February 2023 Member of the Month: Richard Rigney
Richard Rigney is the featured TOBA Member this month.
hen he moved from the West Coast, flavor chemist Richard Rigney brewed up a dynamic dream. The Pasadena, California native owns Clarendon Flavors, which makes flavors for distilled spirits and beverages. That shift to Louisville not only precipitated Rigney’s corporate success, but also his success as an owner and breeder with horses like Played Hard, who won the Nov. 24 Falls City Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs.
Though his 1987 move to Kentucky was for work, the shift now seems predestined. “I wanted to move here because I had a love of horses,” he said. “I was back in California, and I used to gamble at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park and Del Mar.” He added, “I miss California–I miss the beach–but I love Kentucky. I’ll never leave.”
The journey to ownership began with Livin The Dream Racing LLC. “My wife Tammy, she knew that I love going to the racetrack,” Rigney reflected. “So, she ended up finding a syndicate and it was with Kenny McPeek, and so she bought some shares of some horses for me for my birthday.”
He added, “We had a horse named Dream Empress at first who won the 2008 [Darley] Alcibiades [Stakes, G1]. She came in second in the [Bessemer Trust] Breeders’ Cup [Juvenile Fillies, G1].” In 2009, Noble’s Promise took the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity (G1); he ran in the 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) and eventually earned $1,193,376.
Over the years, Rigney built a solid relationship with McPeek’s assistant trainer, Phil Bauer. The two struck out together in 2013 with Rigney Racing, though it took a while for the fledgling stable to soar. “When we originally started off, we were terrible at picking horses,” Rigney admitted. “Each year, we were getting better at it.” While success remained elusive, Rigney became Rigney Racing’s number-one cheerleader.
Things turned around after Craig Bandoroff of Denali Stud–where Rigney boards his 14 broodmares–introduced Rigney to bloodstock agent John Moynihan. Since then, Rigney Racing’s horses in training, now numbering 35, have won races across the country.
At the 2011 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, Rigney (as JCM Racing) bought Noble’s Promise for $125,000 and stood the son of Cuvee in Indiana. He bred Dream Empress to A.P. Indy, a mating that yielded the filly Bubbles and Babies; sent to Noble’s Promise, Bubbles and Babies yielded homebred multiple stakes winner Fireball Baby.
Fireball Baby captured three stakes in 2022 and has earned nearly $600,000. “That is really fun, to have a horse that you bred from the stud side and the mare side,” he said. “That was pretty amazing.” However, Rigney aims to sell what he breeds. “But our goal was, we wanted to sell really nice yearlings at the sale and we’re looking at this as a way of making money so we can keep the racing side going,” he explained.
Rigney is also investing in top-quality prospects. At the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling sale, Rigney spent $925,000 on a Twirling Candy filly. “Well, she looks like a real athlete. She has a great walk. Her conformation is great,” he recalled. Two months later, at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Moynihan, on behalf of Rigney, bought a weanling colt by the same sire for $380,000.
The Rigneys celebrated their many successes–like winning the Churchill Downs Spring Meet owners’ title and annexing six races from 13 starts at Saratoga–with loved ones. They often incorporate their children’s names into their runners’ monikers; several of the younger Rigneys accepted a winner’s trophy on behalf of their parents, who were dining on Necker Island with Richard Branson.
And even when disappointment inevitably rears its head, Rigney knows better things are on the horizon. For example, though grade 1-placed Xigera finished off the board in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she remains a promising 2023 prospect. And Xigera has a great role model in stablemate Played Hard.
Rigney bought her for $280,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale. About Played Hard, he recalled Moynihan telling him, “This is a horse that could take you to the Promised Land.” A daughter of Into Mischief out of a full sister to globetrotter Well Armed, Played Hard won four of six starts in 2022, including two grade 3s. “We’re giving her a little bit of rest now and we’re going to be pointing towards grade 1s and grade 2s for her,” Rigney said.
Another stellar Rigney Racing filly is Coppelia, who won the Nov. 13 Dream Supreme Stakes and placed in the Dec. 31 Sugar Swirl Stakes (G3). Rigney remarked that “she’s just kind peaking right now.” The same could be said for her owner’s operation.
