Dreaming of a Scherr Thing

Wayne Scherr grew up racing at the bush tracks of North Dakota, but had been out of racing for nearly two decades before consignor Scott Bergsrud convinced him to get back in the game two years ago. Through Bergsrud’s SAB Sales banner, Scherr will offer six juveniles at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Timonium, Maryland. 
“I first got involved in racing through my dad in North Dakota when I was very, very young,” Scherr recalled. “We had racehorses and we ran around these little bush tracks where you pretty much dropped a flag wherever you were at. After I got a little older and got my driver’s license, he just turned me loose and let me do my own thing as a trainer and as an owner.” 
    It was in North Dakota that Scherr first met Bergsrud. 
    “Scottie was our jockey when he was 14 or 15 years old,” Scherr explained. “We used to pick him up at his house because he didn’t have a driver’s license and we’d haul him around to these little three and four day fairs and that’s how I got to know him.” 
    Scherr, who now calls South Dakota home and is a masonry contractor, became a school teacher and coached wrestling and found he no longer had time for racing. 
    “Scottie just kept bugging me for many years about buying horses and giving it a try again,” Scherr said. “And finally, two years ago in fact, I decided to buy one and it turned out ok.” 
    That initial investment grew into something bigger last fall when Scherr purchased 15 yearlings. He admits he is dreaming big and he has a plan. 
    “To be honest with you, I’ve accomplished probably every dream I’ve ever had–everyone has their bucket list items–there is only one thing that I still desire to accomplish and that is to have a horse in the Kentucky Derby just like everybody,” he said. “I felt that, if we could buy these horses between $20,000 to $80,000 range and pick out the best one out of that to race, it would give us a little more versatility and a little more to pick from. And we’d try and make enough selling the rest of them to at least pay for one with the Derby as a goal. If that doesn’t happen, that’s fine too. I am just going to keep doing this until I can’t do it anymore or until I get there. It will probably never happen, who knows, but every horse I have I try to put the name dream in it because this is my dream. So I’m naming every horse as yearlings and every horse is going to have the name dream in it. For the sake of the fact that I am someday hopeful to be in the Kentucky Derby.” 
    The pinhooking part of the plan has already enjoyed success this spring. Scherr picked up a filly by Midshipman for $16,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. Reoffered at OBS April, the filly brought $140,000. 
“I was just hoping to get $50,000 for her,” Scherr admitted. “I was watching the sale on my computer and my office manager is in the office with me and this other contractor is walking in and I say, ‘You’re going to see something really interesting. We’re going to watch one of my horses sell.’ Right away the guy says, ‘Well what do you hope to get for it. I said, ‘I don’t know, it would be nice if we could get $50,000 for it. 
    “I paid $16,000 for her,” he continued. “And you probably put $15,000 to $20,000 into every horse you buy, so maybe I could make $10,000 on her.’ The bidding started out really slowly. You know how they always start out $30,000, $40,000 and they back off to $5,000 or $10,000 and it kept going, but then she stalled at $30,000 and the one contractor made the comment that it didn’t look like I was going to get my $50,000 and then all of a sudden it just took off…$30,000, $40,000, $50,000 $60,000. It puts a smile on your face just to watch it happen and it happens so quick.” 
Scherr named the Midshipman filly for his wife, Candy, who is just starting to get over the initial surprise of her husband’s new start in racing. 
    “I never told my wife that I was going to buy horses,” Scherr smiled. “All of sudden she opened the mail one day and she’s got a bill for $30,000 for a horse. She thought it was a joke. I asked her what she would have said if I’d asked her first and she said, ‘I would have told you you couldn’t.’ And I said, ‘Exactly and that’s why I did it.’ So for about three days she wouldn’t talk to me at all, but then she started to get over it a little bit after that. And then after I sold that filly, she started to change her tune a little bit. I named the filly I Dream of Candy because that’s the horse I picked out by myself, so I named it after her. But now she thinks all the money is hers. I don’t think so, though. We’ve got too many expenses to take care of first.” 
    Among Scherr’s offerings in Timonium Monday are hip 40, a filly by Tiz Wonderful who breezed in : 10 2/5; and hip 63, a colt by two-time champion Lookin at Lucky who also worked in :10 2/5. 
Scherr is hoping the dreaming continues in Maryland. 
    “Scottie called to tell me that he’s had a lot of looks on two or three of them–more than average–so he feels really good about that,” Scherr said.