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BY EMILY SHIELDS
Reaching the Del Mar winner’s circle from his boyhood in India has been an interesting journey for California owner/breeder K. B. Sareen, center left. ©Benoit Photos
Kulbhushan Sareen—known to all as K. B. —never would have guessed he would end up breeding horses. In fact, his route to California from his boyhood in Calcutta was so circuitous that it’s a surprise he is in the sport at all. But through all of his global travels, a love of horse racing has endured.
“It was destiny,” Sareen said.
After his father passed away when he was an infant, Sareen grew up in a poor family led by a single mother with five children.
“My childhood wasn’t very pleasant,” Sareen admitted, “and I never had any money on me.”
But he became good at scraping together 40 rupees to take to the Royal Calcutta Turf Club on Saturdays, earning enough back with his wagering selections to buy a week of room and board. “I was pretty lucky,” he said.
He eventually made enough to go to university, achieving a bachelor’s degree in four years. He still used his racetrack winnings to “pay for my entertainment and to take girls out to dinner.”
But a degree couldn’t secure him a job in India. Sareen went to Iran to work for Toshiba International, but was thrown out in 1979 by the Islamic Republic as it removed foreigners from the country.
“Instead of going home to India, I bought a one-way ticket to America,” he said.
Sareen congratulates jockey Gary Stevens for the winning ride on Om in the Del Mar Derby
In December 1980, Sareen arrived in America on a tourist visa and was “determined to make it.” He started by washing dishes in Los Angeles, then moved up through the ranks to busboy, waiter, and bartender. He couldn’t believe his fortune, making $300 in tips in a single night.
“I thought this was the ultimate, but it wasn’t why I came to America,” he said. “I became an insurance salesman and made my own success.”
Sareen became friends with Selwyn Touber, who owned a Thoroughbred mare with little value.
“I asked him why he didn’t just breed her,” Sareen said. “We became partners.”
The winning True Knight mare, Never Bend True, produced an Expressman filly for them in 1991. That became Noori, who broke her maiden in her debut by 61⁄2 lengths for the partners and trainer Dan Hendricks. She ultimately won four of 25 starts and earned $27,334.
From there Sareen dabbled in the game.
“I would buy this or that, but nothing was very serious,” he said.
Enter Om. By Munnings out of the Tabasco Cat mare Rare Cat, Om was a $125,000 purchase at the 2014 Barretts March select 2-year-old sale. The notoriously hot-tempered colt broke his maiden by 7 1⁄4 lengths in his second start at odds of 22-1, handing 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah what would be the first of only two defeats.
The Sareen family’s pride and joy, Om, following his victory in the grade 2 Del Mar Derby
Om went on to be a multiple graded stakes winner of $1,355,082 and ran second in the Breeders’ Cup twice.
I’ve gone deeper into (horse racing) than I ever thought I would like to, but it’s been exciting. – K. B. Sareen