Page 81 - June_2023

“The trainer and the grooms are the ones who put the work into each horse and if the horse has talent, they can draw that talent out of them. I feel blessed to have that.”
She sent all the horses that could race back to the track and when they passed their opportunity for racing, Chris asked Connie if he could re-home them with someone who could use them for another purpose. They sold some and Connie kept some at home to live out their lives. “We’re down to six at home now: five Thoroughbreds and a Quarter Horse, who are all approaching 20. They’re elderly horses but they all look darn good; my veterinarian told me that when they no longer look fabulous, I’ll know it’s time to say goodbye.”
Connie gave Powerful Favorite to
Chris, who uses him as his pony horse, and Runforyourlife to John Firth, who broke him, Powerful Favorite and Bomb Cyclone.
“One of my sons asked what his dad’s goal was in all of this and it was like, duh, to have a stallion,” Connie says. “Now we have one and people are knocking on our door so why should I stop at this point?
“So, I recently asked Steve Burns if he thought
I should retire Cyber Attack to stud or let him run and he said if he was his horse, he’d run him. I don’t think I can get any better advice
than his, so we’ll run
him toward the end
of this year and
God willing, he’ll
stay sound and
healthy, and then we’ll face the issue of where to send him and all that involves. So that’s where we’re headed, and I feel like I’m doing justice to Bob and what he wanted; to his whole plan.”
Toward that end, Connie recently bought three more full brothers - Cyber Warfare, Cyber Force and Epic Wind - to hopefully carry on their sibling’s success. “If so, we can rename the ranch and business the Magnificent Lucky Seven LLC!” she says.
CREATING MEMORIES
All of Connie and Bob’s six children but one (Brian, who lives in Las Vegas) live within about an hour of the ranch, so they and the grandkids get together fairly often. Lora, their daughter, does the ranch’s books (which leaves Connie more time to pursue her quilting passion); their son Dennis lives nearby and works on the ranch; and Steven, Peter and John live 30-40 minutes away.
“We didn’t get into the horses until all the kids were grown and had left home,” Connie says. “People would ask why they weren’t more involved, and I think it was because Bob was basically a self-made man; his computer hardware company was very successful and like him, the
kids wanted to make their own choices and see them through.
She fondly recalls having two grandchildren living with her and Bob for nearly a year. “The boys were about 8 and 9 and we had a friend who loaned us two ponies,” she said. “The boys would go out into the pasture and ride or groom them, and one day I looked out and I couldn’t see them. I went out to see where they were, and the ponies and the boys were all laying on the ground. The boys were shooting the breeze using the ponies for pillows. They said the ponies wanted to relax so they were relaxing with them. It was adorable! It was like having my own children again.”
Connie has not only carried out Bob’s dream for the horses, but for the ranch as well. “He picked out this land and we built the ranch and so it means something more to me than just a piece of property,” she says. “After he passed, I looked around and found these four blankets of prominent races our horses had won, and they were just folded up in the coat closet!
“We have high ceilings in the living room and the entryway and I have all our win pictures on
the walls down the hallway so I actually have our own little hall of fame,” she says, laughing. “And we have all the pictures from the big races in the office, and all kinds of pictures and paintings throughout the house. So, I asked my son if we could hang the blankets I found, and he said, ‘Absolutely!’ We also hung saddle cloths all around the office ceiling, which is 10 feet, and in the living room, which is taller than that. I thought, this is for Bob; this is what his house should have looked like instead of me feng-shui-ing it in my decorating manner. I feel this is his shrine and I’m proud of what the horses have done for us and feel like it should be displayed.
“One thing I’m proud of is having the guts to spend the money and take a chance and see where it would all go after Bob passed,” she said.
And with Connie’s firm and resolute hand in overseeing Bob’s dream, it has gone farther than she ever dreamed.
William Zuazo, Los Alamitos
Cyber Attack winning the
Los Alamitos $2 Million
Futurity-G1.
Not that they didn’t come to the ranch and
feed the horses carrots!”
SPEEDHORSE June 2023 79