Mike Gatsas's Derby dream comes true with Vekoma

After more than 20 years owning horses, Mike Gatsas resigned himself to the fact he might never have a horse good enough to run in the Kentucky Derby.

Then, one morning last summer, Gatsas watched an unraced 2-year-old by Candy Ride that he owns in partnership with Randy Hill put in a workout at Saratoga.

“I might have one,” Gatsas thought.

Nine months later, Gatsas will participate in his first Kentucky Derby on Saturday with Vekoma, a winner of three of four career starts, including the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

For Gatsas, 67, just getting to this point has been more fulfilling than he imagined.

“Whatever I thought it was going to be, it’s that times a hundred,” Gatsas said in a recent phone interview. “It’s a dream that everybody in this game wants to achieve. As the years go by and you see your dream might not come true, you just take what God gives you and move on. I loosened up on that thought process last summer.”

Gatsas first got into the sport in 1998, purchasing five horses with his brother Ted. One turned out to be Gander, a New York-bred who would win 15 of 60 starts, six of those stakes, including the Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup, and earn $1.8 million.

By 2000, the Gatsases moved their operation from Finger Lakes to Belmont Park and trainer John Terranova II. Gander, who raced into the summer of his 8-year-old year before being retired, is 23 years old and resides at Stone Bridge Farm in Gansevoort, N.Y.

As Ted Gatsas delved more into politics – he was a four-term mayor of Manchester, N.H. – and out of racing, Mike Gatsas brought his children into the game. Son Matt and daughter Amanda helped start Sovereign Stable, an ownership syndicate. In 2009, Sovereign won the Grade 1 Alcibiades with the 2-year-old filly Negligee.

In between Gander and Negligee, the Gatsas family experienced numerous highs and lows in the game. It won the Grade 2 Forego with Shadow Caster. But it also lost some talented runners to fatal illnesses or injury, such as Sports Town, Who What Win, and Southern Gale.

“Sports Town, that beat us all up,” Gatsas said. “That was an unbelievable horse. That horse could flat-out run. That’s all behind us and here we are now.”

According to Gatsas, Sovereign Stable became too unwieldy and it was dissolved about three years ago so the Gatsas family could concentrate on its own stable. Gatsas’s children still are involved.

Though based in New Hampshire, where it has a payroll services business, the Gatsas family spends the summer at Saratoga. The family’s box at the track is right behind that of Hill. Mike Gatsas and Hill struck up a friendship and about three years ago they agreed to buy horses together. They enjoyed their first win with For Honor, who won a maiden race on Sept. 4, 2016 at Saratoga and returned $49.

On Sept. 11, 2017, Hill and Gatsas spent $135,000 at the Keeneland yearling sales to buy a small son of Candy Ride with, as Hill called it, “a vet issue.”

On Sept. 23, 2018, that colt, Vekoma, won a maiden race at Belmont Park by 1 1/4 lengths. Vekoma displays some awkward action – his left foreleg looks like a paddle when he runs – but that didn’t stop him from winning the Grade 3 Nashua at Aqueduct in his second start.

“I’m glad he swings his leg,” Gatsas said. “I wouldn’t have been able to buy him.”

Said Hill, who is also part-owner of Kentucky Derby starter Tax: “I would rather have a fast horse with a paddling motion than a slow horse with perfect gait.”

As planned, Vekoma didn’t make his 3-year-old debut until the March 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, where he finished third behind Code of Honor. He then beat 13 rivals quite handily in the Blue Grass a month ago at Keeneland.

For most of the last two decades, the Gatsas family has had its horses trained solely by Terranova. Horses the family owns with Hill get split between Terranova and Weaver, based on which owner finds the horse. It was Hill who found Vekoma. It was Gatsas who found Funny Guy, a New York-bred who recently won the $200,000 Times Square division of the New York Stallion Stakes at Aqueduct.

Gatsas said he has developed a good relationship with Weaver and his wife, Cindy – who gallops Vekoma – and he enjoys working with them.

While that relationship is about three years old, his relationship with the Terranovas is more than 20 years old. Gatsas recalled a conversation he had with them after Vekoma won the Blue Grass.

“Here’s what I told John,” Gatsas said. “I said, ‘I’m going to be the luckiest man in racing, because I’m going to go to the Derby twice.’ He says ‘What do you mean?’ I said ‘God would not allow me to leave this Earth without going to the Derby with you.’ ”

As for this Derby, Gatsas believes Vekoma, to be ridden by Javier Castellano, could be overlooked.

“He doesn’t need his own track,” Gatsas said. “He’s run on four different tracks and has three wins and we got Javier to stay. He’s probably somewhat of a longshot, but he’s not a crazy, out-of-the-money longshot. They’re going to have to contend with us.”