article from www.StandardbredCanada.ca
These days, almost anything can be bought on TV, and when Sam Bowie saw Before He Cheats on TV racing from Balmoral Park, the ex-NBA star had no idea the trotter would have the type of season he did in 2007.
Before He Cheats is currently tied with the nine-year-old trotter Swanee as the winningest horse in North America in 2007. Both horses have 21 wins; Before He Cheats accomplished that feat with 28 starts, Swanee in 41. Before He Cheats closed his season with a nine-length win – his eighth in a row – in the $120,000 final of the Chester Series at Chester Downs on December 20.
"It's weird, almost like fate," Bowie said. "I saw him in his third start. He finished second in that race, but he just looked like a real horse that could trot. I was thinking if he ever got out, he was going to blow by horses; he was just climbing over them. I called the USTA to find out a phone number for an owner and it was a guy named Dirk Simpson. I had heard of Dirk, but never met him. I called Dirk, he said he had two other owners with the horse and they needed $60,000 for the horse. I said, "How about I give you 50 and you get to keep the horse and train him throughout the Illinois program?"
"Now, 25 starts later, it looks like a brilliant idea," he added, laughing.
Before He Cheats, originally called EF Yorktown, was named by Simpson after the title of a song by singer Carrie Underwood. The song describes a woman's destruction of her unfaithful boyfriend's car, done so he'll think twice "Before He Cheats" again.
The sale was not exactly beginner's luck for Bowie, who has been a Standardbred owner since 1985. Bowie has owned about 75 horses over the years, including multiple-stakes-winning pacing female Legacy Of Love (p, 3, 1:56.2, $206,384). Bowie was the No. 2 selection in the 1984 NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers. He also played with the New Jersey Nets and Los Angeles Lakers before retiring in 1995. From Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Bowie and wife Heidi settled in Lexington, where he previously was a collegiate star for the Kentucky Wildcats.
While playing with the Nets, Bowie was a regular visitor to the adjacent Meadowlands Racetrack, where the 7-foot-1 fan could watch the races in the press box without attracting attention. Bowie often stopped at the track for the last few races after a game.
"I'd go home at night and Heidi would say, 'How'd you do?'," he recalled. "I'd say, 'Well, I almost hit the trifecta.' She'd say, 'No, I meant against the Celtics.'"
Perhaps it was more than 25 years of watching races with a handicapper's eye that helped Bowie spot Before He Cheats.
"It wasn't like I went to the races looking to buy a horse, it just happened," he said. "When I told him (Simpson) that I was going to wire him $50,000 in the next 15 minutes, I wasn't going to vet the horse, I'd never met him and he gets to keep the horse. He said 'Wait a minute, you're going to wire me $50,000, you're not going to vet the horse and I get to train him, where is the trick to all this?' It was just all fate; I had a gut feeling. Dirk thanked me for having confidence in him. He thought the colt was a good horse, but he'd be the first to tell you, not like this."
Simpson got involved with Before He Cheats when he was an unraced two-year-old.
"I have a friend and partner, Russ Beamon, and he made contact with Mr. York [breeder/owner Earl]," Simpson said. "He went down to [York's home in] Georgia and bought the mother and three colts (Before He Cheats and two older unraced full brothers, by Valley Victor out of the Pride N Pleasure mare Nina Yorktown) and the Armbro Charger seven-year-old brother."
Full article continues at: 2007 Top-winning Trotter
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