HORSEPLOP.COM
General Category => Harness Racing => Topic started by: Grandstand Handicapper on October 09, 2024, 07:49:23 AM
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https://vault.si.com/vault/1978/05/29/hes-very-high-on-his-horses-from-his-40th-floor-office-apartment-prickly-alan-leavitt-pieces-together-the-biggest-deals-in-harness-racing
For you harness racing history buffs.....Outspok en, incredibly smart, and many people add many more character traits and attributes about Alan. However, he changed and had an impact on the standardbred industry. He built Lana Lobel into arguably the premier breeding operation in North America, perhaps the world...and then it fell. He came back and re-created Walnut Hall.
This article is not a tribute piece about Alan. It was written in 1978. It is about his business and the syndication deals he did. Not many harness horse people have full articles written about them in SI.
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thanks for posting
he was controversial for sure, many highs and many lows
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I always enjoyed Leavitt's columns on HRU. Could tell from his last columns that he was slipping.
Several years ago I had a first hand look at one of his tirades.
It was when The USTA was going from lip tattoos to freeze branding. Leavitt insisted that freeze branding was disfiguring horses as if they were cattle and Walnut Hall would not do it.
I was told that Lip tattooing remained acceptable because of Leavitt.
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Yes, Alan was opinionated, but like I said, he was very smart. I found him to be volatile. One minute you'd think he was your best friend, and the next minute he'd be screaming at you and then he wouldn't talk to you for months. LOL.
The entire No Nukes saga had so many twists and turns and he butted heads with Vince Vinci (and Steve Demas and Ben Webster as well) on several occasions. While Benny retained part ownership in No Nukes and drove him as a 2yo, it was Glen Garnsey who drove him as a 3yo. After his 2yo year, Alan syndicated No Nukes for $5m. Of course a lot of people thought he was absolutely nuts. I guess he ended up getting the last laugh, LOL. At some point, Vince started selling breedings (from the shares he retained, or depending on who you talk to, shares he got stuck with, LOL). Alan of course is trying to create more demand in the marketplace and maximize the revenue of the pooled shares. I think Vince also had credit with Lana Lobell as a result of the syndication, but I am not sure about that. Of course No Nukes stood at Lana Lobell, but several years later he was moved to Steve Demas' farm (Upstream Farm), and then ended up at Hanover Shoe Farms (in NJ) in the mid-90's.
No discussion necessary on the stallion career of No Nukes.
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Yes, Alan was opinionated, but like I said, he was very smart. I found him to be volatile. One minute you'd think he was your best friend, and the next minute he'd be screaming at you and then he wouldn't talk to you for months. LOL.
The entire No Nukes saga had so many twists and turns and he butted heads with Vince Vinci (and Steve Demas and Ben Webster as well) on several occasions. While Benny retained part ownership in No Nukes and drove him as a 2yo, it was Glen Garnsey who drove him as a 3yo. After his 2yo year, Alan syndicated No Nukes for $5m. Of course a lot of people thought he was absolutely nuts. I guess he ended up getting the last laugh, LOL. At some point, Vince started selling breedings (from the shares he retained, or depending on who you talk to, shares he got stuck with, LOL). Alan of course is trying to create more demand in the marketplace and maximize the revenue of the pooled shares. I think Vince also had credit with Lana Lobell as a result of the syndication, but I am not sure about that. Of course No Nukes stood at Lana Lobell, but several years later he was moved to Steve Demas' farm (Upstream Farm), and then ended up at Hanover Shoe Farms (in NJ) in the mid-90's.
No discussion necessary on the stallion career of No Nukes.
I believe No Nukes was a 'headcase' on the racetrack as well as the breeding shed.
On the track, I believe he was allowed 2 recalls at the meadowlands pace and removed from the betting pools for being 'unruly' at the gate. The ownership group was very fortunate that he could race that day!
As far as the breeding shed, while with Demas, No Nukes almost knocked a mare over and had to be handled by 2 individuals while performing his "studly" duties after this incident!
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I believe No Nukes was a 'headcase' on the racetrack as well as the breeding shed.
As far as the breeding shed, while with Demas, No Nukes almost knocked a mare over and had to be handled by 2 individuals while performing his "studly" duties after this incident!
I can recall a stud who bred like that.
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I can recall a stud who bred like that.
Really?
Who?
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Really?
Who?
Tony likes it hard but soft, he use to always say at the training center