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Carrying on a Legacy
by Diane Rice
When it comes to carrying on the “It was like a roadmap for me,”
Rosenthal Ranch legacy, Connie
Rosenthal’s go-to philosophy is “What would Bob do?” She is committed
to making Rosenthal Ranch a tribute to her late husband.
“After Bob passed, I had to rely on other people’s information and expertise,” she says. “I had maintained the ranch grounds, but Bob took care of everything else. So, when he passed, it was in my lap and quite honestly, I didn’t know where to turn. I spent many tearful days trying to figure
it out.
“One of the most beautiful things that
happened during that time was that one day, my foreman of 27 years now, Oscar Rocha, asked me when we needed to worm the horses. He’d taken Bob’s death almost as hard as I did and I didn’t want to say I didn’t know. So I came into the office and started looking around. There was this white notebook that said Medical Records of the Horses, and in it I found all the dates of when the farrier should come, when to worm, when to vaccinate, and anything that had taken place with each individual horse.
she explains. “I just felt like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders and I ran out to Oscar and said, ‘We do it in April,’ like
I knew it all along. I think that reassured him that we could manage, and that was the start of [me taking the reins].”
Fast forward to Oklahoma in 2020 and the AQHA awards for 2019. AQHA Chief Racing Officer Janet VanBebber was co-hosting. “We’ve known Janet for more than 35
years,” Connie says. “When we won Owner of the Year, I couldn’t hold back the tears and I said to
her, ‘Can you believe how far
we’ve come?’
“When I met Janet, she was
just a college girl dating our then-trainer, H.L. Hooper, and I was just the wife of a would-be- successful racehorse owner with six children, some around Janet’s age. And she said, ‘Bob would be so proud of what you’ve done, and so excited.’”
Los Alamitos
Connie celebrates with jockey Eduardo Nicasio after Powerful Favorite wins the Governor’s Cup Derby at Los Alamitos on July 27, 2019.
Speedhorse Archives
Janet VanBebber and Connie at
the 2019 AQHA Racing Champions Ceremony.
SPEEDHORSE June 2023 75