When Atlanta native Dean Reeves decided to take the plunge and buy his first thoroughbred racehorse, he called noted trainer Angel Penna Jr. to talk about buying a 2-year-old in training. Penna spent the next 20 minutes trying to talk Reeves out of it.
"He told me every negative thing he could think of about horseracing," Reeves said. "You'll lose money; you can't win; the horses break down. He went on and on."
After hearing all of Penna's objections, Reeves told the trainer, "Angel, I only want one thing out of this whole thing."
"What's that?" Penna asked.
"I want to have a horse in the Kentucky Derby," Reeves said.
Penna dropped the phone. He couldn't believe it. Was this guy serious? Horse owners could go decades without getting a horse in the Derby. Trainers could go a lifetime without a May appearance at Churchill Downs. And those people knew what they were doing.
Horse racing is like predicting the weather: get it right 40 percent of the time, and you are a genius. Three-year-old thoroughbreds are fickle and fragile animals. The only way to make a small fortune as a horse owner is to start with a big fortune.
This Reeves fellow had no idea.
But at least Reeves offered one concession: "Hey, I didn't say I had to win the Kentucky Derby," he said. "I just want a horse in the Kentucky Derby."
Four years after that initial conversation, and to the surprise of every expert in the business, Reeves' dream becoming a reality. Barring the unforeseen, Reeves will walk his chestnut colt called Mucho Macho Man from the barn to the paddock at Churchill Downs on May 7 for the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby.
"I'm so close, now," he said. "It is going to be such a thrill."
The story of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Mucho Macho Man has all the elements of a Disney movie: faith, family, friendship, tragedy, triumph, and a big, beautiful animal with puffs of white smoke pouring from his nostrils in the crisp Kentucky dawn.
It began when Reeves and his wife, Patti, were on vacation at Turks and Caicos. Patti, an outdoor advertising consultant, met a woman on the treadmill named Esther Ades.
"She had these beautiful diamond-stud earrings," Patti said. "She said had gotten them for her 50th wedding anniversary and they were the first she'd ever owned. She'd gotten married young and never got her ears pierced until then. It was such an endearing story that I felt an instant friendship."
Esther's husband, Bob, had been in horse racing and had gone to the winner's circle 56 times. On a boat ride around the islands, while the wives sat up front and admired the views, Dean and Bob struck an informal deal to split a racehorse. That was February 2007. In April, the two men bought a 2-year-old colt named Fearless at Keeneland's 2-year-olds in training sale in Lexington, Ky.
Reeves, president of a contracting company that builds water and sewer systems, jumped in quickly. He bought two more two-year-olds in 2008. He needed a trainer. A former jockey recommended Tim and Kathy Ritvo who worked a farm near Miami and Gulfstream Park. It was Tim Ritvo who found Mucho Macho Man without realizing it.
"Tim called and wanted me to watch a race on the Internet," Reeves said. "A horse called Gourmet Dinner had won, and the owner wanted to sell half of him. It was a good race, but when Tim called back I said, "Call me crazy, but I like the horse that finished second." That was 'Macho.' "
The training went well until September 2010, when Tim Ritvo was offered a vice president's job at Gulfstream Park and Laurel Park. Reeves had a decision. Experts suggested they move "Macho" to another farm, but Dean and Patti wanted to stay with Kathy Ritvo, which was a risk on a number of fronts.
Not only has a woman trainer never won the Kentucky Derby, but Kathy was less than a year removed from heart transplant surgery. She took 31 pills a day and had to wear a surgical mask when she flew. But she had no trouble working in barns with horses.
"I was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2000, when I was 31 years old," she said.
A normal heart functions with something called an ejection fraction of 65. Ritvo's was 15 when she was diagnosed. By the time she got her transplant nine years later, her ejection fraction was down to eight. She could barely walk. A week after going in to get a new heart, she was released from the hospital feeling better than ever.
"I didn't want to think about it," she said. "I never knew anybody who'd had a transplant. I never thought you could get your life back. I never thought you could be a normal person. It's not true at all. I'm healthier now than I've ever have in my life."
Dean and Patti Reeves felt moved by faith to stick with Ritvo.
"I felt like Kathy was a good horsewoman and trainer," Dean Reeves said. "We also felt like God's hand was in this whole thing. All of the things that have happened and continue to happen, we think we're part of a plan. Now, how does God work through horse racing? It's an opportunity to look at someone like Kathy, a heart transplant recipient, who is taking a horse to the Derby.
"That is real inspiration. She now has people who are transplant recipients who come to the barn to thank her for being a model of hard work and a vibrant life after transplant surgery. We never could have planned this ourselves."
Faith led to other decisions along the way.
Mucho Macho Man's primary jockey was Eibar Coa, who had ridden him to a third-place finish at Calder, a second at Saratoga and a win at Monmouth Park. But before the team left for Louisiana for the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds last month, Coa was arrested following a domestic dispute. The owners felt they should change jockeys, but a sermon from their pastor, Andy Stanley, changed their thinking.
"Andy's sermon was on erring on the side of grace," Patti Reeves said. "We walked out of there and I said to Dean, "I thought about Eibar that entire sermon. It's like it was meant for us."
Dean agreed. "I figured that if we were going to err, we would err on the side of grace and give Eibar another chance," he said.
Unfortunately, Coa never got the opportunity to make good on that second chance. The Friday that the Reeves flew "Macho" to New Orleans, Coa was in an accident during a race at Gulfstream Park. He broke his wrist, a rib, and the C-4 vertebra. He had no feeling or movement from the chest down.
With a replacement jockey, Rajiv Maragh, who had breezed "Macho" in Saratoga, Mucho Macho Man won the Risen Star and virtually assured his spot in the Kentucky Derby. The Derby field is limited to 20 horses, determined by graded stakes earnings. Mucho Macho Man ranks seventh, largely on the strength of his victory in the $300,000 Risen Star.
It was a bittersweet way to achieve a dream, and Reeves spent most of the post-race time on the phone checking on Coa's status. Still, they had reached their ultimate horse-racing goal in four short years.
When they flew back to Florida, Dean went immediately to the hospital, where he presented Coa with a check for $18,000, matching the winning cut for the jockey of record in the Risen Star.
"Had Eibar been there, he could have ridden him to victory, too," Dean said. "We paid him as if he'd been on the horse."
Tears ran down Coa's cheeks and onto the sheet of his hospital bed. He couldn't move his arms to wipe them away.
Coa's condition has improved. He has movement in his upper body. He has feeling, although no movement yet, in his legs. His physical therapy continues.
Kathy Ritvo's transplant story continues to gain momentum.
"We have people asking about it almost every day," Patti Reeves said. "She is such an inspiration. This whole thing has been wonderful on that front."
Mucho Macho Man has one race ahead before the first Saturday in May. That is set to be the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 26 at Fair Grounds, site of his Risen Star success.
As for Dean Reeves, he has rented 30 hotel rooms in Louisville, Ky., and has a big party planned at Taylor Made Farms for the Thursday night of Kentucky Derby week.
Patti tried to hire the Village People to play "Macho Macho Man" but couldn't pull it off.
"We'll be playing that song on the bus, though, for sure," she said.
Neither Dean nor Patti will speculate on the outcome of the Derby. They almost look puzzled by the question.
Then it becomes clear: The outcome doesn't matter. The journey was victory enough.
