Grade 1 races and finish third in both the 2010 and 2012 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

But Lebherz was not part of the original group that paid $150,000 to purchase Smiling Tiger’s three-quarter sister, She’s a Tiger, although he quickly bought in after her sensational debut last summer at Pleasanton.

The Premier Equine Center is another example of Lebherz seeking value.

“The real estate market still hadn’t come back, and this facility was nicely set up,” Lebherz said.

It is a multipurpose facility that includes a state-of-the-art rehabilitation facility run by Pat Grohl. Under Lebherz, Premier has nearly doubled in size from 40 to 70 acres, and Lebherz is working on adding 40 more acres.

Graham Bell, who had worked at both Calumet and Adena Springs farms, was brought in from Florida to serve as the farm manager. Bell and Mersad Metanovic, the bloodstock agent who found both Smiling Tiger and She’s a Tiger, have worked together to bring Smiling Tiger an impressive list of mares for his first season at stud.

After winning his debut at Golden Gate Fields, Smiling Tiger raced 22 more times, all in stakes. He raced from ages 2 through 5 and won a stakes each year.

The first mare he covered, poetically enough on Valentine’s Day, was Erica’s Smile, who is in foal. Erica’s Smile, owned by Lebherz, longtime friend and partner Rich Meister, and Hajji Farm, was a multiple stakes winner who hit the board in all 11 of her starts, including in Grade 1 and Grade 3 races.

Also standing at Premier is Sierra Sunset, a multiple stakes-winning son of Bertrando who won the Grade 2 Rebel, and Twice the Appeal, the winner of the Grade 3 Sunland Derby.