Trainer Stewart Tries to 'Crush It' as Sequist Co-Owner

As NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) entrant Sequist  fidgeted on a wash rack when receiving a bath on the Del Mar backstretch this week, her handler adjusted a shank and encouraged her to be still. 

Holding the 2-year-old filly wasn't a hotwalker. It was trainer Dallas Stewart.

Asked of his hands-on approach, he responded, "I'm the owner. I'd better."

He is—one of them. The graded-placed filly is owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Gervais Racing, Charles Pigg, Stewart Racing Stable, Tom Andres, and Karen Kraft—or as Stewart describes Andres and Kraft, "my doctor and my real estate neighbor.

"West Point's got their own deal, but I've got my own people. I get 'em together," Stewart said.

Unlike other prominent trainers who train but do not own horses, Stewart will regularly partner in ownership or simply own a horse himself.

"You can't make any money training horses," he said.

But you can by owning horses, even with the sport's high financial costs?  

"Depends if you get the right one," he said.

Stewart got the right one in the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2004, buying Lemons Forever  for $140,000 from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. Less than two years later, she won the 2006 Kentucky Oaks (G1) with Stewart training and co-owning the filly with Leon, Willis, and Terry Horton.

A year later at Keeneland in 2007, she went through the November Breeding Stock Sale as part of the Eaton Sales consignment, selling to R. J. Bennett for $2.5 million.

Stewart, 62, also breeds to race. He owns the Sky Mesa   mare Boy Crazy , whose foals include stakes winner Saint's Fan  (Tale of Ekati  ) and the grade 3-placed Starrininmydreams  (Super Saver  ), with Stewart training both. He raced Saint's Fan himself and co-owns Starrininmydreams with WinStar Farm. Starrinmydreams was most recently fourth in an allowance optional claiming race last month at Churchill Downs.

Sequist, a 2-year-old daughter of Nyquist  , is also graded-placed, having rallied for third in the Darley Alcibiades (G1) at Keeneland Oct. 8, finishing 4 1/2 lengths behind Juju's Map . Before that start, she was a distant fourth behind Echo Zulu  and Tarabi  in the Sept. 5 Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course and won a maiden race when debuting July 20 at Colonial Downs.

West Point and Stewart bought her for $100,000 from the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the consignment of her breeder, Clearsky Farms.

Though only a few horsemen chose to ship their horses west to test Echo Zulu and Juju's Map and the other favorites in Friday's Juvenile Fillies—the race drew a field of only six—Stewart didn't hesitate with his 15-1 outsider.

"I'll race any horse for $2 million, wouldn't you?" he said. "It ain't free, but they pay you back."

Though it costs $60,000 to enter and race, Breeders' Cup has picked up shipping costs for participants. Every starter, even going back to last in the Juvenile Fillies, will receive a paycheck. Sixth place is worth $40,000, first place is $1.04 million.

Stewart is already a two-time Breeders' Cup-winning trainer, taking the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) with Roger Devenport's Unbridled Elaine  in 2001 and capturing it again with Charles Fipke's Forever Unbridled —a daughter of Lemons Forever—in 2017. 

Stewart's overall record in the Breeders' Cup is 2-0-1 with 18 starters with more than $3 million in earnings. Stewart has trained 917 winners for his career, and his horses have made nearly $58 million, through Nov. 3.

"You got to be involved to try to crush it," Stewart said.