They were detailing the triumph that came when their racehorse ownership syndicate – the Springboro and California-based Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners — purchased him at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2012.
Soon after, the folks at Eclipse had to come up with a name for him so they were brainstorming ideas back and forth from Warren County to the West Coast via social media.
Lee Midkiff, the chairman of the group, and Kelsey Marshall director of partner relations, were – as they were Tuesday afternoon – at the historic old house on South Main in Springboro that Eclipse has converted into its base of operations. Aron Wellman, Eclipse’s president, was out in Del Mar, Calif.
“You try to think of names that look at the pedigree or tie into some other factor particular to you,” Midkiff said.
This yearling’s sire was Street Boss, who had previously fathered one of their other horses that they named Capo Bastone.
“That’s ‘underboss’ in Italian,” Midkiff said, “and we were going with a mob theme then.”
This time he was toying with the boss idea again and offered up “Who’s the Boss?” which was a popular TV sitcom in the 1980s and early 1990s that starred Tony Danza.
Then he suggested Micelli, the name of the character played by Danza.
“You just start playing with all kinds of ideas and we were mentioning other bosses,” Midkiff said.
That’s when “Mr. Burns” was thrown into the mix and then came “Montgomery Burns.”
“The old boss on the Simpsons,” Midkiff said.
Marshall was in contact with the Jockey Club trying to get the names approved. Micelli was rejected because another thoroughbred has a similar name and finally she said:
“Hey, why not Danza? It stays with the Italian theme and I think it works.”
Talk about saddling a perfect suggestion: Danza was a star and a real-life tough guy, having boxed professionally and gone to college on a wrestling scholarship.
The name was accepted and the yearling – thankfully avoiding the Montgomery Burns moniker – had its first win.
And now Danza is living up to that name. In the weeks leading up to the Derby, he’s been answering the “Who’s the Boss?” question.
Trained by Todd Pletcher – and ridden by Joe Bravo – Danza pulled a major upset in the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 12.
And since arriving at Churchill Downs, he’s taken to the track and has shown himself to be rested, sharp and quite frisky.
“He has a King Kong mentality,” Wellman told reporters the other day.
On Tuesday, Midkiff agreed: “He really looks good athletically and mentally. His energy level is way up. I think he knows he did well.”
Another Derby run
Midkiff has had a memorable Kentucky Derby experience once before.
In 2011, he was one of 20 owners that Team Valor, another racing syndication, put together to campaign Animal Kingdom, the little-raced colt who ended up winning the Derby by 2 ¾ lengths. Wellman was a Valor vice president at the time.
Four months after the Derby, Midkiff and Wellman formed their own syndication company. Their plan for Eclipse was to have horses run at graded stakes levels while allowing shareholders to get a high-end experience without making a huge financial outlay.
The formula has worked.
Eclipse has been the top stakes-winning public ownership group in the nation the past two years. While it has had other standout thoroughbreds – among them Capo Bastone, Byrama, In Lingerie and Silsita – Danza is the group’s first Derby horse.
They paid $105,000 for him at Keeneland and he broke his maiden last July in a 5 ½ furlong race at Belmont. He then ran the 6 ½ furlong Saratoga Special Stakes and finished a hard-charging third, but showed a minor ankle injury after that.
Pletcher and Wellman decided to give him seven months off in Florida – no surgery was required – and he came back and finished third in a seven furlong race at Gulfstream this past March
Although some other people weren’t impressed by the effort – he was beaten by 7 ½ lengths – the Eclipse brass saw what they needed to enter him in the 1 1/8 mile Arkansas Derby.
Upset in Arkansas
Midkiff usually attends all the races, but he missed the Arkansas Derby.
He puts his kids first, and son Holden’s seventh birthday was a day after the race and daughter Chloe’ birthday was a week later, so he decided to stay here and orchestrate his boy’s birthday party.
Some 65 people were loaded onto two busses for a trip to a Cincinnati trampoline park on Friday night. There were other familial involvements on Saturday and he ended up getting to his Springboro office just 10 minutes before post time.
When he saw how Danza’s odds had ballooned on race day, he was momentarily taken aback – “Were we missing something?” – and maybe that’s why he wasn’t too worried that he didn’t have a bet down on his horse.
Danza stayed on the rail a couple of strides behind the pacesetters the whole race and then made his move at the top of the stretch, roaring past Bayern and leaving Ride On Curlin in his rear view mirror.
The colt returned $84.60 on a $2 bet.
Midkiff shrugged off the missed financial opportunity. He said what’s more important are the lasting memories and Danza will bring some again Saturday:
“There’s not an owner out there with a colt who won’t say he doesn’t dream of having his horse come out of the gate (at Churchill) on the first Saturday in May.”
Midkiff and his two children left for Louisville on Tuesday evening. They’ll be at today’s Derby draw and will walk over from the backside barns to the paddock with Danza as 150,000 cheer them Saturday.
And Tony Danza, who learned of the colt via Twitter, has gotten especially interested and will join their party at Churchill, as well.
“Yeah I watched ‘Who’s the Boss?’ but here’s the irony and it’s almost embarrassing,” the 39-year-old Midkiff said with a laugh. “No youngster or teenage male back then watched that show for any other reason than Alyssa Milano (who played Danza’s daughter).
“Back then I really didn’t care about Danza at all.”
He does now.
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