When Bertram and Diana Firestone dispersed their stock in January 2020, longtime racing spectators heaved a resigned sigh.
Another death knell had sounded in the line of great couples driving breeding and ownership for much of the mid-20th century. We’ve lost Lucille Parker in two incarnations (as Lucille Wright with first husband Warren and as Lucille Markey with second husband Admiral Gene), Allen and Madeleine Paulson, Bob and Beverly Lewis, and beyond. And, with Bert’s July 12 passing aged 89, this turf writer tolled the bell once again.
Construction magnate and former real estate broker Firestone was a lifelong equestrian who caught the racing bug. A onetime owner of Gulfstream Park and Calder Racecourse, he got a taste of classic success with 1971 Irish 2000 winner King’s Company. But his best move came when he teamed up, personally and professionally, with Diana Melville Johnson.
An heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and maternal cousin to actor Michael Douglas, Diana was a distinguished horsewoman in her own right. She became friends with Firestone, who was equally passionate about horses, as Barbara Goldsmith noted in her book Johnson v. Johnson. As it turned out, both Diana and Bert had met their matches. In 1980, Firestone enthused to The Washington Post that he spends “99 percent of my time with the horses. My first love is the horses.” No doubt his bride felt the same.
The Firestones purchased a Virginia nursery they named Cacoctin Stud, as well as Newstead Farm in Old Dominion. Across the Atlantic, they acquired Gilltown Stud from the Aga Khan (and sold it back in 1989). Adding trainer LeRoy Jolley to their team made them unstoppable.
The Firestones first sipped the Triple Crown trail’s heady brew when Honest Pleasure won four straight 1975. The 2-year-old colt punctuated his campaign with a 7-length romp in the G1 Champagne Stakes ten days after an 8-length tally in the G2 Cowdin Stakes. Quipped The New York Times’ Michael Strauss of the eventual champion, “Even the most skeptical should have been convinced Honest Pleasure was deserving of his division title.”
Meanwhile, the Firestones also cleaned up in the corresponding filly division. Racing in Diana’s name, Optimistic Gal annexed five Graded stakes but lost out on year-end hardware to Dearly Precious.
In the spring of his 3-year-old season, Honest Pleasure rattled off three consecutive Kentucky Derby prep wins but lost in the Run for the Roses to Bold Forbes. Perhaps the sting was alleviated by Optimistic Gal’s G2 Kentucky Oaks win the previous day. Honest Pleasure rebounded to capture the G1 Travers Stakes, while Optimistic Gal added three more G1 wins that season. Up-and-comer What A Summer also avenged her stablemate by defeating Dearly Precious in the G2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. The following year, What A Summer earned an Eclipse Award as top sprinter.
In 1978, the couple spent $32,000 on a daughter of Exclusive Native, picked out by teenager Matthew Firestone. Named Genuine Risk, the filly came to hand the following fall, remaining undefeated into the spring of 1980 before finishing third in the G1 Wood Memorial. Genuine Risk landed the Firestones in the Churchill Downs winner’s circle on the first Saturday in May, the first filly since Regret in 1915 to take the Classic.
Quality broodmare band
She placed in the Triple Crown’s next two legs, including a controversial second to Codex in the Preakness, and won the G1 Ruffian Handicap before suffering a career-ending injury in fall 1981. The Firestones received an Eclipse Award for top owner for their topsy-turvy 1980.
As Genuine Risk’s career wound down, others picked up. At 3 in 1981, Irish-bred April Run took the G1 Prix Vermeille in the fall, complemented by homebred stablemate Play It Safe’s victory in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac. April Run headed Stateside to annex the G1 Turf Classic and place in the G1 Washington DC International. That same year, sophomore filly Blue Wind, campaigned in Diana’s name, placed in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas before winning the Epsom Oaks and Irish Oaks and garnering divisional honors. In 1982, April Run added another Turf Classic to her resume and one-upped herself by winning the Washington International, en route to a title as America’s top turf mare.
By this time, the Firestones were cultivating a quality broodmare band. They were willing to cough up good money for prospects, as witnessed at a 1970 horses-in-training sale at Belmont Park.
There, they spent $130,000 on Prioress Stakes victress Exclusive Dancer, a half-sister to Genuine Risk’s sire, Exclusive Native. She earned back her purchase price within a decade, in large part to a Secretariat son foaled in 1976. Named General Assembly, he reeled off three consecutive victories in summer 1978. After his G1 Hopeful Stakes win, jockey Darrel McHargue declared to Sports Illustrated, “General Assembly is the best 2-year-old colt I’ve ever ridden, and he’s going to get better.”
General Assembly finished second in the Derby but redeemed himself by romping in the Travers, scooting home by 15 lengths in two minutes flat, which The Washington Post’s Andrew Beyer dubbed “reminiscent of his old man.”
The wins kept coming for the Firestones, all over the world. They sent out Half Iced to take the Japan Cup in 1982, bred 1993 Melbourne Cup winner Vintage Crop and that year’s Japanese champion older filly/mare Shinko Lovely, campaigned 1988 champion steeplechaser Jimmy Lorenzo, and owned and bred G1 winner and good regional sire Cure The Blues.
The Firestones carefully cultivated the fertile female family of Tree Of Knowledge. A Firestone homebred, stakes-placed Tree Of Knowledge produced 1987 champion grass horse Theatrical (by Nureyev). Bred by the Firestones in Ireland, Theatrical was sold partially, and then fully, to Allen Paulson. The colt swept six G1 events in his marquee season before becoming a standout sire.
Tree of Knowledge yielded North Of Eden (by Northfields), dam of 1994 champion turf male Paradise Creek (by Irish River). Sent to Riva Ridge, Exclusive Dancer foaled multiple G3 winner Expressive Dance. Bred to Chief’s Crown, she in turn produced Firestone homebred and 1992 G1 Brooklyn Handicap scorer Chief Honcho.
As the decades wore on, the Firestones geared down their racing and breeding operations. One of their final top-level runners was Winchester, a Theatrical son who nearly emulated his sire with a quartet of G1 turf wins. Winchester’s homebred half-brother Middleburg earned Graded stakes glory for the pair as recently as 2016.
And, even with Bertram’s passing, the family legacy continues. His partner in life and sport, Diana, survives him, as do children Greg, Matt, Ted, and Alison (a noted competitive rider), stepchildren Lorna, Chris, and Cricket, and his grandchildren. And, of course, the Firestones’ contribution to racing, from globetrotting Group/Graded wins to standout bloodstock, is alive and well.