McKenna Not a Bad 'Judge' of Horseflesh

Tom McKenna reckons that he's been in the horse business “for a lifetime.” The affable 81-year-old may well have finally landed his horse of a lifetime In the form of Conquest Mo Money (Uncle Mo), who will start the 9-2 second choice in Sunday's $800,000 GIII Sunland Derby.

McKenna and his wife of 35 years, Sandy, have approximately 50 horses in training in New Mexico and operate their racing stable as Judge Lanier Racing, named in honor of McKenna's grandfather.

“My grandfather was Judge C. M. Lanier from El Paso, Texas, and he raised me,” McKenna explained. “Before I got into the horse business, I rodeoed quite a bit and so did my kids, and I trained most of the horses for them. Quarter Horses, Barrel horses, things of that type. I began riding horses when I was two years old. My grandfather owned two horses, one Quarter Horse and one Thoroughbred, and I started exercising those horses when I was 9 or 10. The first race gate was set up in El Paso when McKenna was 12 years old and that's the first time I rode a race horse out of the gate.”

The owners of a ranch in Colorado, the McKennas became interested in Thoroughbreds in the early 2000s and were enticed by the burgeoning program in the state of New Mexico. The couple settled on 1200 acres of land near Taiban in the east central part of the state. But things were not off to a profitable start.

“We decided we'd get in the horse business here in New Mexico in the breeding end and we bought a handful of Kentucky mares brought them back to New Mexico to raise horses for the state's program, which has become very successful,” he commented. “But there was no market for them and I was losing plenty of money trying to raise horses. It just wasn't going to work. I've been in a lot of businesses and I don't stay in businesses where I can't at least break even.

He continued, “At that point I decided, 'Well, heck, I can't do any good at selling these things, I'll start racing them.' So we got into the racing business.”

Judge Lanier Racing had its first runners at the track in 2004, winning a grand total of one race and seven other placings while earning just shy of $19,000. But things have gotten considerably better since: in 2016, the stable sent out no fewer than 415 starters for 68 winners (16%) and earnings in excess of $1.1 million, good enough to rank in the top 100 nationally.

“We've had a lot of success and that's no small feat for a string of horses that run exclusively in the state of New Mexico,” McKenna offered. “I've never had a jockey get hurt, never had a drug violation and that I'm really, really proud of. We've been blessed and very lucky in the racing business. We've had some very good horses and we've got a pretty nice string of horses right now.”

It is Conquest Mo Money that is poised to give the couple their biggest accomplishment in racing. The New York-bred was a $180,000 purchase by Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell's Conquest Stable out of the 2015 Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Sale at Saratoga. The colt, still unraced, but galloping, found himself as part of the Conquest dispersal at last year's Keeneland November sale and the McKennas were not going to miss out on the opportunity to acquire some high-quality and well-pedigreed stock.

“I love the dispersals, absolutely,” McKenna affirmed. “If I can find dispersals, I'm really interested, especially from top-flight breeders and owners. This sale was a Godsend. [Ernie Semersky] certainly spent a lot of money to get where he got and he certainly collected a super nice group of horses. I knew I was going to have a chance to look at a lot of them, knowing that many of them weren't going to fit my pocketbook, but nonetheless, we went out there and did our due diligence. I don't use any agents, I do my own buying, do my own claiming. We bought seven horses. It was a wonderful sale, Lane's End did a tremendous job with the horses.”

And the objective for the trip to the Bluegrass?

“At this time in my career, I felt that dispersal represented an opportunity for me to buy some above-average horses,” McKenna said. “There were enough horses there that I knew I could go through them and spot some horses that might be under the radar for some other bidders. I was looking for some potential stakes horses that I could bring back to New Mexico.”

McKenna signed for seven horses at the November sale for a total of $157,500, six from the Conquest dispersal. The most expensive of those purchases was the once-raced 3-year-old filly Conquest Slayer (Scat Daddy), for whom McKenna went to $43,000. The least expensive of the lot was the $8,500 he paid for Conquest Mo Money.

“Absolutely not!” McKenna replied when asked if he thought he could acquire the colt for that sort of money. “I was shocked. This is a wonderful sport and you never know what's going to happen. We were extremely fortunate. I'd love to tell you that I'm the best horseman in the world, that I can work a sale better than anyone else, and that's not true at all. When I got him for that price, I couldn't believe it. It was God's will. Why that guy dropped the hammer at that point is beyond me.”

Of the half-dozen former Conquest horses they acquired, four have managed a victory, but easily the biggest surprise of the bunch is Conquest Mo Money. Turned over immediately to McKenna's private trainer Miguel Hernandez, Conquest Mo Money didn't exactly hint that he was a future stakes-caliber performer.

“I told Miguel, 'When you get these horses up to five furlongs [in their breezes], let's see how they look, you tell me what you think,'” he explained. “Where it came to 'Mo Money,' he said, 'I don't know, that horse is really lazy. He just doesn't like to work.' I said, 'Well, sometime they don't like to work and they run like a house on fire and sometimes they work like a house on fire and they don't want to run.' I said, 'Let's see what happens when we put him in a gate.' All the Uncle Mos I've studied and read about have a great mind, and this horse is no exception. When he goes into the paddock, you'd think he was eight years old with a bunch of races. He's laid back, takes a nap in the stall, easy to handle, he's just a dream.”

A 5-1 chance debuting over a mile at Sunland Park Jan. 6 (video), Conquest Mo Money defeated entrymate Oh So Regal (Sidney's Candy), the lone non-Conquest purchase at KEENOV who cost McKenna $18,000 from the WinStar Farm draft. An 11-length winner of the Riley Allison S. in his next start (video), he wired the field by two lengths in the Mine That Bird Derby (video) to punch his ticket to Sunday's 'big dance.'

Conquest Mo Money's rapid progression has meant that McKenna has fielded his fair share of would-be suitors. But the no sale sign has been out.

“If I was 20 years younger, I wouldn't look back,” he said. “I didn't take it because Sandy and I said, 'We've had a lot of fun in this sport, let's just take this ride and see where it takes us.'”

Judge Lanier will also be represented on the Derby undercard by African Rose (Bwana Charlie), purchased as a 2-year-old filly for just $7,500 out of the Heiligbrodt Dispersal conducted by Fasig-Tipton at Lone Star Park in 2011. She has since gone on to win seven black-type races and better than $573,000. The 8-year-old, referred to affectionately by McKenna as 'our diva,' goes for a fourth win in five years in Sunday's $100,000 Harry Henson S.

So exactly what does it mean to McKenna and his team to be in this position?

“It's hard to describe,” he submitted. “I've been around a long time and I've had a lot of horses and Sandy and I and Miguel–we never thought we'd be at this point, really and truly. This is a dream. If the dream ends at the Sunland Derby, so be it. We've been rewarded. It's a wonderful trip, it's been great to this point, the horse is training great and we'll just have to see what happens when the gate opens.”