Restrepo Reliving The Magic With The Puma

It's what keeps everyone going: the chance that somewhere out there may be a single horse capable of transforming your whole career. For most, of course, the quest yields no more than near-misses: horses that don't quite work out, for one reason or another, but that hopefully show enough to get you noticed, keep you in the game. Every now and then, however, somebody turns up a real game-changer. Every now and then, along comes Mage.

Before turning up the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby winner, Ramiro Restrepo's eligibility to describe himself as a bloodstock agent was confined to three to six purchases a year. And as he puts it now, chuckling: “What do you call a bloodstock agent without clients? An owner.”

That cloud turned out to have a major silver lining. Yes, he had a handful of supporters, crucially including Gustavo Delgado and his son, but not enough to avoid being left with a piece of the Good Magic colt they found together for $290,000 at Timonium in 2022. The rest is history, but new chapters are being written all the time.

How do you measure the difference made by one horse? Well, in this case, Restrepo can put a number on it.

“Look, there's a lot of talented horse people out there and we're all trying to do our best,” he stresses first. “I just feel lucky to be able to do this as a career, and glad about the opportunities that have presented themselves. But before you'd get two or three black-type runners each crop, just making a little noise. Then Joe Pickerrell and I pinhooked Structor (Palace Malice) in 2019. And that kind of gives you a bit of confidence, like, 'Hey, I'm on the right path.'”

You can say that again: Structor, a $160,000 yearling sold six months later for $850,000, went on to win the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf.

“And then obviously Mage comes through,” Restrepo resumes. “And it's crazy how this voyage snowballs. I mean, this is an exciting year. After OBS March I'm up to 26 current 2- and 3-year-olds, to purchase which I had to raise about $14.5 million. And that's just what I call the Mage effect. I was able to go out there and get five or six different entities, from different parts of the world, to come together and put in that kind of investment.”

The Puma | SV Photography

Restrepo's only problem is that he now has enough clients not to have been left holding a piece of a horse that looks very much like a “new” Mage: The Puma (Essential Quality), who broke his maiden in the GIII Tampa Bay Derby and bids to consolidate his Classic credentials in the GI Florida Derby on Saturday.

“Obviously I'm rooting the heck out of him because he belongs to two of my clients,” he says. “And you work your butt off just the same, to find all these horses at the sale. So while my role is different between the Mage run and this one, I mean, what that horse has done for me is just unbelievable: the doors he has opened, the relationships, the partnerships, the clients you're able to meet and work for. Because of that guy, I've been able to circumvent the globe for two years, shopping at Arqana and Goffs and Tattersalls and Magic Millions. Whether you're an owner, an agent, a trainer, a horseplayer, everybody knows how hard it is to find a horse to run in these races. So it's been an incredible experience, an incredible blessing.”

The Puma's emergence, in the slipstream of Mage, can only encourage more curiosity about the South American flavor to the Delgado training program, with its longer, steadier works. But perhaps there is also a chance that Restrepo's own cultural antecedents have informed his perspectives in equally useful fashion. He's a fifth-generation horseman, whose grandfather Luis Alvarez was a jockey, trainer and owner in Colombia, and perhaps nature and nurture have given him a somewhat different eye. If so, it's not even something of which he would be aware.

“When you're a child, you absorb so much,” he reflects. “My two uncles [Harold and Luis Cesar Alvarez] worked for some pretty well-known barns on the New York circuit when they came here from South America. And I would run around with them, and got to be around some really prominent horses of the '90s. So I guess my first lessons were taught by them. And yes, I guess that my grandpa and uncles will have pointed out little things about movement, and switching leads, fluidity of stride, the way they carry themselves, their character and class. So it's kind of cool to be able to lean on those things. Pedigree and conformation can be 100 percent learned, but you do have to bring your individuality into it, too, right? The thing that gives you that feeling in your gut, the butterflies that say, 'This is a special one.'”

Ewing | Sarah Andrew

Restrepo had that feeling about two horses, in particular, at OBS last April. First up was a Knicks Go colt, but he turned out to have caught a lot of others besides and eventually sold for $585,000. As Ewing, he went on to become a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard', and win the GII Saratoga Special Stakes. But then there was an Essential Quality colt in the same Hidden Brook consignment, who had similarly failed to meet his reserve (at $95,000) at Keeneland the previous September.

“His work was fantastic, time-wise, but Ewing was at that stage more mature physically,” Restrepo recalls. “This guy was a chubby chestnut. He was a little bigger than Mage, but he had the same stoutness and the color too. I could see it in Gustavo Jr.'s eyes: he obviously dealt with Mage every day, as assistant trainer, and he could see the affinity.”

When they got blown aside on Ewing, Jack Brothers told Restrepo: “Don't forget about the Essential Quality. He's this close to being as good.”

“And those guys at Hidden Brook, they're really good horsemen,” Restrepo says. “So that gives you confidence, it's another box ticked.”

Hidden Brook had actually sold Mage's dam Puca (Big Brown) as a yearling and Restrepo followed her career. He knew how unlucky she had been at the Breeders' Cup, and that her genes would have been unaffordable in a parallel world. And the dam of this colt, Eve of War (Declaration of War), similarly had more ability than was obvious.

“I remember Steve Sherack did a big article about her in TDN,” he says. “She did end up being graded stakes-placed, but she was supposed to be the real deal. There are always reasons why things might not pan out, but she was super-talented.”

They landed the colt for $150,000 and gave him a name that carried a bit of expectation: The Puma is the nickname of the Delgados' Venezuelan compatriot, the singer Jose Luis Rodriguez.

“And Gustavo Sr. is just his doppelganger,” says Restrepo. “He had the same ladies' man flair in his younger days, too. So we affectionately call him the Puma. In fact that's how he's saved in my phone.”

Mage at Airdrie Stud | Sara Gordon

On debut, the four-legged version bumped into Chief Wallabee (Constitution), since beaten only a neck in the GII Fountain of Youth Stakes. He was then pitched into the Sam F. Davis Stakes, running third.

“And you couldn't have scripted more of a learning experience,” Restrepo reflects. “You're in between horses the whole way, never get a chance to relax, pinned in there when everybody else is in full flight. Plus you throw a shoe.”

Everyone was perfectly happy, then, when he drew the outside post next time.

“They had him ready, and he delivered,” Restrepo says. “He was number eight, like Mage [in the Derby]. So to see this burly chestnut making a sweeping from last, with the same pink saddlecloth, you can see why people started bringing up the comparison.”

If their return to the Derby trail amplifies the message, Restrepo and the Delgados had already shown Mage to be no flash in the pan.

“Every year since Mage, the group has had a horse that at least flirted with these aspirations,” Restrepo reminds us. “In 2024 we had a colt called Victory Avenue (Arrogate) that had a lot of buzz. We were going to run him in a Derby prep but unfortunately he got hurt. And then in the next crop we bought a $1.3 million Flatter colt who won by eight lengths on debut, at Saratoga, and then ran second in two consecutive Grade Is.”

Restrepo stresses the mastery of the Delgado team, father-and-son, in developing these talents.

“Especially with a 3-year-old colt covering a route of ground, those guys are pretty wonderful at what they do,” he says. “Don't forget they also had Caracaro (Uncle Mo) run second in the [GI] Travers, which was before the Derby that year because of the pandemic. He got hurt Derby week and never made the gate, but prior to that Gustavo had Bodexpress (Bodemeister) and Majesto (Tiznow) both get to the race after running second in the Florida Derby.

Gustavo Delgado Sr. | Sarah Andrew

“Gustavo Sr. learned a lot from Laz Barrera who trained Affirmed, and in Venezuela all the big dirt races were 10-to-12 furlongs. So their style is just a little different: a lot of long gallops and breezes. But their results are a great testament to the way they do things.”

The Delgados' OGMA Investments retained a half in The Puma, with a leg apiece going to JR Ranch and High Step Racing.

“With this one I'm just the bloodstock agent and racing manager for a part of the ownership group,” Restrepo emphasizes. “But it's awesome for every single person involved. I mean, guys like these have supported the heck out of us. They're the ones that let us go out and buy horses for them all over the world. High Step were shareholders in Mage with CMNWLTH and then Randy Guy and Joe Noble stepped up, while Jose Aguirre of JR Ranch has made a sizeable investment in America and Europe. So it's great to reward them for their trust in you. For them to have a slice in the pie of success, it's a beautiful thing.

“I mean, that pie is so large. So many people play a role in any good horse's development: from the breeder to the people handling them at the sales, to the yearling manager and the exercise riders. When you sit back and think of how many people will have laid their hands on a horse, along his career path, a good one is testament to everybody that has touched the baton. It really is one team, one dream from start to finish.”