Pennsylvania-Bred Angel of Empire Races Toward Belmont Stakes Record
He was an afterthought, just not quite in the classic, heroic sense. Because Angel of Empire’s underdog tale has a touch of velvet. Despite his hardscrabble roots, Pennsylvania’s new Thoroughbred racing millionaire did, in fact, sell as a yearling for $70,000 at the world’s premiere Thoroughbred auction, and he was bought by a well-heeled owner who spends millions a year reloading his racing stable with yearlings of considerable breeding and promise.
On Saturday he’s expected to run in the Belmont Stakes. If he wins, Angel of Empire’s story elevates to something wholly different: The first Pennsylvania-bred horse to win the Belmont since 1881, when Aristides Welch’s regally bred Saunterer won the third and most demanding leg of racing’s Triple Crown.
Born and raised in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, Angel of Empire was bred by Christian Black, who co-owns Blackstone Farm with Douglas Black (no relation). The first foal of a dam who was winless in eight tries on the track and a modestly priced sire, the colt came out with a good frame and forward mind, Christian Black said, but otherwise gave no indication of the substantial athletic talent he would soon exhibit.
“Ahnhel,” the Spanish pronunciation of his name and shed row nickname, won at first asking and five races later ran a legitimizing third in last month’s Kentucky Derby, a race where the average sale price of the entrants was $455,000. Two of his stablemates finished far behind him in the Derby. They were bought at the same sale as Angel for a combined $960,000. Yet he’s already the most decorated horse in the stable. Angel has won nearly $1.4 million in purse money and has the potential for a very lucrative career, all things staying equal.
Not bad for a horse bought with leftover money, according to Jason Loustch, bloodstock buyer for Iowa-based Albaugh Family Racing and son-in-law of family patriarch Dennis Albaugh, who made his fortune in agri-business and was dubbed the “Billionaire Weed Killer” and “Pesticide Prince” in a Forbes magazine profile detailing his vast fortune.
Loustch told a breeding publication recently he uses a numbers approach to buying young horses, restocking the racing stable each year with 10-15 yearlings focused mainly on colts with the potential to run in Triple Crown races.
The annual yearling sale known just as Keeneland September plays host to the wealthiest of the wealthy and includes not just American bluebloods and business tycoons, but various sheiks and emirs from the Middle East, Irish tech-boom billionaires and deep-pocketed Asian syndicates.
Loustch told BloodHorse magazine that after buying out of the first three catalogue books in the 2021 sale, where yearlings with the most obvious pedigree potential and demonstrable track performance in the near family are offered, he said he had money left over and was looking for a “two-turn” colt able to get classic distances.
He dug into what would be considered the lesser stock offerings and landed on hip #2612. The colt's medical examinations at the sale, which include joint X-rays, cardiograms and throat endoscopies, came back flawless. So Loustch essentially took a flier with what amounts to little more than pocket change for Albaugh Racing. Last year, the stable spent more than $3 million at Keeneland September alone.
Angel was sent to top trainer Brad Cox in Kentucky, who also counts members of the Saudi royal family as clients. He’s been given every opportunity, and like the forward colt he is, Angel has literally run with it.
The question now confronting the colt and his connections is can he run himself into the history books and break a record that has stood for an incomparable 142 years.
Both his breeder and his trainer believe the mile-and-half distance of the race won’t be a problem for Angel. “He can go all day,” Black said, a statement echoed by Cox after the Kentucky Derby.
And true to the narrative, if Angel breaks the record, it will be at the expense of a horse who was impeccably bred and raised outside of Philadelphia in stately Chestnut Hill. Besides Saunterer, Erdenheim Stud Farm also housed the country’s leading sire for four years during the late 1800s.
If Angel could be aware of such things, apparently, he would just take it in stride because he continues to be a model racehorse and do everything right, his handlers say.
And true since the day he was born, there’s nothing singly remarkable about him, even down to his treat of choice: the ubiquitous stable mint.
No, this plain son of Pine Grove has but one extraordinary feature — his ability to run faster than almost every horse in the world his age.
Who’s the afterthought now?
Look out, Saunterer.
Angel has a Twitter account and can be followed at @AngelofEmpire.
