Pressley Hitting Home Runs with Jones, Super Steed

Mike Pressley bred Super Steed with the idea of winning a major Triple Crown prep race, just not for Mike Pressley.

A semi-retired automobile dealer from Henderson, Ky., home of Ellis Park, Pressley, 64, planned to sell the son of Super Saver  at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale where he began hitting home runs as a buyer almost 20 years earlier.

Super Steed never made it to the sales ring, but Pressley still launched a grand slam when the colt he co-owns with Steed Jackson captured the $500,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) for 3-year-olds Feb. 18 at Oaklawn Park at odds of 62-1.

"I've won some big races, but this was the biggest," Pressley said. "I own his mother. I own his brother. I own his sister. I own the whole family."

Trainer Larry Jones has been around for all of Pressley's big races, starting with Ruby's Reception—the trainer's first graded stakes winner and among the first horses Pressley campaigned. Purchased for $12,000 at the 2001 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Ruby's Reception competed in the Long John Silver's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and won the Fantasy Stakes (G2) in 2003 at Oaklawn.

Pressley met Jones through his daughter, who worked at his home track Ellis Park, and tapped the trainer to pick out a horse for the fledgling Oasis Racing Stables operation. 

"I watched him take horses that he didn't put a lot money in, but they turned out really good," Pressley said. "I thought, 'Boy, that's a guy I want if I ever get in the business.' I got some friends of mine and put together a syndicate. We started with $40,000. Five of us put up $8,000 apiece. Every time we had a vote, I got outvoted. I said no more of this, so I started taking 50% of them. That's the way it works."

More Keeneland September yearling bargains followed for Jones and Pressley: Josh's Madelyn was a $10,000 purchase in 2002 who became a grade 2 winner of $480,309 and then sold for $1 million at the 2007 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale; Wildcat Bettie B was a $42,000 purchase in 2004 who became a grade 1 winner in the Prioress Breeders' Cup, earned $504,818, and then sold for $550,000 at the 2007 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale; and Payton d'Oro, a $35,000 purchase in 2007, went on to win the 2009 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) and finish runner up in the 2010 Ogden Phipps (G1), earning $573,035.

"He picked them all out," Pressley said of Jones. "He picked Totally Tucker out. Just genius. That's all you can say."

Totally Tucker, a $20,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase in 2010, is the dam of Super Steed and the first horse Pressley and Jackson owned together. A physician from Evansville, Ind., and the colt's namesake, Jackson's clients include Pressley and Jones, among others.

"He got me through the shingles this year," Jones, 62, said with laugh. "That was the biggest obstacle he's had, getting me over shingles."

Super Steed is the second foal out of Totally Tucker, a daughter of Elusive Quality whose best effort was a fourth-place finish in the 2013 New Orleans Ladies Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots. She earned $95,293 in a 12-race career and is a half sister to 2014 Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Danza  and long-distance specialist Majestic Harbor , a millionaire grade 1 winner. 

Pressley sold Totally Tucker's first foal by Street Boss , Totally Boss, for $180,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September sale. 

Pressley said on the recommendation of Leif Aaron, then with Taylor Made Sales Agency, Totally Tucker was bred back to 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Super Saver, with the resulting foal to be sold at Keeneland. But Pressley kept the colt after receiving an evaluation from Taylor Made Sales Agency, which had consigned Totally Boss. 

"I did like him," said Jones, who called Super Steed's early issues "horse stuff."

"I rode him, I said, 'This horse is OK.' But he just had some problems that needed chiropractic help," Jones recalled. "He needed to be close to his chiropractor and get everything straightened out. Everything was good. Apparently, he may have laid in the mare wrong in the womb. He just came out with some issues, but over time he's grown, matured, and it's worked out."

Pressley only has a handful of horses in training and said Totally Tucker, his only mare, is boarded at Taylor Made near Nicholasville, Ky. Totally Tucker has an unnamed 2-year-old Empire Maker  colt, a yearling filly by Street Sense , and is in foal to Hard Spun , Jones' grade 1 winner and 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up.

"If you want to start a story in advance, we got Super Steed's 2-year-old half brother the same way," Jones said. "He came right out of the sale, too. He didn't suit the sale right, so we have his little brother. They did take the Empire Maker horse to the sale and Mike bought him back."

The price? Just $15,000.

Super Steed is scheduled to make his next start in the $1 million Rebel Stakes (G2) March 16 at Oaklawn.