CAL-BRED INVESTMENTS PAY OFF FOR LONGTIME BANK EXECUTIVE
Ardyce and William Peeples collect roses and a trophy after Big City Lights’ Real Good Deal
After a lifetime of making careful investments, William Peeples wants to follow his own instincts—and smell the roses.
Peeples, 81 in April, is retiring from the Goleta bank he helped start 35 years ago. That will allow him more time to spend with his wife, Ardyce, and continue pursuit of another major interest—racing Thoroughbreds.
As a longtime pinhooker and client of bloodstock agent John Brocklebank, Peeples applied to horse acquisition much the same investment knowledge he used in banking. He bought and sold his best young horses and realized returns that he later reinvested. Nowadays, he’s keeping the horses he buys to race himself.
“I’ve always treated racing as a business, an avocation, I guess,” Peeples said. “It’s a divergence from what I’m used to. Racing is just another world, so much more relaxing, even though I get very nervous beforehand if I have a horse running. Of course, there’s the thrill of winning a race.
“It’s a challenge as well, the racing, the breeding, pinhooking. Going to the sales in places like Florida, Kentucky, New York; it’s enjoyable. I’ve been successful enough at it to stay involved.”
And he’s enjoying racing as much as ever, thanks in large part to star California-bred sprinter Big City Lights, recent winner of the Palos Verdes Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita.
Racing is just another world, so much more relaxing, even though I get very nervous beforehand if I have a horse running. —William Peeples
“Not a particular favorite moment, but watching this horse develop as a colt has to be the most enjoyment I’ve had in racing,” Peeples said. “He was just awesome when he first started.”
Big City Lights, then trained by Luis Mendez, began his career at Santa Anita as a 2-year-old in 2021, romping in his maiden on debut by 121⁄2 lengths. He came back a month later to dominate the five-furlong Fasig-Tipton Futurity by 71⁄4 lengths.
The son of Mr. Big switched to Richard Mandella’s barn as a 3-year-old, winning the Real Good Deal Stakes over top state-breds Slow Down Andy and Finneus. A knee injury sidelined Big City Light for 10 months in 2023, but his nose victory Feb. 10 in the Palos Verdes—in his second start following that layoff—indicates he’s back.
Big City Lights wins 2021 Fasig-Tipton Futurity
Purchased by Peeples for $22,000 from breeder Bar C Racing Stables at the Fasig-Tipton California fall yearling sale, Big City Lights, now 5, has won five of nine starts with four seconds and earnings of nearly $400,000.
Peeples currently has three other horses in training. Three-year-old gelding Tranche, furloughed since October, is set to return to action soon. A $210,000 Keeneland yearling buy, the Kentucky-bred son of Collected upset odds-on Mirahmadi in last year’s Fasig-Tipton Futurity—coincidentally by 71⁄4 lengths—to break his maiden at 20-1.
“That’s about the maximum I’ll go,” Peeples said of Tranche’s selling price.
Peeples also has a pair of recently purchased 2-year-olds set to debut later this year: a Good Magic filly and a gelding by Om. Both unnamed, they are trained by Mendez, who conditions all of Peeples’ young horses.
Though he maintains a small band of two to four broodmares, Peeples said he prefers buying horses to raising foals. The foals his mares produce are for sale.
“I can’t say that I’ve bred anything that was outstanding,” he said.
Looking to his future purchases after retirement, Peeples said, “As I go forward, maybe I’ll reach a little more, maybe go down a little in numbers and up in terms of quality.”
William and Ardyce Peeples have lived in the Santa Barbara area for 50 years
Born in Wisconsin, where he grew up, Peeples has lived in Santa Barbara for the last 50 years. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, he has worked in accounting and finance his entire career following a five-year stint as a finance officer in the U.S. Air Force. He and Ardyce, his high school sweetheart, have two daughters as well as four grandchildren.
He worked in various accounting and finance roles before joining a group of 100 area investors to form Community West Bank, which opened in 1989 in the growing beach town of Goleta, near Santa Barbara. He serves as the chairman of the bank’s holding company and as bank vice chairman. The bank was approved for merger effective April 1 with a larger bank, Peeples said. Confident in the institution’s future, he decided it was a good time to retire.
Peeples got his start in ownership in the Quarter Horse game during the 1980s, joining a group of friends from the firm where he worked to buy and race a few horses. The but Peeples said he developed a friendship with the pinhooker Brocklebank. A decade later, they moved into buying and selling Thoroughbreds, making frequent appearances at sales.
“All John has loved his whole life are his horses,” Peeples said. “He probably remembers every horse we’ve ever had. He taught me so much about conformation and what to look for when buying young horses. It’s been a fun ride with him. We made a few mistakes because when we first started, we liked Thoroughbreds that looked like Quarter Horses. But we got better at it.”
Peeples described their approach as “conformation buyers” rather than pedigree shoppers because they believe they can find better value that way.
One of their earliest successes was Cover Gal, a California-bred daughter of Falstaff they bought for $32,000 at the 1998 Del Mar summer yearling sale. They decided to race her and took on a couple of other partners. Cover Gal won the Railbird Stakes (G2) the following year and six stakes overall, earning more than $600,000. She was named the 1999 Cal-bred champion 2-year-old female and 2000 Cal-bred champion 3-year-old female.
Although Peeples said he stopped pinhooking about three years ago, he still sends his young horses to Brocklebank and Mendez, who run a training and sales business in Hurricane, Utah, near St. George.
Peeples doesn’t attend as many auctions as he used to due to some health problems, but gets plenty of information on potential prospects from Brocklebank.
“I don’t really even need to be there,” he noted. “We just know what we like. I can rely on him.”