Bortolazzo Trading Fillies for a Derby Dream

LEXINGTON, KY – Dr. Jerry Bortolazzo has been in the racing game for the better part of a decade now, but the 70-year-old has decided to consolidate his stable behind one very specific goal. He wants to have a colt in the GI Kentucky Derby. Putting that plan into practice has meant selling off his fillies and that operation continues Tuesday when he will put Just Ain't Right (Yes It's True) (hip 23) through the sales ring in the horses of racing age section of the Keeneland April Sale. The stakes-placed sophomore will be consigned by Claiborne Farm.

“I've been in this business about eight or nine years now and have had all kinds of thoughts about how to be in this business,” Bortolazzo said as he prepared to watch a horse he bred, Frogman Mel (Stormy Atlantic), go postward in the second race at Keeneland Sunday. “I was in the ER business, so I know business, but I certainly didn't know the horse business. I tried it every which way. I bought weanlings and yearlings and I bred horses like Frogman and I went to the 2-year-olds in training sales and I bought horses of racing age. But as I've matured in the business, and with about eight years with Todd Pletcher, I have decided that the home run in horse racing is having a sire. And the easiest way to get a sire is to get a colt who runs in the Kentucky Derby. So, I'm selling all of my fillies off.”

Bortolazzo has already parted ways with Ascertain (Blame), who was claimed for $30,000 in March, and the once-raced Trunk of Money (Super Saver). Just Ain't Right is next in line. Purchased for $250,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale, the 3-year-old filly opened her career with two wins over the main track at Gulfstream in the winter. The bay took to the turf for her third start and was third in the Feb. 23 Melody of Colors S.

Of the decision to start the filly on the turf, Bortolazzo explained, “One of the things that Todd does best is that he knows when a horse needs to run and he tries to place him as best he can. That race come up and he said, 'Let's see if she runs on turf because she's ready to run.' And it's always nice to know a horse is versatile, too.”

Once Just Ain't Right sells, Bortolazzo's stable will include just one filly–graded stakes winner Bellavais (Tapit), who is expected to go postward in the Apr. 13 GI Coolmore Jenny Wiley S.

Even as he sells off his fillies, Bortolazzo has been building up a strong bench of colts with an eye towards the 2020 Derby. He purchased a colt by Tapit out of Winter Memories (hip 168) for $200,000 at last month's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale. At the yearling sales in Saratoga last summer, he acquired colts by American Pharoah, Cairo Prince and Summer Front.

“I want to have a group of about six or seven or eight colts and my goal is for Todd to get one of them in the Kentucky Derby next year,” Bortolazzo said. “It's a lifetime fantasy, a dream. I want to make that walk across with my family at Churchill and watch one of my colts run in the Kentucky Derby. I'm 70 years old and it's one of my dreams. And it's the way you make money. If you get a sire, it pays for all of the other horses that couldn't run.”

Bortolazzo thinks the math is in his favor.

“There are only going to be 15,000 3-year-old colts next year,” he explained. “There are 20 spots in the Kentucky Derby. So if you own one, you have a one in 750 chance. Better than the lottery. And if you have six or seven and you have them all with Todd Pletcher, you've got a chance. So that's the plan. I believe in Todd and I believe in Steve Young who is buying these horses for me.”

It would be hard to bet against Bortolazzo, a former emergency room doctor and founder of the emergency services company ApolloMD, who first started buying horses after a misdiagnosis changed the course of his life in 2009.

“I was told I had a year to live,” Bortolazzo said. “They biopsied this thing on the top of my head and told me it was a malignant melanoma. The oncologist told me to get my affairs in order. So I liquidited my company. I had sunk all the money I'd ever had into that company.”

With a new lease on life, Bortolazzo returned to his childhood love of racing.

“I had been going to horse races with my dad since I was six,” he said. “And I always wanted to get in. So I got in. I had the passion. When you've got the passion, it's just got you. It's like you're first love affair. It just gets you. And I just have that passion for horse racing.”

In addition to Bellavais, Bortolazzo has campaigned graded stakes winner You're to Blame (Distorted Humor), Grade I placed Big Blue Nation (Bluegrass Cat) and graded placed Stat (Unbridled's Song).

Leaving aside his Derby dream and given his passion for racing, is it difficult to part with a young, promising runner like Just Ain't Right?

“It used to be, yes,” Bortolazzo said. “I used to fall in love with all of my horses. I named them after my kids, my wife. But now I realize that was not a way to do business. So if it's really a business and you really want to score, you better not let emotions come into it. So it used to be yes, it was very difficult, but now it's no. It's a business, you've got to run it that way.”

The 2-year-olds will take to the track Monday beginning at 11 a.m. for the under-tack preview of the Keeneland April Sale. The auction, which opens with the horses of racing age section, begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday.