Stellar Wind's Finale Part of Journey for Connections

Kosta Hronis has a unique opinion on the upcoming retirement of the best horse he's ever owned.

She's a six-time grade 1 winner who has earned more than $2.3 million, and she's rolling into the Nov. 3 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) off three straight top-level victories in 2017—but he's not sad to see her go.

"I'm really happy for her. I know it sounds crazy, but I really am," Hronis said of Stellar Wind, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2015 known best for upsetting another champion, Beholder, twice in 2016. "It's easy, because I love Stellar Wind. I'm so proud of the career she's had. But I'm more proud that Friday, after the race, she's going to walk off the track as happy and as healthy as the day she walked onto the track. I'm really proud she's going to finish on that note."

So when the Curlin  mare goes through the sales ring at Keeneland following her final start in the Distaff, Hronis will be at ease. It's not a loss, because he intends on being a part of the chestnut's life. He'll be a frequent visitor wherever she lands.

"I kinda feel like the day my daughter got married," Hronis said. "It's one of those funny feelings. It's OK. They move onto their next journey in life. I feel very happy for her and everything she gave us."

The owner also has the confidence of what is coming next. Hronis, who bought his first horses in 2010, has already had five grade 1 winners with trainer John Sadler during that time.

"When we sold Lady of Shamrock, people told us we would never get another one like that," Hronis said. "Then we got Iotapa. She was better. People told me you're never gonna have another horse like that. Then we got Stellar Wind.

"You know what? There'll be another one in the barn who gives us a lot of joy and wins a lot of races for us. We're going to be OK."

Hronis and bloodstock agent David Ingordo, who advised on, and brokered the sale of Stellar Wind after her maiden win at Laurel Park in 2014, essentially got the same call from Sadler not long after the filly with the diagonal blaze got over the Santa Anita Park main track the first couple times.

"The first day she ran around the track, John called me," Hronis remembered. "He says, 'She looks spectacular. She floats over the track. I'm going to put her in a stakes right off the bat.'"

Hronis was hesitant at first, but trusted the trainer who had already helped guide him to tremendous success. Then came the call to Ingordo.

"I got that phone call after he breezed her," the bloodstock agent said. "He told me, 'She might be the best horse I've ever put my hands on.' When John Sadler tells you one can run, you go to the bank."

Stellar Wind went off at odds of 7-1 in the 2015 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3), her first start for her new connections, and won by 2 3/4 lengths.

"I made more betting on her than I did from commissions on the sale," Ingordo joked.

Stellar Wind was no bargain next time out, when she took the Santa Anita Oaks (G1) by 5 1/4 lengths at odds of 6-5, but that was one of her last truly flashy performances in a 15-race career. At the end of the year, she even had a run of tough luck.

A rough trip in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs and a brutal runner-up photo in the 2015 Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff at Keeneland came before and after two graded wins in Southern California, but her trademark performances were delivered during her 4-year-old year in 2016.

Never the favorite in four tries against Beholder, Stellar Wind defeated the four-time champion twice—by a half-length in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (G1) and by a neck in the Zenyatta Stakes (G1). In each she showed a determination to just edge such a talented rival.

"Those are just classic races," Sadler said with pride.

But she was lost a bit in the hoopla of the 2016 Distaff, when Beholder and Songbird battled to the wire in a stretch duel for the ages. Stellar Wind broke terribly from the gate and never got seriously involved en route to a fourth-place finish.

She bounced back in 2017, though, with an impressive effort to win the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park off a long layoff, then showed her mettle once again to edge another top-class filly, Vale Dori, in the Beholder Mile (G1) and the Clement L. Hirsch.

"It's been quite a story, but the story is not over yet," Ingordo said.

Her final start and third try at the Distaff also carries some extra weight. Sadler has won 29 grade 1 races in his career, but he's never won a Breeders' Cup event. He's winless in 39 starts in the World Championships.

He shrugs it off. It is what it is and he kind of likes being the underdog anyway. But for Hronis it's important. He wants the trainer who has guided him through the game to get over that hump, because he feels Sadler has earned it.

"It would be so easy to over-race a horse like her, but he knew she was a lightly built filly, so he'd have to manage her properly," Hronis said. "It would be easy to chase that next purse or try to make a schedule for her, but John never made a schedule. He let her tell us when she was ready to race.

"For us as a family, to be a part of John Sadler winning his first Breeders' Cup—that would be a special moment for us, just to know we were involved and played a part. Because we think so highly of him—who he is, what he does. He's built the team. He and David have built the team and we're not going to take any credit for that, because we're not horse people. We're farmers."

The compliment was returned by Ingordo and Sadler. Ingordo said the success Hronis—a grape and citrus farmer—has had in horse racing is no mistake. He compared him to the revered owner Bob Lewis.

"It's easy to root for people like that," Ingordo said.

Although it would certainly be meaningful if Stellar Wind went out a Breeders' Cup champion, if she runs well and doesn't win the Distaff, don't look for somber faces from her connections when they unsaddle her for the last time Friday. They want to win, like anyone would, but Stellar Wind won't lose any stature in their eyes. They have too much respect for her to be disappointed.

"She's great already," Sadler said. "If we win another grade 1 with her, that's just a bonus."