September 2018 Member of the Month: Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is the TOBA September Member of the Month

Barry K. Schwartz’s accomplishments in horse racing are just as impressive as they are in business. Co-founder of the Calvin Klein fashion empire, the Bronx native also helmed the New York Racing Association for four years as chairman of its board of directors. On August 11, he earned his first grade 1 win at Saratoga when his Empire State homebred Voodoo Song took the Fourstardave Handicap (G1T).

Owner of Stonewall Farm, located in Westchester County, Schwartz caught the horse bug at a young age. “I used to go to the racetrack when I was a little boy,” he recalled. “I used to love going to the track, going to Belmont, going to the trotters at night. I always enjoyed racing and then I started reading about it, reading about the bloodlines, the genetics of the sport; it always intrigued me.”

In the 1970s, Schwartz and Calvin Klein licensed the latter’s eponymous clothing lines to Carl Rosen. Also a horseman, Rosen maintained a decent-sized stable and took Schwartz to the track one day. Rosen suggested that Schwartz branch out into equine sports, as well, and the rest, as they say, is history. Schwartz purchased his first horse in January 1978, musing, “It’s been a great ride ever since.”

That year was a seminal one to get involved in racing, and Schwartz took full advantage of it. He soaked in Affirmed’s Triple Crown first-hand. He attended each of the three classic races and helicoptered out to Long Island with Rosen for the Belmont Stakes. Even though he lost, betting on Alydar in each leg, Schwartz was hooked. He said, “I just think it’s a fascinating endeavor. I bought my first horse in 1978, but within two years, I was looking to breed because it just seemed like the logical way to go. I’ve had mares ever since.”

At its height, Schwartz’s broodmare band numbered over 60 head. Currently, he maintains 100 total horses, including between 20 and 25 broodmares and 18 and 20 two-year-olds. He regularly scours the sales, which has paid dividends, and supports New York-breds at the sales and on the track.. “These horses will hold their own with anyone,” he said, adding, “The soil is good. The weather is fine. Our weather is not that different from Kentucky—they just get spring three weeks earlier and winter ends three weeks earlier, so they’ve got a longer growing season.” In addition to Voodoo Song, Schwartz-bred black-type winners foaled in New York include grade 1 winners The Lumber Guy and Princess Violet; La Fuerza, who won the July 14 Rockville Center Stakes; and three-time Hollie Hughes Handicap victor Papua, among others.

Schwartz spent $200,000 to buy Mystic Chant, a daughter of Unbridled’s Song, at the 2003 Keeneland September Yearling sale. Late bloodstock agent Buzz Chance, who picked out Unbridled’s Song himself, selected the filly for him. Mystic Chant went on to win the 2005 Open Mind Stakes at Aqueduct, but arguably never showed her best on the track. Schwartz recalled, “She showed a lot of speed on the turf. I raced her at Santa Anita. She didn’t win the day that she ran on the downhill turf course, but she ran the half in forty-five and three[-fifths seconds]. She had some really blazing speed.”

Mystic Chant was sent to turf champion English Channel to produce now-four-year-old colt Voodoo Song. The handsome chestnut boasts a dash of stamina, courtesy of his sire, with a keen turn of foot, thanks to his dam. A winner at 1- 3/8 miles on the grass at Saratoga last year, Voodoo Song went on to earn black type later in the meet by annexing the nine-furlong Saranac Stakes (G3T). “He’s a very tough horse. When they come to him, I mean, he really fights,” Schwartz said admiringly. Voodoo Song is now on a two-race win streak; his Fourstardave victory came on the heels of a triumph in the listed Forbidden Apple Stakes at Belmont Park.

In addition to winning stakes all over his home state, Schwartz also served as NYRA chairman and CEO between 2000 and 2004. He’d first joined as a board member in 1994, at the request of the late Ogden “Dinny” Phipps and Kenny Noe, Jr. “It was a great experience,” Schwartz recalled. “We did some tremendous things.” In particular, he is proud of the “less is more” economic model he brought to NYRA, emphasizing that a lower takeout is key to building racetrack handle.