Back in the 1970s and ’80s, trainer Hector Palma was a force to be reckoned with. He won training titles and multiple grade I stakes races, and conditioned the likes of Irish O’Brien and Pen Bal Lady. After a lengthy quiet period Palma’s stable is returning to the spotlight, thanks to a new farm, the successful stallion Affirmative, and a classy filly named Magic Spot.
Palma, 77, has been around a long time, but he still remembers his roots. The native of Mexico came up in racing in Tijuana before moving to the United States.
“I worked for Michael Millerick,” Palma recalled. “Buster” Millerick, a member of racing’s Hall of Fame, is best known as the trainer of California-bred Native Diver, who won three straight Hollywood Gold Cups from 1965 to 1967.
“I started training on my own on June 1, 1971,” Palma said. “I won my first race, and seven days later I ran my second horse and won that, too.”
In 1976 Palma won his first graded stakes race, with Daisy Do in the Santa Ynez Stakes (gr. III) at Santa Anita. The daughter of Bold Combatant had previously finished second in the Cinderella Stakes. From there, Palma won the Golden Gate Handicap (gr. III) in 1979 with As de Copas and the Sunny Slope
Stakes (gr. III) in 1983 with Vencimiento. That year, Palma won 90 races for career-high earnings of $1,711,303.
In 1981 a Cal-bred bay daughter of D’Artagnan named Irish O’Brien took to the track. The filly, owned by Barry and Susan Isaacs, won eight times in lower company before capturing the 1984 Autumn
Days Handicap at Santa Anita. She would continue to influence Palma’s barn for years to come.
Palma hit a breakout year in 1985 when he won 12 black-type races and earned $1,609,755. The stable standout was Fatih, a dual grade II winner who took the $275,000 Golden Gate Handicap and the $100,000 Arcadia Handicap. Fatih also finished fourth in the San Luis Rey Stakes (gr. IT) and earned $419,646 during his career.
Irish O’Brien added to her stakes résumé that year, taking the B. Thoughtful Handicap, but broke the sesamoids in her right foreleg and could not finish the Las Cienegas Handicap. She was retired with 11 wins, 16 seconds, and eight thirds in 58 starts for earnings of $371,775. Every March, Santa Anita runs a race named in her honor.
Pen Bal Lady would become the next stable star. The British-bred daughter of Mummy’s Game won the Senorita Stakes and the $100,000 Honeymoon Handicap (gr. III) in 1987. A year later she gave Palma his first success in grade I company by reeling off wins in the $100,000 Santa Ana and $150,000 Santa Barbara handicaps at Santa Anita before crossing town and taking the $100,000 Gamely Handicap (gr. IT) at Hollywood Park. Pen Bal Lady became a top broodmare in New Zealand, producing the Prized filly Prize Lady, who earned NZ$964,875 and won consecutive runnings of the group I Auckland Cup.
Palma was the all-time leading trainer at the Orange County Fair that raced at Los Alamitos before racing at the fair permanently ended in 1991. Palma also conditioned the likes of multiple stakes
winners Exclusive Nureyev, Notorious Pleasure, Carita Tostada, and Troyalty. The last named, a Cal-bred, won the $75,000 Graduation Stakes at Del Mar in 1993, then three more stakes a year later.
That same season, a horse with familiar connections named Blaze O’Brien gave Palma California Cup success. Blaze O’Brien’s dam was Irish O’Brien. Barry Isaacs bred the son of Interco in partnership with David Sofro while Barry and Susan Isaacs campaigned him. Blaze O’Brien won the 1991 Turf
Paradise Budweiser Breeders’ Cup Handicap and the Wickerr Handicap under the care of Julio Canani. He was in Brad MacDonald’s barn when he defended his Turf Paradise title and won the Khaled Handicap in 1992. Later that season he won his first $150,000 California Cup Mile before being transferred to Palma for the 1994 season.
Blaze O’Brien added the $66,622 How Now Handicap at Del Mar as his prep for a second Cal Cup Mile, which he won by a neck after rallying from mid-pack. The following season the gelding won the $136,050 Inglewood Handicap (gr. IIIT) and finished his career with $909,350 in earnings.
The quick juvenile Billy Black won the 1997 Graduation Stakes, but, following that season, Palma’s stable entered the doldrums. From 1998 through 2013, he did not win any stakes races or
train the winners of more than 17 races. He even took two years off from training, having started no horses in 2002 and 2003. In the next two seasons Palma won only three races combined.
Enter Magic Spot, a daughter of Papa Clem—Sweet Spot (GB), by Generous (Ire), owned in
partnership with co-breeders Baltazar Siqueiros and George Yager (BG Stable) and trained by Palma. The
3-year-old filly broke her maiden in her fourth try, then won two allowance events before adding the
$94,000 Campanile Stakes at Golden Gate Fields June 8. She has won four of eight starts for earnings of
$179,060. All four of her wins have been on the turf.
Of the track Palma stands a 15-year-old son of Unbridled named Affirmative in partnership. The
chestnut horse is out of the Alleged mare Tom’s a La Mode and has been standing at Brazeau Thoroughbred Farms in Hemet. Affirmative is best known as the sire of $355,994-earner and multiple
stakes winner Warren’s Jitterbug, but he is also the sire of Warren’s Veneda, a grade II-placed, multiple
stakes-winning filly who has earned $327,142.
Palma recently sold his property in Bradbury to move to San Dimas, while also purchasing one of Benjamin Warren’s farms in Temecula. The new farm has yet to be named, but that is where Affirmative
will stand the 2015 season.
Palma, a California Thoroughbred Breeders Association member since 1999, has 1,077 wins to his name for earnings of $25,151,983. With more stakes racing for Magic Spot on the horizon and a new farm to run, Palma has thrust himself back into the game with gusto.