Loooch Racing on the Lookout for Top Horses

Ron Paolucci jumped into the racehorse business with a $3,000 claiming trotter at Northfield Park, not far from his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Sometime later, he acquired his first Thoroughbred—a $2,500 claimer.

In the last few years, however, Paolucci, who heads Loooch Racing Stable, has entered the graded stakes arena with the filly Ria Antonia, who was placed first in the 2013 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), and the 3-year-old colt War Story, who is scheduled to race Aug. 1 in the West Virginia Derby (gr. II).

NOVAK: Ria Antonia's Connections Seek Respect

Paolucci, who lives in Dallas, Texas, hasn't forgotten his roots; he maintains a large stable at ThistleDown Racino near Cleveland, Ohio, with trainers Jeff Radosevich and Anthony Rini. He likes horses that compete at all levels of the game, but is branching out more into younger horses and now privately purchases more horses than he claims.

"I sat in the grandstand (at ThistleDown) from the time I was old enough to walk," Paolucci said in a recent interview with Blood-Horse. "I never missed a week at the track with my dad and granddad. Once I got my driver's license I was there every day."

Paolucci said that in 2011, Loooch Racing horses won nine races in a row. That year, the stable had about 10 horses.

"Most of the horses were cheaper claimers," Paolucci said. "But we did very well. At one point I got up to 105 horses, but lost some of them to claims, so the number dropped to about 80. Right now I have about 50 at ThistleDown alone."

Paolucci said his "first good horse" was Global Power, a Pulpit horse that won the Sussex Stakes at Delaware Park and Unbridled Stakes at Louisiana Downs, both on grass, in 2012, and the following year won the West Virginia Speaker's Cup on the turf at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort. In 2014 he was grade III-placed in the Jaipur Stakes on turf at Belmont Park.

Ria Antonia, owned by Loooch Racing and Christopher Dunn, ended up earning more than $1.5 million and sold at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall mixed sale for $1.8 million in 2014.

The multiple graded stakes-placed War Story, by Northern Afleet  , caught Paolucci's eye when he impressively won his career debut last year in a maiden special weight event at Churchill Downs. He contacted then-owner Harry Rosenblum, who had purchased the colt for $51,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale, and with assistance from partner Dunn of Jackson Bloodstock, bought him for $275,000.

War Story, co-owned by Glenn Ellis, finished fourth after a poor start in the Ohio Derby at ThistleDown in his last start June 20. Paolucci had planned to run him in the Aug. 2 William Hill Haskell Invitational (gr. I) at Monmouth Park against American Pharoah, but the colt was entered a few days earlier in the West Virginia Derby instead.

On July 30, Mountaineer got a call that War Story would be on the grounds the day before the Derby. So, Radosevich only had to ship him about 90 minutes to West Virginia.

War Story, after the Ohio Derby, was moved from trainer Tom Amoss to the barn of Radosevich, who is no stranger to Mountaineer. He has won more than 500 races there.

Meanwhile, there are other horses to track—and perhaps purchase—on a regular basis, which is something Paolucci enjoys. He said the makeup of his operation, and where it is based, gives him an advantage because he can manage costs.

"It allows me to play in New York and Kentucky," Paolucci said. "Some people are in this business because they have money, not to make money. There are vet bills and training bills. I make plenty—about $100,000 a month net-to-net profit—but the only way to make that is to get very lucky and to keep your costs down."