Ten years after his retirement, dual Horse of the Year Wise Dan is enjoying life on the farm with trainer Charlie LoPresti – as Patricia McQueen finds out. And yes, of course there is a link to Secretariat …
It is a far cry from the crowds he thrilled during his racing career, but the brilliant dual Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Wise Dan still gets plenty of attention these days.
The 17-year-old gelding lives the good life with his half-brother Successful Dan at the Kentucky farm of Charlie LoPresti, the trainer who guided Wise Dan through such a remarkable career encompassing 11 G1 victories, two Horse of the Year campaigns and four divisional championships.
“He has such a big fan base, people who still come to see him,” says LoPresti, adding that the gelding is quite the ham with visitors and continues to think he’s “king of the world.” He regularly receives birthday cards, peppermints and horse cookies, and more cards and presents at Christmas time.
It seems like only yesterday, but it was 10 years ago that Wise Dan was preparing for a fourth start in a Breeders’ Cup race, potentially on the brink of a third Horse of the Year title. Fate had other plans, but his story is remarkable.
Royal heritage
Bred and raced by the late Morton Fink, Wise Dan is by Wiseman’s Ferry, a son of the Storm Cat stallion Hennessy. His dam is Lisa Danielle, who in turn was out of the unraced Secretariat mare Askmysecretary.
Readers might now understand why I wanted to relive Wise Dan’s story: Askmysecretary is the only Secretariat mare besides Terlingua, Weekend Surprise and Gone West to appear in the pedigree of an American Horse of the Year.
There’s another fun connection between Wise Dan and Secretariat – albeit one through LoPresti himself.
When we discussed Wise Dan as a Secretariat descendant, memories flooded back. In his early 20s, LoPresti broke young horses at the old Domino Stud, including the Secretariat fillies Secrettame and Viva Sec.
He galloped both regularly until they went to the track. “It’s a small world,” he laughs. “Who would have ever thought Secrettame would turn out to be the dam of Gone West?”
Lisa Danielle was a pretty good broodmare too. Fink acquired her as a yearling, and the filly won only a maiden race – she was destined for greater things. Her second foal was stakes winner Our Royal Dancer, and her second-last foal was the G2-placed Enchanting Lisa. In between came the stars that earned Lisa Danielle Kentucky Broodmare of the Year honors in 2013.
First was Successful Dan, a 2006 son by Successful Appeal. The bay gelding won eight of 15 starts from 2009 to 2013, including four graded stakes, for earnings just shy of $1 million.
He was equally comfortable on dirt or all-weather (synthetic) surfaces, and to this day LoPresti believes the gelding was “every bit as good a racehorse as Wise Dan”. A bold claim, but soundness issues interrupted his training.
Lisa Danielle delivered Wise Dan on Feb. 20, 2007. The chestnut started down a similar path as Successful Dan; his first nine starts were on either dirt or synthetic tracks.
After a fifth in his racing debut on a snowy afternoon at Turfway Park on Feb. 26, 2010, he broke his maiden a month later at the same track. Serving notice of his talent, he won by 15¼ lengths.
He won again next out at Churchill Downs, then after a short break made it three in a row at six furlongs in the G3 Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland. Sent right into the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill, Wise Dan finished sixth, but only 2½ lengths behind the winner.
At home on grass
Wise Dan made his turf debut in the G2 Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs on July 4, 2011. He went off at 14.3-1, by far his longest odds in any race. Fortunately, he didn’t look at the tote board, and won easily by 2¾ lengths to launch a sensational turf career.
He raced 21 more times over the next three years, recording 18 wins, two seconds and a fourth. The fourth came shortly after the Firecracker; after that he was almost unbeatable. He earned his first G1 win in the 2011 Clark Handicap at Churchill – on the dirt.
Wise Dan’s 2012 campaign included a record-setting win in the G3 Ben Ali Stakes on the Keeneland all-weather course; he won by 10½ lengths. The gelding closed out the year with four straight wins on the turf: the G2 Fourstardave at Saratoga and a trio of major G1 events over a mile, namely the Ricoh Woodbine Mile, Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland and Breeders’ Cup Mile). In the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita, he set a new course record of 1:31.78.
He was awarded his first three championship titles – Horse of the Year, older male and turf male. It was the first time since John Henry in 1981 that one horse received both turf and older male titles along with Horse of the Year.
In 2013, Wise Dan was just shy of a perfect 7-for-7 record; the only blemish was a second in an off-the-turf Shadwell Turf Mile in October. His six victories on the turf included four G1s, climaxing again in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, back at Santa Anita where he justified odds-on favoritism.
At year’s end, Wise Dan was honored with the same three championships as in 2012, a singularly unique occurrence in the Eclipse Awards era.
The final year
The two-time Horse of the Year began 2014 with repeat victories in the Maker’s 46 Mile and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, then showed signs of colic after a morning gallop at Keeneland on May 16. Sent to nearby Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, surgery was performed that afternoon. “He had what they call a nephrosplenic entrapment,” recalls LoPresti. But when they opened him up, they discovered that the displacement had already corrected itself; all they had to do was sew him back together.
When Wise Dan returned to the trainer’s farm five days later, he was full of himself. “He was buck-jumping and kicking as he came off the trailer,” says LoPresti, who quickly realized that the incident didn’t really affect the horse at all. “He’s got a heart as big as the Empire State Building, and he’s a tough horse.”
After a little R&R at the farm, training resumed on a slow and easy pace and the gelding was eventually sent to Saratoga, albeit without a specific goal in mind. Observers thought he wasn’t the same horse, remembers LoPresti, but he knew otherwise.
One morning, the trainer had him go in company with another horse. “He breezed like lights out, and that was the turning point,” he says. “Everybody said ‘now he’s back.’ Well, he was back the whole time; I was just being careful with him.”
His comeback race was the G2 Bernard Baruch Handicap on August 30, which Wise Dan won by a nose. Years later, LoPresti still considers that race to be the most meaningful of the horse’s career. “It meant the world for me to see him come back and win that race the way he did. There was a big sigh of relief.”
Next came a one-length tally in the Shadwell Turf Mile. “He was as good as I’ve ever seen him, and I don’t know a horse that could have beaten him back then,” says LoPresti.
In fact, LoPresti had a bold plan to run Wise Dan on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but he never got the chance after an ankle injury ended his season.
Wise Dan was doing well for a comeback the next year, when he was eight, until a slight tendon tear led to permanent retirement. His career record stood at 23 wins in 31 starts and earnings of $7,552,920.
Fond memories
The past 10 years have only enhanced Wise Dan’s stellar reputation, and he entered the Hall of Fame in 2020 in his first year of eligibility. To this day, his intelligence is what stands out most in the minds of his connections.
LoPresti’s assistant back then was his nephew Reeve McGaughey, and he vividly remembers how the horse interacted with the people around him.
He would let the groom and others do their daily work, but at some point he’d signal that he was done with the attention – he’d stop standing still, for example. “He liked having his own space,” says McGaughey.
Yet when visitors came around, especially kids, Wise Dan would hang out at the front of his stall for as long as necessary, as McGaughey recalls, saying: “He knew the difference between the people that worked with him every day and the people who were coming just to see him. He’d put on a show.”
Traveling was never a challenge. “He was almost excited to go places because he knew that meant he was going to run,” adds McGaughey. Importantly, he readily adapted to new living quarters. “He’d walk into a stall, roll, stand up, and then it was like he’d been there his whole life.”
A touching experience at Woodbine provided a precious memory for both LoPresti and McGaughey. A visitor came by the barn and said there was a girl who wanted to meet Wise Dan and have her picture taken with him; she was in a wheelchair.
McGaughey brought the horse to the front of the barn by the parking lot, and the girl rolled out of the van. “I kid you not, that horse drug me and my nephew up to that little girl and he put his head in her lap,” says LoPresti. “She was petting on him with a smile on her face.”
Life of leisure
Wise Dan still puts a smile on a lot of faces. In addition to sharing the gelding with visitors, LoPresti has taken him for a few local appearances. There was ‘Wise Dan Day’ at Old Friends in 2019, and he’s also visited Keeneland and Churchill Downs. The latter excursion was when the Firecracker Handicap was renamed the Wise Dan Stakes in 2016.
Overall, the Wise and Successful Dans enjoy their life of leisure. Although he loves getting treats, Wise Dan also likes eating grass and trying to pick on his big brother.
“They play and they fight and they scrap around,” explains LoPresti. “In the end, Successful Dan always puts him in his place. They have a good time together. They’re inseparable.”
Most days the pair are out all afternoon and through the night. They spend a few hours in the barn each morning, getting brushed and cleaned. And of course, the first thing they do when turned out again is roll in the mud!
At his age, it’s unlikely that Wise Dan will make any future appearances elsewhere, although he’s doing very well. “He’s older now, and set in his ways,” says the devoted LoPresti. “I think he’s done everything that he needs to do. I just want him to be happy.”
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