A Man With Plans: Gunderson Busy at Keeneland September

[Wandering Eyes]

Marc Gunderson and his team at Twin Oaks Bloodstock have been among the most prolific buyers during the first four sessions of the Keeneland September sale. Through Thursday's session of the 12-day auction, Gunderson's MWG, LLC has purchased 21 yearlings for $8,545,000. Leading the group's purchases was a City of Light half-sister to Vahva who was acquired for $850,000 and a colt by Justify purchased for $800,000.

“Wow. I hadn't even counted,” Gunderson said with a laugh when asked about his newly acquired yearlings.

Gunderson said he had a specific plan coming into the September sale this year.

“We wanted 12 top-end, high-quality competitive yearlings,” he explained. “And then we wanted to go ahead and get some precocious–bred fast, look fast, and conditioned fast–pinhooks for the top of the pinhook market. So we are going right back in the 2-year-old sales on five of them. The rest of them we are going to race.”

Gunderson's purchases so far include 15 fillies and six colts.

“We are filly centric,” he said. “We stay hard on the fillies. But if we find a colt that is bred well enough to stand later in life, if he wins a couple of graded races and we are fortunate enough to be the owners at that time, we will be very pleased.”

Strangely enough, standing a stallion is what got Gunderson–a self-described serial entrepreneur based in Fort Worth, Texas, entrenched in the racing game nearly 30 years ago.

“Back in 1997, I saw a stud, his name was Raykour and the Aga Khan had owned him,” Gunderson recalled. “He told me he was prepared to sell him and I was enamored with this beautiful animal. He acted better than my Labrador. I had run some Quarter Horses with D. Wayne Lukas and the whole group out there that was in the Quarter Horse business, but nothing at the level that this Thoroughbred was bred.”

Raykour was second in the 1998 G1 St James's Palace at Royal Ascot for his breeder before transferring stateside where he was runner-up in the GI Hollywood Derby.

“I was trying to develop the stallion and it wasn't going to work with a grass horse in Texas,” Gunderson admitted. “Nobody wanted that. So I moved the stallion to Maryland. I found tremendous friendship in Ronny and Carolyn Green from Green Willow Farm. I stood him at Green Willow Farm and we had far better luck, but not nearly the luck we needed.”

In the process of supporting his stallion, Gunderson had built up an extensive broodmare band when his wife decided she was happier on the family's cattle ranch in Texas than with the expanding Thoroughbred population.

“I decided–I really think my wife decided–we should probably get out of the business for a little while,” Gunderson said. “And it was mainly because she was operating the farms while I was traveling. Of course, I called her bluff. I didn't think she would get out because she loved the horses so much. But she didn't necessarily love the job. She came to my office in Arlington, Texas one day and asked for some of the guys to help her unload boxes of stuff. I was pretty sure at that point she was ready. So we sold out completely. That would have been in 2003 or 2004.”

After a sabbatical of some 20 years, Gunderson eventually found his way back into racing.

'We came back to Keeneland one year and my son, Will, seemed to have the same passion for the sport that I did,” Gunderson said. “And we decided we would get back in the business, but we were just going to take all of the fundamental steps of crawling before we walked.”

With the advice and support of people like Ledgelands' Shelley and Andrew Ritter, and Shane Ryan of Castleton Lyons, the Gundersons were soon building again.

“Shelley Ritter and her husband are just super people,” Gunderson said. “I said, 'Look, I want you to take the forthright position of guidance and I am going to go ahead and do whatever it takes to be successful. But I am not going to go out here and buy a large farm until I am sure that this is something we want to do this time. We started with some yearlings. And then we sat down and discussed the concept of being in the business with yearlings or do we really want broodmares. Now we have a long-term relationship going on.

“It all kind of happened around this time of year three years ago because all the sales came up. We decided to take a run at some broodmares. And Shelley was foaling out the babies. And we then we became really good friends with Shane Ryan over at Castleton. The concept of truly meeting the right people and good people in the industry got us excited to keep going.”

One thing, as it often does, led to another and some eight months ago, the Gundersons purchased a 100-acre farm in Paris, Kentucky. The farm is currently home to eight broodmares and Gunderson said he could see that number increasing slightly in the future.

“The concept is to keep it at the stakes-winning, stakes-producing level of broodmares,” he said. “We want to stay in the 15 range. Some of those will be homebreds and some of them will have to come from purchases. We have never really backed off from purchasing good broodmares. They have always been stakes winners or in foal to stallions like Flightline or Into Mischief, a very distinct pattern.”

Gunderson refuses to be tied down to any one side of the race or sell debate.

“Two questions I hate in interviews, do you want to raise or race?,” he said, even before the question can be asked. “My question back is always, 'Why am I picking?' I can afford to do both, why am I limited to having only this much fun, when I can have twice as much fun.”

While still in its early days, Gunderson's Twin Oaks Bloodstock broodmare band seems filled with promise. Through Ledgelands' Twin Oaks sold a filly by Girvin for $180,000 at the 2023 Keeneland November sale. The filly sold again for $240,000 at the Keeneland September sale before topping this year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale on a bid of $1.1 million. Named Ornellaia, she was tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' following her debut win at Saratoga in August.

Gunderson recalled another streak with pride.

“We bred five first-time starters and won five races, from here to California,” he said. “I don't know the odds of that, but from a small farm perspective, that is a big success.”

Gunderson's yearling purchases this year include the $525,000 co-sale topping son of Practical Joke at the Fasig-Tipton New York-Bred Yearling Sale in Saratoga last month.

“My perception of this market is that it is fantastic,” Gunderson said. “I run across friends here at Keeneland who are asking how they can afford to stay in this marketplace. I think as long as you are prepared to pay the price, and the quality is there, and the purses stay where they are at or above, it's going to create a marketable product. As far as economics go, global economics isn't any different than horse economics. Supply and demand and good product and large outcome–meaning the purses–it will stay together. It will be successful.”

Despite the competitive market the first week of the Keeneland September sale, Gunderson still said he was finding value, thanks largely to the bonus depreciation made permanent in this year's tax bill.

“We knew coming in, because we planned as a group, to identify and understand the 20% differential that is going to be built into the market,” Gunderson explained. “And again, that's just global economics. If you are looking at $1 million and you are looking at an accelerated depreciation, then you take all of your opportunity out on the front, it's 28%. Well, if you have to pay over 20% for your product, and you have an 8% margin of deductible depreciation, how does this not work?”

He continued, “I researched that tax code about eight months ago and, I hate to use the term 'I bet the farm on it,' but they told me it was passing and I went full throttle on all of my businesses, my real estate, my reinvestments, my improvements, my horses. And if it didn't pass, I wouldn't have time to sit here and talk to you today because I would be scrambling to get out of all of those poor mistakes. We built it in in all of our businesses.”

As would be expected from someone who has started and operated over 45 businesses, Gunderson has a plan for his racing project.

“I do have a definite business plan,” he said. “And I do have a growth plan. And I do analyze it predicating it like some of my businesses. A, B, or C. If I don't have C, I don't really have a business plan because I have to have three ways in and three ways out. And we will figure out what goes on from there.”

Gunderson, who got into Thoroughbred racing thanks to one stallion 30 years ago, admitted there was one aspect of the game that is not in play for his Twin Oaks Bloodstock.

“I will never stand a stallion,” he said with a broad smile. “But I know a couple of really good farms right across the street from me who would love to stand my stallions.”

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