SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Mike and Mickala Sisk have made significant inroads in racing since getting into the sport in November 2016. The couple, which competes as M and M Racing, won the Oaklawn Park owners title in April, and through Monday ranked among the leading stables at the Belmont Park spring meet. The Sisks, who reside in the same Flower Mound, Texas, community as noted owners Bill Casner and Matt Bryan, also are racing at their home track of Lone Star Park near Dallas. They won with three of their first five starters at that meet, including a first-time starter who is now bound for a stakes. It’s been a fast start in racing, but the couple is in it for the long haul, both said during a recent interview at their offices in the upscale Texas city of Southlake. “We’re kind of hoping this corporate world we get to kind of retire from, at some point,” said Mike Sisk, a 49-year-old native of Selmer, Tenn. “It would be fun to do horse racing after that because you can do it forever. You see some of these guys, they’re in it 30, 40, 50 years.” “It’s exciting,” Mickala added. “We’ve met a lot of awesome people. It’s just kind of nice learning the whole atmosphere. It just seems like a different way of life.” The Sisks, in addition to real estate holdings, founded the Low T Centers that specialize in testosterone therapy and treatment. The couple now has 54 centers in 11 states. Mickala also founded an offshoot company, HerKare. Cody Autrey, a former trainer, is their racing manager, and their trainers include Robertino Diodoro at Belmont and Karl Broberg at Lone Star. The Sisks have 21 horses in training at Belmont Park, where they will be Saturday to watch Justify bid for the Triple Crown. The couple has another eight horses with Broberg at Lone Star. They also have three broodmares at Amaroo Farm in Lexington, Ky. “We’re committed to the cause,” Mike Sisk said. M and M Racing first turned heads when it captured the Oaklawn title with 21 wins from 100 starts in 2018, beating out perennial leader Danny Caldwell. It was something of a hometown win for the Sisks. For the past 20 years they have vacationed in Hot Springs, Ark., each Memorial Day weekend. A builder who constructed a home for the couple there four years ago, Tim Killian, talked to them about racing. “I’m an adrenaline junkie,” said Mike Sisk, “and Tim said, ‘I’m telling you, there’s nothing more cool than seeing your horse coming down the stretch and winning a race.’ He was spot-on.” Killian put the Sisks in touch with Autrey, who lives in Hot Springs. Ownership was an easy sell, as Sisk had enjoyed watching racing since he was about 5 with his grandmother in Tennessee. He said they would watch a Friday night race from Hollywood Park on the local NBC affiliate as part of a grocery store promotion that awarded coupons based on which horse won. “I learned at a very early age there was a reward for having a fast horse,” Sisk said. He later attended the races at Fair Grounds. “My very first live race I ever went to was at Fair Grounds in New Orleans with my dad, when Tennessee was playing in the Sugar Bowl in 1987,” Mike Sisk said. The Sisks also have attended the Belmont Stakes – a favorite race for Mike Sisk – for the past eight years and were there to see American Pharoah sweep the Triple Crown. This year the couple will be rooting for Justify, and could watch one of their own starters on the same card, as Pete’s Play Call was to be entered in a Saturday allowance at Belmont. They also could have two starters at the track Sunday, and later this year will expand their presence at Saratoga. “I look at the purses up there, and the purses are phenomenal,” Mike Sisk said. “That’s competitive racing. If you can be competitive in that New York environment, it trains you and prepares you to be competitive anywhere.” The Sisks have won three races from eight starts so far this meet at Belmont, and rank in a tie for third in the spring-meet standings. The couple has allowance and claiming horses based at Belmont, and also has a pair of 2-year-olds that came from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales auctions: a colt by Shanghai Bobby, and a filly by Central Banker. The 2-year-olds they have in place at Lone Star include Silver Moon Rising, who is a candidate for the fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity in July. She is with trainer Karl Broberg. Broberg also has a 2-year-old filly by Bind for the couple who topped an auction in April at Lone Star at $140,000. She is scheduled to debut in late June, said Autrey, while another 2-year-old, Shotsoft, who was a $120,000 purchase at the same auction, is set to start his career on Saturday at Lone Star.