Albaugh Family on a Roller Coaster Ride in Racing

When Dennis Albaugh began buying racehorses, he reveled in all the fun he was having.

"I bought into one horse and she made short of $1 million, and I felt, 'How could I go wrong?' So I kept going and going," Albaugh said. "I meet a lot of great people through racing, and we started winning races. I told my son-in-law (Jason Loutsch) that we should get more horses because this is so much fun."

At the time, little did the Iowa resident know that all that "fun" would be akin to a ride on the Cyclone at Coney Island. Since jumping into the sport in a big way six years ago, Albaugh and Loutsch have experienced both the full-bore excitement of the highs and the depressing lows that racing serves up on a daily basis.

"We've had a lot of big expectations in this sport and great success," Albaugh said, "but we also know what disappointment feels like."

In the course of its involvement in racing, the Albaugh Family Stables team has savored thrills such as having a mare who has produced a Breeders' Cup winner and two stallions and the frustration of having a 4-5 favorite in the 2019 TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) who stumbled coming out of the gate and lost all chance of winning.

More recently, Kentucky Derby Week vividly illustrated the ride Albaugh and Loutsch, the racing manager, have experienced through their Albaugh Family Stables. 

In the two graded stakes for 2-year-olds at Churchill Downs, they first won the Sept. 3 Pocahontas Stakes (G3) with Girl Daddy, an Uncle Mo  filly they bought for $500,000 from the Bluewater Sales consignment at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Then, in the 10th race on the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) card, the orange and purple colors of Albaugh Family Stables were once again in the winner's circle when Sittin On Go, a $65,000 purchase from the Wynnstay consignment at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, prevailed at 24-1 odds in the Iroquois Stakes Presented by Ford (G3). 

That victory was particularly emotional since Sittin On Go is by multiple grade 1-winning Brody's Cause , who raced for Albaugh and earned more than $1 million. Brody's Cause was the standout in a collection of yearlings that Albaugh and Loutsch bought in 2014 when Albaugh Family Stables was launched after early years of racing on occasion with partners and owning shares of horses through Donegal Racing.

Uplifted by the two wins from juveniles trained by Dale Romans, Albaugh and Loutsch turned their attention to the Run for the Roses, where they owned the Bob Baffert-trained Thousand Words in a 50-50 partnership with Spendthrift Farm. A grade 2 winner and victor over Honor A. P.  in the Shared Belief Stakes in his previous start, the son of Pioneerof the Nile was viewed as one of the main threats in the second leg of the 2020 Triple Crown.

Then the Cyclone took a gut-wrenching 100-foot dip.

The quirky Thousand Words reared up while being saddled and fell backward. He landed on his side, preventing a serious injury to the colt, but Baffert's assistant trainer, Jim Barnes, broke his wrist while trying to control the 3-year-old. The fall led to Thousand Words being scratched from the race.

"We had big expectations when he was young and big expectations heading into the Kentucky Derby," Albaugh said about Thousand Words. "We knew he has acted up before while being saddled, but we didn't expect that."

About a half-hour later, Albaugh and Loutsch watched from the outside looking in as Baffert won the Kentucky Derby for a record-tying sixth time with Authentic, who is owned in part by Spendthrift Farm.

"We were on a roll," said Loutsch, who is married to Albaugh's daughter, Tiffany. "We won both juvenile stakes that weekend. It was a great weekend.  It was just unfortunate with Thousand Words. He was cranked up to run a great race and he didn't get to do it. That was sad."

After the emotional roller coaster of the Kentucky Derby, there's a fervent hope for better luck Oct. 3 when Thousand Words will face Authentic and nine other rivals in the $1 million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course that will close out the 2020 Triple Crown.

"Hopefully, he'll get to run his race in the Preakness," said Albaugh, who owns Albaugh, a global leader in the production and sale of crop protection products. "I can't wait for it."

Albaugh's holdings in racing consist of about 85 horses, including eight broodmares he keeps at Taylor Made Farm and Lane's End. Yet he prefers to keep his spending on yearlings in the $300,000-$500,000 range, which prompted him to seek out a partner when he and Loutsch fell in love with Thousand Words at the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. 

Having worked out stallion deals for Brody's Cause and Free Drop Billy with Spendthrift Farm, they contacted Spendthrift owner B. Wayne Hughes and agreed to partner on the colt, who ultimately cost $1 million.

"We took a look at Thousand Words, and his pedigree will tell you he's a stallion. His stance and everything about him, you could find it in a book about what goes into a great racehorse. He was perfect, but he was going to cost more than we were willing to pay," Albaugh said. "We thought we'd have to stretch to get him, so I told Jason to see if we could find a partner. He lined us up with Spendthrift, and we've been very happy with them. They have been great to work with."

Spendthrift's lone requirement was that Thousand Words race in California, and that paired Albaugh and Loutsch with Baffert for the first time. Though they had never worked with him, Albaugh was well aware of the trainer's Hall of Fame pedigree and he became intrigued with sending Baffert horses after watching an incident in the paddock at the 2016 Kentucky Derby that convinced him of Baffert's sportsmanship and skills as a horseman.

Brody's Cause finished seventh in the Run for the Roses that day, but Albaugh still recalls how he watched Baffert, who was running Mor Spirit, as the trainer noticed the saddle was not positioned right on Danzing Candy  and helped in fixing it.

"I witnessed Bob seeing another horse that wasn't saddled right and he went over and made sure the horse was saddled right. That told me a lot about the quality person he is, that he would help another competitor," Albaugh said. "I had only seen Bob from a distance from all my years in the racing business, but I've gotten to know him and he's a very nice gentleman. Dale Romans does a great job with our horses and we also couldn't be happier with the job Bob has done with Thousand Words."

Baffert also remembers the incident.

"The saddle was sideways and the valet was gone, so I told them to resaddle him," Baffert said. "It was all crooked. A lot of people don't know what I am like. I don't want to see anything bad happen to anyone. A lot goes on at the Kentucky Derby, and I try to pay attention to detail."

After winning the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) in his second start at 2, Thousand Words soured in the spring, finishing 11th in the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes, but Baffert brought him back to top form for the Kentucky Derby.

"To turn a horse around … to winning the (Aug. 1) Shared Belief is a tremendous accomplishment. It's our first horse with Bob, and we have nothing but high praise for him. He's a tremendous horseman, and we have learned so much from him. It's fun to hang out with him," Loutsch said.

Baffert said he has also enjoyed working with the Albaugh team.

"They are the nicest people. I felt so bad for them at the Kentucky Derby," Baffert said. "They were so excited about running in it. That's why they are in the business. They are delightful people with a passion for the sport, and they love their horses. They understand the ups and downs and understand how crazy things can happen in the paddock. We were walking him and then he stopped, and when he stops, that's when there's trouble. Once you get the saddle on him, he's fine."

They know crazy things can also happen in the starting gate, too, such as when their Romans-trained son of Tiznow , Dennis' Moment, stumbled at the start of the Juvenile.

"He could have been the 2-year-old champion, but he fell coming out of the gate," Loutsch said about a 3-year-old who is expected to resume his career this month. "Those are things you don't forget. They take you as low as you go."

Of course, few people enjoy a level of success like the exhilaration they have been receiving from Miss Macy Sue. Bought as a 2-year-old for just $42,000 in 2005, the Trippi filly out of Yada Yada by Great Above won the Winning Colors Stakes (G3) and earned $880,915. 

Yet she has proven to be an even better broodmare. 

Her second foal was Liam's Map , an $800,000 Unbridled's Song yearling they bred who won the 2015 Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) for Teresa Viola Racing Stables and West Point Thoroughbreds. He is now a stallion at Lane's End.

Albaugh kept her fourth foal, Not This Time , a son of Giant's Causeway who won the 2016 Iroquois and was second in the Juvenile. He is now a stallion at Taylor Made—with Albaugh retaining a share of his breeding rights—and is one of the industry's leading freshman sires.

At the recently concluded Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Albaugh bred an Into Mischief  filly by the grade 2-winning mare Taylor S, who is from the extended family of Miss Macy Sue, and sold her for $1.9 million to Larry Best through the Taylor Made consignment.

"Miss Macy Sue has been such a good mare to us," said Loutsch, who grew up near Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa. "Her babies have been outstanding. We own Not This Time, and to see what he's doing in his freshman year as a sire is so exciting. We're blessed by it.

There are so many ups and downs in this sport, and things can turn in a heartbeat."

Indeed they can, as Albaugh and Loutsch saw—once again—at the Kentucky Derby.

Now, on Saturday, they will find out where Thousand Words and the Preakness will take them on the Cyclone. Up or down?

"Hopefully," Albaugh said, "we're all done with all the letdowns."