May 2020 Member of the Month: Stuart Grant

The past two years have been magical for owner Stuart Grant.

The past two years have been magical for owner Stuart Grant. Campaigning in the name of The Elkstone Group, Grant has raced, solo and in partnership, horses who have earned over $20 million since 2002, including two champions.

A prominent attorney based in Greenville, Delaware, Grant hails from Flatbush, Brooklyn. Grant learned to handicap from his high school science teachers. “I, of course, took a liking to that and they taught me to handicap and all that,” he said. “And we’d figure out to run bets out to OTBs in the Bronx, which was about only twenty minutes away from where I went to school in Westchester.”

Working in the Catskills each summer, he hung around Monticello Raceway. “I loved going to the horses, but I never thought owning a racehorse was in the realm of possibility,” Grant confessed. “So I guess I didn’t have that dream because I didn’t consider at various times in my life that that was possible.”

A co-founder of law firm Grant & Eisenhofer P.A., Grant has given back extensively with wife Suzanne. Their extensive philanthropic efforts include a $1-million donation to the University of Delaware—where Grant formerly served as a trustee— to develop an equine studies program. That program offers paid internship opportunities at the Grants’ Camden Training Center in Camden, South Carolina.

Grant entered the racing game nearly 20 years ago and now owns C-Dog Farm near Chesapeake City, Maryland. He currently has 30 to 35 horses with partners Michael Dubb and Michael Caruso; he owns 8 to 10 in the United States on his own, with more in Australia. Grant owns four-year-old Social Paranoia, who captured the one-mile Appleton Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park on March 28. “[Trainer] Todd [Pletcher] always thought that horse had talent,” Grant recalled, “but we always seemed to be second best his entire two-year-old year.”

At three, Social Paranoia triumphed in the 1 5/16-mile Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Derby at Kentucky Downs and placed in three graded stakes. Grant dreams of sending Social Paranoia to the Melbourne Cup (G1). “He’s shown he can go the distance,” he said. “If we add another 1/4 of a mile or 5/16 of a mile, he could still do that. Boy, wouldn’t that be fun.”

Grant has had horses with the likes of Art Stauffer and Tony Dutrow; the latter introduced Grant to Dubb and Caruso. “We’ve been fortunate in getting some really nice horses,” Grant admitted, “but the failures are so much more plentiful than the successes that we shouldn’t think that everything that the partnership has turned to gold.” The trio campaigned grade 1 winners Grace Hall and Condo Commando, but their best yet has been Monomoy Girl (co-owned with Sol Kumin).

Monomoy Girl has earned nearly $3 million and took home an Eclipse Award as 2018’s top three-year-old filly. She swept four consecutive Grade I races, including the Kentucky Oaks (G1), and ended the year by winning the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1). Unraced in 2019, Monomoy Girl is training at Keeneland. “Monomoy Girl, I talked to [trainer] Brad [Cox] yesterday and the only thing standing in her way is a race,” Grant said. “We need to run her; she’s ready.” Monomoy Girl won in her 2020 debut on May 16 at Churchill Downs in an $85,000 allowance optional claiming race.

The partners raced two-year-old filly British Idiom to yet another championship. British Idiom tallied the 2019 Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) to earn year-end honors. “Brad, I think, recognized that one earlier than any of us really expected,” he said. “But that was awesome, to have the lows of, you’ve got a three-year-old champion who should come back and have an amazing four-year-old year and has a variety of ailments, and all of a sudden this $40,000 two-year-old pops up and has an undefeated year. Who knew?”

“That was just amazing,” Grant enthused, “but each one, I mean, this was my fourth Breeders’ Cup, but our first two wins, but each trip there, is extraordinary. It’s something really special and each horse, because the horse has a different personality and gets there under different circumstances, it’s amazing.

“It never gets old, whether it’s the Breeders’ Cup or any of the real big races, the Kentucky Oaks, any of the big ones we’ve been in, Saratoga. It doesn’t get old. It’s exciting. Each race, the competition is different, and you’re never 100% sure. Is my horse going to fire? Is she going to do everything she can? But this is why you get into the business and the fact we’ve had two unbelievable years like this, it’s so exciting.”