Central Pa. thoroughbred horse is a Kentucky Derby contender

The Kentucky Derby, the most celebrated horse race in America, usually is won by thoroughbreds who were born and raised in the Blue Grass state.

In its 148 years, 107 winners of the Triple Crown’s first jewel were bred in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It’s about pride for the industry’s breeders.

In contrast, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, while boasting a thriving thoroughbred racing industry, isn’t renowned for producing Kentucky Derby champions.

Two Pennsylvania-bred horses — the popular Philadelphia-based Smarty Jones in 2004 and Lil E. Tee in 1992 — are the only horses from Pa. to win the Derby.

This year, that could change in about two minutes on the racetrack.

Angel of Empire, a 3-year-old Pennsylvania-bred colt foaled at the 360-acre Blackstone Farm in Pine Grove, Schuylkill County, qualified for and is being pointed to compete in the 149th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6.

The colt already has beaten tremendous odds. In 2020, a total of 18,436 thoroughbred foals were born and registered in North America. Twenty colts out of that foal crop will run in the 2023 Kentucky Derby.

Racing pundits expect Angel of Empire will be one of top five favorites in the race.

Blackstone Farm partner Christian Black is a Denmark native who moved to the U.S. in 2006 and lives in Lititz with his wife Christina.

He’s a full-time horse breeder with between 50 and 60 broodmares in residence on the Pine Grove farm, 38 miles from downtown Harrisburg. A broodmare is a female thoroughbred used for breeding and raising foals.

Black entered in partnership with Blackstone Farm owner Douglas Black (no relation) in 2010 but is the sole breeder of Angel of Empire.

“I just have a love and desire for the horse,” Black said. “I’ve ridden thoroughbreds and been involved with them at different levels throughout my life. I got into the racing because it interested me and because I’m very competitive by nature.”

Black purchased Angel of Empire’s mother, a mare named Armony’s Angel who was winless in an eight-race career for $67,000. She was already in foal to 2016 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and two-year-old champion Classic Empire.

Angel of Empire was born and raised at Blackstone Farm and registered as a Pennsylvania-bred under the nom de course of Forgotten Land Investment Inc. and Black Diamond Equine Corp.

“Forgotten Land Investment is a land entity I use to buy different horses under my name. Black is my last name, and black diamonds are usually not worth a lot,” Black quipped.

Neither Black nor anyone else, for that matter, could dream about what was going to happen in the months and years ahead.

Black, in the normal course of the breeding business, sold Angel of Empire at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to Des Moines, Iowa-based Albaugh Family Stables for $70,000.

Consider that a yearling consigned to the Keenland September auction that year sold for an average price of $142,429.

“There wasn’t a lot of respect in the commercial market,” Black said. “At that time, he was a little immature. We thought he’d appeal to someone who was looking for a late-developing horse that could go two turns and to a trainer who would understand that.”

Albaugh Family Stables sent Angel of Empire to trainer Brad Cox, who was awarded the 2021 Kentucky Derby victory with Mandaloun following a disqualification. Cox is a two-time Eclipse Award winner (2020-21) as outstanding U.S. trainer.

Angel of Empire won at first asking as a two-year-old at Horseshoe Indianapolis Racing & Casino last August and took two-of-three races in his juvenile season.

The colt continued showing promise by starting his three-year-old campaign on New Year’s Day with a second-place finish in the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

Horses qualify for the Kentucky Derby by earning points in specified graded stakes races held throughout the country during the winter and early spring.

Angel of Empire qualified by winning the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans on Feb. 18 and followed with an impressive victory in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 1.

“The older he’s getting, the better he’s getting, bottom line,” Cox told the Oaklawn Park publicity staff following the Arkansas Derby. “I always thought he’d be better with more ground, and obviously he’s two-for-two at a mile and an eighth. Hopefully we can be one-for-one at a mile and a quarter (in the Kentucky Derby).

“Just watching him in the paddock, I was telling (Albaugh Family Stables racing manager Jason Loutsch), he’s a cool, calm horse. If there is anybody who can handle 150,000 people (at Churchill Downs), it would be this horse,” Cox said.

“Pennsylvania-bred, $70,000,” Loutsch told Oaklawn Park’s publicity staff. “We spent a lot of money in book one and book two (of the 2021 Keeneland yearling sale) and to buy a horse in book five, Pennsylvania-bred, and going to the Kentucky Derby as one of the top five favorites is a great story.”

For that $70,000 investment, Angel of Empire has bankrolled $1,069,375 thus far for his owners and will race for the $1.86 million winner’s share of Kentucky Derby’s $3 million purse.

Black’s financial share of a possible Derby victory by Angel of Empire victory is zero.

In fact, Black isn’t entitled to a portion of Angel of Empire’s racing earnings, unless the colt runs in races at Pennsylvania racetracks where he’s eligible for breeder awards.

The financial payoff will hopefully be in the future, when stallion owners come calling for a mating with Angel of Empire’s mother or one of Blackstone Farms’ other broodmares.

For example, Armony’s Angel has since produced a full brother to Angel of Empire, who is a yearling. She is in foal by Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year, now a valuable Kentucky-based stallion.

The goal is to produce more future racing stars.

“There are no financial benefits now. It’s not about the money. For my part, it’s the pride of having bred a Grade 1 stakes winner we foaled and raised, or any stakes winner,” Black said. “It’s about the pride we carry with us, how we own the mare and how this horse’s siblings will benefit down the road.

“It’s a performance business and people see what we’ve done and think have a good product,” Black said.

Angel of Empire is not the first Pennsylvania-bred Kentucky Derby horse Black’s farm has produced.

Tom’s Ready, a Blackstone Farm state-bred, finished 12th in the 2016 Kentucky Derby after earning enough qualifying points by placing second twice in two graded stakes races.

“It’s not easy to get there,” Black said. “There’s so much effort and so much passion at the farm, from the crew, everyone. It’s a love for the animal. It’s a lifestyle. The horses come first. They have to be fed and groomed. They don’t know that it’s Christmas or Easter or another holiday. There are ups and downs in this business, but you have to love it. If you don’t, you shouldn’t be in it.”

Blackstone Farm has enjoyed considerable success in Pennsylvania racing and has been the state’s leading breeder from 2019 through 2022.

The Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, based in Kennett Square, Chester County, pays award money to state owners and breeders in addition to purses for state-bred races at Penn National Race Course, Parx Racing and Presque Isle Downs.

In 2002, Blackstone Farms earned more than $432,000 in breeders’ awards and has amassed more than $18,000 through Feb., 2023.

“The Pennsylvania-bred program is one of the best in America,” Black said. “It’s taken off since we were established. You don’t need to be a big operation to see a benefit. You can have one mare or 50-plus.”

Angel of Empire is stabled at Cox’s Churchill Downs barn and worked out over the track April 15, going a half-mile in a little more than 48 seconds.

Hopes at Blackstone Farm are high that another Pennsylvania-bred horse will be wearing a blanket of roses in the Churchill Downs winners circle in the twilight hours of May 6.