Page 42 - New Mexico Winter 2021

Frank
And Yulla
by Pete Herrera
Frank Macaron, a life-long bachelor, will matter-of-factly tell you that he’s never really known what love is all about.
Now 82, he says the closest he came to
There may be no better example of that than the remarkably successful, emotionally, inspiring story of Macaron and his Thoroughbred mare Yulla Yulla. A partnership
22-flat, the second quarter would be faster than the first and then she’d say, ‘Come and get me.’ And they couldn’t.”
The mare at one point won nine straight
marriage was years ago when he was still living in Raton and fresh into the business of horse racing. Ultimately, the lady lost out to the racetrack.
But as the late singer Andy Williams chromed in his big 1955 hit: “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing.”
Love isn’t just about moonbeams and magic moments. It’s more than lollipops and roses. It’s not always just about the human heart. Sometimes it’s more about the human spirit.
Love comes in many ways and there’s no such thing as one form fits all.
Love is giving up basketball and other trappings of youth to help your family in a time of need. It’s about making the most out of what little you have.
Love is saving the life of an injured animal with eight months’ worth of patience and meticulous care.
Love can be as simple as unwrapping a piece of foil and gently feeding the mint candy inside to the best racehorse you ever owned.
With due respect to Frank Macaron’s assessment of love in his life, a closer look at his body of work inevitably leaves one with the conclusion that love has always been by his side, his outrider so to speak.
that ended with the death of the mare this past summer of bladder cancer at age 26.
Yulla Yulla, which in Lebanese means hurry, hurry, lived up to her name and much more during a spectacular career at the track. In 27 races from the summer of 1998 to 2002, Yulla Yulla won 21 of 27, finished second twice and third once. Her earnings at retirement totaled just over $433,000.
Trained by the late Johnie Jamison, the dark bay mare won an impressive array of stakes races for New Mexico bred mares.
That list included The First Lady Handicap
at Ruidoso, wins in successive years in the New Mexico Racing Commission Handicap and the Viva El Paso Stakes at Sunland Park. Occasionally she went against the colts in open state bred races and won. In 1999 she beat Oddsonjack, King Of Stars and Bemomoney, three of the best colts that season.
That year she was named the best overall Thoroughbred in New Mexico.
The mare’s forte was early and enduring speed. Anywhere from 4 1/2 furlongs to 7 furlongs, she was too tough to catch.
“The first quarter she’d jump out in front,” says Frank. If it was 21.2, 21.3 or
races and 12 out of 13 while racing at Sunland Park, Albuquerque, and Ruidoso Downs.
The track record she set at The Downs at Albuquerque for 5 1/2 furlongs of 1:01.3 in September of 2000 still stands today.
The following year Yulla Yulla went undefeated, winning all five of her starts. At one point, says Macaron, he was offered $750,000 for the mare by one of the top breeding farms in Kentucky. As part of the deal, says Frank, the prospective buyer offered to include a foal from 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop, who at the time was getting started as a stud.
Frank turned it down, deciding he just couldn’t part with Yulla Yulla.
“We didn’t have a lot growing up and I wasn’t used to a lot of money,” says Frank. “And I felt her babies were going to be worth some money. The only regret I had was that she wasn’t going to be able to be out on a Kentucky blue grass pasture surrounded by rolling hills.”
The mare’s success on the track did not carry over to the breeding barn. Yulla Yulla as a broodmare was never able to deliver a foal. But Macaron included Yulla in the names of some of his other horses that were foals from Yulla Yulla’s mom, Jesta Performer.
“Love can be as simple as unwrapping a piece of foil and gently feeding the mint candy inside to the best racehorse you ever owned.”
40 New Mexico Horse Breeder