American Turf Magazine
/ December-January 2015-2016
38
West Coast Notebook
Q&A with Kosta Hronis
By Steve Sherack
Q
: H
ronis
R
acing
has
enjoyed
plenty of success via private
purchase in 2015, including
Grade 1 wins with Hard Aces, Stellar
Wind and Talco. You’ve also cam-
paigned standouts such as Lady of
Shamrock and Iotapa. Tell us a little
bit about your operation.
A
: We’re really diversified. We claim,
we buy at the yearling and 2-year-old
sales, we do the private purchase, and
we’ve been involved with the Arc Sale
across the pond. We’ve bought some
Euros privately, too. So, we’re always
evolving as a barn and always looking.
We keep our eyes open.
With Hard Aces, we were probably
looking for an older handicap horse
for the West Coast for about a year.
When he became available, we liked
his numbers and thought he could
do well at Santa Anita, especially with
‘Chrome’ and Shared Belief being out.
It just kind of opened up things here
for us and we won the Gold Cup... ‘Stel-
lar’ looked so good in her maiden win
and she was a Curlin.
We’re constantly looking and window
shopping. We’ve got bloodstock agents
throughout the country that are always
sending us ideas. We’re constantly vet-
ting horses and looking and trying to
see what fits in our barn. If something
comes of interest, we’ll take a look at it.
Q:
Howmany horses do you currently
own?
A:
We’re probably a little over 40
horses in training right now.
Q:
Are you involved in the breeding
industry?
A:
I kept our first winner Caitie’s
Secret. She’s up at Legacy Ranch here
in California. Her first baby, the 2-year-
old Paschalitsa, will be running at Santa
Anita soon. That’s our first homebred.
She’s had two others since and she’s
in foal again. I couldn’t sell her. She
had to stay.
Q:
When you launched your racing
operation in 2010, did you ever think
that you’d have this much success so
quickly?
A:
We had one horse, then had two,
three... When we ended up with five, I
Kosta Hronis (2nd from right) trainer John Sadler (far right)
Photo by Horsephotos.com/NTRA
