Nancy Messineo Bequeaths Surprise Windfall to California Horse Charities

Some wear their philanthropic largesse as visibly as the Great Wall of China from outer space.

Others prefer a more discreet badge.

“I only found out about this three days ago,” said Lucinda Lovitt early Tuesday morning. Lovitt is the executive director of the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), the non-profit founded 15 years ago to raise money for the state's fleet of retired racehorses.

Lovitt's weekend discovery? That CARMA was one of a handful of racehorse rehoming and animal rescue organizations bequeathed–and bequeathed without their prior knowledge–a sizeable sum of money by Nancy Messineo, who passed away on June 8 at the age of 74 after a long battle with cancer.

Messineo was a California racehorse owner fiercely devoted to the wellbeing of the animals in her care–and quite evidently, those in others' care, too.

“This is quintessential California horseracing,” Lovitt added, still a little taken aback by the donation. “Someone who wants to make an impact that is so understated and quiet, but who just wants to do right by the horses.”

Lovitt isn't the only recipient just recently finding out about the donations.

“You assume the what now?” said Dianne Nelson, co-founder of the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Northern California, across a spotty phoneline.

“I'm assuming this is the first you're hearing of it?” this reporter responded.

“Absolutely,” Nelson replied, with the bemused air of a lottery winner not quite believing the numbers before them. “I'm a bit speechless.”

Susan Peirce is the president and founder of the Chino Hills, Los Angeles-based Red Bucket Rescue that saves slaughter-bound, starving, neglected and traumatized horses. She initially asked for a little time to absorb the news.

“What a wonderful, wonderful gift,” Peirce said, given a few hours to reflect. “There's this amazing shining light and gift that Nancy left that speaks to her character and love of horses and desire to see this work continue and that's astounding. It's humbling–it really is.”

Bruce Sands is a long-time friend of Messineo's, and a co-owner with her on many horses down the years.

He said Messineo, who made her money as a realtor, left CARMA, the Wild Horse Sanctuary, Red Bucket Sanctuary, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Thoroughbred Charities of America sums totaling roughly three-quarters of her estate.

While Sands didn't publicly disclose the sum total, the contributions amount to a significant portion of the annual operating expenses for the first three charities at a minimum.

The least surprising part of this whole bittersweet affair is that Messineo has taken such pains to support these various organizations. “She just loved animals,” he said.

The two met in 2007. “We had a dog in common as well as the horses. I gave her a Golden Retriever, Sierra, as a birthday present about 14 years ago. In fact, she's here with me right now,” Sands said, the sound of a rubbed ear making its way down the telephone line.

Their first horse was called Practical, who they had in training with Mike Pender. When it came time to name the son of Notional, they hit a bit of writers' block.

“Nancy said to herself, 'well I just need to be practical about this.' And that's where the name came from,” said Sands.

After a fashion and inspired by the lightning-bolt successes of Marley's Freedom–campaigned by her good friends, Barb and Ron Perry–Messineo's dreams started to take on new dimensions. “All she wanted was a horse in a stakes race,” said Sands.

Messineo got more than that in Oscar Dominguez, who won the GII Hollywood Turf Club S. at Del Mar in 2019 with a gladiator's challenge down the homestretch.

“That was probably our biggest victory because he was such a longshot,” said Sands, of the horse's unexpected victory that day over the Richard Mandella-trained hotpot, United.

The way Sands describes Messineo's relationship with horse racing is as someone who took sustenance from the sport the way a rock climber draws air at altitude. “All of it–she loved all of it,” he said, of a woman whose living room wall is emblazoned with win pictures. Twenty-five of them, if you count.

“There was a time we were going to the morning workouts a lot,” he said. The backstretch, too, was home from home for her. “She loved to visit her horses.”

When at the track, “she was always making new friends.” And when she wasn't racing, “she watched the races all the time at home on TV.”

Throughout Messineo's long illness, she credited the horses for being her most potent medicine.

“She always used to tell me, 'It's the horses that keep me going, it's the horses that keep me going'” said trainer Richard Baltas, who conditioned Oscar Dominguez, adding how the horse is now in happy retirement in Southern California, roaming the trails of Trifecta Farms.

“Even when she was really sick, she still wanted to come to the track,” Baltas remembered. “She was just deeply passionate about the horse business.”

“I'm pretty sure the horses did keep her alive,” agreed Barb Perry, who struck up a firm friendship with Messineo. “One of the reasons we became friends was because she loved her horses so much.”

Just take Beyond Pleasure, a filly that Messineo, Sands, Ron and Barb Perry were partners in.

When Beyond Pleasure was claimed from the barn, Messineo and Barb Perry both tracked her progress. And when the filly retired, they reached out to the trainer to have her back. But the trainer had already found the filly a home–she's a jumper now for a girl in Arizona.

“We just wanted to make sure that when the horse retired she was looked after,” said Perry. “That's what Nancy did. She put her horses first.”

The charities approached for this story all stressed the different and often difficult circumstances that make Messineo's largesse either so desperately needed, desperately appreciated or both.

“It's incredible actually because we do struggle–I don't know a non-profit, especially in the horse world, that doesn't struggle,” said Nelson.

Nancy Messineo | Courtesy of Bruce Sands

She talked about sleepless nights worrying about where the next load of hay will come from, and about the costs from old fences rotting away. This at a ranch with 14 miles of perimeter fence needing to be maintained.

“It ensures that we're going to be here for a number of years to come,” said Nelson. “And also that we're going to be able to rescue more horses.”

For CARMA, Lovitt said that while they haven't even begun to think about how the organization might use the additional funds, she discussed the need to create something for Messineo that honors her legacy on the California racing industry.

“As a recipient of a gift like this, we should be quietly grateful and furiously getting to work on fulfilling what Nancy would have wanted, which is that the horses she was so passionate about and cared so much about have the best opportunity in their next career,” said Lovitt, who said these kind of posthumous gifts are pretty rare for CARMA.

“The impact for a small charity like this is long-lasting,” Lovitt added. “We have the opportunity to create programs or services that can thrive beyond the initial bequest.”

For Peirce, she described a farm struggling to stay afloat, both literally and figuratively.

“We had a really hard winter,” said Peirce, pointing to the harsh winter storms that have drenched California.

“We're at the very bottom of the valley. And so, everything we had washed into the creek. We lost a barn–every barn flooded. We've lost all of our ground cover. And we have so much deferred maintenance–we need about a quarter of a million dollars to replace just our fences,” she said.

“Times are really tough right now, so there's the business piece to it,” said Peirce. She also mentioned a growing movement to euthanize horses deemed difficult or impossible to rehome, and to lower adoption standards–a movement that runs counter to the governing ethos of her charity.

“Those are things that we hold so important. We stand firmly on the side of protecting and preserving life,” said Peirce. “It's getting harder to do that, and this is a wonderful boost for us.”

“I am beyond grateful,” she added, her voice thickening over the telephone line. “And I wish I could tell Nancy that myself.”