September 2020 Member of the Month: Scott Heider

Scott Heider and John Sikura

Scott Heider is the TOBA September Member of the Month.

SScott Heider has built a stable deep in quality, as witnessed by two recent triumphs. Heider-owned Thoughtfully captured the August 12 Adirondack Stakes (G2) at Saratoga. Across the Pond, three-year-old filly Pista annexed the Sept. 10 bet365 Park Hill Fillies’ Stakes (G2) at Doncaster. Among Heider’s 14 horses of racing age numbers a portion of grade 1 winner Speech.

Pista’s success has come as a joy for Heider. “[Trainer] Joseph [O’Brien] was still at his yard in Ireland and he was watching,” he said, “and here I am in Omaha, [Nebraska] and I’m in my office. I’ve got it up on our big screen and then the filly’s in England, so talk about covering some miles, and anyway—so we were awfully happy. We were cautiously optimistic. She’s a nice filly.” Heider also co-bred and owns Crossfirehurricane, who took the June 12 Coolmore Ten Sovereigns Gallinule Stakes (G3) at The Curragh.

At the 2018 Keeneland September Yearling sale, Heider purchased Pista for $950,000. “All of a sudden, 24 months later to the month,” he recalled, “to make it to Doncaster in a group 2 and you’ve got William Buick in the irons and Joseph O’Brien training and you win the group 2—I mean, if that doesn’t make you just feel like you’re the luckiest person on the Earth when they hit the finish, I don’t know what it’ll take.”

Of Thoughtfully, he added, “Honestly, when she was in the Adirondack, I was absolutely 100% just as thrilled watching and not being there. Of course, we’d prefer to be there with the crowd, but this year you’ve got to take it in stride.” Heider bought Thoughtfully—by Tapit from Pension, a descendant of blue hen Lady Pitt—for $950,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling sale. He said, “We knew that, if she could run and show some talent, that she was an absolute potential taproot-type mare. And we’ve been so blessed to have her win a grade 2 early on and she’s now being pointed at the [October 2 Darley] Alcibiades Stakes [G1, at Keeneland].”

Heider recalled, “So back in the day, when I was a young man, we had Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack here in Omaha. Back when I was growing up, that was one of the places to race in the summertime in the Midwest, and I had a job very early on as an usher. And I thought this was the greatest job in the world, and when I was in college—I went to the University of Southern California—and when I was back in the summertime, as opposed to an internship or something, I decided I’d rather be a teller at Ak-Sar-Ben because I was just so taken with the sport and the industry.” After graduation, Heider and his father bought their first racehorse: future California-bred champion Answer Do.

Heider has since branched out into breeding. His first purchase, the Storm Bird mare Storm Teal, became a stakes producer. “Since Storm Teal,” Heider said, “I’ve slowly just listened and tried to absorb all I possibly can on the breeding end.” One of his bloodstock advisors, Donato Lanni, introduced him to John Sikura. Heider boards his mares at Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm. He added, “John has been really great counsel for the last 20 years for me and we talk all the time and we actually own some horses together now.”

Heider also enlisted Tony Lacy and Brad Weisbord to expand his burgeoning equine empire. He privately purchased grade 1 winner Taris, whose Curlin yearling colt sold for $950,000 last year. Named King Fury, he broke his maiden by 2 ¾ lengths on September 3 at Churchill Downs for Paul Fireman’s Fern Circle and Three Chimney

Heider’s eight-to-ten-strong Kentucky broodmare band is highly select. At the 2015 Keeneland November sale, he purchased Lacadena — a granddaughter of Blush With Pride and granddam of 2020 Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) winner Paris Lights—for $1.3 million. Heider’s other mares include grade 1 winner Mia Mischief, whom he bought privately, and Louvakhova, dam of Crossfirehurricane and granddam of Jack and Noah. Lacadena had a Justify filly in 2020; stakes winner Lady Alexandra (More Than Ready – Lophorina) foaled a War Front filly.

Of the Thoroughbred industry, Heider mused, “It’s like a rose. You have to see it and look at it and smell it and appreciate it and understand that the horse is not going to be there long term. You just have to marvel at its beauty when you have it, and that’s what has to sustain you through those inevitable challenges.”