Horse owner John Tipton has been a familiar presence at Bay Area racetracks and the summer fair meets for more than three decades. Since 2000, his horses—competing mostly at the lower claiming levels—have banked more than $1 million, according to Equibase. And those are just the horses he’s owned outright, not to mention the 30 or so racing partnerships to which he has belonged.
John Tipton is helping daughters Alissa (left) and Hallie launch Mean Girls Racing Stable
He’s bred a few horses as well. But, he admits, nothing he has done in the business comes close to the attention he has garnered since he and his daughters, Alissa and Hallie, began a new racing venture called Mean Girls Racing Stable. The ultimate goal behind it—a successful women’s-only racehorse ownership syndicate—is a ways off , Tipton knows. But they are laying the foundation.
The stable name, of course, comes from the iconic 2004 comedy film about high school life for an exclusive gang of fashion-obsessed coeds that starred Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey. Both Alissa and Hallie said it was one of their favorite movies.
“The name has caught on; they started an Instagram account and the response has been really positive,” said their 59-year-old father. “We have heard from people all over the country. People have seen (Alissa and Hallie) on Instagram, and they want to be a part of it.”
Tipton owns an ATM credit card processing company and lives in Pengrove, a town of less than 2,500 people in central Sonoma County near Petaluma. He and his wife, Leslie, married for 38 years, have a couple of acres. He said he sold a vending machine business he owned in order to devote more time to the Mean Girls stable while acting as a quasi bloodstock advisor. He’s backed off his own racing stable for the time being and gave the girls three of his horses to help get them started.
The inspiration sprang from a visit to the Golden Gate Fields Turf Club in January, Tipton said.
A recent Mean Girls outing—“It’s all about having fun,” Tipton says
“When my younger daughter Hallie turned 21, we had a Mean Girls-themed birthday party for her there,” he said. “She and her friends all dressed up as Mean Girls, and we all had a great time.
“We just thought it was a hell of an idea (to name the stable for the movie),” he added.
Alissa, who is 29, and Hallie stress that their stable is, like the film, about “women’s empowerment.” A website for the stable designed to support the empowerment theme is nearly ready to launch, she said, and will go live once they have their stable’s merchandise ready to sell.
“We’ve had a lot of interest (through social media),” Alissa said. “We’ve heard from people all over that would like to be involved. I’d like to see us expand as we get the word out.”
Tipton has given some of his horses to Mean Girls, which already has its own silks
Racehorse ownership partnerships exclusively for women are not new, though the few that exist have mostly operated on the East Coast or in Kentucky. Groups such as Lady Sheila Stable, Sisters in Racing, and StarLadies Racing have all enjoyed success on the track.
Tipton said he has heard from at least 18 women already who would like to become investors. They haven’t moved forward because of uncertainty over the future of racing in Northern California, where they prefer to compete. The owner of Golden Gate Fields, as is well known, has announced plans to close in mid-2024. While there has been speculation about using racing fair tracks as a possible replacement circuit in the north, the situation is fluid.
Mean Girls Racing is growing slowly, even so. Tipton has added an eighth horse to the stable—a 5-year-old mare named Dramatizer—via the claim box Oct. 23 at Golden Gate.
“We really want Northern California racing to continue,” Tipton said.
“We’ve taken a step back for now, not knowing what’s going to happen. We really need answers—not just us, but everyone who depends on racing.”
If the Northern California situation doesn’t get worked out, he said they plan to continue with a stable in Southern California, but on a smaller scale.
Since running its first horse in late May, Mean Girls Racing has found the winner’s circle five times from 17 starts as of Oct. 22. Three of their winners were claimed out of those races, including their debut runner, California-bred Harbor Sky, for $5,000 at Golden Gate Fields, a development Alissa called “bittersweet.” (They reclaimed the Majestic Harbor gelding for $3,500 at the Big Fresno County Fair on Oct. 8.)
The California-bred 7-year-old gelding Windribbon gave them their biggest win so far in a $20,000 claiming race July 22 at Del Mar. The son of Sway Away, runner-up in the 2021 edition of the Longacres Mile Handicap (G3) at Emerald Downs, has banked $41,802 since being transferred from Tipton to his daughters.
Alissa owns a beauty salon in downtown Petaluma, while Hallie has a two-year degree from a local community college in behavior sciences. She is working in the catering business.
“My daughters are pretty successful; they have some money in the bank,” Tipton said.
The sisters developed a love of horses while growing up attending the races or when their father would bring one home from the track occasionally for rest.
“We’ve always been involved with horses through our dad,” Hallie said. “We love animals. As you know, we’ve had protesters at Golden Gate Fields over animal abuse. Part of this is, we’d like to get the word out to people who don’t know that it isn’t true. (The protesters) really have no idea what they’re talking about. Horses aren’t being abused. We take care of our horses. We treat these horses better than people are treated.”
Tipton can attest to that. He said with a laugh, “Whenever we brought one home, my trainer Isidro (Tamayo) would always complain that it came back 40 pounds heavier than when it left.”