With 'free rein' at sales, Stevens finds star horses for a bargain
Josh Stevens felt as if he went into the University of Louisville’s Equine Industry Program more than a step behind his peers.
Looking around the classroom, there were sons of trainers. Daughters of farm owners. People already entrenched in the racing community before ever arriving on campus.
“And here I was working in a restaurant at night,” said Stevens, a Louisville native who grew up just across the river in Indiana. “I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew that I liked it and I was passionate about it.”
Stevens, a multi-sport high school athlete, also had a competitive streak to him, one he carries to this day as a bloodstock agent who has successfully selected at auction horses such as Grade 1 winner Divisidero, Grade 2 winner By My Standards and Grade 3 winner Mr. Money.
As the head of J. Stevens Bloodstock, he continues to go up against some industry bluebloods, dealing not in the Tapits and Into Mischiefs of the auction world but rather value stallions producing athletic looking colts.
That approach used to be out of necessity. But as Stevens continues identifying winners, raising the profile of owners such as Chester Thomas’ Allied Racing, he’s had the option to up his bids.
But fetch five horses at $150,000 apiece, Stevens said, and you’ll sleep a lot better than with a single expensive purchase in the barn.
“There’s no sense in going and spending $750,000 to a million on a horse when we’ve been able to beat those horses in races with more affordable types,” he added.
This all started in part because of the Equine Industry Program, which led to a Kentucky Equine Management Internship at Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky. Stevens tried a bit of everything — foaling mares, prepping horses for sales and selling stallion seasons.
One day, bloodstock agent Bob Feld stopped by to speak to Stevens’ KEMI group, explaining a bit about his line of work.
“Man, that sounds like a cool job,” Stevens thought. “And then two sentences later he says, ‘Everyone wants to be a bloodstock agent.’ I was like, there goes my shot at that.’”
Later in the internship, however, the opportunity arrived. Gundpowder Farms, which had previously worked in partnership to campaign horses, called Margaux seeking to go out on its own. Stevens was enlisted to help.
“They just threw me right to the wolves,” he said. “We started buying horses, and it’s one of those things. I must have had a knack for it.”
Along with the purchase of Divisidero, Gunpowder, with Stevens in tow, discovered Grade 1-placed Breaking Lucky as a weanling from the same crop.
“When he was talking to us that day, he said the best way to figure out how the best horses look is to go to the paddock for big races and look at them — try to imprint them in your mind and find something that replicates it,” Stevens remembers.
Now, “I just try to go and buy an athletic horse — something that fits what I’m looking for — and if it’s not completely correct up front, or if it’s got a couple little vet issues, I live by that athletic horses are athletic,” Stevens said, “but correct horses aren’t necessarily faster.”
While celebrating a victory with Gunpowder's success story Divisidero in Churchill Downs’ Turf Classic (G1) — it runs one race before the Kentucky Derby — Stevens was introduced to the longtime owner Thomas, a fellow Kentucky native. Thomas hadn't yet played at the graded stakes level, but he saw the camaraderie surrounding Divisidero's win and strived to get there himself.
Whereas Gunpowder Farms was transitioning more into building a broodmare band, Stevens wanted to focus on buying racehorses.
“I was just taking a leap of faith that I’d be able to do this on my own,” Stevens said.
A successful team began to form with Thomas, one which would soon include Bret Calhoun as trainer.
“It’s been a really good run,” said Calhoun, who trains the 4-year-old stakes winners By My Standards and Mr. Money, as well as Allied Racing’s Mr. Big News, winner of the April 11 Oaklawn Stakes. “Josh has bought us some really nice horses.
“It was kind of a dream year last year — one where you wonder if you’ll be able to repeat it — but I think we’ve got some really good horses in the barn.”
Stevens’ statistics foreshadow more stakes wins to come. At the end of March, the agent tallied his numbers from eight years of working public auction with horses now 4 and up:
• 9 percent won or placed in Grade 1 company
• 14 percent won or placed in graded stakes
• Purchases totaled $3,648,000; those horses have earned $7,350,663
Dealings with Thomas and Allied Racing account for about one-third of Stevens’ business as he adds other owners to his portfolio, including some of Calhoun’s other top clients. Stevens is always looking for owners like Thomas, however, who are involved in the sales process but not overbearing.
“He’s also given me free rein in a couple instances just to go buy horses that I told him I liked sight unseen, which is, as an agent, a dream job,” Stevens said. “You really get to prove what you’re capable of without having outside forces weigh on you.”
As a result, Stevens has seen his auction finds go on to win races such as the Louisiana Derby (G2), run in the Kentucky Derby and contend in the Breeders’ Cup.
Stevens’ grandfather was a huge racing fan, but his immediate family limited its participation to a few days a year at Churchill Downs — the big Derby party, Dawn at the Downs — all the usual occasions for someone born not far from the Twin Spires.
“When you live in Louisville, racing’s in your blood whether you realize it or not,” Stevens said.
The Equine Industry Program taught him that.
An intense track, the Equine Industry Program gives students the professional skills they need to succeed in the horse industry covering equine economics, marketing and law, among other topics. Small class sizes are emphasized along with individualized advising.