McCauley Heads Into Breeders' Cup With Eda

Kentucky native Nathan McCauley, 40, gave up the auto industry in 2016, transferring full-time to the Thoroughbred industry, and hasn't looked in the rearview mirror since. The River Oak Farm owner and partner Lindsay Laroche have made their name pinhooking mares with a penchant for being in the winner's circle on big race days. This year, on Breeders' Cup Championship weekend, McCauley will watch the first grade 1 winner he bred, Eda , make a run in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park, along with other horses he had a hand in producing.

MarketWatch: You followed in your father Ron's footsteps, running Providence Auto Group in Nashville, Tenn, before making horses a full-time gig in 2016. What led to the change in career paths?

Nathan McCauley: I was fortunate. I had a great business in Nashville, but horses were my passion and love. I bred a mare to one of my favorite stallions, Munnings, and came up with Free Rose; he was an awesome horse. He took me and my partner Abbondanza Racing on quite the ride.

He was the 3-year-old of the 2016 summer meet at Del Mar and won the La Jolla Handicap (G3T) and Del Mar Derby (G2T). It gave me time to reflect on what I wanted to do with my life, and I realized that I wanted to spend summers at Del Mar and be in Lexington for the horse sales and breeding season. In the summer of 2016, I started thinking about how to transition from cars to horses full-time.

MW: How did the partnership with Abbondanza Racing (Bing Bush) come to fruition?

NM: We had a mutual friend, Shawn Collins, who had been with Taylor Made for a long time. Shawn introduced Bush and me during Derby week of 2015, and we struck up a friendship. Bush had a mare named Changethechannel, a graded stakes-placed mare by English Channel, he was looking to sell her, and I ended up partnering with him on the mare.

The following year, under Abbondanza Racing, Bing planned to purchase a horse to race during the summer meet, and us being buddies, I jumped in. We were looking at the colts that came across our desks, and at the same time, my brother Tevis was training Free Rose for me. He was starting to show promise and broke the course record at Keeneland in a starter allowance.

I called Bush and said I have the horse already in my stable that would be perfect for Del Mar. We decided to partner up on him and had such a good time that summer; we got toward the end of the season, and I knew I was planning to transition to horses full-time. I told Bush we could be in graded stakes every month if we wanted to raise some money and in a sustainable way if we found some fillies.

Thank god Bush agreed to do it, and we started the filly and mare venture with Abbondanza, which they have still today. I think they have been in the Breeders' Cup most years since they began that and have had a graded stakes winner since 2016. It would be hard for me to make a career out of Abbondanza, but it was a huge blessing, and those guys are great friends. It was a lot of fun with those guys in 2016, 17, and 18; we remain good friends.

MW: With River Oak Farm, you have made quite the name for yourself, pinhooking mares and breeding to bubble stallions. What is the business model for the farm?

NM: Pinhooking mares was the core of the business and focus when we started. I have been pinhooking mares with Leslie Campion as my primary partner for the last 15 years. I knew we could profitably trade mares and develop a core business around that; for the past four to five years, we have pinhooked about 20-40 mares yearly.

We reinvest those profits in long-term strategies such as stallion shares, lifetime breeding rights, stallions, and our core broodmare band trying to breed excellent racehorses.

MW: What exciting horses do you have in your racing stable and broodmare band?

NM: In my personal racing stable, I have Stitched; he's been fantastic. I have a great friendship with Travis Foley and some of the original Abbondanza Racing guys (Michael Olszewski and William Minton), who partnered up with me on Stitched. We're having a lot of fun with him, and we have his little brother, by Jimmy Creed, who will race next year.

Most of what we have right now is on the farm. I have Walking Miracle, his dam, which is a lovely mare. We have several other high-quality mares on the farm like Half Is Enough, entered in the Fasig-Tipton Night of the Stars (Hip 239). She is a graded stakes-placed mare in foal for her first cover to Life Is Good.

We have two dozen entries for the Keeneland November Sale, a couple of stakes mares in foal to Jackie's Warrior, like Beat the System (Hip 998) and Recoded (Hip 98), a half sister to grade 1 winner Egg Drop. We have a few nice mares in foal to Epicenter and Sarjenalli (Hip 856) by Tiznow, who is in foal to Constitution, which comes from the family of Essential Quality and Forte.

MW: Which stallions are you high on for the 2023 breeding season?

NM: The stallions that retired for the 2023 season were probably the best stallions I have seen retire in a year. This group was pretty incredible, top to bottom. Flightline and Life Is Good are apparent, but Jackie's Warrior, Epicenter, Jack Christopher, and Olympiad are a serious group. In most years, Cyberknife would be a superstar, a sire that's the sixth- or seventh-most expensive stallion in a crop; you know it's a good one. Speaker's Corner, even at $20,000, is excellent; I'm pretty bullish on that group.

This year, we focused our breeding season on breeding to that group of stallions; it's a special group and probably one of the strongest I have seen. Regarding young stallions with runners, I'm high on Army Mule and Girvin right now and think Practical Joke is on his way up. Regarding what provides excellent value right now, I believe Girvin and Army Mule could be those $50,000-$60,000 stallions a few years from now when the bigger Kentucky crops come.

MW: You have bred multiple graded winners, including Breeders' Cup hopeful for this year, Eda, as your first grade 1 winner. What does that achievement mean for River Oak Farm?

NM: It's pretty amazing; you don't know if you will ever breed a grade 1 winner. I have been in the business long enough to understand its challenges, and I'm fortunate for that to happen. It takes a special horse, and she is—2021 was an outstanding year for the business and in my personal life. Eda winning the Starlet Stakes (G1) in December was incredible.

(McCauley sold Eda as a yearling to Eddie Woods for $240,000 during the 2020 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Woods pinhooked the Munnings   filly to the Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, where agent Donato Lanni found her for owner Baoma Corp. for $550,000 the following year.)

This will be my first year going to the Breeders' Cup with a (horse I bred); I have had a number of horses go as an owner. Eda is an honest horse that always shows up with an incredible heart. She is tactical and has a lot of speed, and is a grade 1 winner at a 1 1/16 miles and the Filly and Mare Sprint at seven furlongs, it should suit her. It will be exciting; I don't know if she can win, but she has Bob Baffert on her side.

It will be incredible to go from being a horse born on the farm to the Breeders' Cup, a very special moment.

(River Oak Farm sold Borealis Night  in 2019 carrying Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) hopeful Arabian Knight , as well as Call to Service in 2020 carrying The Wine Steward , pointed toward the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1))

I want to give credit to my farm manager, Carlos Mesa. He has been with us for nearly 15 years, started as regular farm staff, and has been our farm manager for the past seven or eight years. He does an incredible job raising and foaling horses. He gets these mares and yearlings to the sales and puts together a fantastic team. We get compliments from many top horsemen and farm owners who visit us on how lucky we are to have Carlos, and I agree. He delivered Eda and played a significant role in her getting ready for the sale. I don't think we would have the accomplishments we do at the farm if it weren't for Carlos.