Swiss Skydiver proves to be Callahan's next horse of a decade
To hear him tell it, Peter Callahan gets to own a good horse every 10 years or so.
In 1999, he campaigned the Grade 1-winning 2-year-old Bevo. In 2009, there was the Grade 1 stakes-placed Beautician, who a year later would run a creditable fourth in the Kentucky Oaks. In 2011, Scotus won the Grade 3 Matt Winn for Callahan.
Last year, a 2-year-old filly by Daredevil won her career debut by 5 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs. That filly, Swiss Skydiver, purchased for a modest $35,000, will be the favorite against six fellow 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga.
“Every 10 years I get lucky in racing,” Callahan said. “Ten years from now, I won’t be around. Who cares? I’ve had my share of fun. It’s a great game.”
At 78, semi-retired from the publishing business and battling cancer, Callahan said he was about to reduce his interests in Thoroughbred racing. He has been longtime partners with Runnymede Farm in the breeding business – their successes include Palace, Awesome Gem, and the Japanese $8 million earner Agnes Digital. Callahan also has some of his own mares.
“I like the game, I really do,” Callahan said. “I’m a semi-retired guy, I still fool around with a few businesses, nothing that requires much activity. Racing, breeding, selling takes time. If you want to breed 12 mares, you got to decide what you want to do.”
Then, if your trainer calls with a horse he wants to buy there are more decisions to make. That’s what happened last September when trainer Ken McPeek called Callahan about a filly by Daredevil. Callahan liked Daredevil because he was by More Than Ready, a highly regarded runner who Bevo beat in the 1999 Futurity at Belmont. On the bottom side of the pedigree were Johannesburg and Alydar.
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“I’m a big J-burg fan,” Callahan said. “The second dam is by Strike the Gold, who was by Alydar and I’m an Alydar freak.”
Callahan said McPeek thought the yearling could be had for $50,000. He paid $35,000.
“In this business, people engage in what professors say is conspicuous consumption – the more a person spends for something the better it must be or the better they feel,” Callahan said. “I’m not that way. I say $35,000, good idea.”
In his previous life as a businessman, Callahan was always looking for deals. In 1989, McFadden Publishing, of which Callahan was president, teamed up with a group of investors to buy the National Enquirer, a leading supermarket tabloid, for $412 million.
“It was fun, I loved it,” Callahan said. “I agreed to sell 10 years later. We were financed by a private-equity fund. The thing with private-equity funds, they’re happy to put up the money and they’re happy to take the money out.”
Around the same time, Callahan also became a minority owner of Daily Racing Form, joining forces with Alpine Capital, a group led by Steven Crist and Charlie Hayward who purchased the paper in 1998.
“I owned a piece for four years,” Callahan said. “I think I put up a million and I walked away with $5 million, a pretty good deal. I don’t cash those tickets at the window.”
Swiss Skydiver has been cashing tickets all winter long for Callahan and others. She was 9-1 when she won the Gulfstream Park Oaks in March and 16-1 when she captured the Fantasy at Oaklawn in May. Bettors finally caught on and made her 3-5 when she won the Santa Anita Oaks in June. The betting public even made her the 2-1 favorite against 12 males in the Blue Grass Stakes, where Swiss Skydiver finished second to Art Collector.
“She’s very durable,” Callahan said. “One of the things that makes her an owner’s pet is the vet bills are $150,” Callahan said. “I got horses that don’t have half her ability that have bills that are up there. This girl is hot stuff.”
Despite Swiss Skydiver’s respectable second against Art Collector in the Blue Grass and that she would get into the Kentucky Derby if he so desired, Callahan said he and McPeek plan to keep her against the girls in the Kentucky Oaks on Sept. 4.
“I don’t think we’re going to the Derby. We’ll take our chances in the Oaks,” Callahan said. “I don’t mean to deride anybody else’s horse but bring Gamine on and we’ll see.”
Due to his health issues and the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Callahan has not been able to watch Swiss Skydiver run in person this year. While he lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., Callahan will watch the Alabama from his daughter’s home in Westchester, N.Y. Callahan said he does hope to be in Louisville for the Oaks on Sept. 4 and the horse sales a few days later.
Callahan said his involvement in racing “keeps me active, keeps me having fun. I tell Kenny all the time, there’s no elixir, no medicine like a winning picture at Saratoga and Churchill.”