Neil Pessin

For nearly 20 years, trainer Neil Pessin didn't have to worry about filling up his barn. His principal owner, Bob Lothenbach, kept sending horses his way. That included a Grade I winner in Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) and several useful allowance horses. Pessin was training a 22-horse stable and 19 of them were owned by Lothenbach. "Bob was an excellent owner," Pessin said. "He knew our field of expertise was training horses and his was the paper business. Anytime I asked for anything that involved the welfare of the horse...

The Lothenbach dispersal of Horses of Racing Age on Fasig-Tipton Digital, run Jan. 29 to Feb. 2, closed with 66 horses selling for $4,840,000 with MSP Minnesota Ready (More Than Ready) leading all lots at a final price of $380,000, changing hands to Richard Colton Jr.. The first in the digital ring, Minnesota Ready was most recently seen Jan. 20 in the Duncan F. Kenner S. at the Fair Grounds, where he again ran third in a blanket finish with SW Sosua Summer (Summer Front) and MSW & MGSP Just...

Bell's the One (Majesticperfection), arguably the best horse to carry the silks of the late Bob Lothenbach and who was among the first book of mares bred to Horse of the Year Flightline (Tapit), lost her foal at the seven-month stage in September, her trainer Neil Pessin confirmed Wednesday. "Bob loved her and he was really looking forward to having that foal," Pessin said. Pessin purchased the daughter of Street Mate (Street Cry {Ire}), bred by Bret Jones, on behalf of Lothenbach for $155,000 as a yearling at the 2017...

After Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) did not meet her reserve of $2.6 million at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, owner Bob Lothenbach has decided to retain the 6-year-old mare and will breed her, reports her trainer, Neil Pessin. "More than likely, the plan is to send her to the breeding shed," Pessin said. "We don't know who we'll breed her to yet. It's yet to be determined, but we should decide that within the next two or three weeks. Bob is a breeder and has about 40 mares. He breeds a...

A few weeks before Bell's the One (Majesticperfection - Street Mate, by Street Cry {Ire}) made her career debut, her trainer Neil Pessin set aside a few dollars to place a wager on the promising juvenile. But in the days leading up to the race, he started to rethink the idea. Every morning as Bell's the One went out to gallop, the juvenile would stop in the middle of the track, somewhere around the sixteenth pole, and refuse to move. Pessin would have to take to the track, red-faced with...

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Association (KTA) and Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) have elected new members of the Board of Directors who will serve three-year terms and are elected by the full membership of the organization. Online and paper ballots were managed, monitored, and tabulated by Dean Dorton Technology (Dean Dorton Allen Ford, PLLC).  Newly elected KTA/KTOB Board of Directors for 2022 are: Ned Toffey--General Manager, Spendthrift Farm; Michael Banahan--Director of Bloodstock, Godolphin USA; Fergus Galvin--Partner, Hunter Valley Farm & U.S. Racing Manager, Qatar Racing; Neil Pessin--Thoroughbred Trainer; Tommy Drury--Thoroughbred...

Following a conversation with owner Robert Lothenbach of Lothenbach Stables, trainer Neil Pessin confirmed that his Grade I-winning mare Bell's The One (Majesticperfection) will not start in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Nov. 6 and will instead make her final start of the season in the $300,000 Dream Supreme S. at Churchill Downs one week later. Pessin added that the relatively lightly raced mare would likely remain in training for a 6-year-old campaign in 2022. The $155,000 Fasig-Tipton July gradauate has won three of her six starts...

Bell's the One stamped her ticket to the Breeders' Cup with a gritty score in the TCA at Keeneland Saturday. Heavily favored here, the bay trailed the field through a :21.57 opening quarter. Making an eye-catching move on the backstretch, she launched a five-wide bid turning for home to put herself in contention and fought her way past her foes in mid-stretch, edging clear to score. "She's one of the best mares, if not the best horse, I've ever had," trainer Neil Pessin said. "The only thing I regret with...

Lloyd Madison Farms IV LLC's homebred filly Sconsin (Include) is on track for a second straight appearance in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint following her tough, half-length defeat of Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) in Saturday's Open Mind S. on the Downs After Dark program at Churchill. A pace-compromised fourth, just a half-length behind Bell's the One, in last year's Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland, Sconsin was winning for the second time in six starts this term, having taken the course-and-distance GIII Winning Colors S. by 3...

She's the one, all right. The one and only, in fact--at least up until now. Who knows? Perhaps Neil Pessin's exemplary achievements with Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) might yet reward him with another Grade I winner or two. But after a lifetime in the game, and 36 years since saddling his first winner, he's neither expecting nor even desiring to transform the intimate scale of his operation. "You know, I don't get jealous of anybody," Pessin says. "I'm very happy with where I'm at. I've been successful with the numbers...

Lothenbach Stables Inc.'s Bell's the One (Majesticperfection) takes on six rivals in Wednesday's GII Honorable Miss H. at Saratoga. The Neil Pessin pupil annexed last September's GI Derby City Distaff by a nose before finishing third behind Gamine (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Sprint in November. Second in Keeneland's GI Madison S. Apr. 3, she was fourth in defense of her Derby City title May 1--again behind the nearly unbeatable Gamine and two other next-out graded scorers. The 5-year-old was last seen taking a tougher-than-average renewal of...

Lothenbach Stables' Bell's the One (Majesticperfection), who became the first Grade I winner for trainer Neil Pessin in last year's Derby City Distaff ahead of a third-place effort to champion 'TDN Rising Star' Gamine (Into Mischief) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, breezed five furlongs in 1:00.60 (9/36) at the Fair Grounds Feb. 28. Pessin confirmed that the GI Madison S. at Keeneland Apr. 4, in which his charge was a pace-compromised third in the coronavirus-delayed 2020 renewal last July, is the jumping-off spot for the mare's...