Leonard Enjoying BC Ride With California Angel

George Leonard III's first Breeders' Cup experience commenced for real at 10:37 p.m. Nov. 1 when the Hubbard horse van carrying California Angel  finally pulled to a stop between Del Mar barns double-D and double-C. For the last hour, in the cool damp of a Pacific evening, a fleet of vans had been circling the backstretch, disgorging Breeders' Cup horses for trainers like Chad Brown, Brad Cox, Paulo Lobo, and Dallas Stewart, while Leonard and his wife, Isabel, waited with fraying patience to take delivery of their filly.

"I hate flying my horses, especially when I can't fly with them," Leonard said. "Most nights I'd already been in bed three hours. But there's no way I could get to sleep tonight until she's bedded down."

Then the trailer stopped, the ramp dropped, and Leonard, shank in hand, was first inside to greet the chestnut filly with the wide blaze and cool demeanor, seemingly oblivious to the 10-hour travel ordeal she'd just been through. Leonard led California Angel easily down the ramp and straight to a stall sandwiched between the Breeders' Cup horses of Bill Mott, Rudy Rodriguez, and Steve Asmussen. California Angel fidgeted, anxious to stretch her legs, as Leonard gave her a studied once-over and unwrapped her polo bandages, at which point the filly took a long, sighing drink of water.

So it began.

"A story has no beginning or end," wrote Graham Greene. "Arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."

Leonard, 55, well over six feet and topped by a cowboy hat, was clearly a story waiting to be told. He just didn't know the moment had come until California Angel won the Oct. 13 JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland to earn a Breeders' Cup berth with a closing rush that defied both her 17-1 odds and her humble purchase price of $5,500.

Since then, Leonard has found himself telling his story nearly every day, over and over, to a racing media hungry for a new face and a fresh angle as respite from the increasing dominance of super stables sucking all the air out of the room. Luckily for the media, they have found in Leonard an affable veteran of the training trenches who can look back with few regrets and look ahead with a bemused anticipation of what might happen if California Angel were to win the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) Nov. 5. He has even honed a few go-to laugh lines.

"Ever since she came along, I've had a lot of people want to give me $5,500 to go find another one like her," Leonard will say, knowing it's funny because it's true.

It is also true that Leonard had a $20,000 budget from owner Chris Walsh to spend at that Ocala Breeders' Sales' June 2-Year-Olds & Horses of Racing Age Sale, which makes him both a sly shopper and a perfect target for Walsh's comment when she heard the news.

"Does she have four legs and look anything like a horse?" was the owner's reaction.

Not only does she look like a Thoroughbred, California Angel bears a striking resemblance to her sire, beginning with her caramel coat and the wide, white stripe running from forelock to upper lip. The filly lost one of California Chrome  's four white stocking somewhere along the way, but otherwise the likeness is vivid, and the coincidence of her temporary Breeders' Cup home is worth noting.

This week, California Angel has been stabled not 50 paces from the stall in which California Chrome anchored the Art Sherman string, when the two-time Horse of the Year made Del Mar his personal playground on his way to more than $14.7 million in earnings. California Chrome won the restricted Graduation Stakes there at 2, the Hollywood Derby (G1T) at 3, and both the San Diego Handicap (G2) and $1 Million TVG Pacific Classic Stakes (G1) as a 5-year-old.

In the Pacific Classic, California Chrome left fans with the indelible sight of defending champion Beholder  struggling in his wake. Even from afar, George Leonard was one of those fans.

"I was really impressed with his two races in Dubai," Leonard said, referring to California Chrome's second-place finish in the 2015 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) and his dramatic victory in the race the following year.

"So often a colt will peak when he's 3 and be as good as he's going to be," Leonard said. "But California Chrome kept getting better and better as he aged. That's what this filly seems like she'll do as well."

Before California Angel can start training for a 2022 campaign, however, she must deal with a gate full of European talent in the Juvenile Fillies Turf along with several proven domestic contenders. She came from far back to win the mile-and-one-sixteenth Jessamine in a three-horse photo under Rafael Bejarano, but of the dozen she defeated that day, only third-place Turnerloose  has stepped up to try the Breeders' Cup.

California Angel must break from post 14 in the field of 14 on Friday going one mile on Del Mar's seven-furlong turf course, usually a recipe for a wide, nearly hopeless trip. 

"I like that outside post for her," Leonard said. "She's out there where she won't be bothered, rather than inside where she might get squeezed back or in trouble."

Even so, Leonard will cling to the typical trainer's zeitgeist.

"When I look at a race, I try to be a realist," he said. "I look for the worst and hope for the best. So if she breaks slow, I'm not disappointed. It happens. If she's good enough she can overcome that. But if you set yourself up just to win, there's always a big letdown."

Leonard's official numbers go back to 1991, when he hung out his shingle and began training in Louisiana. By the end of the decade, he had become a regular on a circuit that included Hoosier Downs, Indiana Grand, River Downs, and the tracks of Northern Kentucky. His biggest score, before the Jessamine, came in the 2013 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes at Gulfstream Park with Point Finish , a son of Point Given owned by Larry Morse.

"That was exhilarating—a great day with a really good purse," Leonard said. "To win this race here, though, would be the epitome of what you want, what you dream. But I always like to say, it's one thing to dream, get lucky, and win. Then it's what you do with it."

Leonard hails from Elton, La., a town located between Lake Charles and Lafayette sporting a population of 1,128 in the 2010 census. His grandfather, George Leonard Sr., was a carpenter who also dallied with horses and provided locals with a rodeo ring. His father, George Leonard Jr., trained primarily Quarter Horses while raising three sons and a daughter.

"My dad was my biggest fan," Leonard said. "I lost him about 13 years ago in a car wreck. He was working for me in Ohio, and he went back home for a weekend in Louisiana, driving with a couple other guys. About halfway they got sleepy and stopped for a while, then he let one of the other guys drive his truck. He fell asleep at the wheel, drove through the median, and rolled the truck. Threw my dad out and killed him. That was in Mississippi."

A filly like California Angel tends to make all mortals equal under the sun. When it comes to the upper ranks of Thoroughbred racing, though, Leonard can't help be reminded often that he is an African-American face in a sea of white.

"I would like to be thought of more by my work than my nationality or my race," he said. "Starting out, it was a lot harder for a person of color to get anything done. You didn't get the better caliber of horses. It was tougher. But I've always looked at myself as just a man doing my thing and being treated accordingly. I believe in giving people respect and getting respect."

And on those inevitable occasions respect is not shown?

"Usually my size and my demeanor avoided all that," Leonard said with a knowing grin. "People know that I don't bother nobody, but I don't take nothing either. I might have to say something in a gentle way, and then move on about my business."

If there would be symbolism in a California Angel victory—both in terms of economics and opportunity—Leonard does not shy away.

"There's value in showing that there's a road, a path you can lay that shows no matter where you come from you can still go far," he said. "You don't need to have the biggest money. If you keep your head down and work hard, you can still get lucky.

"And believe me, I'm having a ball," Leonard added. "This is what I dreamed of, and I wouldn't trade it for nothing."