By Bill Finley
Not a day goes by when Dana Bernhard doesn't think of her late husband, Jim, and his passing at age 71 in November after a brief illness.
“It's still an extremely profound loss,” she said.
But something has come along to lift her spirits: the recent success of Incredibolt (Bolt d'Oro) and Albus (Yaupon). Incredibolt won the Virginia Derby and Albus captured the GII Wood Memorial Stakes, giving both enough points to make it into the field for the GI Kentucky Derby.
It is a remarkable achievement for Pin Oak Stud, which was purchased by the Bernhards in 2022 after the death of Pin Oak founder Josephine Abercrombie. Albus and Incredibolt will be the first two horses to race in the Derby under the Pin Oak colors.
For Bernhard, each achievement from her Derby pair has brought joy, but also sadness. What has happened on the racetrack has been uplifting, but she says that it would have been that much better had her husband been there to enjoy it with her.
“I have had a lot of comfort from the horses and from all our great team at Pin Oak,” Bernhard said. “Losing Jim so suddenly to that extremely rare and untreatable disease five months ago was a profound, horrible experience. I still have extreme waves of grief. I'm trying to get through it for everybody and to kind of take charge of a lot of our businesses again. But the two horses that have qualified for the Derby are such a great achievement for Pin Oak and our whole team. I see Jim in that every single day. Having one horse, Incredibolt, qualify for the Derby after he won the Virginia Derby was, of course, just a fabulous experience. All of us at Pin Oak were thrilled beyond measure. At the same time, it was extremely sad for me because I know how incredibly excited Jim would have been.”
After the Wood Memorial win, pulled off by a horse that was dismissed at 11-1, the Bernhard's son Ben said to the family that had gathered for the race, “This is all Dad.”
The Bernhards were always “horse people,” but not racing people.
“We had never been in horse racing before 2021, but we had horses our entire 32 years of married life,” Bernhard said. “I have had horses since I was eight years old. I grew up riding Western and did a little barrel racing. Then Jim and I got a couple of hunter jumpers. I showed them for a while before we had children and when they got older I put that on the side. The past few years, Jim and I have just enjoyed trail riding all over our various properties.”
The late Geaux Rocket Ride after winning the 2023 GI Haskell Stakes | Sarah Andrew
The story changed in 2021 when Jim decided to give Dana a birthday present. At the Fasig-Tipton Yearling sale, he bought her a colt for $350,000. He was given the name Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride ({Arg}), and he could run. He won the GI Haskell Stakes and finished second in the GI Pacific Classic.
That gift from Jim to Dana had inspired the couple. One horse was no longer enough. They wanted to get into racing and breeding, and they wanted to get in in a big way.
“We had started looking at properties in Kentucky,” Bernhard said. “It's such an incredibly beautiful area of the country and the world, and we fell in love with it. And so we thought, we're really going to get into this. Now, here's some background on Jim. When we would decide on an investment, any kind of business investment, any endeavor, we went into it with full force. Jim was like a powerhouse. He was like, 'We're going to do this and we're going to do this now.' So it was with that same mindset that we went into finding a wonderful, beautiful prime property for horses here in Kentucky.”
The Geaux Rocket Ride story did not end well. While preparing for the 2023 GI Breeders' Cup Classic, he broke his right front leg during a workout. Three days later, he was euthanized.
“Our horses are family to us, just like all our pets are,” Bernhard said. “Even though everyone said it's highly doubtful it would work, we tried everything, including a couple of different experimental surgeries. He did not make it. We had to put him down.”
Though they were new to the sport, the Bernhards already understood that having to put a horse down is something that can happen at any moment. They were saddened, but not discouraged. They continued to grow the Pin Oak operation. Pin Oak has also campaigned GI Saratoga Derby winner World Beater (Oscar Performance) and GIII winner Parchment Party (Constitution).
“Each one of our horses gets so much individualized attention to help maximize its potential,” she said. “Setbacks are going to happen. It happens with horses, it happens with people. But I truly feel that we give them every chance they can. Our trainers are incredible. They're caring people and they also treat each of our horses as an individual horse. We spend a lot of time with our trainers deciding the best route for the horses and pivot when we need to pivot. We're just trying to have a great business plan, a good model for every horse to be successful. And that's how Pin Oak evolved for us.”
Jim and Dana Bernhard with trainer Riley Mott after World Beater's win at Saratoga | Sarah Andrew
Under the Bernhards, Pin Oak breeds to race and sell. But it will also buy horses at auction. Albus was bought at the Keeneland September sale for $320,000. They bought Incredibolt at the same sale for $75,000. Both horses were given to trainer Riley Mott.
“Riley and Megan Mott are two of the kindest people that I have ever met,” Bernhard said. “And not only are they fabulous with the horses, but they have helped me tremendously since my loss of Jim and working through the grief. As have their parents. They're all such a wonderful family. The way we got Riley on our team with some of our horses is that we also have a lot of our horses with his father, Bill. We got to know Riley that way because he was working with his dad. When Riley went out on his own, we talked to him a lot more. I'll never forget one day at the Saratoga sale, we met with Riley and Megan and had the loveliest conversation with them. When it was over, Jim and I looked at each other and we said, 'Oh, we are absolutely keeping some of our horses with him.'”
Neither Derby horse was an overnight sensation. Albus didn't break his maiden until his third start, winning at Tampa Bay Downs in his race prior to the Wood Memorial. Incredibolt did win the GIII Street Sense Stakes in his third start, but looked overmatched against stiffer competition when finishing sixth, beaten 25 1/4 lengths, in the GIII Holy Bull Stakes. But he bounced back off that loss to win the Virginia Derby by four lengths.
Both will be double-digit longshots in the Derby, but that's fine with Bernhard.
“I always think our horses will win,” she said. “'Rocket' ingrained that in us. So when we don't win, it's a little bit surprising to me, maybe not to everyone else, but it is to me. So I absolutely have full confidence in Incredibolt and Albus.”
A person of faith, she also believes her horses might have a little edge in the Derby.
“This is what I think every single day,” she said. “I think that Jim is going to have all the angels in heaven cheering for Incredibolt and Albus on May the 2nd.”
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