Stronach buys Einstein from Midnight Cry

DEL MAR, Calif. - Einstein, the second choice on the morning line in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on Sunday at Del Mar, has been purchased by Frank Stronach and will race in his colors for the first time in the Pacific Classic, Stronach's business manager, Mike Rogers, said Thursday.

"The deal was finalized on Monday," Rogers via telephone from Ontario, Canada, where Stronach is based. "We're excited to have a horse of this caliber."

Rogers said future plans for Einstein, including when he will begin stud duty at Stronach's Adena Springs Farm, are to be determined.

"We wanted to wait on announcing any long-term plans," Rogers said. "Right now, the only thing that's been decided is that he's running on Sunday in the Pacific Classic. Ironically, that's Mr. Stronach's birthday, too. But he won't be at the race. He's in Austria."

Einstein had been owned by the Midnight Cry Stable of attorneys William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. Both men were convicted last month in Frankin County Superior Court in Kentucky of defrauding clients in the fen-phen diet drug settlement, and received prison sentences of 25 years and 20 years, respectively.

The price Stronach paid for Einstein, which was not disclosed, goes to a receiver appointed by the judge hearing a civil case against Gallion and Cunningham. The civil court judge, Roger Crittenden, will determine how the money is distributed to the creditors who had claims against Gallion and Cunningham.

Einstein, 7, this year has won the Santa Anita Handicap and the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic. He has won 11 of 27 starts, including five Grade 1 races, and $2,703,324. He will continue to be trained by Helen Pitts, who at the Pacific Classic draw on Wednesday night said she had spoken to Stronach since the sale.

- additional reporting by Matt Hegarty