By Katie Merritt
Veterans Racing Stable is a racing partnership put together between five friends. Three of the members are veterans of the army, while the rest are veterans of handicapping and horse racing, “So we kind of came up with the name for the stable between those two things,” said member Kristi Shoop.
Jeremy Dresch, Kristi’s long-time boyfriend, and another partner said that they became interested in racehorse ownership after learning how to handicap horse races. “It actually started with the dogs,” Jeremy said, “We would go out to the greyhound races and then we graduated into real handicapping!”
Veterans Racing Stable’s first horse was one they claimed four years ago named Riseseastsetswest. “He was fun because he was the first one, and he won some races. We had him for a few years. He ran at other tracks too, like Keeneland and Oaklawn, so it was great because we would go watch him. We’ve actually been really lucky with the horses we have claimed,” added Jeremy. “Every horse we’ve claimed we’ve won back with in one of its first two races off the claim, which is obviously really lucky.”
While Veterans Racing acquires the majority of their horses through dropping claim slips, they are trying a new route this year. Last year they purchased a mare through the help of their trainer Bruce Riecken and bred her to a California stallion named Old Topper. Two months ago, a filly was born. “It’s really exciting to start from the beginning like this,” said Jeremy. As owners, Jeremy and Kristi both admitted that they get attached to their runners and raising a young horse to race will give them more time to bond than some of their claimers that they’ve only had for a start or two.
It did not take long for the partnership to get started at the 2017 meet. Their horse Valeski lost by a whisker on opening night.
“We really lucked into our partnership,” said Jeremy. “Josh [Madison], one of the other members is really close friends with our trainer Bruce, and he’s really into it. Because of that relationship we really know what’s going on, we stay informed, and that helps. It’s also fun. It’s fun to have a group of people that all have the same interests and when you win, you get to jump around as a group with your friends!”