January 2023 Member of the Month: Keith Mason

Keith Mason is the featured TOBA Member this month.

n December 3, Dubyuhnell catapulted himself into contention for the 2023 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). The two-year-old son of Good Magic captured this year’s edition of the Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct. And it’s justifiable if co-owners Stonestreet Stables and Keith Mason of West Paces Racing are already seeing roses.

A Georgia native, Mason resides in Atlanta. Previously a partner at the law firm Dentons, he retired from his legal career in 2016. Having worked in government at the state and federal levels, Mason remains involved in real estate and infrastructure, among other ventures. But, he added, “Now I like to play around with horse racing on a recreational level.”

“You know, I think part of why I was attracted to the sport was because of the strategy behind it,” he mused. “It’s very similar to what you do in politics and business. And also there’s a lot of significance in the relationships that are present, both the genealogical relationships of the pedigrees that we talked about earlier, but also the people involved, the connections and all. I’ve done strategy a lot in my career, for clients in business as well as in political endeavors, and the horse racing business seems to be a lot of—it’s built around strategy and relationships—connections, as we call it.”

He added, “Like a lot of Americans, I would tune into the Kentucky Derby and one or two other Triple Crown races. My formative memory was Secretariat, 1973, when I was in middle school and I followed it, like, very, very casually.” In 1991, as chief of staff to Governor Zell Miller of Georgia, Mason attended the Run for the Roses. He reflected, “I love the social aspect. I loved all the connections—the people, the race, the betting, the handicapping, all of that.” Throughout the 1990s, Mason built connections with politicians who happened to be involved in the sport, like then-Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones, and kept on attending races.

After falling in love with Saratoga around 2007, Mason got involved with Donegal Racing, run by his friend Jerry Crawford, in 2013. With Donegal, he has been involved in the partnership’s biggest successes, including Keen Ice’s 2015 Travers (G1) win over American Pharoah and Mo Donegal’s Belmont Stakes (G1) triumph this year. In 2019, Mason and his friend Larry Connolly, whom he brought to Donegal, branched out and founded West Paces Racing. West Paces has 11 to 12 yearlings and runners in training with Danny Gargan, Tom Morley, and Ray Handal.

Among those conditioned by Gargan is burgeoning star Dubyuhnell. Connolly is a proud alumnus of Washington & Lee University, whose name is often abbreviated to “W&L.” Locally, that abbreviation is sometimes pronounced “Dubyuhnell.” Conor Foley’s Oracle Bloodstock bought the chestnut colt, bred by Stonestreet, for $400,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling sale. After the purchase, Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet kept 25% of the horse; in fact, she and Mason are now neighbors. “I just coincidentally, since we bought that horse, in March of this year, I bought a farm about a mile and a half from her place in Versailles that is for my own personal use,” Mason said. “It’s about a 61-acre farm. And I named it Terminus Farm, kind of after one of the older names of Atlanta, representing the finish line and connections and all that good stuff.”

Mason and his partners were impressed by Dubyuhnell from early on. “I watched him work out this summer at Saratoga,” he said. “We went down to Stonestreet in Ocala where he was brokenlast March, which we traditionally do to go see our horses—we train them down there in Ocala once we get them as yearlings—and we thought that this horse was the most special of all the ones we had an interest in out of that group.” Dubyuhnell lost his first race, a Saratoga maiden special weight on September 3, but broke his maiden by 2 ½ lengths on October 2 at Belmont at the Big A. And then came the Remsen win, which has West Paces hoping for big things in 2023.

Mason has already been in the winner’s circle at major races with Donegal, which informs how he approaches having a Derby prospect. “So having those experiences kind of helped manage the emotions and all, but it’s pretty thrilling,” he said. “I can’t quite believe it yet, but we’re not there. We’re just looking at the possibility. We’ve got ten points; we’ve won two races in a row; our horse has got some good numbers and some great genealogy. It’s training well, looks like it’s coming into the rhythm for that race and good form. And we just have to trust the horse, trust the gods, and see what happens.”