By California Thoroughbred
Ty Green has a good sense of humor, a trait that can carry him through lean times in the racing industry. He owns and operates SLO Racing Stable and explains, “I thought it would be funny to have something called ‘slow.’ It would confuse people.” The name is really derived from Green’s job as a lawyer in San Luis Obispo.
Since Green got into the breeding game just a decade ago, his horses have been far from slow. And while his breeding and racing stable improves each year, Green has turned his attention to the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association, where he now serves on the board.
But Green didn’t start with horses. He started with pigs.
“I grew up in the Santa Ynez Valley, where I had every animal except horses,” he said. “I had a pig operation with 200 pigs when I was 16.”
Green made the leap from pigs to law via the University of Southern California, graduating with a degree in English literature before moving to the law school there.
“I did law in Los Angeles for 11 years and in college discovered both Santa Anita and Hollywood Park were right there,” he said. “So I spent way too much of my college years at the track.”
Green helped his local postmen out by collecting their wagers for the day and running them to the track.
“It was the golden age of racing in California,” Green said. “I saw Affirmed run, saw Laffit Pincay and Bill Shoemaker. But I fell in love through Vigors.”
Green was at Santa Anita the day popular, near-white Vigors won the grade 1 San Antonio by dropping well back, then circling the field to win.
“From then on I saw all of his races, including the Santa Anita Handicap,” Green recalled.
John Henry was another big name that Green remembers seeing before he moved north, away from Santa Anita and horse racing in general.
“I lost track,” he said of the sport. “At the time you could watch the Triple Crown, but that’s not a way to stay in connection with it. I missed a lot, but I was busy making a career and you just go on.”
In 2005 Green was flipping channels when he ran across TVG.
“I didn’t know it existed,” he said. “I started watching racing again and got really into it.”
That was just one of two factors that catapulted Green into the sport. The other is that at age 46, Green had a heart attack.
“I came out of that thinking I didn’t want to wait until I’m 80 before doing this; I wanted to do it now,” he said. “So I bought 2% of a horse from a syndicate.”
Owning with a group wasn’t for Green, who wanted his own. He and a friend met up with former Magali Farms manager Tom Hudson and bought a yearling for $10,000 out of the Barretts October sale.
She was a Speightstown, and it was right before he took off. She was on the smaller side. I actually picked her out myself.”
The filly, Pleasing Sunrise, went on to break her maiden second out at Del Mar in 2010, rolling to win by 23⁄4 lengths under Joel Rosario. On that occasion she defeated subsequent California champion 2-year-old filly California Nectar.
“At the time, Speightstown was catching on,” Green said. “The phone started ringing and we had a $350,000 offer. We said no.”
Pleasing Sunrise never won again, but she has become one of the cornerstone pieces in Green’s broodmare band.
“I decided we could make the breeding business work, but it could only work if you had good mares, so I decided to keep her.”
Both of Pleasing Sunrise’s foals to race are winners; the first, Potente Alba (by Eskendereya) earned $83,303 while Sunrise Journey (by Good Journey) earned $53,688. The mare has a 3-year-old Oxbow filly named Seven Sisters currently on her way back to the track, and a 2-year-old Einstein filly named Midnight Sunrise that looks promising.
“She’s just getting ready to start,” Green said.
Pleasing Sunrise foaled a Shanghai Bobby filly in 2018, then had a Grazen filly this year. She is in foal to Goldencents.
“In the interim Tom told me to look at a yearling,” Green said. “I thought one horse was enough, but he kept after me so I went to look at her. They wanted $2,500; I gave $1,500. I told Tom to get her ready for the sale, but one day I went to see her and said, ‘We aren’t selling this filly!’”
The filly was Bella Viaggia, by Good Journey—Miss Del Mar, by American Chance, who became a stakes winner for Green. She broke her maiden second out at Del Mar in 2012, then added an allowance optional claimer.
It was Hudson who talked Green and trainer Mike Puype into the $100,000 John Deere California Cup Distaff. Stakes, which she won by two lengths at 9-1.
Bella Viaggia joined Green’s broodmare band on retirement after earning $261,360. Her first foal, 3-year-old Bella Chica, by City Zip, was second on debut in January and is on her way back to the races now. Bella Viaggia has an unraced Decarchy juvenile filly named Bella D, an English Channel yearling colt named Bishop’s Peak, and died giving birth to a Richard’s Kid colt named Bella’s Kid this year.
With Hudson and partner Tony Narducci, SLO Racing also owned Neveradoubt, winner of the 2015 Snow Chief Stakes at Santa Anita. The Decarchy colt pulled off a 41-1 upset when he scored in that $200,000 turf race.
All of this growing success gave Green another goal: to make a difference to the breeding industry in the north by getting on the CTBA board.
“I’ve always been impressed by the CTBA, their staff, and board members, with their dedication and knowledge,” he said. “I’m just a small breeder in a place where people don’t know racing well. I’d like to get the message out to those people, and take them to the farms and track with me. If you get people involved in it and in the right environment, they’ll really understand it.”
Memories of his introduction to California racing still linger.
“I love the game, love the horses, and have met the most amazing people,” Green said. “I’d like to bring racing
back in California like it was. I want to see the quality come back, and see the best mares stay here rather than leave. And I bring a different perspective as a really small breeder.”