October 2022 Member of the Month: Dr. Joel Politi
Dr. Joel Politi is the featured TOBA Member this month. 
y day, Dr. Joel Politi is a respected orthopedic surgeon. But on race days, he is better known as an owner of top-class Thoroughbreds. Several years after bursting onto the national scene with multiple grade 1 winner Serengeti Empress, Politi is riding high with stakes winners Li’l Tootsie and Kneesnhips.
Bought by Politi for $30,000, Kneesnhips annexed the March 12 Allen Black Cat LaCombe Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds. Thus far, she has earned over $150,000. Her standout stablemate, a $105,000 purchase, is graded-placed Li’l Tootsie. In the July 3 Anchorage Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs, Li’l Tootsie posted a 3 ½-length victory, followed on August 14 by a 1 ½-length triumph in Ellis Park’s Groupie Doll Stakes.
The latter race brought back fond memories of Serengeti Empress. “It was a throwback,” Politi said. “The night before I drove down there for the race, my wife and I watched the replay of ‘Serengeti’ winning the Ellis Park Debutante. We watched it several times and it made us smile just as big, so it was a great memory to go and relive.”
A resident of Columbus, Ohio, Politi grew up in Youngstown. “Well, my parents are first-generation immigrants,” he said. “They moved here, and my dad basically did anything and everything, including put up a 12-horse barn in our backyard, and we raised Thoroughbreds.” Politi Senior and Junior bonded over the track. “We had horses and raced them, and every weekend, we were at Thistledown watching races,” he said. “And often at night we were often at Mountaineer, or it was Waterford Park, watching races as well.” These trips to the races included five-hour round-trip drives to Maryland ovals.
After graduating medical school in 1993, Politi married fellow physician Julie the following year. They moved to Ohio in 2000, where they’ve raised their four daughters. “In October 2005,” he said, “I put together my fist partnership with my friend, which was Giddy-Up Stables. We claimed some horses, ran a bunch of horses, and had fun and traveled to the races and made it a pretty social thing.” Politi branched out on his own in 2016, but racing is still a family affair. Politi’s daughters named Li’l Tootsie to commemorate their mother, while Kneesnhips received her moniker because Politi specializes in knee and hip replacements. The family was inspired to name stakes winner Littlestitious, now retired and in foal to Not This Time, after a line from The Office.
Politi enlisted trainer Tom Amoss’ help to find promising fillies. At the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling sale, Politi bought a daughter of Alternation for $70,000. Named Serengeti Empress, she began her black-type journey in the 2018 Ellis Park Debutante. “That was the day that I knew that she was something special,” Politi said,” because if you watch the replay of that race, it is jaw-dropping, and if you’re a speed figure person, she ran incredibly fast for a two-year-old filly in August.” Next came a 19 ½-length romp in the Pocahontas Stakes (G2), which Politi said made him feel both “numb and excited,” before an off-the-board in the Tito’s Handmade Vodka Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).
At three, Serengeti Empress won the Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G2) before tallying the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). Of the Oaks, Politi said, “That was a magical day that my friends and family will never forget,” adding, “And when she won, it was shocking and amazing. I turned to my wife; I picked her up, literally over my head, and then the rest was a blur. We were in the infield and there were the lilies, and there were TVs and they were asking me questions on national TV, and it all happened really fast. It was unbelievable.”
At four, Serengeti Empress added the Ballerina Stakes (G1) and placed in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1). When she retired, Politi decided to keep, rather than sell, her. “She may go on to be a great producer,” he said, “and have lots of foals and financially that worked out to be a great decision for me, or it may not work out for me, and I’m okay with either one.” Serengeti Empress has an Into Mischief weanling colt and is open for 2023 after a “rough delivery.” Politi owns five mares on his own, boarded at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky., and has partnered with Taylor Made on a few more.
Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to the future, thanks to the nine runners he has with Amoss, including his stakes-winning fillies. After running fourth in three consecutive graded stakes, Kneesnhips got some time off this summer; her next race is up in the air. Of Li’l Tootsie, Politi mused, “We’ll probably keep her in one-turn races because she’s kind of physically built that way.” He added, “She’s been a model of consistency this year and she’s only four and she seems to be doing really well, so we’ll look forward to bring her back again as a five-year-old.”
