Harness: It takes a village at Diamond Creek

No group of people graced the stage at the Rosen Centre hotel in Orlando, Florida for the Dan Patch Awards banquet on February 25 more than Diamond Creek Farm. Owner Adam Bowden did some of the talking but ceded the stage to many others in his group with the exception of Racing Manager Marcus Johansson.

"I gave everyone the opportunity to speak but he declined," said Bowden, who glowingly spoke of Johansson's contribution to the team while on stage and afterward when we caught up to him. "I think Marcus is what got us over the top. I think we were close and he was the missing piece. He's the difference between Horse of the Year and not Horse of the Year. I truly believe that."

The general public sees Bowden accepting a trophy in the winner's circle, but there are so many people standing next to him or watching from back in the office or on the farm which help make the Diamond Creek machine run smoothly and produce champions like in 2023. Whether it is Horse of the Year Confederate or the number of other prospects on the racing end which helped to make Diamond Creek the Owner and Breeder of the Year.

Diamond Creek Farm Vice President Shaun Laungani was the last to speak for the group and outlined how many people inside and outside of the organization play a role in the ultimate success story.

"Tonight, on behalf of Diamond Creek, we thank anyone whoever touched, groomed, shipped, walked, jogged, trained, paddocked, drove, bathed, fed, watered, foaled or bred our horses over the years, as well as the farm's employees, vendors, friends, family, fans and USHWA for all the support," said Laungani.

While Johansson refused the spotlight on the stage, he wasn't so lucky afterward when I cornered him to ask about the praise sent his way from Bowden and whether he deserved the credit.

"I don't know how to describe it. I was hired to do a job and I just did it," said Johansson. "When he hired me, he didn't know what the job was going to look like and I didn't know what the job would look like. It took us a little while to get comfortable with each other; what he was supposed to do, what I was supposed to do, and how we needed to approach everything. The end result was Horse of the Year and a fantastic overall year. I think we are starting to figure it out. There are more things to learn but we are going to get there."

Perhaps the most telling statistic from 2023 for Diamond Creek is that horses owned by its racing division earned $22,184 per start ($4.636,532 / 209 starts), far exceeding every owner in the sport who accumulated more gross earnings. By comparison, Burke Racing Stable LLC. led everyone with just shy of $23 million earned and per start totals of $5,124. Of the owners with more than $3 million earned in 2023, only the stable of Trainer of the Year Ake Svanstedt came close to Diamond Creek with a $20,412 per starter return on investment.

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Confederate led the way for Diamond Creek with over $1.6 million and was joined by Tattoo Artist ($767K), Cannibal ($661K) and Charleston ($436K) at the top of the earnings leaderboard. That doesn't even include Diamond Creek co-owned Allywag Hanover, who earned nearly $600K but doesn't show up under an ownership search because he is listed under Allywag Stable. While the magical year of 2023 is far back in the rearview mirror now and the only thing that really matters is the future, repeating the accomplishments of last year seem inconceivable...but not impossible.

"Yes, 100%. In 2024, I don't know that, but definitely in the future," said Bowden when asked about an encore performance from Diamond Creek. "We celebrated at the end of last year and we are already making plans for the future. [February 25] was a continued celebration from last year, but we are already putting things in place for three, four, five years down the road. I think it just makes us hungry to do it again."

Johansson will of course be at the forefront of making sure the racing prospects for Diamond Creek produce at a high level and he spoke to some of the horses he hopes will be deserving of headlines in the months to follow.

"We have some interesting 2-year-olds in the barn and actually have two 3-year-old trotters – which is more unfamiliar to us – coming back in training with Nancy Takter. I believe they could do some damage this year," said Johansson. "We also have an unraced 3-year-old Always B Miki pacing filly that I hope can show what we believe she was before she got hurt last year. So, we have some horses that can do some good, but time will tell."

The Diamond Creek horses tend to be easy to identify in today's racing environment since they have adopted a letter system by year. The 2023 3-year-old crop were the "C" collection and this year's sophomores have the "D" designation. Horses like Dozen, Direction, Design and Doctrine could be heard from, as could some "E" horses yet to hit the track from the 2-year-old class.

Johansson isn't sure what the future will bring but he's looking forward to continuing the successful relationship with Diamond Creek.

"I will continue to watch a lot of races and hopefully we can create more great racehorses,"said Johansson. "I want to come back [to the Dan Patch Awards banquet], hopefully next year, and pick up more hardware."