By Bill Finley
Robin Malatino is many things. Conventional is not one of them.
It's a philosophy she's followed throughout her business career and one that has never seemed to fail her. Now the senior vice president of Malatino and Associates at Morgan Stanley in Celebration, Florida, she was also the CEO of the Saratoga Beverage Group, the company behind Saratoga Spring Water. Malatino and her husband Anthony led a group that saved the company after Evian decided to close it down in 1992, 120 years after its founding. The same company Evian wanted to dump thrived under the leadership of the Malatinos, who are no longer involved with the water brand.
The time the Malatinos spent in Saratoga running the beverage company introduced them to racing. Knowing virtually nothing about the industry, Robin did not have an advisor, a veterinarian or even a trainer when a horse caught her eye at the 2003 Fasig Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale. She was so naive that when she saw the name Lemon Drop Kid on the sign attached to the stall, she thought that was the yearling's name and not her sire. It was the second night of the sale and the Lemon Drop Kid filly was set to sell on the first night, so Malatino figured her opportunity had come and gone. But the horse had been an RNA and the couple was able to purchase her after the sale.
The horse was later named Sugar Plum Girl (Lemon Drop Kid). She didn't exactly pan out as she failed to break her maiden in 14 starts. But Malatino went from knowing nothing about the sport to being captivated by it. That led to the couple operating a small stable. But their biggest leap has been entering the breeding business. They stand War Dancer (War Front), the winner of the GII Virginia Derby, the GIII Louisville H. and the runner-up in the GI Man o' War S. He stands at Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions LLC in Stillwater, NY and his stud fee is $7,500.
Someone who is a firm believer in horse welfare and that every race horse coming off the track should have a home, Malatino decided to open her own farm in Saratoga. The idea was she wanted a place to retire her own horses. In 2005, the Maltinos closed on Sugar Plum Farm, named after Sugar Plum Girl.
The racing world didn't hear much from Robin Malatino over the next several years, but that started to change in 2011 when the couple, with the help of Ken McPeek, picked out a War Front yearling at the Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga 2011 Select Yearling Sale. The $220,000 purchase went on to be named War Dancer and began to give the Malatinos the types of thrills they had never experienced before at the racetrack. Now, they were playing in the major leagues.
Later trained by Bill Mott, he retired after finishing seventh in the 2016 GIII Knickerbocker S. He is by War Front, was a graded stakes winner and had topped $1 million in earnings. The same Robin Malatino who, years earlier, didn't know that Lemon Drop Kid was a Classic winning sire, was no longer a neophyte. She knew she had a solid stallion prospect on her hands.
“He was a great race horse,” Malatino said. “In 2016, when we decided we were going to retire him we decided to stand him at stud because he was one of War Front's top sons in the world. And War Front was standing for $250,000. We wanted to stand him in New York [Sugar Plum Farm is not equipped to handle stallions] because that's where our farm is, and we thought the rest would be easy.”
It wasn't. With so many new stallions appearing on the scene each year, Malatino wanted to make sure that War Dancer was just not another face in the crowd.
“We had to distinguish ourselves from all the other horses,” she said.
So she started a unique marketing campaign where she compiled video parodies based on the hit TV show The Bachelor. She also came up with what she calls the “Breeding With the Stars” program. With any mare residing outside of New York that is a stakes performer or stakes producer, the Malatinos paid for round-trip cost of shipping to Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions and compensated for the first 90 days of boarding. Under that program, they got 48 mares from seven states and Canada.
The Malatinos even go so far as to send presents to the owners of the mares, sending boxes of chocolate cigars when a foal is born.
War Dancer was bred to 102 mares in his first year at stud. The horses are now weanlings. He was bred to 90 mares this year. The list of future mares that will go to War Dancer include Sugar Plum Girl. Yes, the Malatinos' story has come full circle. The mare's owner contacted Robin Malatino and asked if she would like the mare back so she could live out her years at the farm named for her.
“Sugar Plum Girl is coming home,” Malatino said. “I couldn't ask for anything more.”
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