Satish Sanan bagged his first Triple Crown race victory this spring as part owner of Curlin, who won the Preakness Stakes (gr. I). But he would very much like to win the Run for the Roses and will try to achieve that goal while based in Kentucky.
Sanan will move his family’s Padua Stables from Ocala, Fla., to Kentucky next year. The new operation will focus on Padua’s top-class broodmares and allow Padua to continue as a private breed-to-race operation, Sanan said July 30.
Sanan said Padua hopes to continue to enjoy its successes in racing and retire future stallions to prominent stallion farms in Kentucky and Florida. The move will enable Padua to once again focus on its primary objective of being a dedicated horse racing operation, he said.
“If some stallions are capable of moving to Kentucky and getting a decent book, we’ll send them there,” Sanan said. “Otherwise, we will keep them at other reputable farms in Florida.
“It is very easy in this business to become side-tracked. My main goal in this business has been to win high-end races. I am as committed to this sport as I have ever been and, by refocusing our efforts, Padua will be re-energized.”
Though Sanan has not yet decided on a specific location for the new farm, he said the operation most likely would be located near Lexington.
“There are a lot of moving parts to everything you do,” he said. “The decision we made is from a strategy point of view, a business point of view. We have a solid plan in place, and we’ve just got to make sure we execute it. We’re just going to take our time to make sure business continues while we put all these pieces together.”
Sanan said his daughter, Nadia, who acts as farm manager, may not initially re-locate to Kentucky; however, he will be taking several of his employees with him to the new farm.
Sanan plans to keep Padua’s 40-45 high-end mares that are usually sent to Kentucky each year to be bred. The farm’s other mares will be sold over the next year, mainly at the Ocala Breeders’ Sale Co. fall mixed sale and the Keeneland November breeding stock sale.
“If you look at it from a business point of view, the majority of our valuable assets—Vindication, Yes It’s True, Exchange Rate, and, hopefully, Any Given Saturday and Curlin, and 45 of our top mares--are in Kentucky. They are probably worth 80% in terms of our (total) value, so it logically makes sense for us to be located in Kentucky.
“The bottom line is to wind down the operation (in Florida) and focus on the top-end stallions and broodmares in Kentucky. I’m at an age in my life where I’m exiting a number of businesses, and I want to focus on this and only this. Winning the Kentucky Derby is the goal.” By Esther Marr