At long last, Kona Gold, the Headley family's finest, enters Hall of Fame
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DEL MAR, Calif. – At the end of a quiet morning at Santa Anita in the late 2000s, Bruce Headley, the legendary California trainer, helped his young grandson Berkeley clamber aboard Kona Gold, the retired champion sprinter turned stable pony.
Bruce Headley climbed on the retired stakes winner Son of a Pistol. Headley and his grandson proceeded to take their mounts on a leisurely lap around the infield training track.
“I was five or six years old,” Berkeley Headley recalled last weekend. “It was right before the training track closed. I jogged around the training track.”
There are not many people like the 24-year-old Berkeley Headley who can say their first ride at Santa Anita was aboard a champion, even if he was too young to legally ride on the racetrack.
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Kona Gold, the outstanding sprinter of 2000, won 14 of 30 starts and earned more than $2.2 million. On Friday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Kona Gold will be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Berkeley Headley, representing the family, will deliver the speech.
“I want to talk about how great my grandfather was to make him such a great horse,” Berkeley Headley said.
A gelding, Kona Gold raced from 1998 to 2003. Berkeley Headley’s earliest memories of Kona Gold are the years after his racing days. Bruce, who died in 2021, and Berkeley’s mother, Karen, a trainer in California, filled in the backstory. There was plenty of it.
Kona Gold won 11 stakes, including the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs over the brilliant filly Honest Lady. Racing as a 6-year-old that season, Kona Gold had a near-perfect year, winning 5 of 6 starts, with all of the wins in graded stakes.
Kona Gold was beaten a nose by Son of a Pistol in the Grade 2 San Carlos Handicap at Santa Anita in his only loss that year. Kona Gold carried 122 pounds, five more than Son of a Pistol.
Kona Gold appeared in five consecutive runnings of the BC Sprint, finishing third in 1998 at Churchill, second at Gulfstream Park in 1999, seventh at Belmont Park in 2001, and fourth at Arlington Park in 2002.
In 2003 at age 9, Kona Gold won his first start of the year in the Grade 3 El Conejo Handicap on Jan. 1. He was beaten in his next three races, including the Grade 2 Bing Crosby Handicap at Del Mar that July in his final start.
Kona Gold did not begin racing until he was 4 and never had more than six starts in a season. Bruce Headley arranged Kona Gold’s race schedule well in advance.
“That’s what he would do, everything was planned out,” Karen Headley said. “Kona Gold was exactly Bruce Headley.”
After years as a stable pony, Kona Gold later resided at the Kentucky Horse Park, where he died in 2009 at age 15. Bruce Headley died in 2021 at 86.
Kona Gold was on the Hall of Fame ballot for a ninth time this year. To gain induction, he needed at least 50 percent, plus one additional vote.
“I’m so happy that everybody pushed for him,” Karen Headley said. “I’m grateful for that.”
During his racing days, Kona Gold would periodically have a rest at the Headley home, not far from Santa Anita. The property is in a residential neighborhood, but has an expansive backyard that can accommodate several horses.
After morning training, Bruce Headley would often retreat home and spend midday with his horses.
“He’d give him a month off and let him run around our backyard,” Berkeley Headley said.
The Headley family co-owned Kona Gold with Andrew and Irwin Molasky.
“My grandfather loved that horse,” Berkeley Headley said. “It was part of him.”
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