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I remember when Guida was buying top horses all over. I had success buying ready made horses and that was always my business model. I wasn't a yearling guy, LOL. But Guida changed that marketplace. It exploded. It became next to impossible to buy a top horse already on the track. I had seen a 2yo in PA, who looked like he had a lot of potential. By a backyard stud, unraced, but the colt was fast, and looked like he could be a good one. I made a call, and so did others, and he was for sale, but the seller was a shrewd guy. Guida bought the colt for $250k-----which was really a lot of money at the time, especially for a 2yo, by a no name stallion...but Guida did well with Jake and Elwood. I think he earned the entire investment back in about a month or so, LOL.
Yes he did. Who would have thought.....it all started with.....none other than BG's Bunny! LOL. The first was a very simple deal, kind of a basic "syndication" of sorts. He did that deal with Phil Tully, and Bob Greenberg, the owner of BG's Bunny kind of stayed in the deal, at least to some extent. But the first real Wall St. style syndication deal Guida did was Sonsam. He revolutionized the breeding industry when he developed the syndication model.
Thanks. Been in the game for a long time, LOL. I was a buyer of shares way back, not to breed though, and only on game changers.....at least those who I thought would be a game changer, LOL. George Berkner was a friend of mine from way back, but I didn't go in on the BG's Bunny deal. Tully was pushing those shares like they were gold, but I wasn't a buyer. I didn't think Bunny would be a game changer. This was also before the USTA cap on mares bred, and Guida's model for BG's Bunny was to breed as many mares as possible to maximize income. I think in his first few years at stud Bunny bred over 300 mares each year.
Bunny threw some horses here and there. I remember one specifically..... Armbro Hunch.....who I actually had an early heads up on. He had the makings of a top colt. Very talented 2yo, and Benoit Cote came to NJ to drive him. I remember his first start at the Meadowlands and George Berkner was at the track and got a big kick out of it. Like a proud pappa, LOL.
Normand Masse trained Armbro Hunch for Jean-Guy Girard. He owned nightclubs in Montreal and did very well. Masse picked out Armbro Hunch as a yearling and bought him for (I think $18k or $19k). Why Armstrong bred a mare to BG's Bunny was beyond me, LOL. But he turned out to be a very, very good colt. Masse used Cote a lot at BB, especially with his 2yo's. Cote was a tremendous horsemen and really knew how to drive 2yo's to educate them, teach them, etc. He wasn't a modern day catch driver, but he was very, very good, and he could drive a good horse as good as anyone. He agreed to stick with Armbro Hunch and he had an amazing 2yo campaign. He won every start except two, but he raced a lot-----like 16 or 17 times-----and won multiple legs of the NJSS, the Prix de L'Avenir, and the Babic. He was a very serious horse. A few weeks after the Babic (I think it was the Babic), the colt died in his stall. Berkner just got a real kick out of the fact that BG's Bunny sired a top 2yo. He really enjoyed seeing that colt win at the Meadowlands. George was a character. He lived a very colorful and interesting life, LOL.
Berkner was a real character. We knew each other from our early days in the game as we were both NY'er's and part of that NY crowd that went from the NY tracks to the Meadowlands. George actually had a small interest in Tully's sale company. I don't know the details, but it may have been a result of the BG's Bunny deal. Guida did too. I think both got out when Tully sold out to PEM. Not sure. But George was a character who always found a way to make a good living in this business. After his heart attack he started to play a different kind of role, but he still was a hands-on manager. Even in 1988 when he came up with Goalie Jeff and Hit The Bid, George managed both, but I don't know that he was sitting behind them for their serious training miles. But George not only trained them, he owned a piece of each as well. He put together the partnership and bought both as yearlings. He continued to come up with a good horse every few years after that, including San Gimignano, BG's Folly” and later on Rockeyed Optimist, and in his later years he handed off the training to others. Sadly, George died 10 years ago this past July. The funeral was in Asbury Park down where he lived and what a lot of people don't know is that in his later years he was active and supported Heading for Home Racehorse Adoption Center, which brought together retired racehorses with disabled children.
