Brant Makes Triumphant Return to Racing

The people who know Peter M. Brant best describe him as a quiet, private person. Yet that depiction stands in direct contrast to the way his life has played out.

Brant, 71, has spent the bulk of his adult life making headlines, be it as a socialite; or for his involvement in polo, art, fashion, and publishing. And now, again, for his ownership of top Thoroughbreds.

Some 20 years after he disbanded one of the sport's most successful stables, Brant has made a triumphant return to racing in the last year. Several decades after horses such as Waya, Just a Game, Track Barron, and Gulch brought him both Eclipse Awards and a treasure trove of major wins, Brant has quickly restocked his racing and breeding operation and again is winning grade 1 stakes with horses who will be key players at the Nov. 2-3 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Churchill Downs.

He's also savoring every afternoon at the racetrack and each morning watching his horses work with more gusto than ever.

"I love being involved in the sport again. It's a great game," Brant said. "Winning a grade 1 stakes now is a bigger thrill than it was years ago."

Considering all of his past success, those are powerful words.

In his younger days Brant worked through the mid-1990s with a Who's Who of Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame-caliber trainers such as Frank Whiteley Jr., David Whiteley, LeRoy Jolley, D. Wayne Lukas, and Allen Jerkens and won a slew of New York's major grade 1 races, including the Whitney Handicap, Woodward Stakes, Metropolitan Handicap, Wood Memorial Invitational Stakes, Champagne Stakes, Alabama Stakes, Beldame Stakes, Flower Bowl Stakes, Hopeful Stakes, Coaching Club American Oaks, and Spinaway Stakes.

The New York native also owned a 25% share of Swale, the winner of the 1984 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1), and he bred Thunder Gulch, winner of the 1995 Kentucky Derby and Belmont.

"What encouraged me to get involved in racing is that I grew up in Queens (New York). I would cut school to go to Aqueduct and find an older person to help me get in. It was always in my blood," said Brant, who first entered ownership in 1975 when he bought five yearlings at the Keeneland and Saratoga sales. "As a kid, I watched horses such as Carry Back and Kelso. I saw Ruffian and by having her trainer (Frank Whiteley Jr.) as my trainer I got to know the big players in the game and that inspired me to get involved in a major way."

This time around Brant is again surrounding himself with the industry's top talent. He has a future first-ballot Hall of Fame trainer in Chad Brown caring for about 35 of his horses, and in a short period of time the 39-year-old Brown and Brant have fashioned a remarkable comeback story.

In Sistercharlie, Brant has a 4-year-old filly who ranks as one of the favorites for the $2 million Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) off a trio of grade 1 victories: the Beverly D. Stakes, Diana Stakes, and Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes. 

In partnership with Stud Vendaval, he also owns Beldame Stakes (G1) winner and $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) candidate Wow Cat.

After winning just three races in 2017, Brant has won five grade 1 stakes in 2018 as well as three grade 2s and a grade 3, and has notched 19 wins from 65 starts through Oct. 16 with horses racing either under his name or in partnership.

"Peter re-entered the game with a plan, and he's stuck with it. I'm happy to say I helped him, but through his vision and his natural instincts he's done a remarkable job of balancing his prior knowledge and his experience of how to achieve success in this game," noted Brown. "He's gotten up to speed with modern times and knows what has changed in the 20 years since he left. He's done a terrific job of balancing the old and the new. In the areas where he needed to change his plan or his core beliefs, he's done it. He's adapted in all areas from veterinary care, to auctions, to accepting the fact horses do not run nearly as often as they used to. I've picked his brain as often as he's picked mine, and I believe we are a great team."

As seamless as Brant's return has been, it's hard to believe that he spent two decades on the sidelines. His passion for the game also raises questions about why he left in the first place.

It was simply a case of a day having just 24 hours.

"Before, when I was involved in racing, I was a high-level polo player, and I found I couldn't devote my time properly to both polo and racing," said Brant, the chairman and CEO of the White Birch Paper Company near his Greenwich, Conn., home. "I had to choose one of them, and I decided to stay with polo."

Polo has played an integral part in Brant's life. An expert horseman and world-class polo player, he was a founder of Greenwich Polo Club and the Saratoga Polo Association, and cofounder of the Bridgehampton Polo Club. His commitment to the sport was saluted in 2017 when he received the Harriman Cup Award for his leadership, public service, and staunch advocacy and support of equestrian sports.

Joseph Allen, Brant's cousin and a longtime partner in business and racing, saw how his close friend was being tugged in a myriad of directions during those frenetic days in the '80s and '90s.

"Peter is involved in a lot of activities, and when he gets involved in something, he does it with great vigor. Aside from his own paper business, he's been involved in the art world in an absolutely major way and that's taken up a lot of his time," Allen said. 

Allen owned Just a Game with Brant and currently owns the promising 2-year-old maiden winner U S Navy Cross with him.

"He was also interested in antiques and fashion and was deeply involved with them. There's only so much one person can do in one day," he said. 

Brant said he whittled his stable in the 1990s until only De Niro remained. After the grade 3 winner's career ended with a last-place finish in the 1996 Appleton Handicap (G3T) at Gulfstream Park, Brant followed the sport from afar and had no regrets about dispersing his stable.

"If you had asked me four years ago about getting involved in racing again, I would have said 'no,' " Brant said.

But two things happened. In 2015 Brant and his son Chris attended the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) to watch American Pharoah 's bid to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. That day his son saw how many friends his father had at the racetrack, and he planted a seed about returning to the sport.

"Chris was surprised at how many people I knew and said I should get involved again," the elder Brant said.

An accident set the comeback in motion. While playing for his White Birch polo team in the 2016 East Coast Open Tournament, Brant fell from his horse and injured a tendon. It ended his playing career but gave him the time he needed to reassemble his stable.

"He's always loved horses and polo took up a lot of his time when he played it at the highest levels," Allen said. "Peter is in his early 70s and he got hurt two years ago and thankfully it was not a major injury, but it was a significant injury and he hasn't played much since then. That was one activity he had to give up, and it was a major part of his life for a long time, especially after he left the Thoroughbred business."

When Brant decided to re-enter racing, the search for a trainer did not take long.

"With Chad I basically had a number of recommendations on trainers. A friend in Europe mentioned him to me. I watched his record and what he was doing and he seemed to be training the kind of horses I liked," Brant said. "He also seemed to be buying and developing yearlings. I thought he was also good from the bloodstock side in evaluating horses and understanding the distances they wanted to run as well as managing them. I get along great with him, and he's become a friend. I care about winning great races, and that's what Chad does."

Brant also revisited key elements from the business model that had worked so effectively three decades 

earlier. 

He started by purchasing several horses at the 2016 Goffs Wildenstein Stable Horses in Training Dispersal. He then began to assemble a band of 15 broodmares at Claiborne Farm, re-establishing business ties dating back to the 1970s. He added to his stable with experienced horses from overseas and unraced prospects at sales.

Finally, on Nov. 19, 2016, Brant's name reappeared in the entries with Azaelia, a filly he owned with Allen. 

While he still races under his own name for the most part, he has also entered into new partnerships, a vehicle that gave him an ownership share of Wow Cat and Ruffian Stakes (G2) winner Pacific Wind, who is owned by Brant, Sharon Alesia, Ciaglia Racing, and Dominic Savides. In addition, at the recent Keeneland September yearling sale, he bought several prospects with fellow Connecticut resident Robert LaPenta, who also has horses with Brown.

"During the last two years, Peter has been in a building mode," Allen said. "Peter has chosen an expensive way to get back in, but it's a smart way. He's done well so far, and he'll continue to do so."

Brant's many years of riding and playing polo have also come to the forefront in building his new stable as he brings an expert eye to all phases of the operation.

"When he comes out in the morning to watch horses train, he knows what he's looking at," Brown said. "When I am explaining injuries, he knows exactly what I'm talking about, and if he doesn't, he wants to learn. At an auction he has a real good feel for what he wants. He makes a short list on his own, and then I'll come in and look at them. He spearheads everything he does, and he knows enough to do it. He's really enjoying the races as well as coming out to the barn and spending time there in the mornings.

"Being a lifelong horseman, he truly appreciates the animals, and I can see the affection he has for them. He's extremely compassionate about his horses. Everything Peter does, he does it first class or he won't do it."

If there's a major difference this time around, it centers on the way his family has embraced racing. His children are older and more appreciative of the sport, and Chris, in particular, has been active in supporting the stable.

In 1995 Brant married his second wife, model Stephanie Seymour, and she, too, caught the ownership bug and races the 3-year-old filly Significant Form, who won the 2017 Miss Grillo Stakes (G3T). 

"Peter is getting to an age where he really wants to enjoy racing and what really helps him a lot is that his son is really getting interested and involved in it and I know that's making him very happy," Allen said. 

Indeed it is. Just as Brant's return to the sport has been a delight to the people working with him.

"He's an outstanding and generous person, and I've really enjoyed learning from him," Brown said. "He's been such a refreshing addition to our stable. He has some really talented horses in all divisions, and from a personal standpoint, I'm learning from someone who is so experienced and was at the very top of this game before I was even around.

"All these years later he still knows how to be successful in racing."