Itsaknockout Can Score Touchdown in Florida Derby
Football runs deep in Chris Mara’s pedigree. His grandfather, Tim, founded the New York Giants in 1925 and won four National Football League championships during his lifetime. His son, Wellington, took over following Tim Mara’s death in 1959 and led the team until his passing in 2005.
Chris Mara himself has had two stints with the Giants, first as a member of the player personnel department and, since 2011, as Senior Vice President of Player Personnel. During his time, he has been part of each of the Giants’ four Super Bowl championships.
Yet before there was football, there was horse racing. At the turn of the 20th century, a teenaged Tim Mara became a legal bookmaker in New York and began a lifelong interest in thoroughbreds that was passed on from generation to generation in the Mara family.
“It’s kind of fun when I walk into the Belmont racetrack and see the picture of my grandfather on the wall there. I always point that out to everybody,” Mara said. “My dad took me to the track when I was about 8 or 9 years old on a Saturday before one of our home games. I kind of have been hooked ever since. I’ve been following it for years and years, and I found a good opportunity to get involved with a group that I like.”
A resident of Palm Beach, the 57-year-old Mara is among several partners in Starlight Racing’s undefeated colt Itsaknockout, one of the top contenders in Saturday's $1 million Besilu Stables Florida Derby. Itsaknockout is trained by Todd Pletcher, who captured last year’s running with Constitution.
It is not entirely new territory for Mara, an owner of harness horses in the 1980s who parked cars as a teenager at Yonkers Raceway. At the time it was owned by Tim Mara’s longtime friend, Art Rooney, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers and grandfather of Chris’ wife, Kathleen.
Mara had his hand in a few thoroughbred ventures over the years but didn’t begin to invest seriously until joining Starlight, led by co-managing members Jack Wolf and Don Lucarelli, in 2012.
Among the first group of horses Mara owned through Starlight were Grade 2 winner Intense Holiday and General a Rod, last year’s winner of the Gulfstream Park Derby (now the Mucho Macho Man), who went onto finish second in the Fountain of Youth and third in the Florida Derby.
Itsaknockout, a 3-year-old bay son of Lemon Drop Kid, didn’t get started until December and shows wins in each of his three starts this winter, all at Gulfstream Park. Most recently, he was promoted to first following the disqualification of Upstart in the $400,000 Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth (G2) on Feb. 21.
The Maras were part of the large Starlight contingent on hand for the Fountain of Youth. Though he has been through the microscope and pressure of four Super Bowl runs, Mara said it is incomparable to the anxiety of horse racing.
“To me, it’s even more nerve-wracking because there’s just so many things that can happen in a two-minute horse race, or before, or after,” he said. “My son pointed out to me a few weeks ago when we were at the Fountain of Youth after we won on the disqualification that he had never seen me that excited before. It’s kind of a nerve-wracking sport, but it is exciting.”
Mara is bringing in his good luck charm, son Conor, for the Derby. He has another son, Dan; two daughters, actresses Rooney and Kate Mara; and three grandchildren.
“Conor has basically been to Gulfstream Park three times, and we’ve won every time,” Mara said. “I’m flying him in from New York to come to the Florida Derby.”
Itsaknockout was purchased out Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Selected Yearlings sale in August 2013 for $350,000, more than Starlight typically pays for horses at auction, indicating how highly he was regarded by the partnership’s bloodstock agent, Frank Brothers. As a trainer, Brothers won 2,391 races from 1974-2009 and more than four dozen graded stakes, including the Fountain of Youth in 1997 with Pulpit and 2006 with First Samurai.
“One of the impressive things was when they told me who picks out the horses,” Mara said. “I’ve known about Frank Brothers for a long time. A good friend of mine used to have horses with him. Frank has had a pretty good eye doing this and he has been very successful. It has been kind of fun.”
Itsaknockout won his Dec. 7 unveiling by a nose over favored Pletcher-trained stablemate One Mountain Lane, then came back to romp by 5 ¼ lengths in a one-mile allowance Jan. 4.
"Knock on wood, he has done everything right,” Mara said. “He’s got speed, he’s got tactical speed, and he looks like he wants to go the distance. We’re pretty excited about him. I think he’s probably a little bit farther ahead than Intense Holiday was last year for us, although he hasn’t run as much. That’s probably a good thing because we really don’t know how good he can get.”
Source: Gulfstream Park