Nathan McCauley

Nathan McCauley is the TOBA October Member of the Month.

Nathan McCauley is flying high, having bred two major stakes winners over the past few months. The three-year-old colt Stitched, bred and co-owned by McCauley, won the July 1 Wise Dan Stakes (G2) at Ellis Park. His neck victory came at 46-1 odds. McCauley-bred Eda also rattled off her sixth and seventh straight wins, which came in the July 4 Great Lady M Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos and August 27 Rancho Bernardo Handicap (G3) at Del Mar.

McCauley followed his father, Ron, into car sales. After spending some years in Nashville, opening and running auto dealerships, he returned to Kentucky. After Ron sold his business, the whole family fell in love with horses. Nathan talked his dad into buying a horse, and the McCauleys purchased River Oak Farm in Lexington in the mid-2000s. Ron McCauley raced the likes of grade 1 winner Golden Doc A before dispersing his stock in 2017.

Since then, Nathan has picked up the family mantle. “Eventually, I started breeding my own horses,” he said, “and got lucky and bred Free Rose, who won the Del Mar Derby [G2T] in 2016 and the La Jolla Handicap [G3T]…and that was kind of the defining moment of my career. I realized I loved horses more than I did the car business, so I made the full transition in 2016 from cars to horses.”

River Oak, which includes a 200-acre horse farm, is currently home to about 60 broodmares. Among those numbers is Stitched’s dam, Walking Miracle. The Into Mischief mare is in foal to Constitution for 2024 and has a Jimmy Creed yearling colt and two-year-old Munnings filly. McCauley’s brother Tevis claimed Walking Miracle’s dam, Vegas Trip (by Aldebaran), a half-sister to grade 1 winner Mast Track (by Mizzen Mast). So, it was a no-brainer to send Walking Miracle to that son of Cozzene in 2018, who produced Stitched.

Both Stitched and Eda hail from River Oak’s 2019 crop. “They’re incredible,” McCauley enthused. “They’ve both had such a big impact on my life. It’s amazing what a horse can do for you, the way that they can change your lives, those of us that are in the business.” In particular, their success can provide a much-needed boost after tragedy. “The business can be very tough, and we had some infectious disease come through the farm the year that they were born,” McCauley said, “and we lost a third of our foal crop that year.”

The two horses stuck in his mind. “They were standouts to me,” he said. “That was a really good crop that we had.” Horseman Ted Campion fell in love with young Eda. McCauley said, “And we made arrangement where him and some of his buddies were able to buy into Eda as a foal and we sent her to Dundrum Farm, Ted’s farm.” Eddie Woods consigned Eda to the 2021 OBS March Sale, where the two-year-old fetched $550,000 from Donato Lanni. The Munnings filly now races for Baoma Corp.

Stitched was also a looker. McCauley said, “I think he had great mechanics and was a beautiful mover.” But McCauley ended up keeping part of Stitched in a roundabout way. “I had brought him to the Keeneland September sale when he was a yearling and we had him early in the sale for his pedigree,” he said. “But the reason that we did was, his older brother is quite the racehorse—Swill.” McCauley hoped to get a catalog update from the highly regarded Swill before selling Stitched; that didn’t happen, although the Munnings colt broke his maiden not long after. So, McCauley bought back Stitched, and when a friend called and asked him his plans for the colt, the pals decided to partner as owners.

Stitched got on a roll in the spring and summer of 2022, winning the Caesars Stakes and Mystic Lake Derby. It took him some time to find his footing in 2023, but he performed in top-flight fashion in the Wise Dan. McCauley was surprised at his odds that day, saying, “I think most of the betting public missed that [Flavien] Prat was riding him.”

McCauley and his fiancée almost missed the race due to busy schedules and poor weather. Thankfully, they ended up attending. Making the Wise Dan even more special was being able to celebrate with McCauley’s good friend Travis Foley, Stitched’s trainer. He recalled, “It was a perfect day.”

Eda, meanwhile, is on a roll. After the Great Lady M, McCauley mused, “She’s got to be the bravest horse I ever bred. She just refuses to lose.” He added, “Half of those six wins, it looked like she was beat at the sixteenth pole, and she just gets her nose down at the wire. It’s been an incredible run.”