Rick Porter Passes Away

[Wandering Eyes]

One of the most successful and respected owners of his era, Rick Porter has passed away, according to Fox Hill Farms. He was 80 years old.

 

Before he was an owner, Porter was a racing fan. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware and began accompanying his parents to Delaware Park as a child where his father made $2 show bets for him. After a stint in the army, he got into the car business at age 22 and turned his Porter Auto Group into one of the leading auto dealers in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Porter didn't come aboard as an owner until 1994. He was introduced to John Servis by one of his employees and decided to open a small stable with Servis as his trainer. With Servis, he had his first taste of success at the highest levels of the sport with Jostle. She won four graded stakes in 2000, including the GI Coaching Club American Oaks and the Alabama S.

Porter's stable typically included about 25 to 30 horses, but those modest numbers didn't keep him from churning out one star after another. He won his first Breeders' Cup race with Round Pond, the winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in 2006. In 2007, he won the GI King's Bishop with Hard Spun. His best horse the following year was the ill-fated filly Eight Belles, who was injured after finishing second in the GI Kentucky Derby and had to be euthanized.

Porter was hit so hard by her death that he contemplated getting out of the sport. Instead, he regrouped, stayed in and kept on coming up with quality horses.

In 2011, Porter's Havre de Grace had a season that was Hall of Fame worthy. She won the GI Apple Blossom H. The GI Beldame Invitational S. and then beat males in the GI Woodward, a victory that helped her earn the Horse of the Year title.

As good as she was she probably wasn't Porter's best filly or mare. Porter's Songbird was sensational. She won 13 of 15 lifetime starts and 12 stakes and was champion 2-year-old filly in 2015 and champion 3-year-old filly in 2016. Though she was defeated by a nose, her battle with Beholder in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff was considered among her best efforts in a race many say was one of the best Breeders' Cup races ever.

Porter told the TDN's Christie Debernardis in 2017 that Songbird was his favorite horse.

“Songbird, no question,” he said. “Havre de Grace was a great horse, but she didn't get the excitement. She sure was fun to watch and if she hadn't gotten hurt in that race in New Orleans, we would have kept on going;. I would have done the same thing with Songbird. I would have campaigned her as a 6-year-old if I could. Give me a Beholder!”
Porter said he tried to approach the racing business like he approached the car business.

“As much as possible I try to copy my ideas from my other business,” he said in 2017. “Racing is a sport but it's also a business. In any business, the biggest thing is surrounding yourself with the right people. I have Tom McGreevy, and I don't think anybody can do a better job when it comes to picking out horses. I have Victoria Keith working for me and she has been a huge help. She can do a little bit of everything.”

Porter, who raced under the name of Fox Hill Farms, returned to the headlines in 2019 with Omaha Beach. After winning the GI Arkansas Derby, he was installed as the morning line favorite for the Kentucky Derby but had to be scratched after being diagnosed with an entrapped epiglottis. Upon his return, he won the GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship and the GI Malibu S. but again had a run of bad luck. He was scratched from the GI Pegasus World Cup when coming down with swelling in his right hind leg.

Porter enjoyed success thus year with Jolie Olimpica (Brz), the winner of the GII Monrovia S.

He campaigned three Eclipse Award winners: Kodiak Kowboy (2009 sprinter); Songbird (2015 2-year-old filly and 2016 3-year-old filly) and Havre de Grace (2011 older mare and Horse of the Year).

Porter, who preferred racing to breeding, parted with his star mares at the fall sales and was rewarded handsomely. Havre de Grace sold for a record $10 million as the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed sale. Five years later, Songbird went for $9.5 million at the same sale. Round Pond was also sold at the Fasig-Tipton sale, where, in 2007, she was purchased for $5,750,000.
“I am not into breeding,” he told said. “The deal is if you are going to spend a lot of money you have to get those checks back that you make out to Keeneland and Boyd Browning.”

Off the track, Porter waged a long battle with a slow-growing type of lymphoma called Waldenstroms, which he was diagnosed with in 2001. By 2016, the cancer had grown far worse and he told McGreevy, his longtime bloodstock advisor, to look for a new job. After undergoing conventional treatments, Porter was accepted for a clinical trial at Massachusetts General Hospital that focused on CAR T cell cancer treatment. In August of that year he was told he was in full remission.

Porter was always happy to share his success with others and had a few favorite causes, among them honoring veterans. In 2013, Potter had the colt Normandy Invasion preparing for the Derby. He was able to find World War II veterans who took part in the Normandy Invasion and hosted them at Churchill Downs during Derby week.

“Equally noteworthy as his list of outstanding horses was his outstanding stewardship over his stable,” said Fox Hill's Victoria Keith in a statement. “His horses' well-being was always his top priority over any trophy. He believed in transparency, sharing vet reports publicly and being open with injuries and considerations regarding stable management. He encouraged fan interaction, making them feel part of the team. He welcomed the challenge of the best meeting the best on the track, resulting in some of the most memorable match-ups of the past decades. His empathy for horses in need led to the founding of the National Thoroughbred Welfare Organization (NTWO) which has rehomed over 250 at-risk horses in the past few years. His Fox Hill Farm became synonymous with excellence and ethical ownership.”

Porter from the NTWO, an organization dedicated to keeping horses from being sent to slaughter, in 2018. Run by his Keith, his executive vice president, the NTWO went to work in Louisiana, a state where the slaughter problem was severe, and helped pull numerous horses out of the slaughter pipeline.

“Can we end the slaughter of Thoroughbreds one hundred percent? Maybe not, but I think we can end it 95%, and that would be pretty big,” Porter said when announcing the formation of the NTWO. “But our goal is to end it one-hundred percent.”

Porter is survived by his wife Betsy, sons Cory and Scott, daughter-in-law Inci, daughter Tracey and son-in-law John, and grandchildren Tim, Rebecca, Chessie, Lindsay, Christina, and twins Ainsley and Jack.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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