Shortleaf Stable Aims for More Success in 2019

The green bar graph on Equibase's owner profile of Shortleaf Stable is the most striking example of what John Ed Anthony has accomplished in 2018.

The statistical layout is fitting, too. 

The color could represent the shortleaf pine, a species native to south Arkansas, where Anthony, 79, was born, raised, and helped cultivate his family's vast timber interests. And like the tallest tree in the forest, that last bar towers over 18 others to the left, dating to 2000, in the annual breakdown of purse earnings compiled by racing's official data gathering organization. 

While Shortleaf has yet to reach the heights of its predecessor, Anthony's Loblolly Stable, it ranked 55th nationally this year ($1,519,759) and won 26 races, including four stakes, through Dec. 18.

All three figures represent high-water marks, since at least 2000, for Shortleaf, which was formed after Anthony and ex-wife Mary Lynn Dudley phased out their nationally prominent Loblolly racing and breeding operation in the mid-1990s.

Shortleaf's previous best year for purse earnings ($699,213) occurred in 2017. 

"The only deficiency in our program this year is we've had some good horses and won some nice races, but we haven't won any top races and haven't had anybody competing in the grade 1s or in classics, which is always the target that you would like to participate in and be a part of," said Anthony, a Hot Springs, Ark., resident and chairman of Anthony Timberlands. "But we have had a better year than the previous several, which were rather blah, I guess you could say."

Emphasizing Arkansas and New York, Loblolly was a major player from the late 1970s into the early 1990s, with its chocolate brown and yellow silks carried by Eclipse Award winners Temperence Hill (3-year-old male of 1980), Vanlandingham (older male of 1985) and Prairie Bayou (3-year-old male of 1993); classic winners Temperence Hill (Belmont Stakes (G1)), Pine Bluff (1992 Preakness Stakes (G1)), and Prairie Bayou (Preakness); and grade 1 winners like Cox's Ridge, Little Missouri, Demons Begone, De Roche, and Lost Mountain. 

Loblolly's first "big horse" was Cox's Ridge, who, carrying 130 pounds, won the prestigious Metropolitan Handicap (G1) in 1978 at Belmont Park.

Loblolly—named for another species of south Arkansas pine—ranked fourth nationally in purse earnings in 1993 ($3,301,307) after winning 50 of 204 starts. Conversely, Shortleaf won two races and generated only $47,300 in 2005.

Five years later, Anthony said he and son Ed, a pedigree and bloodstock analyst, began a stable reboot by increasing numbers through more activity at high-end yearling sales and building a youthful broodmare band. They eventually tapped 30-something trainers Brad Cox and Will VanMeter to develop that talent.

"I feel like we're in good hands across the board," John Ed Anthony said. "Brad Cox and Will VanMeter have turned out to be fine young men that are good trainers, attentive, and getting the job done. It's a combination of factors. It takes a while to get the team together and get everything going your way."

Other members of Shortleaf's 2018 inner circle, Anthony said, are John Gasper (advisor/racing manager); retired equine veterinarian Gary Lavin, whose Longfield Farm near Goshen, Ky., was once home to Loblolly's powerful breeding operation; Arthur Hancock, president of Stone Farm in Paris Ky.; and top Arkansas breeder Bill McDowell. 

"We've got a pretty good team of solid players that have been in the industry a long, long time," Anthony said. 

Anthony said Shortleaf keeps "13 or 14" mares at Stone Farm and an "additional "10 or so" at McDowell Farm near Sparkman, Ark., where he also stands two stallions—Double Irish, an unraced son of Tapit, and stakes-placed Tekton. 

Shortleaf's overall numbers are more robust than previous years, Anthony said, and the goal is "to try to bring a crop of 18 to 20" (a mix of homebreds and sales yearlings) to the races each year. Anthony purchased a son of Pioneerof the Nile  for a sale-record $600,000 at Fasig-Tipton's New York-bred Preferred Yearling Sale Aug. 12.

Still, Anthony said racing's landscape today isn't like the 1980s, when Loblolly was gobbling up stakes across the country. 

"What I recall most is that all of our horses were medication free," Anthony said. "There was no Lasix, and controls in New York and in Arkansas throughout the early stages of Loblolly were all relatively drug free periods. Only now where medication has gotten so permissive that racing seems to be somewhat different than it was in the old days."

Shortleaf's biggest moment in 2018 occurred when Plainsman won the $186,600 Discovery Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds Nov. 24 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Anthony said the Discovery marked his first stakes victory in New York since Clark Street, a Shortleaf homebred by Cox's Ridge, captured the Demoiselle (G2) for 2-year-old fillies in 1997 at Aqueduct.

Oaklawn Park may be Anthony's home track, but he still considers New York to be racing's epicenter.

"I've always felt, and I believe it's been confirmed by the industry over the years, that New York racing is the best racing, in my view, in the world," Anthony said. 

Anthony purchased Plainsman, a son of Flatter , for $350,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. A $230,000 purchase at the same sale, High North provided Shortleaf with victories in the $150,000 Northern Spur Stakes April 14 at Oaklawn and the $250,000 Iowa Derby July 6 at Prairie Meadows.

Both Plainsman and High North are trained by Cox, 38, who has rocketed to stardom in the last two years.  

Dutch Parrot, a Shortleaf homebred trained by VanMeter, won the $200,000 Lady Jacqueline Stakes Aug. 18 at JACK Thistledown Racino.

A 4-year-old daughter of Eskendereya, Dutch Parrot has bankrolled $388,607 in a 20-race career, leaving her $114,939 away from becoming the leading Arkansas-bred female money winner in history.

VanMeter, 35, has worked for Anthony since the 2016 Oaklawn meeting and calls training for Shortleaf "one of the most important jobs in the training business," noting the owner's deep roots in racing, and beyond.

Anthony's grandfather, Garland Anthony, was a legendary figure in the Arkansas forestry industry and became the country's largest independent lumber producer in the 1930s.

"On the face of it, you have nearly a 50-year history, as far as the racing stable is concerned, and that brings its own romance to the table," VanMeter said. "I think the stable represents the south forests of Arkansas. I think it represents Garland Anthony. I think it represents his foresight. And although it's been John Ed Anthony's baby, it's really neat to represent that history. I think as the stable does well, I think a lot of Arkansans can identify and root for them.''