Aptly Named More Than Looks One to Remember for Victory Racing

11/20/2024 03:01 PM

There was a buoyant atmosphere at the Lane's End Farm stallion complex on Tuesday as a steady stream of breeders came to admire new arrival More Than Looks (More Than Ready), but a few hundred miles away in Atlanta, Georgia, the dreary weather matched Anthony Bartolo's mood. The managing partner of Victory Racing Partners, Bartolo had gotten the call from trainer Cherie DeVaux at 6:30 in the morning the day before informing him that their stable's Breeders' Cup champion had an injury that would delay any possible return to the races.

“Five hours later we had pretty significant offers on the table, but that didn't mean anything to me honestly,” Bartolo said. “It hit me hard and it becomes real when it's in print.”

So Tuesday was a bit of a reality check for Bartolo, a chiropractor by trade, as the news spread of More Than Looks's retirement. He was a long way from sunny Del Mar, where just a few weeks ago More Than Looks had stormed down the lane to claim the GI Breeders' Cup Mile, but the memories of that afternoon were at the forefront of his mind as he went about his normal day, reminding him just how fortunate their partnership has been to enjoy the ride with their stable star for the past two years and ultimately go out on top.

“That's the pinnacle of what you're looking to attain,” Bartolo explained. “Just to get to the dance has always been something that as a partnership we aspired to do, but this game is very difficult. As a managing partner, gosh, maybe eight times out of 10 you bring bad news. A lot of things occur in horse racing that make it very difficult on the faint hearted and I think just getting to that day after being the bearer of bad news for so many years, the emotions were definitely built up. The feeling of pride for me was tremendous, as well as just reflecting back on where we've been since 2015.”

Victory Racing Partners was the brainchild of Bartolo and friends Scott Clifton, Douglas Duncan and Chris Brothers. A lifelong racing fan, Bartolo grew up following his father Raymond Bartolo, who was a jockey agent for riders like Helidoro Gustines and Angel Santiago, around the backside of Belmont Park. After dabbling in racing partnerships in the mid-Atlantic region for several years, Bartolo and his friends Doug Duncan and Scott Clifton decided to get more involved. They enlisted the help of Chris Brothers, president of Xavier Bloodstock, and got Victory Racing Partners off and running. Their first two horses Mr. Dougie Fresh (Ghostzapper) and Always a Suspect (Exchange Rate) both earned over a quarter of a million dollars for the fledgling group.

As their success continued, they decided that they would start advertising and selling shares in their horses but keep the majority of the ownership within their own small group.

“The partnership has grown over the last nine years now,” said Bartolo. “We have had a few hundred partners over the course of that time. With most horses, we may have between ten to up to 25 or 30 partners in a horse. We've always prided ourselves on keeping a large piece of the horse. We're not here to sell out shares. It's a very intimate group of people and the people that stay in usually get into the next horse with us, so it has been a lot of fun.”

A few years ago when Chris Brothers decided to take a step back, Victory Racing sought the help of David Ingordo to purchase horses for their partnership. One of the first yearlings that Ingordo landed on was a More Than Ready colt that they bought at the Keeneland September Sale for $135,000.

A few months later when the group went to visit the colt, they came by his name almost by accident.

“He is a very impressive horse,” said Bartolo. “He's a dark bay, almost black. He's absolutely gorgeous. Being a More Than Ready, I turned and looked at Maude Walsh, our Partner Relations Representative, and I said, 'Gosh, I hope he's more than looks.' And that stuck.”

Victory Racing and trainer Cherie DeVaux gave More Than Looks plenty of time to develop, letting him work through some baby issues as a 2-year-old.

“David kept telling me, 'You know, he's acting like a good one,'” Bartolo recalled. “Hearing that from Ingordo, who has bought greats like Flightline and Zenyatta and so many good horses, it kind of makes your ears perk up.”

The colt finished a well-beaten eighth in his debut going five furlongs in February of his 3-year-old year, but the move he had started to put in going around the turn showed that he had plenty of potential with added distance.

Sure enough, in his next start stretching out over a mile, More Than Looks made the same move around the turn and charged down the stretch to get up by a neck.

“He just had a closing kick like nobody's business,” Bartolo recalled. “He came from way out of it and ran them down. Our partnership was all going crazy. With his running style, it was the most exciting thing.”

More Than Looks put in one good performance after another throughout last year's season, winning the GIII Manila Stakes and the Jefferson Cup Stakes, placing in the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes, and finishing the year with a fast-closing sixth in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile just a few lengths behind winner Master of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

Everyone had high hopes for More Than Looks's 4-year-old season coming into this year until the colt threw a leg over the webbing of his stall, incurring an injury that set him back several months. Then he was entered in the Lure Stakes at Saratoga in August, but the race was rained off the turf.

The backup plan was to map out a journey to get to the Breeders' Cup as the third start off a nine-month break. The ambitious plan started with the GI Fourstardave and More Than Looks came through with a runner-up performance behind Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}). He then finished second to the same rival in a slow-paced GI Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes.

“Everything fell kind of not the right way for us,” Bartolo recalled of the race at Keeneland. “With his closing style you need some speed up front and it was just not there. When [jockey Jose Ortiz] got off the horse, he told me that we could win the Breeders' Cup. This whole time, the plan was to get to the Breeders' Cup with him peaking. Cherie told me that things were falling into place where if we could get the right trip, we could be right there.”

More Than Looks finally got the pace he was looking for in the Mile and after settling in the back of the pack he was able to do what he does best, making a move on the final turn and angling out wide to pick off rivals. He tore past Johannes (Nyquist) and Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) to get the win, handing DeVaux her first Breeders' Cup victory.

“That was a big deal,” said Bartolo. “I knew she had four runners that day and I'm obviously rooting for her on every race she runs in, but I was hoping that we could be the one to do it. She's on such a great trajectory that for us to be part of that was something that we'll have forever.”

When the decision was made for More Than Looks to retire, sending the champ to Lane's End was an easy choice for the Victory Racing  partnership. They regularly consign horses with the farm and Bartolo makes a habit of visiting any time he is in Lexington.

At Lane's End, More Than Looks will stand for a fee of $15,000 in his debut season and is the first Victory Racing Partners graduate to become a stallion.

“His future is extremely bright,” said Bartolo. “Our partners are thrilled to be able to go visit him. You buy a horse and you always have the aspiration to run on these top days, so for a horse to deliver on that is very special.”

The news is out, More Than Looks left this weekend to start his new career as a stallion @LanesEndFarms. Incredibly thankful to this wonderful guy that brought our team to the biggest stage winning the @BreedersCup Mile. I look forward to seeing his offspring on track. Thank… pic.twitter.com/hf0bhauHJO

— Cherie DeVaux (@reredevaux) November 18, 2024

Bartolo is sure that their partnership will end up racing some of More Than Looks's progeny someday, but for now they have plenty to look forward with their current crop of racehorses. The partnership normally campaigns between half a dozen to a dozen horses at one time.

Victory Racing has a 2-year-old filly named Close Up (Demarcherlier {GB}) who is expected to make her second career start next weekend at Churchill Downs. The DeVaux trainee was a closing fourth on debut at Kentucky Downs in September. Looking ahead to 2025, they also have a 2-year-old Maclean's Music colt named Rock It preparing for his debut for DeVaux at Fair Grounds and a soon-to-be 2-year-old Twirling Candy colt who is looking promising in his early training in Ocala.

While they wait for their next trip to the winner's circle, Bartolo and the rest of the Victory Racing partners still have plenty of celebrating left to do after that memorable day at the Breeders' Cup.

“Probably the biggest moment was when he turned for home,” Bartolo reminisced. “I knew he was going to run them down. When he turned for home and he was in striking distance, I said that we were going to win this thing. Even before the eighth pole, I said we're going to win this thing. He was passing everybody and we were all jumping up and down before the wire. That memory will stick in my mind forever.”

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