Math Wizard Sale Finalized

Owner John Fanelli has sold a 50% interest in his GI Breeders' Cup Classic starter Math Wizard (Algorithms), adding three new partners to the ownership group.

Fanelli reports that he has sold 10% shares in the horse to Chuck Zacney's Cash Is King Stable and Glenn Bennett's LC Racing. Thirty percent of the horse has been sold to Khalid Mishref, a native of Saudi Arabia.

Fanelli said that he remains in charge when it comes to all racing decisions involving the 3-year-old colt.

“Leading up to the Breeders' Cup and with the Saudi Cup and the [GI] Dubai World Cup out there, that's $36 million in purses coming up,” Fanelli said. “We might have gotten more for him if we waited until the Saudi Cup, but if he were to run poorly in the Breeders' Cup his value would go down. That's why I thought this was the right time to sell.”

While Fanelli did not disclose the amount he sold the shares for, it is certainly much more than the $25,000 he paid for him when claiming Math Wizard in January at Gulfstream Park. The horse won the day of the claim and followed that with a second-place finish in the GIII Ohio Derby and a third-place finish in the GIII Indiana Derby. His biggest win to date came in his most recent start, the GI Pennsylvania Derby. Trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr. and ridden that day by Irad Ortiz, Jr., he won the $1-million race by a neck at odds of 31-1.

“I'm a Parx guy and every year I go down to Gulfsteam to claim two or three horses,” Fanelli said. “I thought this horse would do a lot better when he was stretched out because that's what his breeding indicated. His mother [Minister's Baby (Deputy Minister] had won a Grade III stakes [the GIII Gardenia H.] and even if he didn't improve I knew he'd be very tough in the $25,000 starter allowances at Parx. He improved dramatically the first time he went long, winning the race [at one mile] that we claimed him out of by almost 19 lengths.”