While His $3.4 Million Yearling Was Topping the Sale, Casner Was Worlds Away

Before his Not This Time colt topped the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale at $3.4 million, Bill Casner had never individually sold a million-dollar horse. And while he suspected this would be the one-his biggest breeding triumph in a long and distinguished history in the game–he wasn't at the sale Monday night. He had, he said, something more important to do.
Instead, Casner was 7,300 miles away in Kenya to support the work of his daughter, Kayce Anderson, the founder of For the Good, a charity which helps girls in remote parts of Kenya stay in school.

“She asked me to go on this trip a year ago, and I didn't let anything interfere with it,” Casner said by phone from Kenya Wednesday.

He knew that the Not This Time colt out of Kayce Ace-named for his daughter-was going to be a hot property. Not only had it been evident since the colt was foaled, but all the right people were looking at him, and bloodstock advisor Doug Cauthen and consignor Kim Nardelli had been telling him the colt `was going to ring the bell.'

And yet, he said, “That was an amazing thing the other night to sell that horse, no doubt a once-in-a-lifetime event, but I wouldn't have traded this trip to be there to see that horse sell. For me, this has been so much more rewarding.”

Casner's daughter founded For the Good 10 years ago, and its initial goal was to allow girls in Kenya reaching puberty to continue to go to school by providing them with sanitary products. “Because they don't have even the most basic means of hygiene, they would stay out of school five days a month at that time,” he explained. “Pretty quickly, they would fall behind and drop out, and be cast into a life of childbearing and hard labor.”

“I came over here because I wanted to see where Kayce has been doing her work for the last 10 years,” he said. “Helping young girls stay in school evolved into building secondary schools that are public. Most secondary schools in Kenya are private and so many families just don't have the means to be able to send their children to school, especially the girls. If they have several children, the boys might go but the girls don't get that benefit. But with free secondary education, they are able to go.”

For the Good has been named a top-ranked charity by GlobalGiving, and they have entered over 1,000 children into schools since the end of the Covid pandemic.

Girls serviced by For The Good are able to stay in school, ensuring a better future | Kate Lapides photo

Casner was in the Masai region with Kayce at a dedication at one such new school this week. In the last presidential election, Casner explained, For the Good approached a candidate about supporting free secondary education in Kenya, explaining that the stance could help get him elected. He agreed, and won in a landslide. Now, the government puts up a third of the money necessary to build the schools, the community raises one third, and For the Good donates a third.

At the recent dedication, “the community had raised 250 million shillings,” he said, “which translates to about $18-$19,000. They are expected to take part in the construction, and For The Good will match what they raise. They raise those funds by all of the individual families donating a goat. It really becomes a community effort. It's easy to give somebody something, but when they have to be a partner and they understand they have to do their part, it becomes much more meaningful.”

“As a father, the dedication yesterday, to see what she has accomplished, meant the world,” he said. “She won't speak of it, but she's a rock star over here. When she goes to a community, they all turn out. There were at least 250 people at the dedication. It was wonderful. She's doing some extremely important work and helping to change the world, one child at a time, one woman at a time.”

What a contrast from our lives back in America, he said.

“It puts everything into perspective,” he said. “The privilege that we have to live where we do in the times that we live it in. The opportunities that we have for our own children, for education, for health care, we take it for granted, and for these people it's something that is a rarity for them. They live very hard lives. Schools are very sparse. They may be five or 10 kilometers away which makes it impractical for kids to go to school. So when these schools are built, it gives those children a chance to get an education.”

When Anderson started the charity, she decided not to barge into these communities telling people what they needed. Instead, she brought them something.

“It's very hard to go into someone else's community saying, `we're from America and we know what to do.' That just doesn't work. So she made up these kits that had eight reusable pads that could be washed, and hung outside where the ultraviolet rays could sterilize them. It allowed the girls to stay in school and it was something that was well received by the teachers and community leaders. It was something they saw as helpful. It has evolved into so much more. One of the things they have done is stipulate that half of the teachers have to be women, which gives those young girls role models. They don't have to have a life of hard labor. If they aspire and dream, they have the opportunity to accomplish so much.”

Wildebeests in Kenya's Masai Mara. “It was unbelievable,” said Casner. “That's all you could see for as far as the horizon.” | Getty Images

Casner took some time to enjoy some of Kenya's natural wonders as well, experiencing the Great Wildebeest Migration, where over 1.2 million wildebeests and another 300,000 zebras and gazelles make an annual trek through the Masai Mara. In a conservatory, he saw lions, elephants, and rhinos. Kenya banned hunting in 1977, and the country is now home to 25,000 animal species, making it one of the 10 most biodiverse countries on earth.

But the contrast between the two worlds he experienced Monday wasn't lost on him.

“I thought about that Monday night,” he said. “I knew most people considered him the best horse at the sale. He's checked all the boxes. We've known it for a long time. I was staying at a very primitive eco camp in the Masai territory where Kayce does her work. No electricity. No wifi. I set my alarm for 3:30 in the morning and crawled out of bed. There was no signal, but there was one little place on a hill 200 yards from the camp where you could get a call through, and I went out there with a flashlight at 3:30 in the morning and waited for a call. It was black out there, and I was looking for the snakes. It's the bush. They've had lions wander through, elephants on their migration. Kim called me and I could hear the bidding. I was hoping this horse would be 1.5 maybe two million, but the stars were aligned and he kept going.”

But Casner said it was hard not to compare what was happening half a world away to what was happening right in front of him.

“The juxtaposition of it has not escaped me,” he said.”I think about how little these people have and how little they live on annually and then I think about how many people that horse could feed. How much good it could do.”

Secondary school in Kenya | Kate Lapides photo

When she told her father about her idea for the charity, he warned her that she was going to have to stand on her own two feet.
“In the beginning, I said `I'm not going to fund this thing. If it's to be, you've got to make it happen.' She said, `I don't want you to fund it. If it's to be, I will make it happen.' I'm certainly a supporter but she has gone out and found people who believe in it and she has made it work.”

So while the money from the Kayce Ace yearling will “help the bottom line of the horse budget,” says Casner, he adds that a `significant portion' of it will go to For The Good.
“I'm incredibly proud of my daughter,” said Casner. “As parents, we want our kids to grow up and be good, self-sustaining human beings and leave a positive footprint on this planet. And she has gone so far beyond that.”

To learn more or make a donation to For The Good, visit www.forthegood.org or click here.