CONTINUING THE FAMILY TRADITION
California breeder Ronald Rand certainly had a lifelong horse connection, but the racing bug didn’t truly bite until Aug. 28, 2011. That was the day Californiabred star Acclamation won the $1 million TVG Pacific Classic (G1) by a head.
“That was definitely the catalyst for getting me in horse racing,” Rand said.
Ronald Rand with mare Eden Mirelle at Old English Rancho in 2017
Acclamation’s career is worthy of the silver screen, as the son of Unusual Heat—Winning in Style, by Silveyville, earned $1,958,048 with 11 wins, two seconds, and six thirds in 30 starts.
“He won the Eddie Read (G1T) twice, and the Charles Whittingham (G1T) three times,” said Rand. “But that Pacific Classic—that was the ride that did it.”
Pitted against graded stakes stars Twirling Candy and Game On Dude, Acclamation went to the lead under Patrick Valenzuela and kept going. His achievements in 2011 earned him the title as the Eclipse Award national champion older male.
Long before that fateful day at Del Mar, Rand’s family was already in the horse business. It traces back two generations and has gone on to the next one. Rand’s daughter Courtney served as the veterinarian for Old English Rancho, the major California breeding farm that bred Acclamation and stood him during his early stud career. She is now the veterinarian for John Harris’ Harris Farms in Coalinga.
“My paternal grandfather had a horse farm back in Rock Creek Township, Ind.,” Rand said. “They were mainly pleasure horses that he raised and sold, but there was a horse connection in my life going back that far.”
Rand’s father moved from Indiana to California and ultimately settled in San Bernardino around 1950. Years later he ended up with a racehorse.
“The publisher of the newspaper out there had a breeding operation, and my dad ended up buying a yearling colt from them,” said Rand.
The elder Rand’s California-bred Count to Greece, a son of Sky Count—Jet to Greece, by Isle of Greece, raced at Agua Caliente in the early 1980s.
Another early racing memory that stuck with Ronald Rand was an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in 1973.
“I was a Navy carrier pilot, and I got home from Vietnam in April of 1973,” he said. “At the time, Cessna Aviation had come out with the Cessna Citation jet, and they ran an ad that said, ‘From Citation to Secretariat, Good Luck.’ ”
Secretariat went on that year to become the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win the Triple Crown.
Lastly, Rand’s future wife, Cathy, was an accomplished rider who studied at the University of Kentucky.
“Horses were kind of always in my family, you might say,” Rand noted.
Despite the many signs that equines would be part of his life, professionally Rand began a career in financial services.
A 2-year-old Courtney Rand helped reignite the Rand family’s interest in horses
Horses still continued to play a minor role; Courtney was photographed riding a horse at just 2 years old. She would ultimately take lessons at Lakewood Equestrian Center and was gifted a familiar family horse: Count to Greece.
Courtney decided to attend college at the University of California, Davis, majoring in genetics, and she went to veterinary school there as well. After she completed her residency, Courtney became the Old English Rancho veterinarian.
It was a good time to get involved: the Johnston family’s Old English Rancho had several promising horses both on the farm and at the track, including a 3-year-
old stakes horse named Acclamation.
“At this point we were getting really very interested,” Rand said. And after Acclamation’s Pacific Classic win? “I wanted to breed a mare to him.”
At the 2017 Barretts January mixed sale, Rand purchased an unraced Cyclotron mare in foal to Surf Cat. The mare, Eden Mirelle, out of the Bertrando mare Leanessa, had already produced one Surf Cat filly in 2014; Surf Kitten would go on to win nine of 21 starts. The foal Eden Mirelle produced four months
My paternal grandfather had a horse farm back in Rock Creek Township, Ind. ey were mainly pleasure horses that he raised and sold, but there was a horse connection in my life going back that far.”
after Rand bought her, a colt named Mister Spicoli, never raced, but the end game was at hand: Eden Mirelle got in foal to Acclamation and produced a filly in 2018.
Rand named the filly Callhercontessa. Andy Mathis debuted her at Pleasanton June 26, where she finished fifth, beaten five lengths for the win.
“She was ready to go at Del Mar last year, but she had a little problem,” said Rand. “She should race later this summer at Del Mar.”
Eden Mirelle has since foaled an Acclamation filly and a Vronsky filly, but it is the Smiling Tiger colt born this spring that carries the hopes of Rand and daughter Courtney.
“He’s a handsome lad,” Rand said. “He looks great.”
Smiling Tiger stands at Harris Farms alongside Acclamation. After E.W. (Buddy) Johnston died in 2015, the Old English operation merged with Harris Farms, and Johnston’s grandson Jonny Hilvers became the general manager of the entire enterprise.
Rand credits Hilvers as part of his involvement in racing, saying, “He has been a terrific connection to the business. His credentials and his ethics are top flight. He’s been a real influence in horse racing for me.”
Courtney, now Dr. Courtney Stammerjohan, was hired as the Harris Farms veterinarian after Dr. Jeanne Bowers retired. Rand has another child who grew up to become a structural engineer in Wisconsin and a third with him in the securities business, so having a family member interested in racing has really helped fuel his passion.
“I’ve been fortunate that Courtney has found a real love of it,” Rand said. “I was up visiting Harris Farms the other day, and she was palpating mares. It was amazing.”
From watching the phenomenal Acclamation win at Del Mar, to breeding his very own mare to Acclamation with his veterinarian daughter, Rand has truly found a home in the sport.