Keeneland Breeder Focus: Classy Siena Mares Just a Sample Of a Wider Legacy

So it turns out that there are last days, too.

It was axiomatic with Anthony Manganaro that every day in business should be treated like your first. “If it's the second day, you're falling behind,” he would say. Because it was on your first day that you always asked: “What can we do different, what can we do better?”

But this questing, vital force was extinguished in August 2023, at 79, and it has meanwhile been the melancholy duty of those he left behind to package up his Turf legacy. Siena Farm itself is on the market, and the foals will follow next year, but another paragraph of its closing chapter will be written at the Keeneland November Sale with the dispersal, through Taylor Made, of its broodmare band.

A poignant process, plainly, for his family and team–not to mention a privileged opportunity for other breeders out there. But if Manganaro's legacy is to be properly valued, it will not be confined to these tangible assets, however expertly curated. To those who worked with him most closely, his true bequest is a mindset that the whole industry can emulate: to be always looking forward, always improving.

“Just because that's truly how he lived,” says the farm's Chief Operating Officer Ryan Smith. “He would always be pushing for the future. He would joke about, 'Hey, this isn't for me. I'm going to be dead in five years. This is for you guys, for everybody else.' Because he truly cared about building things to last, so that everybody could continue to do what they love, continue to prosper.”

That way, Manganaro could make his own story not just redemptive but exemplary. Son of a Sicilian plasterer, he was among six children raised in a two-bedroom flat in blue-collar Everett outside Boston. When he sought financing from a Baltimore bank, he met a wall of prejudice; he later became their biggest customer.

In the same way, the kid who fell in love with horses after joining his father and his buddies at Suffolk Downs, handicapping claimers, ended up as a co-owner of Flightline. In the meantime, in 2007, Manganaro had played up some of his business winnings (from real estate, self-storage and medical supplies) in a 225-acre farm outside Paris, Kentucky.

His partners in this new boutique breeding venture, David Pope and Ignacio (“Nacho”) Patino, shared a similar heritage of striving. “We understand from life experiences how important it is to give employees and their families hope and dignity,” Manganaro once told TDN. Pope was indebted to Polish immigrants who had toiled through the darkness of mines and factory night shifts to bring the light of opportunity and education to the next generation. And Patino had himself perilously crossed the Rio Grande to eke a way out of poverty as a teenager. “All three of us,” Manganaro said proudly, “are living the American Dream.”

Ignacio Patino at Siena Farm | David Stephenson

But while the obituaries uniformly saluted him as far-sighted and driven by ideals, Manganaro understood that even the biggest picture ultimately reduces to pixels. The depth of his perspectives never distracted him from the detail of the foreground.

“He was certainly a visionary,” Smith says. “But he did understand the bits and pieces that went into it. To him, people were the cornerstone and that's what you have to focus on. Because nothing will get done unless everybody's aligned, and everybody is secure. Not just financially secure, but intellectually, so that they feel respected, that they are working towards something that is motivating. To me, this is what was most impressive. He had such intuition for the inner workings of things, even in fields totally unrelated to any experience that he'd ever had.”

Take technology. Smith, who started on the farm as a college intern, never expected a man half a century his senior to be as conversant with its functioning and potential.

“But I would always be surprised,” Smith recalls. “Even though it was a field that was basically foreign to him, and there might be a little miscommunication on the way, at the end of the day I always realized that, wow, he really understood how this specific thing needed to come together or what was required to get it done.”

So while Manganaro always navigated to the horizon, he knew to follow the trail one step after another. Day-to-day decisions and conduct had to be consistent with the ambitions of years or decades. That way, ends and means would become seamless.

“He pushed us to be our best, here at Siena Farm,” Smith reflects. “But everything we did, we tried to do with the industry in mind as well. We wanted to be the best: that's what we pushed ourselves for, that's what we worked on every day. But we were also trying to participate with the community, with the initiatives pushing the industry forward, for instance with Maryland. It was all about helping to revitalize the sport, and find a new look for it: improve racetracks, improve Thoroughbred care, improve every facet.”

And, actually, these final duties take the Siena Farm team precisely to that margin between overall impact and highly specific responsibilities.

“It's been a bit of a process,” Smith concedes of the past year. “We've had more time to digest it now, but it has certainly been very difficult. Parts of it are sad, but parts are just amazing and beautiful, too: to look back and reflect on everything that has been achieved here at the farm. It's definitely coming to a head now, with the farm listed for sale and seeing these mares in a catalogue. Nothing ever feels quite real until it happens.

“So a difficult time, for sure, but we have been incredibly grateful to have Anthony's son Todd assisting us through this process. We would not have been able to do this without his help. And also Anthony's grandson Nick, who's a tremendous person and a true fan of the sport. They're ensuring that we handle these next steps as best as possible and with the dignity that we would hope.”

There's that word, again. Dignity. And that, as it happens, is the name of the prodigious bronze sculpture that greets visitors to the farm: a 30′ x 10′ x 20′ plowhorse. Manganaro was inspired to commission sculptor Zachary Oxman by the 1981 papal encyclical Laborem Exercens, in which Pope John Paul II celebrated the relationship between work and human dignity. As Smith remarks of the statue: “It was very important to Anthony–and the story behind is incredibly fitting for everything that he championed, everything that has been done here at the farm.”

Equi-Sport

At least one Siena horse, then, is not going anywhere! But what of those to be dispersed at Keeneland next week? What kind of brand will breeders be tapping into, if they manage to land one of these mares? The sheer quality is manifest simply in the covering sires listed through the first session: a mare apiece pregnant to Justify, Flightline, Not This Time, Nyquist and Life Is Good, plus two carrying Good Magic foals.

“There's a lot to it,” says Smith. “But what we hope everybody gets to see is just a piece of the Siena program. And this is really to the credit of Nacho. He's not just the general manager, doesn't just take the absolute best care of the horses, but he's been instrumental in all the decisions that have built up a really tremendous program over the years. When you look at our percentages of black-type horses and winners, we have done very well for a farm of our size. So we're hoping that everybody gets to see what the bigger picture was, how these mares fit into that program, and then how they could find a spot in theirs too.”

There's an auspicious template already. One of the first stars of the Siena Farm program, homebred Angela Renee (Bernardini), was a Grade I winner before being sold for $3 million. Her first five yearlings through the ring have already cleared $4 million.

“We've had some pretty strong success producing foals over the years, and still have quite a few of those families throughout our broodmare band,” Smith says. “And over more recent years, we've also been looking to acquire mares of value, whether for their pedigrees or because they can really produce top-notch physicals. For example, Joyful Addiction [1036] (by Munnings, first two dams both Grade I winners) has already produced a very nice Constitution. A more recent purchase, Medaglia Mo (Medaglia d'Oro) [684], is another where we really like the foal. We think mares like this will be a tremendous asset wherever they end up. And I must say that Taylor Made, a tremendous partner to us over the years, have done a very thoughtful job in helping us position these mares appropriately.”

Already before the penultimate crop of yearlings were sold, in September, a commitment was made to maintain the Siena brand in racetrack partnerships. And that gives everyone a forward focus as they contemplate how their individual paths might continue from here. For Smith, certainly, Manganaro's influence will never fade.

“It was funny, he basically poached me out of college,” Smith recalls. “I was here one summer in the middle of school. Two weeks in, he said, 'Hey, how about you help us form this technological research company, and just stay here full time?' And I have been here ever since.

“I am incredibly grateful to have had him as mentor. I just had so many eye-opening, enlightening moments with him. He was an incredibly intelligent, generous, motivated, and hardworking person. And he truly cared for people. He was passionate about education, about helping people to learn. He helped people complete things bigger than themselves. And that helped not just them, but also their families, the spheres around them. Everything he did, his whole life, was about pushing people to be better.”