Hogy Another Home Run for Hui

When the nearly black physique of longtime fan favorite Hogy (Offlee Wild) crossed the finish line first in the GIII $400,000 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint under Florent Geroux Sept. 9, it was not a big surprise. After all, the now seven-time stakes winner was the 5-2 slight favorite do so and had finished a solid second the year prior in the same fixture, while also boasting a record of 19-7-6-2 in turf sprints going into the race. What was interesting about Hogy's victory was that it came for the first time in 33 starts without the familiar red and green silks of William Stiritz and instead in the pink and white of Michael Hui.

Now under the tutelage of Mike Maker, the 8-year-old gelding was a high-risk $80,000 claim one race prior–an Aug. 3 Saratoga turf sprint–and for the second season in a row, the Hui (54)/Maker (48) team struck in a graded stakes first off the tag with one of its acquisitions. A year prior, the pair snagged Greengrassofyoming (Quest) for $62,500 out of a June 26 Churchill Downs turf allowance/optional claimer, wheeled the horse back on 13 days' rest while upping him from 1 1/16 miles to 1 1/2 miles and won the GIII $100,000 Stars and Stripes S. at Arlington.

The Hogy-Hui home run now has grand slam potential in the grand scheme, as the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint is a possibility for the freshly minted millionaire, a winner of 17 of his 45 career appearances. Considered one of the top turf sprinters in the country for the past five seasons, Hogy is not Breeders' Cup nominated, but that could change if all goes well between now and early November.

“Of course, I do want to go to the Breeders' Cup and give the old boy a chance,” Hui said. “Money is obviously a factor and I don't want to go unless we believe he has a chance to win. [Maker] loves the horse and really likes how he gets into his training. We got him on a four-way shake, which you don't see very often for an 8-year-old for $80,000, but the horse is obviously very good. You should see his eyes when he heads from the paddock [to the track]. He knows it's his turn and he's wanting to run. It was very exciting to win, especially in his first race for me, and what was cool is I didn't realize that he has kind of a cult following. People love this horse.

“We have options with him after this,” the Little Rock, Arkansas-based owner continued. “It was just his first race for us and he actually missed about 10 days of training because he had a minor throat surgery after we claimed him. We'd like to get one more run in him before we decide for sure on the Breeders' Cup.”

Earning the biggest check of his career at Kentucky Downs, Hogy is hiding his age well. Earlier this season, the compact charge set Fair Grounds' 5 1/2-furlong turf course record when defeating divisional leader Green Mask (Mizzen Mast) in the Colonel Power S. In six 2017 starts, his only off-the-board finish came when a gaining fifth after a poor break in Belmont's GIII Jaipur S. June 10.

Next-race options, according to Hui, include the GII Nearctic S. at Woodbine Oct. 15, as well as Keeneland's GIII Woodford S. and GI Shadwell Turf Mile. Last year, Hogy closed from 10th to second in the stretch of the Woodford, losing by a dwindling half-length to reigning Breeders' Cup champ Mongolian Saturday (Any Given Saturday). If Hui is to give Hogy his chance to be a Turf Sprint champion, he will have to pay nomination and entry fees totaling $130,000, which are refundable if he does not make the 12-horse field.

Taghleeb (Hard Spun) is another success story for Hui, proving his worth quickly. Claimed for $62,500 two weeks to the day after Greengrassofyoming's aforementioned Arlington tally in July 2016, the chestnut charge added luster to Hui's knack for claiming high and successfully aiming higher. A winner of three stakes in his first six starts under said banner, including Gulftream's GIII W. L. McKnight H. in January over recent GI Sword Dancer S. winner Sadler's Joy (Kitten's Joy), the Shadwell-bred winner of 6-of-31 still managed to rally for fifth in the GIII Kentucky Turf Cup on Saturday, beaten a curtailing three lengths.

“We are also looking at the [GI $4-million Longines Breeders' Cup] Turf for Taghleeb,” Hui continued. “He really loves the firm turf and will get that out in California. His best races this year were on that kind of grass, like down at Gulfstream, and he stumbled the other day at Kentucky Downs and lost his momentum, but still ran a big race.”

The prospect of two possible Breeders' Cup horses among his small stable is an enthralling one for the native of Monticello, Arkansas, who was made wealthy through a career as an industrial engineer and cost management consultant in the transportation industry. With calculated acquisitions, surrounding himself with the right people and refusing to dwell on the tough times that so quickly come to a racehorse owner, the married father of three boys appears to have set himself up for even more success. In addition to his 11 horses in training, he has a pair of broodmares, including the Borrego mare Nina Fever, whom he claimed for $40,000 after she had placed in three stakes for trainer Wesley Ward.

“Nina Fever was claimed to run and then breed her, but she actually fractured a sesamoid during the race in which we got her,” he reflected. “That injury was a long-term blessing. We bred her to Scat Daddy and she produced (subsequent Grade 1 winner) Nickname, who sold for $350,000 on a $200,000 reserve. We then sent her to Cape Blanco (Ire) because I wanted to have a way into Galileo (Ire) line and she produced Hey Mike, who has placed in three stakes for us and we still have high hopes for him when he gets back from a break. She has a weanling colt by Empire Maker that we are very excited about, too.

“I like the high-level claiming game because it allows me to be competitive in stakes races without having to spend the Keeneland September-kind of money that you see, but you still definitely win some and lose some,” Hui continued. “Earlier this year, Greengrassofyoming was training better than he ever and was surely going to win the GIII Fair Grounds H. when he got injured and had to be retired. It wasn't life-threatening, so we contacted the breeder and sent him back to them because we knew that they loved the horse. We also claimed a horse named Ours Again (Medaglia d'Oro) who cost $250,000 as a yearling and we got him for $50,000 and he finally broke his maiden for $7,500 at Ellis–so, it's not all big successes.”

Hui claimed his first horse, Diablo's Holiday (Harlan's Holiday), in 2010, but it was not until pairing with Maker two years ago that he had any substantial success. Their sympatico is an obvious key to Hui's prosperity in thoroughbred racing, including an 18.5% strike rate in 2017 and $836,164 in earnings from just 54 starts.

“We don't approach it in any overly scientific way,” Hui explained. “We have the usual tools like ThoroGraph, Ragozin sheets and the DRF, but I always rely on Mike to give me those three words–and you know he's a man of few words–'I like him.' When he says that, I trust him and that's what he said about Hogy, despite him being eight and $80,000 being a lot of money. Mike understands owners and is a great horseman. I keep myself within a certain budget and we still have done very well.

“There's stupid money all over the place in racing, but I got into this because it was on my bucket list and I really wanted to have fun,” Hui concluded. “That's what we're doing and hopefully we can have some more fun before the end of the year.”