Arlington International Racecourse Barn Notes

By Bailey Gallison —-

KCA STABLES RACES FOR GOOD CAUSE

A little less than a year ago, Vince Lodl put together KCA Stables, a small ownership group looking to win races while giving to a good cause. The purple and white silks will make their Arlington International Racecourse debut this weekend when trainer Chris Block saddles Smokinwatchstopper and Air Turbulence for the group.

A 4-year-old Florida-bred son of General Quarters, Smokinwatchstopper was a private purchase acquired by Block’s father David and makes his first start for KCA Stables in Friday’s 8th race. Air Turbulence, a 4-year-old son of English Channel, is the only horse to race for KCA Stables and has made four starts for the ownership group and will add the fifth on Saturday in the 9th race.

KCA – a reference to beating the disease by kicking cancer’s ‘rear-end’ – has a total of 33 partners looking for a low-cost, low-risk Thoroughbred ownership experience.

“We had kind of talked about this just amongst a few people over a couple of years,” Lodl said. “We officially became KCA Stables back in February of last year, and officially added all of our funds together July 1 of last year. I had been involved in partnerships before as a small percentage owner. A great benefit was learning how to-do and how not-to-do partnerships. The one thing I came away with was in some of the partnerships I was involved with, every six months they [collect] training fees, but what’s stopping someone from not paying? So we set ourselves up with an operating budget, collected all funds upfront and are operating it as a business. Our best way to get involved was going to be claiming because you can get in at a fairly economic price and get the immediate action that the partners want to have.”

In addition to offering an easy-entry into racehorse ownership, KCA Stables also races for a good cause. Five percent of their winnings will go toward the V Foundation, which directly funds research and programs to cure cancer.

“We all decided we wanted to do something to give back, to do something where we’re donating to a good cause,” Lodl said. “We wanted to do something that affects a lot of families and everyone, no matter what, knows someone who was affected by the disease. With every win we get, five percent of the purse gets donated to V Foundation. The thing about [The V Foundation] is that all of their paid positions are funded through an endowment, so every penny donated goes directly to cancer research.”

Lodl will not be there in person to witness his horses in action this weekend, however a handful of KCA Stables partners will be in attendance.

“It’s exciting, but sadly I’m going to be in Cincinnati for work,” Lodl said. “It sounds like there’s going to be a few partners there on Saturday. We’re spread out – we have people in Indiana, Texas, Washington state. Our partners are excited to be involved in something like this. We set it up where you can get in for as little as $2,500 and never write another check. If we stay on five or ten years down the road and buy more horses, they would have the same percentage based on their initial buy-in.”

A pair of victories for KCA Stables this weekend would mean a lot to the partners involved. Regardless of the outcome, however, their shareholders will still have a little something to look forward to down the road with a minority interest in an unnamed 2-year-old by Temple City.

“We’re fortunate as of right now to have two happy and healthy horses and we know they’ll give a good effort,” Lodl said. “We all understand how tough it is to win in this game. You got to catch some breaks, obviously.”