GIVEAWAY MARE RESULTS IN HOMEBRED STAKES WINNER
Mike Way, with stakes-winning El Potente, claimed his first horse in 2006
Mike Way is the chief executive officer of Prime Time International, one of the largest vegetable producers in America, and a small-time horse owner on the side.
How small? Way’s stable—My Way Racing—currently consists of six horses, some of them with partners, and one broodmare.
Breeding horses was not on his radar until he was gifted the English-bred You’re A Goat. But when the opportunity arose, the self-described “gambler at heart” decided to, of course, do it his way.
Turns out, the 60-year-old La Quinta resident is pretty lucky, too. That broodmare produced the talented bay filly Cee Drew, a California-bred daughter of the deceased stallion Cistron. In her third lifetime start, Cee Drew captured the $175,000 Leigh Ann Howard California Cup Oaks at a mile on the turf at Santa Anita Jan. 17.
You’re A Goat was one of three horses that trainer Dan Blacker, a native of Oxford, England, had imported several years ago from the United Kingdom. She was owned in a partnership, Roadrunner Racing, which included Way, among others.
A four-time winner at tracks in Great Britain, You’re A Goat never adapted to American racing. From five U.S. starts, she managed one third-place effort in a claiming race.
After You’re A Goat’s last-place finish in a claimer at Del Mar in 2018, Blacker decided it was time to call it quits on the 5-year-old mare by Notnowcato.
“She wasn’t worth anything, and so I asked Dan what he was going to do with her,” Way recalled. “He said he was going to give her away, and I said, ‘Don’t do that; I’ll take her.’
“It wasn’t for any academic reason. If he was going to give her away to someone to breed her, I figured why not me? She didn’t cost me anything, and I’d been thinking about maybe breeding a horse. She’d shown some racing ability on turf, and Dan thought she’d be a pretty decent broodmare.”
New to the business, Way took You’re A Goat directly to the pros at Harris Farms in search of a promising mating. But it was not immediate.
Cee Drew, named for Way’s friend Chris Drew, was the fourth foal produced by You’re A Goat, and the first to find success. Drew, a CEO for a Northern California produce company, and Way met at a conference and became fast friends. Way said he named the filly for him in order to get him interested in racing, “and now Chris wants to go every week.”
Chris Drew and Way celebrate after the California Cup Oaks
With her win in the Cal Cup Oaks, Cee Drew is now two-for-three, all on grass.
“Winning that race with 28 people there with me, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Way said. “It was quite a time. My bar bill that day was close to what they paid for the winning purse.”
Way added, “We want to see if (Cee Drew) will handle dirt,” noting the ample stakes opportunities for fillies provided over that surface in the Golden State Series. “We believe she has more to give.”
Cee Drew was set to run in the Golden State Juvenile Fillies Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard Oct. 31 on the main track at Del Mar. But perhaps spooked by the huge crowd, she reared up before the race and fell over, resulting in a veterinarian’s scratch.
Her sire, Cistron, by The Factor, was a crack sprinter on both dirt and turf, winning the Kona Gold (G2) and Bing Crosby (G1) in 2019 as well as the San Simeon (G3T) a year later. Unfortunately, Cistron died of complications from colic in 2024 while in just his third season at stud.
Way has bred You’re A Goat twice more and has a pair of fillies—a 2-year-old by Smiling Tiger that is expected to start later this year and a yearling by Halladay.
Drew and his namesake, Cal-bred Cee Drew
Cee Drew is not Way’s only stakes winner. His Florida-bred 7-year-old El Potente won Santa Anita’s Thunder Road Stakes (G3T) a year ago. The son of Temple City, trained by Blacker, has earned $284,796 through 2025 while winning six of 16 lifetime starts, mostly on turf.
He also has The Mizen Queen, an Irish import trained by Blacker and owned in a partnership. The 4-year-old filly broke her maiden at Del Mar in September and was most recently a close fourth in an allowance at Santa Anita.
Way, who attended Fresno State University, had always wanted to get into farming. He began with Prime Time, best known for its bell peppers, founded in 1992 in the Coachella Valley and Bakersfield. The company expanded into Mexico a few years later, becoming the largest supplier of bell peppers in North America.
Prime Time further expanded into Peru while adding numerous farming locations and a distribution network throughout the United States. Its produce now includes mini peppers, asparagus, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Way and his wife, Ellen, have two adult daughters, Julia and Lizzie. The girls came up with his stable name, My Way Racing, and also designed their brightly colored silks—green with a red “M” and a yellow “W,” with yellow and green bell peppers on black sleeves.
Through trainer Ruben Cardenas, Way claimed his first horse on his own, Proud Louie Too, in 2006 for $16,000.
“With the business doing well, I thought maybe I could buy a racehorse,” Way said. “He won that day. Then we ran him back and I have my friends and mom with me, and he runs fourth. We’re driving back to the desert that night and I get a call from Ruben, who tells me, ‘We have a clacker problem, and he needs surgery (for a displaced soft palate).’
“I tell him, ‘I’m not ready for this,’ and to run him back for the same price, $16,000, which he does. He didn’t win, but there were eight claims in for him and Jerry Hollendorfer gets him. He does the surgery, and the horse comes back and wins four races in a row for Hollendorfer.
“So that was my first lesson in horse ownership. You’ve got to do what’s right for the horse at all times.”