Leading owner Paolucci to shut down Loooch Stables

Ron Paolucci, whose Loooch Racing Stables has become a leading owner in North America, said Thursday without equivocation that he is getting out of horse ownership.

“I’ve thought about it long and hard,” said Paolucci, 48. “Life is too short. I want to enjoy my life, and I’m not getting enough enjoyment out of life as a horse owner. I’m definitely getting out. I’ve had enough.”

Loooch’s bright yellow-lime silks have become well known to racing fans on several North American circuits, most notably in his home state of Ohio but also in Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Kentucky, and California. In 2017, Loooch ranked second behind End Zone Athletics among all Thoroughbred owners in North America with 159 wins. Into this week, the stable also ranked second in 2018 in wins (122), again behind End Zone.

Paolucci said he has about 125 active racehorses in the U.S. with various trainers, along with 12 broodmares and numerous yearlings and weanlings. He said he is considering a January dispersal in conjunction with one of the major horse sales in Kentucky while allowing his current stable to “play itself out” through attrition. He estimates the value of his Thoroughbred holdings at $4 million to $6 million.

Paolucci’s greatest win as an owner came with Ria Antonia, a 32-1 shot who was awarded the victory in the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita on the disqualification of She’s a Tiger. His tenure in racing has been marked by occasional controversy, including his entries of Cautious Giant and May B as rabbits in major New York stakes for stablemate War Story, and his rejected entry of Heavenhasmynikki, then an unraced maiden, from two Breeders’ Cup events last fall.

Regarding the Heavenhasmynikki incident, Paolucci told Daily Racing Form at the time: “I will go to my grave saying – and I don’t care who believes it – if Bob Baffert or Steve Asmussen or Chad Brown entered that horse, there’s no chance on God’s green earth it would even be questioned. None. Zero.”

Paolucci said Thursday by phone from his primary residence in Frisco, Texas, that his clashes with “the racing elite” have taken a toll on his mental and physical health, and “the final nail” came with the disqualification of Game Over from a July 9 allowance at Thistledown.

Game Over won easily when coupled with another Loooch horse, Chromium, at 1-5 odds. However, Chromium, ridden by Luis Raul Rivera, was deemed guilty of fouling another horse, leading to Game Over being placed second.

The Thistledown ruling ordering a 30-day suspension of Rivera states that the “stewards felt that Jockey Rivera’s actions were to run interference.” Rivera’s penalty runs through Aug. 17, although he has appealed the ruling to the Ohio State Racing Commission.

“The rule [mandating a disqualification] wasn’t the paramount issue,” said Paolucci. “It’s the way the whole thing played out, as if something criminal was going on. I’m not going to have my character defamed like that. It was the biggest joke of all time.”

Paolucci also is known for being an avid horseplayer. Last month, via simulcast at the Northfields harness track in Cleveland, he swept the Single 6 pool at Churchill Downs for $549,774 on tickets that cost about $3,500. He joked afterward: “A few more like that, and I might get even for life.”

A racing fan since childhood, Paolucci got into Thoroughbred ownership in 2011 after dabbling in Standardbreds. “I’ll never stop being a fan or a bettor,” he said. “But I’m done as an owner. It’s not fun anymore.”