Up, Up and Away for ‘UTCB’ Partners

[Wandering Eyes]

Statistics and raw data are one way to assess the success of a racing operation, but Bob Hutt of Uptowncharlybrown Stud LLC measures the upward trajectory of his venture a few different ways. Back home at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, the talk around the track tells some of the story.

“The best thing I overhear at Parx is, ‘Not another [expletive] Uptowncharlybrown.’ I’ll stop and say to other trainers, ‘Thank you very much.'”

Uptowncharlybrown Stud LLC–a partnership borne out of Hutt’s Fantasy Lane Stable, which was founded in 1999–has enjoyed a stellar run of success in recent months competing offspring of the Pennsylvania-based stallion Uptowncharlybrown. As ‘Charly’ has quickly stamped himself as a leading sire in the Keystone State while posting the highest earnings per starter among all third-crop stallions nationally, Hutt can only smile as he justifies a long-standing faith in the chestnut held by his late friend and trainer, Alan Seewald.

“Alan was my best friend for 25 years. It wasn’t owner and trainer–we were best friends. We spoke three times a day,” Hutt said. “If Alan was alive, I’d [have him as my trainer] until the day I died. I always thought we were Davy Crockett and George Russell and we’d go down swinging empty rifles together.”

While there is much comfort in running back home for generous Pennsylvania-bred incentives, the team’s recent streak of success has them seriously considering a trip to racing’s grandest stage at Saratoga. That northward venture could have easily come in Saturday’s GI Test S. with Dixie Serenade (Uptowncharlybrown), who was last seen turning heads with a stunning last-to-first 47-1 upset score in Belmont’s GIII Victory Ride S. July 8, but the team will opt to stay home and compete in Parx’s Jose Flores Memorial S. Why? Because the race honors the life of the recently fallen Parx-based jockey, whose widow, Joanne McDaid Flores, is a former exercise rider-turned-hotwalker for trainer Eddie Coletti, Jr.

Any temptation to chase Grade I glory was put on the back burner when weighed against the opportunity to pay tribute to the life of a respected figure in the Parx community. Nevertheless, Hutt has a basic confidence that their day to return to the spotlight will come sooner rather than later–and it could come as soon as next Saturday, with promising first-out maiden winner Grandma Gertie (Uptowncharlybrown) under strong consideration for the GII Adirondack S. at Saratoga next Saturday in addition to being entered in the Colleen S. at Monmouth.

The story of Uptowncharlybrown begins at the 2009 OBS April Sale, where the colt was purchased by Fantasy Lane for $57,000 and, upon the request of respected consignor Norman Casse, allowed to keep his unique name. After shipping “the big chestnut” north to New Jersey, it quickly became apparent that the colt had significant ability under the tutelage of Seewald. Hutt fondly recalled a time before Uptowncharlybrown’s debut when the horse matched strides with GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. runner-up Musket Man (Yonaguska) in a late-season workout at Monmouth Park.

After Uptowncharlybrown captured his first two starts at Tampa Bay Downs by a combined 15 lengths, Seewald turned down an offer for $2.5 million, assuring Hutt and partners that the horse would eventually prove to be worth far more. Unfortunately, Seewald never had the opportunity to realize that potential–he passed away in his sleep on Apr. 12, 2010, leaving a giant void in the hearts of his friends.

The Fantasy Lane team elected to push on in pursuit of Seewald’s goals of winning the GI Belmont S. and GI Haskell Invitational, and came within three lengths of crossing the wire first in the former in his lone start for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin despite a harrowing journey around Big Sandy after Rajiv Maragh’s eight-pound weight pad slipped mid-race. Uptowncharlybrown was disqualified and placed last for the incident, and emerged from the race with a bowed tendon–a setback he would never fully recover from.

Hutt readily admits that it required a major leap of faith to try Uptowncharybrown as a stallion in 2013. In hindsight, it was a no brainer–their current operation at Glenn and Becky Brok’s Diamond B Farm is a well-oiled machine, with new arrivals from Uptowncharlybrown shuttled off to be broken and trained by Irene Coletti and Gabe Rispo before ultimately arriving in the barn of Coletti, Jr., who once served as an assistant to Seewald.

“The reason I made him a stallion was in honor of Alan–what he couldn’t prove on the racetrack, I wanted to prove through his progeny,” Hutt explained. “All I wanted to do was show that Alan was right and show that he was the best horse of his generation…He’s won with 77% of his babies…He’s had five horses out of his first eight all earn over $100,000–two of which are over $200,000. Some people have called me up and told me that his Average Earnings Index is right up there with the top stallions in America, such as Tapit.”

From the outset, Hutt said he sought to mold Uptowncharlybrown’s stallion career after the wildly successful model that Maryland’s Country Life Farm used to initially promote the great Malibu Moon–who is incidentally Dixie Serenade’s damsire. With a stud fee that started small and remained at $1,500 for 2018, Uptowncharlybrown saw his book rise from 27 mares in 2017 to 60 mares in 2018.

“We’re finally going to raise that to $3,500 next year,” Hutt said with a laugh.

The breed-to-race model has plenty of appeal as well, as Uptowncharlybrown Stud currently has attracted 500 partners, with shares available for as little as $825. Hutt said ‘UTBC’ Stud is a partnership “for the average John Doe and Jane Smith,” with many of the stable’s horses bearing names of various family members and loved ones of partners–such as Grandma Gertie.

On the racetrack, Coletti Jr. said the Uptowncharlybrowns are honest, hard-trying horses.

“They’re actually pretty good,” the trainer said. “They’re a little bit high strung like he was. But they give you everything they’ve got–they leave everything out of the field after they’re done…They just run hard.”

Back in Saratoga Springs, Hutt and company were recently invited to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame’s “Racing Partnership and Syndicate Event,” where they passed out flyers showing a 41% win rate in 2018 and an average earnings per start that ranks up with leading partnerships such as West Point Thoroughbreds and Team Valor.

“A couple of people were going from booth to booth and said, ‘You’re winning at 41%, your average earnings per start is $14,000 and you’re in the money 65%…and your minimum investment is only $825?'” Hutt recalled. “What we’ve done differently is that we have bred our own horses. And it seems like every Uptowncharlybrown is better than the next.”

Commitment to the legacy of Alan Seewald. Commitment to Seewald’s faith in Charly. Commitment to honoring Jose Flores. Uptowncharlybrown Stud’s mission is far more than a coldly calculated, successful business model–it is laced with decades of comradery and a common passion for the game of racing. Wherever the chestnut stallion with the white blaze takes Hutt and the partners next–from a quiet Tuesday afternoon in Bensalem, Pennsylvania to rubbing elbows with some of the biggest names in racing in New York–there is more to Uptowncharlybrown Stud than what transpires on the racetrack.

“Out of all these different people, many friendships have bloomed,” Hutt said. “It’s been a long six years from 2012 until here, but there are no shortcuts in life if you put in hard work. Looking back at it, I had to be insane to every think Charly could be a stallion. But I believed in Alan so much that this was my way of keeping his memory alive.”

 

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