Richard Perkins is the TOBA March Member of the Month

For Richard Perkins, Christmas 2024 came a day late. On Dec. 26, two different Perkins homebreds—one a veteran campaigner, one a promising runner—won black-type stakes. At Fair Grounds, then-five-year-old mare Oeuvre won the Nelson J. Menard Memorial Stakes by a determined head. Over at Gulfstream Park, then-three-year-old filly Windy Walk delivered a neck victory in the Rampart Stakes over top-class opponents.

Growing up in Illinois, Perkins was passionate about horses. “And I got involved in the sport because my mother loved horses,” he recalled. “I used to watch them run and she used to bet on them. And so, when I was very young, and I’m talking about five or six or seven, I used to go to bookie joints with her.”

He bought his first horse in 1979, then expanded his operation in the late 1980s. “I mean, I’m very lucky to win stakes like this, when you are competing with Godolphin and all these people that have the deep pockets,” he said. “I don’t have that wherewithal; I don’t have those resources. So, I try and stay within a budget of under a hundred thousand dollars, buying yearlings or two-year-olds—which is still a lot of money, but nothing like seven figures. And I breed probably half the horses.”

He boards his mares at Mark and Maureen Moran’s Bit o’ Blarney Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. Oeuvre’s dam, Love This Kitten, is in foal to American Pharoah; due in May, she may be bred back to Twirling Candy, depending on when she foals. Windy Walk’s dam, Missalaney, is in foal to Army Mule and will be bred back to Tiz the Law. A full sister to Oeuvre, September Surprise, is in foal to Tonalist. Currently, Perkins has about eight horses in training. “I’ve got, I think, eight horses in training and I’ve got six two-year-olds about to go into training. And then I’ve got three mares and a couple babies. So, I’ve got about 20 horses and that’s down a little bit.”

Illinois-bred Oeuvre has now earned just shy of a million dollars. “I never think, ‘I want to win the Rampart running against two grade one winners with only five horses,’ but they let her go and that’s what happened,” Perkins marveled. “Oeuvre, she is something special. She’s the one type of horse that everybody wants to have in their life. She’s now 18 of 34. Oh, wow. So, she’s pretty outstanding.”

Perkins described Oeuvre as “tough” and “difficult to gallop.” He said, “But she’s got a personality that she doesn’t want to give in […] I mean, they have to take her out to gallop at a certain time every day. She has to have her order, and she knows what she wants to do. When she gets to the track, she has to go one way, not the other way to start. I mean, she’s an independent lady, for sure.”

In the Rampart, Windy Walk defeated both 2024 Alabama Stakes (G1) heroine Power Squeeze and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint-(G1) victress Soul of an Angel. Describing the filly, Perkins said, “Windy Walk is very laid back and really kind of skittish and very shy. We actually thought that she had an issue earlier in the year. We thought she had a heart problem, and I put her on her monitor for a week. Nothing showed up. I actually took her back and I was going to breed her and Mark at Bit o’ Blarney said, ‘this horse, she belongs on the racetrack. She’s running around here like she’s crazy.’ So we took her back and then the story started.” He noted, “But she was a little lucky in her wins because I started her very cheap because we didn’t know what was going on with her. I ran her for a maiden twice, so she qualified for a lot of starter allowances. She won a starter 25 and a starter 50 and she won a lot of nice starter, easier races than certainly the Rampart.” Most recently, she finished off the board in a January allowance optional claiming race at Gulfstream.

Perkins plans different routes for both. “I’m going to lay up Windy Walk now for a couple months and then get her ready for Keeneland in April. And I’ll race her this year too, later in the year. This to be the last year for Oeuvre. I’m going to breed her next year.”