FROM QUARTER HORSES TO THOROUGHBREDS
Edward and Theresa live in Kent, Wash., and are bringing their Kentucky-based mares to California to produce California-breds
Edward DeNike is a blue-collar guy, having worked his way up from the waterfront docks of Southern California at the age of 20 into top management for the largest overseas container terminal operator in America.
A manager for several major shipping container facilities in San Francisco, Oakland, and Long Beach, DeNike (pronounced Dee-NYK) retired from the Seattle-based SSA Terminals in 2024, ending a career of nearly 60 years. The Los Angeles native had served as SSA Terminals’ president of domestic container operations, its largest division, and chief operating officer.
Along the way, the soft-spoken DeNike, 79, developed a love of racing horses, first Quarter Horses and later Thoroughbreds, both as an owner and small-scale breeder. Racing Quarter Horses at Los Alamitos and Thoroughbreds in Northern California was a treasured pastime for decades that ended with the closure of Golden Gate Fields in 2024.
“I was really disappointed with the Bay Meadows closing and then Golden Gate Fields,” DeNike said. “With the horses we were running, we were doing really well. We won a few stakes and lots of other races.
“The types of horses we had—we could compete in stakes and allowance races in Northern California, but not in Southern California.”
His career path started as a student at Los Angeles Harbor College when he got a job at the nearby port. He never returned to college.
“I fell in love with the waterfront, and it’s why I stayed there as long as I did,” DeNike said.
In the early 1980s, he transferred to San Francisco, where he ran operations management.
“I had a house in San Mateo, and I was working almost all of the time,” he explained. “The only free time I had was on Saturday nights, and I started going to the Quarter Horse races at Bay Meadows. It became a regular thing. I really enjoyed Quarter Horse racing, and I bought my first horse in 1983.”
A few years later, he moved on to SSA Terminals. Thanks to his promotion, he purchased a 15-acre horse farm in Kent, Wash., a short drive from Emerald Downs.
DeNike’s involvement in racing began as it often does, with claiming horses.
DeNike gives a great deal of credit to Teresa for their success in racing.
Theresa holds their Thoroughbred mare Royal Heraldry, while Edward is with their homebred Quarter Horse mare Speights Girl, a daughter of Thoroughbred stallion Speightstown
“She’s a really, really good horsewoman,” he said. “She has a trainer’s license in Washington and is very involved in the veterinary part. She knows horses as well as I do. She knew nothing about horses before she met me. Like me, she ended up loving the business.”
There have been no graded stakes wins for DeNike in Thoroughbred racing, but his horses have captured several stakes over the years in Northern California. Since 2000, the DeNikes have earned nearly $4.7 million in Thoroughbred races, according to Equibase.
But he ran just five horses in 2025, winning once in 16 starts.
DeNike said it was the “worst year we ever had” as he tries to fit into Southern California racing. He said he has considered moving his horses out of California for an easier circuit but doesn’t feel comfortable about racing in jurisdictions he’s not familiar with. He’s also considered getting out of racing and breeding horses only for sale.
He is also concerned about taxes.
“In order to claim a business, you have to prove it is a business,” DeNike said. “It can’t all be losses.”
They have not been as active in breeding Thoroughbreds as they have been with Quarter Horses, but their recently retired Kentucky homebred Il Bellator, a son of Shackleford out of their Grand Slam mare Kaili, won the listed 2022 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields. The graded stakes-placed bay gelding retired as a 6-year-old this fall with earnings of $329,650. He is currently being trained for a second career in three-day eventing in Kentucky, DeNike said.
DeNike has five broodmares he keeps at a farm in Kentucky. This year, he said, “The plan is to bring three broodmares to California to foal here and then re-breed them to California sires, which would make them all Cal-breds.”
He said his best horse was a state-bred named Control Seeker, a durable graded stakes-placed winner of 10 races, earning $377,838. Racing mostly in Northern California, the gelded son of Sought After debuted in 2008 and retired in 2014 after 43 starts.
“A friend of mine was trying to prove the stallion by getting winners at the track,” DeNike said. “I purchased several of them, and they all did pretty well. (Control Seeker) was definitely the best, and he gave us many good times.”
Their biggest day in Thoroughbred racing was probably the Claiming Crown program in 2009 at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota. They won two stakes on the card with You’re My Boy Blue and Frisco Fox and were third in two others with Bartok’s Bling and Stormy Surge.
“The claiming crown races—definitely one of our best days,” DeNike said. “Russell Baze agreed to fly to Minnesota to ride the horses, and Canterbury Downs made a big thing of Russell riding at their track. They even gave a reduction on (the price of) beer for every race he won.
“We also had the favorite in a futurity race at Los Alamitos that night, so I went to Los Alamitos while (Teresa) went to Canterbury. It was particularly special because my wife had family that lived near Canterbury, and they all went to the track that day.”