The holidays are a time for love and compassion. Millions of people across the United States, and across the world, will spend the end of each year celebrating their family, friends, and loved ones.
For many, that love and joy extend to the special animals in their lives, including those involved with the Thoroughbred industry. This year marks Woods Edge Farm manager Lisa Reynolds' third year with a special horse: Dazzling Gem.
"I call him my firstborn, my favorite child," Reynolds said.
This year has been a special one for the pair as, after three long years, Reynolds competed with the off-track Thoroughbred in the eventing ring. The tale of how Reynolds acquired Dazzling Gem is a story of perseverance and determination.
The story begins at the 2013 Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale, where Reynolds and her good friend Jennifer Feiner purchased a 7-year-old Vindication mare named Dazzler for $12,000. Dazzler was in foal to Misremembered and the resulting colt would one day be known as Dazzling Gem.
Reynolds raised Dazzling Gem and brought him to the 2014 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he would bring $95,000.
"To me that was a huge amount of money," Reynolds said. "He basically made the mare. He did so well at the track, because of him everything else that I sold out of her made more than they would have."
Dazzling Gem got off to a quick start on the track and even came up just two points short of qualifying for the 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1). Dazzling Gem had a solid career in the United States, winning a few allowance races and earning a pair of graded stakes placings. Reynolds had been keeping track of his career from afar in hopes that she would be able to provide him a retirement when the time came.
"I owe a lot to that horse," Reynolds said. "When I sold him, my first purchase was my horse trailer. I was able to pay cash for that because of Dazzling Gem. I felt like I owed him a retirement. Because of the sale proceeds I got from his siblings, I was able to buy my little farm. I just don't forget that."
But in 2019, a feeling of dread grew when she saw Dazzling Gem's name appear in the entries at Hipódromo Camarero in Puerto Rico following a private purchase.
"I'm pretty sure I cried when I saw him pop up down there," Reynolds recalled. "At the time, I didn't really know much about racing and the older horses and all that in Puerto Rico, but I learned a lot fast."
Horses being sent to Puerto Rico from the mainland United States is not uncommon. Historically, the U.S. territory has experienced high euthanasia rates over the years due to injuries or neglect. In recent years, steps have been taken to improve equine welfare in Puerto Rico through a larger focus on aftercare with the 2017 creation of the Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare to assist in retiring horses and finding them new homes at the end of their careers. In 2023 the Puerto Rico Gaming Commission created new protocols designed to create more accountability in cases of racehorse abuse or neglect.
Dazzling Gem was not a lower-level horse and appeared to be acquired to be a top racehorse in Puerto Rico. In just his third start, he won the territory's Clasico Jose Celso Barbosa Memorial Stakes, a local grade 1, for a purse of $42,160. However, he would not start again for 13 months and, despite returning with a victory in August 2020, never recaptured his form. By the summer of 2021 he was running in claiming races.
Reynolds got in touch with Kelley Stobie of the CTA and registered Dazzling Gem on their watch list, a way for the CTA to notify a horse's connections that someone is interested in providing the horse a retirement. After a distant defeat in a claiming race with a purse of $7,938, owner Sonata Stable signed the gelding over to CTA. Soon afterward, he was quarantined and on his way home to Kentucky.
"Lisa doesn't have a lot of money, but she said she would do whatever it takes to get him home," Stobie said. "Aftercare is becoming bigger and bigger. People are really stepping up now, like breeders and previous connections, to make sure their horses are ending up in good places. It's the right thing to do. We need to give back to them. They put their hearts out on the track for us, the least we can do for them is give them a dignified retirement."
Reynolds was thrilled to see Dazzling Gem return home, but the gelding had developed bad ankles that caused several setbacks on his journey to become an eventer. Just as she had been patient in the quest to provide a retirement, Reynolds and Dazzling Gem finally made it to a show in 2024.
"I didn't think I'd ever be able to show him, but we got there and it was amazing," Reynolds said. "I don't know that he's going to stay sound, but he always has a home here with me. He's a very sweet horse, a very kind horse."
Dazzling Gem is not the only horse whose path crossing Reynolds' led to finding a forever home. Aftercare is an important mission to Reynolds, who considers her horses members of the family.
"I don't have kids, they're kind of like my kids," Reynolds said. "They're my passion, they're why I get up every day. I get a lot of joy, I get a lot of satisfaction out of it. Especially when I first get them off the track and they don't look great and in a year it's like they're a different animal."
Another member of her herd with a similar backstory is Big Guy Ian, a horse Woods Edge sold for $70,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale that was pinhooked for $375,000 by Wavertree Stables at the 2013 Ocala Breeders' Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.
The two-time stakes-placed gelding raced a lot, starting 62 times for many different connections in a career that spanned seven years. Through each change of hands, Reynolds would reach out to the trainers to let them know that when Big Guy Ian was ready to retire, she would provide a home. The opportunity finally arose when she could purchase him for $2,000.
"It was going to cost me that much to bring him back (to Kentucky)," Reynolds said. "I don't have the money, I don't have five grand. If he's here I can afford to look after him, but I don't have that to get him here."
Not wanting to miss her chance to provide Big Guy Ian a home, Reynolds contacted Ciaran and Amy Dunne of Wavertree, the ones who pinhooked him.
"I reached out to Ciaran and told him what the story was," Reynolds said. "Immediately, Ciaran replied, 'Tell me how much you want, I'll overnight you a check.' They covered to buy him, they covered the shipping, and the check arrived the next day."
Big Guy Ian arrived skinny and with several ailments. Reynolds knew mentally and physically that he would not be suited for riding, but was more than happy to stand him as a pasture ornament.
"I basically didn't do anything to that horse except bring him in, bring him out, and feed him," Reynolds said. "I just left him alone. He just needed to be left alone to decompress. Now, he's the biggest love bug ever. He's a big goober.
"I send pictures to Amy, they love to hear how he's doing. (The Dunnes) look out for the horse. Anyone whose hands these horses have gone through should stand up and make sure, if they're in a position to, that they end up in an OK position."
That was what the connections of Angry Moon did when Reynolds reached out to them. As a foal, Angry Moon visited Woods Edge with his dam as she came to Kentucky from Canada to be bred. The next year, he returned to Woods Edge to be consigned for the 2012 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, where he'd sell for $285,000.
"From the get-go, that horse had an amazing brain," Reynolds said. "That's what made me put him on my radar—this horse might make a riding horse. I followed him and he ran a lot, he changed hands a lot. I would reach out to whatever trainer had him and just on occasion say, 'Hey, when you want to retire this horse, I'd love to get him.' "
That day finally came in March 2020 after the 9-year-old son of Langfuhr finished eighth in a claiming race at Aqueduct Racetrack, his 40th career start. After contacting trainer Chris Englehart and owner My Purple Haze Stables, they agreed to send Angry Moon back to Reynolds.
"He's a character, he's my main event horse," Reynolds said. "He, in fairness, came from all good situations. He is a horse that went through a lot of good hands. You wouldn't believe how clean this horse's legs are and how sound he is. It's unbelievable. He's the boss of everyone. My little herd is a happy little group."
Her most recent addition, joining her herd in November, is one she'd never met herself, but she had built a relationship with the owner who knew he could turn to Reynolds. That horse is none other than millionaire Snapper Sinclair.
Snapper Sinclair's achievements on the track netted nearly $2 million and took him to racing's biggest stages. The son of City Zip retired to stand at stud for the 2023 season at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds. However, he proved to be subfertile and had only one foal in his only crop.
MITCHELL: Snapper Sinclair Sires One Foal, Then Gets New Career
Reynolds spoke with Snapper Sinclair's owner, Jeffrey Bloom of Bloom Racing Stable, at a sale around the time that he was looking for a new home. Now a gelding, he was still full of energy and needed a job. Since Snapper Sinclair had recently stood as a stallion, Reynolds was not sure how he would react to the mare Reynolds owns in her herd. She chose not to throw her hat in the ring to acquire him.
Bloom sent Snapper Sinclair to Del Mar to become a track pony. That arrangement did not work out and Bloom returned him to Kentucky. After a person who considered providing the gelding a home went silent, Bloom reached back out to Reynolds for any ideas as to where to look next. Reynolds offered to go see him at the boarding farm and was impressed when she saw Snapper Sinclair under tack.
"He was just lovely. He was so sound and so quiet," Reynolds said. "I fell in love with him; he was so sweet. I called Jeff when I left and said I'd take him.
"My mother always said what's for you won't pass you. I felt this was the second time this horse had come around to me. I was like you know what, it's meant to be. He's meant to come with me."
With Dazzling Gem's uncertain soundness, Snapper Sinclair fit the bill for training for eventing.
"We put a couple of rides on him," Reynolds said. "It's day-to-day that the weather is nice and I'll get on him and ride him around. My plan is we get him going once the weather warms up kind of March time."
Although all four horses have had different journeys, they share Reynolds' devotion. She never lost track of where they were, and when they needed her most, she was there to provide them a home.
"I wish I could do more," Reynolds said. "I am emotional about it because there are so many people in this industry who could do so much more and they don't. Then there's me, I don't have a lot but I really try. I really try. The whole aftercare thing is really, really close to my heart. I wish I could save them all, but you can only do what you can do."
