Kentucky Derby: Bernhards lift off with Geaux Rocket Ride

Best birthday gift ever? The 2021 yearling that Jim Bernhard purchased for Dana Bernhard ranks near the top. “My wife always gives me great birthday presents . . . the first Thoroughbred I decided to buy was a horse for her birthday at the July sale,” Bernhard recalled this week.

Geaux Rocket Ride scored an impressive debut victory in January at Santa Anita, ran second in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, and on Saturday is a top contender in the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. It’s a splashy start to a career, fitting for owners also making a splash. Since the initial $350,000 purchase of Geaux Rocket Ride, by Candy Ride, Jim and Dana Bernhard purchased a farm in Kentucky, the famed Pin Oak Stud of the late Josephine Abercrombie, and dozens of racing and breeding prospects.

Dana “has been involved with horses since she was 8 years old,” Bernhard said. “Thoroughbreds seemed like a lot of fun, and now we have 57.”

Although the odds were against their first horse becoming a Derby prospect, there was more to finding the colt than random fortune.

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“I don’t think it was luck,” Bernhard said, laughing. “I didn’t say we didn’t do any research.”

Bernhard, founder of Baton Rouge private equity firm Bernhard Capital Partners, will be at Santa Anita on Saturday with Dana and friends to see if Geaux Rocket Ride can earn a berth in the Kentucky Derby. The two-start colt is trained by Richard Mandella; Flavien Prat is his rider.

What are Santa Anita Derby expectations for Geaux Rocket Ride? Bernhard reiterated words from his trainer: “As Mandella said, all systems are ‘geaux,’ with astronaut Prat on board.”

Promising namesake

It is a risk to name a racehorse after someone special. Not all horses pan out. CRK Stable owners Lee and Susan Searing rolled the dice anyway with a pair of well-bred foals of 2020, including an Uncle Mo named after Lee’s grandfather, Sully. The colt had a chip removed; he will return later this year.

Another colt could make his name known Saturday in the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. Skinner is a John Shirreffs-trained, graded stakes-placed son of Curlin training as if he will improve from his third-place finish in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes.

Skinner is named for Don Skinner, a man Lee Searing met in 1956. “He worked for my father, and turned out to be the one of the best salesmen in my industry, which is steel products,” Searing said. Skinner, 86, retired from Searing Industries five years ago and remains a friend.

“Don had the personality for a perfect salesman, so many stories. He’s retired, he still has all his faculties, and will be there for the Santa Anita Derby,” said Searing, 73. “That will be an unforgettable experience.”

More so if Skinner the horse pulls off the upset.

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